We have seen how the five covenants of the Old Testament successively and cumulatively pointed ahead to all that Jesus Christ would provide by His perfect life, sacrificial death, His glorious resurrection, His Ascension and the giving of His Spirit. Now we need to discover what the NT has to say about it all.

  Jesus is the Head of the New Covenant: Jesus fulfilled the OT Law completely and fully both in letter and in spirit (in every decree to the utmost degree). He is the New Israel – the perfect Israelite: He was victorious where they failed (Matt.4:1-10). This why the NT transfers the OT images and hopes to Him.  

'For example, instead of the Israelites being the vine(yard) (Ps.80:14-16, Is.5:1-7), Jesus now holds that title (‘I am the true vine’ John 15:1- 5);

.... instead of the nations gathering around the Israelites (Is.60:3), they now gather round Jesus (John 12:32);

.... and instead of the Israelites and their kings being the son(s) of God (Ps.2:7, Hos.11:1), now Jesus has that honour (Matt.3:17). Isaiah looked to the day when God would make His Servant a covenant for Israel and the nations (Is.42:6)’(1)  

The New Covenant is not primarily between God and us, but between God and Christ. But we are included in it (‘in-corporated’ into it, Rom.6:5 and  Phil.2:1) by faith and becoming in Christ .

'Incorporated' means being taken into the body of, or merged with the body of ... (from corpus = body). Hence the importance of the biblical description of believers as in Christ!

Jesus was our representative and our substitute in his perfect life and in his sacrificial death. When one of the players in our favourite football team scores a goal, we say ‘We’ve scored’ – the scorer represented us and our hopes. He scored on our behalf. When a player goes on to take the place of another, we say he is the substitute. Jesus did both for us….

He lived a perfect life on our behalf because we could not: He died on the cross to pay for our sin so that we need not.

A covenant can only last if there is perfect faithfulness from both parties. So God could not make it directly with us because we still sin, so he made it with His sinless Son. God the Father will never reject us because He cannot and will not reject His Son (John 6:37).  

The prophecy of a new covenant by Jeremiah is very influential in the thinking of the NT writers particularly the ending (31:34) about God forgiving sins. For example, Matthew specifically records that at the Last Supper Jesus said that His blood was to be ‘poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’ For Luke the promise of the forgiveness of sins features big in his thinking – Luke 1:77, 3:3, 24:47, and Acts (Luke wrote Acts) 2:38, 5:31, 10:43, 13:38, 26:18.  

Paul comments in 2 Cor.3:6 that the apostles are ministers of ‘a new covenant’ and in 3:14 declares that while people still listen to the old covenant they have a veil over their understanding and he adds – ‘only in Christ is it taken away’.  

But it is in the Book of Hebrews where the writer (unknown) majors on the meaning of the New Covenant in Christ (The word ‘covenant’ appears 19 times). In the first verses of the letter (1:1-3) he sets the scene with an anthem of praise to Christ as the most superior prophet, priest and king.  In chapter 2 he argues that Jesus was the perfect covenant Son (10-18) – see particularly 14-17, and also in 4:14 to 5:10 – see v.8.  

In 7:22 he says that ‘Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant’ – which indeed He is because he is the perfect covenant Son. In 8:6 he says the covenant of which Jesus is the mediator is superior to the old one ‘and it is founded on better promises’. Then he quotes Jer.31:31-34 in full!

In chapter 9:1-10 he rehearses all that had to happen in the OT tabernacle/temple covenant ceremonies and shows they were but a shadow (8:5) of what Christ would do. He portrays (11-14) how Jesus did in reality what the old ceremonies only foreshadowed and declares ‘For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance – now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.’  Notice that while the Old Covenant was temporary, the New Covenant is eternal.  

In chapter 10 the writer insists that Christ, in the New Covenant, has died once and for all (v.10) – a sacrifice that does not have to be repeated over and over again like the OT sacrifices,  then quoting Jer.31:33 again ‘I will put my law in their hearts and I will write them on their minds’ – which of course God achieves by the work of the Holy Spirit. 2 Cor.3:3 ‘You show you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Holy Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.’ Note the flavour of Jer.31:33 ‘I will … write my law on their hearts’.

  There are not two routes to God – via the old covenant and via the new covenant – Heb.8:13 ‘By calling this covenant ‘new’, he has  made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and ageing will soon disappear’. Also see 10:9.

And in his final sweep of verses the writer to the Hebrews finishes with a great blessing (13:20,21):

‘May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant

brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of

the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may

he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom

be glory forever and ever. Amen.’

This is God’s covenant grace at work.

(1)   Days Are Coming by Mark Strom, Hodder and Stoughton, p 136

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