What’s New About the New Covenant?
“So what kind of ‘Christian’ are you?”
That’s a question that many of us have probably been asked before. I remember that back in the early days when we were just getting started as a church, it seemed like I got asked that question all the time. I’d be talking with a neighbor or somebody, and I’d mentioned that we were planting a church, and naturally they’d want to know, “What kind of church? What kind of Christian are you?”
That’s a good question. It’s obvious to everyone that there are lots of people and churches who call themselves Christians and they’re all different, sometimes in major ways, sometimes in minor ways, and it can be confusing. So when we’re talking to people unfamiliar with Christianity, we should be able to help them out.
Where are we — where is our church — on the map of Christianity?
One goal of this sermon is to answer that question — and that’s because our passage today — Hebrews 8:7–13, which is mainly Jeremiah 31:31–34 — this passage, how you understand this passage, is a dividing line of minor theological differences among Christians.
And you’ll see what I mean when we get there, but before we do, I’d like to back way up and talk about major theological differences. What are the broadest possible differences among those who claim to be Christians? [That question starts way out here and then we’re gonna funnel it down.
First, let me pray:
Father in heaven, thank you for your word, because your word is truth. This morning (and always) we ask, by your Holy Spirit, guide us in your truth for your glory, in Jesus’s name, amen.
Our Final Authority
So with this funnel, up here, the broadest differences among those who claim to be Christians has to do with how you order three sources of authority.
Everyone who claims to be a Christian recognizes the authority of the Bible, church tradition, and human reason.
That’s common all across the board. The major differences emerge when it comes to which one of those authorities is the top authority. And this creates three basic categories:
Here’s the first: if you put church tradition on top it means that you don’t deny the authority of the Bible or the role of human reasoning, but they’re both subjected to church tradition. Church tradition is the final buck-stopper, which means you’re highest appeal to matters of faith and practice is going to be the church itself through its counsels and history. This is the way it goes with Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
The second category are those who claim to be Christians and put human reason as the top authority. They recognize that the Bible and church tradition have value, but ultimately, the most decisive factor when it comes to faith and practice is human reasoning, and the real question here is: “What makes most sense to the way the world thinks?” And the big problem with this category is that the way the world thinks is also called “the spirit of the age.”
This category ends up always trying to accommodate or syncretize Christian truth with popular cultural views. This is the way it goes with liberal or progressive ‘churches.’
This syncretism project really started back in the 18th century with the Enlightenment and then Darwin’s evolutionary theory, and today this is mostly seen in views about anthropology and sexuality. For example, there are today whole denominations and churches who claim to be Christian but think it’s okay to kill pre-born babies and mutilate children (basically they look just like the Democratic Party). How’d that happen? Because they put human reasoning (influenced by the spirit of the age) above the Bible as the top source of authority.
Now the third category are those Christians who say the Bible is the top and final authority. They appreciate church tradition and human reason, but both are subjected ultimately to what the Bible says. If church tradition or human reason claim something that contradicts the Bible, the Bible wins.
And sometimes that leads to Reformation, which is exactly what happened in the 16th century. There was the sell of indulgences and the false teaching of purgatory — Martin Luther was like: Where’s that at in the Bible? What does the Bible say? Everything comes back to this Book!
This category is largely considered Evangelical Protestant or Reformational, and what distinguishes this kind of Christian from the other categories is that they believe the Bible is the final authority for faith and practice.
If somebody were to ask you what kind of church we are, a fine answer would be to say that we’re this kind. This is a Bible-believing church. We are Bible-believing Christians. And I like that phrase. It’s a good phrase.
But now, get this: under this category of Evangelical Protestant and Bible-believing, right here in the funnel, it goes like this [spreads]. There’s are lots of minor differences.
Where is our church at here?
