The New Covenant

God made the first covenant with the people of Israel when he brought them out of Egypt. This first covenant was based on law. That law was summarised in the Ten Commandments and expanded in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These books, together with the book of Genesis, are the foundation books of the Old Testament, and are known as the Torah or Law.

The laws God gave through Moses were just and fair and vastly superior to those of surrounding peoples. They were severe by modern standards. The death penalty was prescribed for witchcraft, adultery, rape and striking one's parents and other crimes, as well as for murder. However, if they were imposed today, I have little doubt that they would lead to a happier society. The guilty might begin to fear while the innocent could freely walk our streets.

Excellent though these laws were, they did not result in a righteous people. Nearly 1000 years after they were given, God’s judgement fell first on Israel and then on Judah. They had broken all God’s commandments and totally failed to keep their side of the Old Covenant. Above all, they had broken the very first commandment, and had turned and worshipped other gods. So the Assyrians and the Babylonians came and devastated their land, ravaged Jerusalem, and took their people into captivity.

At this critical point in Israel’s history, Jeremiah announced God’s promise of a New Covenant.

The root problem did not lie in the laws God had given. It lay in human nature. ‘The heart,’ said Jeremiah, ‘is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick’ (Jer 17:9).The essence of the New Covenant is God’s promise to change the heart. ‘I will put my law inside them and on their heart I will write it’ (31:33). As long as the human heart is proud, covetous and idolatrous, there is no way it will keep the laws of God, no matter how much it is disciplined, exhorted and drilled. It has an internal law of operation that is in conflict with God’s demands.

Many people never discover this. They may experience a genuine conversion. They may turn away from bad habits and totally change their life style. In spite of all this, the corrupt inward self is still there much as it was before.

Teachers

After speaking about the law Jeremiah goes on to speak about teaching: ‘And they shall not teach again each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.’ John confirms these words with the statement, ‘... you have no need for anyone to teach you ... His anointing teaches you about all things ...’ (1John 2:27).

Fundamentally, all human teaching is by its very nature Old Covenant. It is done by man and can only ever be external. New Covenant teaching is done by the Holy Spirit and is internal. Jesus said to His disciples, ‘It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you ... I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth ...’ (John 16:7,12,13). Jesus was saying that the teaching of the indwelling Holy Spirit would be better for the disciples than His own teaching, which was, like all other human teaching, external. Even though he was the best teacher the world had ever seen, the teaching of the Holy Spirit was going to be better. In spite of appearances, they were now ready to make this transition from the external to the internal.

We may contrast the words of Jesus with the words of Moses: ‘I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way which I have commanded you’ (Deut 31:29). That was the Old Covenant situation (and the one that prevails for the majority of Christians now); without a teacher and leader everything would fall to pieces.

We find the same contrast in the prophecy of Joel, quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost: ‘It shall be in the last days’, says God, ‘that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh ... sons ... daughters ... young men ... old men ... male servants ... female servants ... ’. Each individual down to the illiterate female servant is able to have a direct, personal, revelatory, inward experience of God. The dependence on great leaders and teachers is gone.

Most religious leaders have an attitude that is closer in spirit to the words of Moses ‘... after my death you will act corruptly ...’ than to the words of Jesus, ‘It is to your advantage that I go away;’. They want to feel indispensable. At best they are genuinely concerned for the welfare of their flock, but lack a proper understanding of the New Covenant, and faith in the keeping power of the Holy Spirit. At worst they are concerned that they will lose their position, income and security if no one depends on them.

The Scriptures

The law written on stone and expanded on paper was the foundation of the Old Covenant. The law written on our hearts is the basis of the new. In the Old Covenant the scriptures gave a set of laws and rules for daily life. Do we still need the scriptures in the New Covenant? If so, what is their place?

