Jeremiah Announces the New Covenant

Jeremiah 31:31-37

GOLDEN TEXT: “I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall he My people.”—Jeremiah 31:33

THE New Covenant will be so called because it will take the place of the old Law Covenant, which God made with Israel and which was broken by them. After Israel shall have been fully established under their New Covenant, finally all other nations will be privileged to come into this relationship: All the world will eventually be blessed thereby.

The New Covenant, then, is to be made with such of Abraham’s descendants as are able to receive it; but since the people are not worthy to enter directly into relationship with God, the covenant must have a mediator. The Mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the church, His body. The Apostle indicates in his letter to the Corinthians that in the development of the church, in which he was having a share as a teacher and apostle, he was in fact serving the New Covenant. (II Cor. 3:1-9) That is, the ones who are to be God’s representatives in the great future work for Israel and the world, in writing God’s law in their minds and hearts, are being chosen and prepared for that work during the Gospel age; and in that sense—a very important sense, indeed—he and all other fellow-servants in the church have been serving the New Covenant. Let us note carefully that the apostle compares this service of the New Covenant in which he was engaged with that which Moses rendered when he was in the mount receiving the Law Covenant from God and being prepared thereby to become its mediator.

The Word of God distinguishes between a covenant and its mediator. A covenant does not go into operation until after it has been fully mediated. When Moses mediated the Law Covenant, he first offered sacrifices; then he took the blood of the animals and, dividing it into two parts, sprinkled both the Book of the Law and the people. (Exod. 24:4-8; Heb. 9:19-24) After he had done this, the Law Covenant was in force; and it will continue in force (upon all Jews not believing in Christ) until superseded by its antitype, the New Covenant.

The Mediator of the New Covenant will be The Christ. For more than eighteen hundred years, our Lord has been offering the great antitypical sacrifices of Himself and His church. As soon as He will have finished making application of the blood, He will have made satisfaction for the sins of the world. This act will correspond to the sprinkling of the book by Moses. Divine Justice having accepted this arrangement, the Mediator will anti-typically sprinkle the people; that is, He will show them how to come back into accord with God.

In verse 34 of our lesson, we read, speaking of the New Covenant, “They shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” The sins and iniquities of Israel will no longer be remembered against them.

The Law in operation under the New Covenant will be the same Law of God which changes not. It still will be the Law that declares divine opposition to sin, and divine favor and blessing for the righteous. This absolute standard will always be before the world during the Millennial age, and each will be required to make progress until the perfect standard is reached. The great Mediator will deal with mankind until they shall have had time to travel up the “highway of holiness” to human perfection, with God’s law fully written in their hearts. As it is written “I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; … and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”—Heb. 8:10; Jer. 31:33,34

Here we have the blotting out of past sins and iniquities, a gradual work during the Millennial age; and here, also, we have the gradual work of retracing, rewriting, the divine Law in the hearts of men—of whomsoever will. This rewriting of the divine Law in the characters of men is simply another method of telling us of the “restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets,” to be accomplished in the great day of the reign of Christ. And we are not to forget the explicit statement, “It, shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear [obey] that Prophet [the soul that will not submit itself to this rewriting of the divine Law in its character], shall be destroyed from among the people.”—Acts 3:23

The Prophet Ezekiel also tells us that during the next age the hearts of mankind will be changed. He says, “Thus saith the Lord God; … A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 36:22-27) This change of heart will be accomplished under the New Covenant, but it will take a thousand years to fully remove the stoniness out of the hearts of mankind and prepare them to stand before God without a mediator. Those who receive everlasting life must attain this condition; for all of God’s creatures who would live forever will, be able and must keep His law perfectly.

QUESTIONS:

With whom is the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-37 to first be made?

When will the New Covenant be inaugurated?

Who will be the Mediator of the New Covenant?

How will the New Covenant affect the lives of the people who come under its laws?

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