by Douglas Goodin
Prediction of the New Covenant
For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the LORD, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not care for them, says the LORD.” (Hebrews 8:8-9)
The covenant God made with Israel had a problem (Heb. 8:7). If it had not, the author of Hebrews argues, there would have been no need for God to make another covenant. But the reality is that centuries before the New Covenant was formulated, it was foretold, thus proving the insufficiency of the Old Covenant.
But what rendered the Old Covenant insufficient? Certainly, the problem was not with God, for He is altogether holy, just, and good, and so is His covenant (Rom. 7:7-12). Rather, the problem was with the Jews. Because the covenant did not come with the requisite power for obedience, the Jews could not keep it. Therefore, God revealed through the prophet Jeremiah that due to the people’s inability to keep the Old Covenant, He would one day discard it and create a new one. And He explicitly declared that the New Covenant would be “not like” the one made at Sinai.
The Old Covenant was of such a nature that if the Jews broke it (which they did), God would pour out plagues of judgment upon them (which He did). In the New Covenant, there would be no judgment (for it was taken by our Substitute), only forgiveness and grace. Moreover, God eventually left unfaithful Israel like a betrayed husband (“I did not care for them,” v9), but under the New Covenant nothing can separate us from the love of our Husband (Rom. 8:31-39).
One more point should be made, and that regarding the parties of the New Covenant. In Jeremiah’s prophecy, the Lord speaks of a new covenant with “the house of Israel” and “the house of Judah.” Does this mean that it is exclusive to the two kingdoms of ancient Judaism, and therefore, not inclusive of Gentile Christians? Clearly not, for two reasons. First, when the New Covenant was created at the cross, the “house of Israel” (i.e. Northern Kingdom) had long been absorbed into pagan nations, never to be seen again as a distinct group. These are the so-called “ten lost tribes.” Second, the New Testament teaches that the inclusion of Gentiles was part of the mystery revealed to the Apostles (see Eph. 2:11-3:12). God’s plan always included the future salvation of Gentiles, a future which was realized as the Gospel began to take root in the Mediterranean regions through the preaching of Peter, Paul, and others.
Description of the New Covenant
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD; I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:10-12)
The two great problems with the first covenant were: 1) The Law did not include the necessary power for keeping it, and 2) breaking the Law brought condemnation. Solutions for both are found in the New Covenant.
God wrote the Law of Moses onto tablets of stone which stood as regular reminders of the demands of the covenant. They were called the “tablets of testimony” (Exod. 31:18) because they testified to the austere judgments awaiting all who failed to keep them. In the New Covenant, God writes His commandments on our hearts, meaning that He so changes our wills and desires that we want to obey Him. Moreover, every believer is moved by the Holy Spirit down the path of sanctification and holiness. God is at work both to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). We are slaves to righteousness, empowered by the same Force which raised Jesus from the dead. Unlike the law of the Old Covenant which remained external to the Jew, we have God’s will working on the inside as it were.
But what about the times when Christians fail to walk in the Spirit? Are we subject to curses of condemnation for disobedience as the Jews were under the Old Covenant? The clear (and eternally sublime) answer is No! In the New Covenant, God has promised to be merciful. He forgets our sin. Having exhausted His holy wrath against our wickedness upon His perfect and beloved Son, there remains nothing but grace and acceptance for us. As discussed in another article, forgiveness of sins is the promise which makes the New Covenant so vastly superior to the Old.
The Lame Duck Covenant
When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. (Hebrews 8:13)
Remember that this is the Hebrews author’s commentary on the Old Covenant nearly 600 years before its full termination. For six centuries, the Jews lived under a passé pact that was quickly turning gray and walking stooped over with a cane. In other words, as soon as God announced the future installation of a new and different covenant based on internal transformation and total forgiveness, the days of the Mosaic administration were numbered.
Our Lord made the obsolescence complete when He took upon Himself the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13) and inaugurated the New Covenant in His blood. The obvious implication of this is that the covenant made between God and Israel at Sinai has been terminated. It served its divinely intended purpose of preparing the way for Christ (Gal. 3:24, 25) and then expired. And all Christians say, with Luther, “Let Moses be dead and buried and let no one know where his grave is.”