Let’s start by asking the same questions about Jesus. Did he need the scriptures? What were their place in his life? I believe the answer is for himself, no, he didn’t need the scriptures. The law of God was perfectly written on his heart. His relationship with His Father was perfect, and he needed nothing external to support it. They moved in unbroken fellowship throughout His life. He quoted scripture in his conflict with Satan in the wilderness. I do not know if he needed to. He quoted scripture in his confrontations with the Pharisees. He opened up the scriptures to his disciples on the Emmaus road. I have no doubt he delighted in the scriptures as he saw in them the reflection of his own mind. He found them ‘profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness’ (2Tim 3:16), but I don’t believe he needed them for himself.

Jesus is our Lord and Saviour, and also our model and example. God, our Father, intends us to be like him, and in the fullness of the New Covenant we will be. Thinking we will achieve this by endless reading of the scriptures is a big mistake. That was not the way it was with Jesus, nor can it be with us. He inherited his character from his Father, and so also do we.

Reading of the scriptures will not cause their contents to be written on our hearts. They may stick in our minds if we have retentive memories, but that is not the same thing. Rather it works the other way round. When God has written his law on our hearts, we come to the scriptures and recognise their contents as what is already within us. We understand them and delight in them just as Jesus did. We also find them ‘profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness’. We can use them for teaching and training, for rebuking and exposing the works of darkness, and for the correction of ourselves and others. If we should be cast into prison and deprived of our Bibles we would no doubt miss them, but our spiritual lives would not depend on them. They reflect what is already in our hearts, but they are not the means by which God puts it there. He does that by his Spirit.

Much misunderstanding is caused by referring to the Bible as the Word of God or simply as the Word. The Bible itself never does this. It refers to itself as the scriptures and means something quite different when it speaks about the word of God. If you doubt this, search through the Bible with a concordance and see. Note Acts 17:11: ‘... they received the word ... and searched the Scriptures ... ’. The word here is clearly different from the Scriptures. Also when we read that the Word was made flesh, it was obviously not the Bible that was made flesh.

A New People

Under the Old Covenant God chose one specific people from all the peoples of the earth. They were the people of Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, later known as the Jews. To this day they remain God’s chosen people according to the natural order. Although people can become Jews by conversion to Judaism, the normal method of becoming a member of that people is through physical birth from the womb of a Jewish mother.

When the Messiah came to Israel, the leaders and the majority of the Jewish nation rejected him. Further, the majority went on to reject the powerful and pure testimony of the early church. For this God’s judgement fell on the Jews and in 70 AD the Romans sacked Jerusalem and scattered them throughout the earth. Both physical suffering and spiritual blindness fell on the chosen race as for nearly 1900 years they wandered from country to country never finding rest.

The last century saw events of unparalleled drama for the Jews as their long exile has ended and their spiritual blindness has begun to lift. Hitler’s holocaust shocked the world and subsequently modern Israel’s birth and survival has amazed it.

The achievements of the Jewish people have been out of all proportion to their numbers. They have given to the world the scriptures, communism and nuclear weapons. Their academic, scientific and artistic achievements have been amazing. All this has demonstrated that they are a special people with a special purpose in God.

Dramatic and wonderful though the manifestation of God’s power in them has been, the natural Israel remains no more than the people of the Old Covenant. It was a great day when Yahweh with outstretched arm and mighty power brought his Old Covenant people out of Egypt. It was a greater day when Jesus with outstretched arms and shed blood brought his New Covenant people out of sin.

Entry to the ranks of the Old Covenant people is by natural birth. Spiritual birth brings us into the new. All those, and only those, who are born of the Spirit of God are his new people. Only new birth can make us sons and daughters of God.

Here we must stress that neither baptism, nor membership of any group or denomination, nor good deeds that we have done, nor nationality, nor colour nor anything else human, can make anyone a member of God’s New Covenant people. The only way in is by spiritual birth.

Few members of this new spiritual race have outstanding natural gifts. God has chosen mainly the poor and the weak of this world. Paul reminds us that ‘Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong’ (1Cor 1:26,27).

