The New Covenant

(Hebrews 8:10-11 – The New Covenant)

When God spoke to and worked with Abraham, He made him a promise. The promise to Abraham was that his descendants would inherit the world. It was a covenant made between God and Abraham because Abraham believed God.

The covenant between God and Abraham was based upon faith. The scripture says that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. It was a covenant of faith.

Centuries later God made another covenant with His people, the descendants of Israel. Israel were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This covenant was the law and is referred to extensively as the Old Covenant. It was given to Israel by God, through Moses, because sin had increased and the people were not worshiping God as they should. But the covenant of law was not the fulfillment of the covenant of promise given to Abraham. Again, many centuries later, God established the New Covenant. It was brought into effect by Jesus Christ and was ratified and commenced at the point of His death. The scriptures today look at what the New Covenant is, what it is not, and why it was necessary to establish it.

The New Covenant

This is what the scriptures today have to say. They define the essence of the New Covenant as established by God.

10 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 write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach every one his fellow or every one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (Hebrews 8:10-11)

There were over six hundred and fifty laws in the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant began with the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai. They were written on tablets of stone that were kept in the Ark of the Covenant, which probably still exist somewhere today, since stone does not easily decay.

But in the words of this verse, God does not talk about writing His laws on stone. The New Covenant writes His laws on our hearts. That is, He will transform us so that when we think or do anything, we will be guided by His laws and His ways. Not because they are written in stone somewhere, but because they will become part of who we are.

Under the New Covenant we will be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Our nature will become like His nature. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, as this verse shows:

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

When that occurs, it will be part of our nature to do the right thing. We won’t do what is right for fear of condemnation or discipline. We will do the right thing because that will be our nature.

Hearts and Minds

One of the phrases used by politicians and marketers, is about winning the “hearts and minds” of their respective audiences. They understand that if you can win the hearts and minds of people, they will follow and do what the politician or marketer wants. They will vote for them or buy the product.

God is doing the same thing with His people. But unlike politicians and marketers, God’s process for winning our hearts and minds is much more effective. It is not based on promises that may or may not be true. His promise is based upon the word of God and the perfect will of the Father. And the process of change is not left to random chance or hopeful expectation. Change is done within us by God Himself through the working of the Holy Spirit and the sacrifice of Jesus.

The New Covenant is the promise of God to bring people to salvation and eternal life. God’s promises are effective because they are from God, and He never lies. His word is truth and there is no lie in God.

Furthermore, God established the New Covenant because He loves us. No politician or marketer can say the same. They want us to like them for their benefit. But God wants what is best for us for OUR benefit, and He has promised eternal life. There is no need to fear death, disease, sickness, pain, suffering, or anything else. Those things are part of living in this world, and yes we will experience all of those things. But under the New Covenant and in Jesus Christ, we know that a better life awaits that is NOT of this world. It is life in the kingdom of God.

The transformation that is taking place is being done by the Holy Spirit in us so that we can enter that life and live with God.

Learning the New Covenant

The best part of the New Covenant is that it is easy to learn. We are being taught by God Himself. As the scripture said, “And they shall not teach every one his fellow or every one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”

The knowledge of the New Covenant and the knowledge of God is and will be within us. We are taught the details and application of the New Covenant by God Himself, as He shows in this verse.

It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. (John 6:45)

The means by which God teaches us the New Covenant is by the working of the Holy Spirit. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit who is our teacher, as this next verse tells us.

26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26)

But as that verse suggests, we have an obligation in this process too.

The Holy Spirit teaches us and will bring to our remembrance the words of Jesus, as and when we need them. But it is our responsibility to put the words of God into our memory so that the Holy Spirit can bring them to our remembrance. You cannot remember what is not in your memory. And the Holy Spirit cannot bring scriptures to your remembrance that you have not put into your memory in the first place.

Study the New Covenant

Too often these days I visit or hear of churches who do not study the Bible. The Bible is the word of God. Contained in the Bible are the teachings of the New Covenant that will lead to salvation and eternal life.

If you do not learn God’s word, how will the Holy Spirit be able to help you in times of need? How will you be able to defeat the attacks of the devil as Jesus did? This is what Jesus did when He was tempted by the devil for forty days in the wilderness.

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Begone, Satan! for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. (Matthew 4:1-11)

Jesus overcame every temptation of the devil by the power of the word of God. Every temptation was answered by Jesus saying, “It is written,” and then Jesus stopped the devil in his tracks by following God’s will and God’s word rather than succumbing to the devil’s will.

But if you do not read and study the Bible, how can you learn right from wrong, truth from error? And note the second of the temptations that devil threw at Jesus in verses 5 and 6. In that testing the devil threw scriptures from the Bible against Jesus. The devil knows the Bible too.

But the devil twists the scripture for his own purposes. And we need to know the truth by Bible study and reading the word of God so that when people twist the scriptures, we too can say, “It is written,” and show them the error of their ways. It is because people do not know the New Covenant and the words in the Bible that so much error has come into the church. There are so many false doctrines in the church that have no basis in scripture, and they fool those who do not know God’s word.

So, learn the New Covenant by studying God’s word. As you do, you are arming the Holy Spirit with a sword (see Ephesians 6:17) that He will be able to wield on your behalf when it is needed.

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