The New Covenant is the promise that God makes with mankind that He will forgive sin and restore communion with those whose hearts believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant, and His death on the cross is the basis of the promise. He defeated death by His resurrection and restored life for those who believe in Him.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." ~ John 3:16
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. ~ Luke 22:19-20
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." ~ John 14:6
What is the New Covenant?
As the history of Israel progresses, Israel experiences the curses of the mosaic covenant. They are threatened with judgment and in the end, actually God visits the judgment of exile upon them for breaking the old covenant, the mosaic covenant.
But in that context, the prophets arise and they promise that there will be a time when God rescues his people, renews his covenant and this time it'll be a covenant that cannot be broken. In Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, this new covenant is explained. A covenant in which God will once again enter into a relationship with his people. And now God's law will not be an external thing, but it will be actually written on their hearts. God will make his people new. He will cleanse them from their sins. He will wash them and be in their midst in a way that they never experienced under the old covenant. This became the great prophetic hope of Old Testament Israel in exile and after the exile.
But it again did not happen. Even when they came back from exile and the temple is rebuilt, the temple is empty. The glory of the Lord does not descend on it like it did on Solomon's temple. And the people are left, at the end of the old Testament, wondering when and how, where is this, new covenant going to come into fruition? It doesn't happen until God's king comes, the fulfillment of all of the covenants. The son of David. The fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. The seed of Abraham. The child of promise, who is Jesus Christ and who through his own bloodshed on the cross establishes the new covenant with God's people. It is a covenant that is not one of law, but one of grace. It's a covenant in which God's people are born again, made new creatures, now who delight in God and delight in God's law. Jesus Christ is not only the one who establishes the new covenant promised in the profits and brought about through his death and resurrection. But Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all of the covenants in scripture.
Bible Verses about the New Covenant
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that 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 to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah
Who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
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