Well, if you want to know in detail, you can go read our Elder Affirmation of Faith, but it’s important to understand that at this point the disagreements within this category of Evangelical Protestant are good-faith disagreements about what the Bible says about secondary issues. Everyone here says the Bible is the final authority, it’s just that some claim the Bible says this and the others claim the Bible says that.
And Jeremiah 31 and the New Covenant is the case in point. This is our passage today in Hebrews 8, and now I’d like to show you what we believe the Bible says here.
Catching Up on Context
In Chapter 8, let’s start by looking at verse 6. To review the last couple weeks, remember that the writer of Hebrews has labored in Chapter 7 to show us that Jesus is our great high priest in the order of Melchizedek, and that makes him the guarantor of a better covenant. Because Jesus is our high priest we have a better salvation. The writer repeats this point again in Chapter 8, verse 6. Look at the words in verse 6:
“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.”
Jesus mediates a better covenant because it’s enacted on better promises — now, don’t you think the writer should tell us what those better promises are?
Let’s keep reading. Verse 7:
“For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says…”
And then the writer gives us a long quote from Jeremiah 31:31–34 that describes that second covenant (called the new covenant).
Here’s the logic: The new covenant is enacted on better promises and what makes these promises better is how they contrast to the old covenant faults. The faults of the old covenant occasioned the need for a new covenant established on better promises (that’s verse 7).
But what were these faults of the old covenant that the new covenant solves?
That’s exactly what the writer starts to tell us in verse 8 in the Jeremiah 31 quote, but it’s interesting because he doesn’t say, “Here are the problems with the old covenant …” but he just states the new covenant. He gives the longest Old Testament quote in the New Testament, with basically no commentary. No milk and sugar here. This is straight black-coffee full quote — which is amazing because it implies that it should be obvious how the new covenant is better. It should be obvious to us how the old covenant faults are answered by new covenant better promises. Jeremiah 31:31–34 can stand on its own and tell us what was wrong with the old covenant and what’s better about the new.
There are three things to highlight here — three new covenant realities that make it better than the old covenant:
1) The New Covenant targets the Old Covenant problem of unbelief and unfaithfulness.
And this first point gets at the overarching difference between the new covenant and the old covenant. The main fault (the big problem) of the old covenant was the covenant unfaithfulness of Israel, God’s covenant partners. That is precisely what the new covenant addresses. Look at verse 8. This is Jeremiah 31:31–32,
“Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
9 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.”
So we know it’s a new covenant, not like the old covenant. Well, how is it not like the old covenant? What’s wrong with the old covenant? Verse 9:
“For they [Israel] did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares Yahweh.”
The problem with the old covenant was that God made the covenant with a people who were unfaithful. God’s covenant partners could not keep the covenant. They broke the covenant, and they did it right away. It had only been a few months since God rescued the people from Egypt through amazing signs and wonders. It was only 40 days after they received the law. And what do they do? They start worshiping a golden calf. They right away showed themselves to be faithless.
This is important, because it means we can’t simply think of the old covenant as old, but also as broken. Now we know the covenant didn’t just end there in the Book of Exodus, it continued on through the Old Testament, but it was broken from the start. It continued on with faults.
Imagine a car that gets wrecked and beat up pretty badly, but it still runs, at least for now. It’s got a couple spares tires, one headlight, the back windshield is busted out so it has a trash bag duct-taped over it. That’s the old covenant basically right away. It’s broken.
And that fact is really the foremost reality of Israel’s story as we come to the New Testament. It was super clear to the Old Testament prophets. Remember that these prophets carried out their prophetic ministry as they sat in the anticipation and ruins of God’s judgment on Israel. That’s where Jeremiah was when he prophesied these words. Jeremiah knew that the Babylonians were coming as God’s judgment on Israel because they were covenant-breakers — and so God gave him a vision beyond that judgment to a future day when God would solve that primary problem.
In one way, the entire Old Testament anticipates this. If there is one theme that’s obvious in the Old Testament it’s that humans are a mess — that’s humans in general, and Israel in particular.
