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“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.

Jeremiah 31:31‭-‬32 RSV

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There were several Covenants that God made.

• (1) There was a covenant with Noah (Genesis 6:18,9:9)

• (2) Two covenants with Abraham (Genesis 17:2,10; 15:18ff)

• (3) The covenant of salt (Numbers 18:19; Leviticus 2:13)

• (4) The covenant of the everlasting priesthood (Numbers 25:13).

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

Hebrews 8:6‭-‬7 RSV

In Hebrews 8:6-7, this “new covenant” is contrasted with what is called “the first covenant,” or “the old covenant,” indicating that the new covenant would replace not merely those lesser covenants, but it would take the place of that covenant which was so great and comprehensive, overshadowing all others, that God called it the “first covenant.”

See our second blog installment of this series: THE NEW AND BETTER COVENANT – Part 2

The new Covenant was designed to replace the entire religious system of the Jews, including the Decalogue, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the tabernacle ritual, the temple, and the temple services later developed, the statutes, judgments, and commandments, embracing the entire ceremonial and moral constitution of Judaism.

Every student needs to identify which covenant was annulled and replaced by the new.

The Old Covenant Identified:

• (1) It was the one made with the “house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” The mention of the house of Judah is significant, because it distinguished the “old covenant” from the covenant of the priesthood which was made with the house of Levi. It also indicated that all Israel, both the Northern and Southern Israels, were included in the New Covenant.

• (2) The old covenant was the one that had the Decalogue in it as a basic component (Deuteronomy 4:13; Hebrews 9:4).

• (3) The old covenant was the one God made with Moses (Exodus 34:2,28).

• (4) It was the one God made at the time when Israel came out of Egypt, “in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt” (Jeremiah 31:32).

The nature of the new Covenant

It partakes of the nature of all covenants.

Every covenant which God concludes with men consists, on the side of God, the assurance of God’s favors and blessings; and on the side of men, it binds them to the keeping of commandments laid upon them.

Time when the new covenant was made

It was made upon the Cross of Jesus Christ when he became the “propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.”

It was announced upon the Day of Pentecost, exactly fifty days after the resurrection of the Son of God, and it became effective upon that day when three thousand Jews became “the Virgin Israel” accepted the terms of the New Covenant, and by their baptism into Christ, became thereby Charter Members of the New Israel, the Israel of God, the Spiritual Israel, that Other Israel, which succeeded the Old Israel, and is today the ONLY Israel of God.

MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE NEW COVENANT

The last clause here is a flat contradiction of Hebrews 8:6-7, which declares that if the old law had been faultless God would not have changed it.

Furthermore, the notion that the New Covenant got rid of all law is a preposterous error.

The “priesthood” was changed when Christ our High Priest was raised from the dead, eternally supplanting the Aaronic priesthood; and the author of Hebrews stated that, “The priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law” (Hebrews 7:12).

Furthermore, if there is no law of the gospel, or law of Christ, or law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, then there is no such thing as sin, because “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).

Another gross error can be stated in a question: Does the New Covenant efface the distinction between Israel (racial Israel) and the Church (the New Israel)?

The answer is a resounding no!

This, of course, is a flat contradiction of Romans 10:12, which declares that “there is no distinction,” not even between Gentiles and Jews.

In the New Covenant all special considerations and privileges of racial Israel were forever lost.

Since Gentiles are in the Church, if one should suppose a distinction between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, it would mean that God has two classes of children in his Church, an utter impossibility.

Race, today, is totally unimportant, as regards salvation.

No person whomsoever can be either saved or lost eternally, upon the basis of any racial consideration whatsoever.