Instead the new people of God have spiritual gifts and powers. Most of these are invisible to the natural eye and hidden from the natural mind. Nevertheless their true benefit is much greater. Until the books of heaven are opened and their secrets revealed, the spiritual conflicts and victories of many humble men and women of God will remain hidden from their fellow beings. Only eternity will reveal what has brought lasting good to mankind.

It is a privilege to be born by natural birth a member of God’s Old Covenant people. It is a far greater privilege to be born by spiritual birth as a member of the new. Praise God, there are increasing numbers of those who are the people of God both by natural birth and by spiritual birth.

A New Priesthood

A New Building

The New Covenant has a new people, a new priesthood, and also a new building.

At the peak of Israel’s national history Solomon built the first great temple. David’s armies had been victorious everywhere they went and Solomon was enjoying the consequent peace and prosperity. He turned his energies to building a house for God. God had never commanded this, though he had instructed Moses to build the tabernacle. It was David’s well-intentioned idea which God allowed Solomon to implement.

God did not regard this temple very highly. He allowed it to be damaged by an earthquake in the days of King Uzziah. Nebuchadnezzar burnt it to the ground at the time of the captivity. The returning exiles from Babylon rebuilt it. Antiochus Epiphanes defiled it by putting a statue of Jupiter in it and offering a sow on the altar. It was later rebuilt by the ungodly Herod the Great and made into the magnificent structure that stood in the time of Jesus.

The Jews at that time regarded it with the utmost reverence. Jesus, Stephen and Paul were all accused of blasphemy with regard to it. When the disciples were admiring it, to their dismay Jesus said, ‘Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down’ (Mat 24: 2).

God’s mind was upon building another temple - a New Covenant temple. ‘The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands,’ (Acts 7:48) said Stephen in a speech that led to his becoming the first martyr for Jesus. The divine plan was infinitely higher. His real temple was to be made of human beings. He did not want to live in brick and stone, but in flesh and blood. The New Testament is full of the message: ‘You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.’ The idea that God wants a special building where he can be worshipped is finished for ever. He gave his final verdict on the earthly temple in 70 AD when the Roman legions fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy to the word by literally leaving not one stone of it upon another as they searched its foundations for hidden gold.

What about our church buildings? Architecturally no doubt many of them have great merit and many people have a deep emotional attachment to them. However we cannot allow such considerations to cloud our spiritual judgement. To regard them as houses of God or as holy places is to deny the New Covenant. To reverence a building is idolatry which can only lead to spiritual blindness and confusion.

Many country churches here in England are actually built on ancient sites of heathen worship. A similar situation existed in Old Testament times. Through long periods of Israel’s history Yahweh was worshipped at the high places, where the heathen had previously sacrificed. Even the prophet Samuel appears to have done this, and no doubt God looked at the motives of his heart and accepted his offerings. Many righteous kings of Judah in later times allowed this practice to continue. King Hezekiah rose above the standards of his ancestors and destroyed these high places. God’s verdict: ‘... after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the Lord ... and the Lord was with him ...’ (2 Kings 18:5-7).

New Festivals

With festivals we find the same principles that we have already met. God ordained Old Covenant festivals. The main ones were Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Through Moses he commanded the Israelites to go up three times a year to Jerusalem to observe them. To keep these festivals faithfully required a lot of time, effort and expense, and for many centuries they were largely forgotten. The kings Hezekiah and Josiah, and later Ezra the scribe revived these festivals and instructed the people to observe them.

A New Sabbath

As with festivals so with the Sabbath. God appointed the Sabbath day as a solemn covenant between him and the people of Israel. The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week which was Saturday. The writer to the Hebrews saw clearly that the Sabbath spoke of a spiritual rest, quite independent of any day of the week. He spoke of it in the following words: ‘There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God ... Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no-one will fall by following their example of disobedience’ (Hebrews 4:9,11).