For many believers today, the phrase “New Covenant” is familiar. Churches frequently describe themselves as “New Covenant communities,” and many Christians assume they understand what this covenant means.
For many believers today, the phrase “New Covenant” is familiar. Churches frequently describe themselves as “New Covenant communities,” and many Christians assume they understand what this covenant means. Yet in conversations with lay believers, seminary students, and even pastors, what I have noticed is a most typical pattern. Most cannot clearly define the New Covenant according to Scripture. This is a rather big issue as when we don’t know the definition of something, something God Himself established, we will either invent our own version or be deceived by one that distorts the truth. Unfortunately, this has been the major theme throughout church history.
The purpose of this teaching is to return to the biblical definition of the New Covenant—not according to tradition, denominational lenses, or theological systems, but according to the Word of God. When we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, a far richer, more coherent, and more transformative picture emerges.
The Problem of Frameworks: Why Many Miss What Scripture Says
Many believers, including myself earlier in life, read the Bible through a lens shaped by traditions, traditions built upon the foundation of replacement theology, which is the belief that the Church has replaced Israel as the people of God taking on the covenant status of Israel as it’s own. This has been a mainstay foundation of most church theology since the 3rd century with roots in the 2nd century. This is the basis of what many call replacement theology, academically known as supersessionism. Paul explicitly refuted this in his letter to the Romans, chapters 9-11.
“…my brothers, my own flesh and blood, 4 the people of Isra’el! They were made God’s children, the Sh’khinah has been with them, the covenants are theirs, likewise the giving of the Torah, the Temple service and the promises; 5 the Patriarchs are theirs; and from them, as far as his physical descent is concerned, came the Messiah, who is over all. Praised be Adonai for ever! Amen.”
Romans 9:3-5
He isn’t just speaking of the ones who believe in Yeshua, he is speaking of all physical Israel. We know this because he is lamenting that many have not believed in messiah. He further says in reference to the calling he has for them this:
29 for God’s free gifts and his calling are irrevocable.
Romans 11:29
This unbiblical theological framework of Replacement Theology comes in a few different flavors but the general premise of its variations is that Israel has lost its covenant standing and has been replaced by the church, that the promises given by God to physical Israel no longer applies to them and have been given to the church. The most common variation of this is that the promises are all spiritualized and that is what belongs to the church. This can’t be understated as something that belongs only in the lecture halls of high-end theologians as it’s such a foundational component to our theology that it affects how we understand salvation, the full purpose of Yeshua’s first coming as well as his 2nd coming, how one understands the kingdom, the covenants with Abraham, David, the Levites the Mosaic Covenant and ultimately the New Covenant. How one understands the end times is heavily based on this as well. Preterism, Amillennialism, Post-millennialism, are all based on a faulty understanding of what the New Covenant is.
When this framework is assumed, large portions of Scripture especially prophecy cannot be read plainly. The words are there, but the meaning never lands. This is why many Christians read Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or the Torah without grasping their significance. If the lens is faulty, the vision will always be blurred. But Scripture itself insists that we let God define His own covenant and He does so explicitly and repeatedly.
Perhaps one of the great theological frameworks is the great dichotomy many in the church have wrestled with. This dichotomy is the concept of The Law/Torah vs Grace, or Old Testament vs New Testament… there are a few other variations of this. It is a dueling concept that much church theology is built on and yet it is a false dichotomy. It comes from a misunderstanding of what the New Covenant is. When taken to the extreme (but logical conclusion) it becomes the foundation on which the progressive liberal branches of the church build their doctrine. The teachings that homosexuality is not a sin and other such doctrines. Not all churches will go to this extreme even if they are building on the same misunderstanding, but this idea that before Matthew there was the Law and that after Matthew with the advent of Yeshua, we now have grace, this is an unbiblical concept. Grace has been there since the start. One of the more modern forms of this is found in the Dispensational model in which there are different dispensations of how God deals with humanity; namely The Law and then the Dispensation of Grace, sometimes called the church age. All of these are based on a heavily misunderstood non-biblical version of what the New Covenant is.
So how do we fix this? How do we establish what the New Covenant is and isn’t. Thankfully we don’t have to do much God lays it out in great detail through his word if we know where to look.
Where the New Covenant Is First Revealed
Most believers know that Jeremiah 31 contains the only explicit mention of the phrase “New Covenant.” Even if they don’t know the exacts address they have heard this referenced as the main location, if only because its quoted in Hebrews. Yet the concept appears long before this. It is first alluded to in Deuteronomy 30:6-10, let us set the context here. Moses is finishing up his long sermon on a mount where he has been going over the Torah of God, summarizing for his people the instructions God has given as a means of holy living. By chapter 30 Moses has hit them with a hard truth. He prophesies that Israel will fail, will break the Covenant that God has made with them and that the curses of said failure, namely exile, will come upon them. Yet after this that God Himself will do something radically new:
“6 Then Adonai your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your children, so that you will love Adonai your God with all your heart and all your being, and thus you will live. 7 Adonai your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on those who hated and persecuted you; 8 but you will return and pay attention to what Adonai says and obey all his mitzvot which I am giving you today. 9 Then Adonai your God will give you more than enough in everything you set out to do — the fruit of your body, the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your land will all do well; for Adonai will once again rejoice to see you do well, just as he rejoiced in your ancestors.”
Deuteronomy 30:6-10
This is New Covenant language
Moses gives them hope for their descendants that a time will come when God will circumcise their hearts and that the effect is that they will obey his commands, all the commands that he has given them today. And what he gave them that day was the Torah, again this is at the tail end of his summarizing the commands giving them a deeper scope. He prophesies that God will one day circumcise the heart due to their own failures and the effect of this is that his torah/laws as given that day will be written on their hearts and that they will obey them.
Further what is interesting here is that God is showing us from this first allusion that the very idea of the new covenant being juxtaposed to the Torah/law is completely false as we see that the Torah is integral to the effect of what Moses is saying God will do in the future. There is no doing away with the Torah, it in fact remains very much in focus. This is the first mention of what will be called The New Covenant. We will stop here for now and next time continue on some of the implications of what Moses says here as we work our way to what God says in the writings of the prophets where we will camp out in Jeremiah chapters 30-33. It is here that God goes into detail about what The New Covenant is.
2 Comments
Thank you for sharing g with me Brother. I love this. Please keep on sending g to me.
Anytime brother!