And we’ve seen this so clearly as we’ve preached through Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus. Israel is a stiff-necked, hard-hearted people. That phrase for hard-hearted or “stubbornness of heart” is used eight times by Jeremiah. In Chapter 17 of Jeremiah there’s that famous verse that a lot of you have heard before, Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.” That’s the situation of the fallen, sinful heart, and there’s no doubt, that is the issue. That’s the problem behind the problem of covenant-breaking — and that’s exactly what the new covenant addresses.
The main fault (the main problem) with the old covenant is that it’s made with covenant-breakers with hard hearts and that’s what God is going to do something about.
That’s what the better promise are going after. Verses 10–12 give us the details.
2) All members of the New Covenant have the instruction of Yahweh written on their hearts.
Okay, so this new covenant not like the old one, here it is:
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares Yahweh:
'I will put my laws [torah — God’s instructions]
I will put my instructions into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.‘“
So here’s two things that sound similar to the old covenant:
First, we’ve heard this sentence before: “I will be their God and they shall be my people.” God repeats that statement throughout the Old Testament. It’s a statement about his covenant relationship with his people.
Second, we know that God has law, or instruction. That’s not new. As an expression of God’s love for his people, he has told his people how we wants them to live as their expression of love for him and others. God has revealed his righteousness to them in this way.
The ideas of covenant relationship and law are similar to the old covenant, except that now, look at this: the law, or instruction of Yahweh, is not merely a thing externally revealed that we conform to, but God’s instruction goes deeper. God’s put his instructions in our minds. He writes his instruction on our hearts. And that changes everything! Everything! Think about this: God’s law is on our hearts!
Now this isn’t mentioned here in Jeremiah, but when God repeats the new covenant through the prophet Ezekiel, he explains the promise, Ezekiel 36:26:
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
That is what God is doing when he writes his instruction on our hearts. He is actually giving us new hearts; he gives us his Spirit, in us, who causes us to believe and be faithful.
Now, is that a better promise or what?
It means this: The Spirit-empowered writing of God’s instruction on our new hearts makes every new covenant member endure in faith. See, it’s not like the old covenant! There’s a transformation of the heart for every new covenant member.
And then this transformation, God’s instruction on our new hearts, deepens our covenant relationship with God. If you’re a member of the new covenant, God is our God and we are his people, or we could also say, God is our Father and we are his sons and daughters. That’s the application of the new covenant that the Apostle Paul makes in 2 Corinthians 6. There is a new closeness with God that every member of the new covenant experiences. Verse 11:
“And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
This is saying exactly what it sounds like it’s saying.
Every member of the new covenant knows God.”
In the new covenant you don’t have to teach or compel one another to know God because everyone already does. And this reality of the new covenant, quoted here in Hebrews 8:11, is verse 34 of Jeremiah 31 and it’s actually contrasted to an earlier verse in that same chapter in Jeremiah. Right before Jeremiah announces the new covenant, in Jeremiah 31, verse 29 he says:
“In those days they shall no longer say:
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.”
In the old covenant, you became part of the covenant by physical birth. You became a member of the covenant community by simply physically being born into it, and one thing that meant was that the children had to bear the judgment of their father’s sins. The structure of the covenant was physically, genealogically defined — which also meant that although you might be born into the covenant and part of the covenant community, you might not trust Yahweh.
That was certainly the case for most of Israel’s history. “Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham” — but very few of them shared the faith of Abraham. There were lots of covenant members, but very few covenant-keepers, and so that meant that some members of the covenant (covenant-keepers) had to urge the other members of the covenant to know God, to believe, to keep the covenant. It meant that they’d sing that song like this:
“Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham, I am one of them, and so are you” — physically, but you have to believe!
That’s how it went in the Old Testament.
And this is one way the new covenant is fundamentally different. It does not have a physical, genealogical structure. It doesn’t matter what kind of grapes your momma and daddy eat. You are not simply part of the new covenant because you are physically born, but you become part of the new covenant only when you are spiritually born — which is what the Bible calls the new birth.
