The Fulfillment and The Promise: The New Covenant

We have finally arrived at the last covenant, the New. It seems appropriate to post this on New Year’s Day. We find this covenant in two places, Ezekiel 36:22-28 and Jer. 31:31-40. Certainly, other verses contain elements of New Covenant promises (even other covenants sometimes have elements of New Covenant guarantees). However, God promises Israel a variety of things, such as:

1.      He will sanctify his name (even though Israel has not always honored his name)

2.      He will gather Israel back to their own land and cleanse her from all idols

3.      He will give them a new heart and spirit while taking away the stony heart

4.      He will place his spirit within them and cause us to walk in obedience

5.      He will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more

6.      He will write his law on their hearts

7.      He will be their God, and they will be his people

This covenant was given to Israel, and there are elements such as God’s promises to gather Israel into their land that are unique to that nation. However, in Hebrews 7:18-22, we find out that Jesus, as our eternal High-Priest, is the guarantor of a better hope and a better covenant for everyone who believes in him by faith. Paul is very specific in Romans 3:20 as he reminds his readers that the Law, while it had its purpose, could never justify anyone. It could not redeem. The Old Covenant was meant to point people to their need for a Savior. It was the only conditional covenant because the New Covenant was always meant to be brought into eternal fulfilment through Christ. The author of Hebrews wrote, “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises…For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Heb. 8:6-13).

The Old Covenant was meant to explicitly codify the impossibility of approaching God’s holiness by our own self-effort. It was meant to also explain how they could correctly relate to God, in a limited fashion, despite sin. However, the Law was full of promises that one day, their hearts would be circumcised, not just their bodies (Deut. 30:6). Those promises are fulfilled in Christ. He left no room for confusion when he said, "''This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, 'This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood'" (Luke 22:19-20). For those who have accepted him as their Lord, he has already replaced that stony heart and made us a new creation with his very righteousness (2 Cor. 5:17-21). He has lavishly redeemed us by his grace and forgiven us of our iniquity (Eph. 1:7-8). He has given us his Spirit who dwells in us (Rom. 8:8-9). However, some of these broader promises (about land or the nation) are waiting until the Millennial Kingdom. Still, don’t let anyone trick you into thinking that as a present-day Christian, you are on some sort of performance-based system or that your goal is to keep a set of laws. Yes, we are called to holiness, but not of our own effort. Jesus came to do what we could never do. He came to fulfil the Law.

When the perfect, sinless righteousness of Christ is imputed to your life, God no longer sees our imperfections and failures – he sees his Son’s very life. We are placed into the eternal life of Christ, and God is now able to see us as if we have never sinned. God isn’t tolerating you until he can get you to heaven to finish the task of perfecting you. He doesn’t love you as a father while not liking you very much personally. Adam broke the perfect fellowship that had existed between God and man, and a perfect man had to pay the penalty. However, there were no perfect men. There were good ones, Daniel, Noah, Enoch…but they couldn’t redeem because they still had a sin nature and committed acts of sin. Instead, Paul reminded his audience, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Gal. 4:4-7).

That is the essence of Christmas and quite a promise to take into the new year. He came, born of a virgin (so without a sin nature). He came at the perfect time (God is never late to fulfil his promises, though he is not on our timetable). He kept the law perfectly because we could not – and he has adopted us. We are his children. He invites us into close fellowship – not an uncle or landlord – Abba, Daddy, our protector, advocate, provider, and confidant. Not only have we been adopted, but we have been made co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Pause and think about that promise. From the beginning of time, when the Trinity consulted together and chose to make mankind, God knew the cost. Adam’s sin didn’t take him by surprise, and Scripture is the long story of God fulfilling his first covenant.

We serve a risen Savior, we rejoice in his victory because it is the source of our present (and future) power, strength, joy, hope, love, and the list goes on. However, the incarnation was a specific moment in time when God chose to come. He chose to keep his promises. He chose to demonstrate his love. He chose to leave the glory of heaven for a carpenter’s family. He chose the worship of open-hearted shepherds instead of self-righteous religious leaders. He chose years of hardship, endured betrayal, and healed people who did not always accept his testimony. I cannot fathom the constant mental, physical, and emotional strain – yet he still came. The New Covenant not only gives us hope and a pathway to follow as we walk with Christ daily (empowered by his life), but it also gives us a promise for the future. He will return; may we be found faithful when he does.

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price…He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen” (Rev. 22:17-21).