That’s when God does the heart work he promises here. To be a member of the new covenant means you have been born again — new birth — which is why we don’t have to say to one another, “Know God.” To be a member of the new covenant means you do know God.
The new covenant community is not a mixture of believers and unbelievers like in the old covenant, but in the new covenant all covenant members are believers and only believers are covenant members. See, it’s a new and better covenant.
Here’s the third and final point. This is one more better-promise reality of the new covenant:
3) The New Covenant declares the entire forgiveness of all the sins of every covenant member.
This is verse 12.
“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”
Notice the “for.” This declaration of God’s mercy to the members of the new covenant is what grounds this new covenant relationship. If you wondered: what is the foundation of this whole thing? Where does it all come from? It comes from the mercy of God displayed in his forgiveness of the sins of his covenant-partners.
And the forgiveness of sins is now a new thing. We know that happened in the old covenant through the sacrificial system. The forgiveness of the people’s sins was repeated every year, on the Day of Atonement, but the reason it was repeated every year is because it was always insufficient. God forgave sin but he didn’t forget about it. The high priest had to do it all over again the next year. And that’s what makes this sentence in verse 12 astounding. God says:
“I will remember their sins no more.”
God says that about every member of the new covenant. It means that when you enter into the new covenant by repentance and faith in Jesus, because of the new birth, there is nothing left to be done about the penalty of your sin — there is no more action that needs to be taken for your guilt, ever. In the new covenant, being part of this covenant, means that we have the full and entire forgiveness of all our sins.
How? Because Jesus says it is the new covenant in my blood … not the blood of bulls and goats, but the blood of Jesus himself.
The blood of Jesus atones for our sins by his once-for-all sacrifice at the cross.
Church, when Jesus died on the cross, he died for you. He was slain for you as a perfect sacrifice, and as our great high priest, he poured out his blood for you, one time, once and for all, and then he sat down. It’s finished.
Atonement has been made. The debt has been paid. Your sins are remembered no more!
The greatest tension and fault of the old covenant is overcome by Jesus, and we rest in this:
We rest in the full and entire forgiveness of all our sins.
We rest in the reality of new hearts that God has given to us by his Spirit.
We rest in this new deepened relationship, that God is our Father and we are his sons and daughters, and we know him.
We rest here. Which means that in the new covenant we don’t anticipate that God will do these things in the future, but we declare and enjoy that God has already done them in Jesus and we experience them now. To be a member of the new covenant means that you are filled with the Holy Spirit now, you are a son or daughter of God now, you are forgiven forever now.
Either that’s true of you or it’s not. And if you’re part of the new covenant, because of your faith in Jesus, it’s true of you.
What Baptism Declares
So what kind of Christians are we?
The kind who, as best as we can, submits ourselves to the word of God as our top authority, and we believe that this is why the new covenant is a better covenant.
And we believe that this is what baptism declares.
In just a few moments, there are seven individuals who are coming to be baptized as a visible demonstration of their faith-union with Jesus and that they now belong to the new covenant.
Because they’ve been born again and put their faith in Jesus, God has given them new hearts and he has put his Spirit within them, and they know him. They are forgiven for all their sins. They are sons and daughters of God. In baptism they’re not saying that they hope God will do this one day in the future, but they’re saying that he has. And we get to rejoice with them in the grace of God.
Father in heaven, we can’t help but say with the apostle Paul: “Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” Your judgments are unsearchable. Your ways inscrutable. Who has known your mind, Father? Who has been your counselor? Who has given a gift to you that he might be repaid?
We stand in awe. To you be all glory! To you be all glory for everything you have done, and to you be all glory in the lives of these being baptized today. Thank you for calling them from death to life. Thank you for uniting them to Jesus by your Spirit and making them part of the new covenant. Father, thank you, in Jesus’s name, amen.
