What is the New Covenant in the Bible?

What is the New Covenant the Bible speaks of? And what is the difference between it and the Old Covenant? This article provides understandable answers to these questions for the non-scholar.

Covenants in the Bible

A covenant is an agreement that obligates the involved parties to fulfill certain responsibilities. The Sinai covenant is an example where the Israelites obligated themselves to keep the laws that God gave to Moses, and God agreed to bless them as a result.

Other covenants are unconditional, where one party binds themselves to fulfill responsibilities without any obligation to the recipients. These are more like promises, made by one person to another. A will is a good example of this, where the one making the will promises to give their property to specific people after they die.

God’s unconditional covenants

God made many such unconditional covenants during Old Testament times. Some of these were promises to his people—all those who are faithful to him. Others were to specific individuals.  He made these commitments based on his trustworthiness alone, confirming them by his promise. Because God is all powerful, sovereign, and faithful, his promises are reliable. Examples of unconditional covenants include when:

God made a covenant with Noah to never again flood the earth the way he did at that time (Genesis 8:20-9:17).

God made a covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation, that his offspring would be numerous as the stars, and he would bless all the nations of the earth through him (Genesis chapters 12, 15, and 17). At this time God also promised that he would give land to his descendants (Genesis 15:17-21, 17:8) which was considered Israel’s inheritance (Acts 13:19).

He made a covenant with David that his name would be great, and that from his line would come the Messiah who would rule God’s kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7).

Promise of the New Covenant 

Because of its temporary nature, God had always planned to replace the Sinai Covenant with a new and permanent one. He promised this New Covenant through Jeremiah and Ezekiel:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

God originally made this promise to the “people of Israel and the people of Judah” since they were the bearers of God’s oracles and possessed his law. But his intention was to make salvation available to all, not just the Israelites. After the coming of Christ, he extended salvation and forgiveness to all people, Jews and Gentiles alike. Unlike the Sinai covenant, all the people under this covenant would know God personally.

And God’s Spirit was to provide the desire and power for the people to keep his laws from the heart:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

Jesus institutes the New Covenant

At the Messiah’s coming, God put in place all the necessary components for the New Covenant. Jesus inaugurated this covenant with his followers just before his death and resurrection:

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”   (Luke 22:19-20)

The cup that Jesus shared with his disciples represents his blood that was poured out from the cross when he died. Thus, the blood was his life. Partaking of the cup was a symbol of their faith in the salvation that Jesus was to provide. Since then, those who believe in him remember him and his sacrifice by partaking of the symbols of his body and blood through faith. This salvation gives eternal life, forgiveness and righteousness to all who believe, including people from all languages, cultures, and nations, not just Israel.

Components of the New Covenant

Christ the Mediator

The New Covenant came into force with Christ’s death. The book of Hebrews contrasts the ministry of Jesus with that of the Levitical priests of the Sinai covenant:

…. the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6)

The new is based on “better promises” than the old. Unlike the Sinai covenant whose outcome depended on the Israelites’ obedience, the New Covenant is like a will in which God promises an inheritance. And under this covenant Christ is the mediator, not Moses:

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.  (Hebrews 9:15)

Where the first (Sinai) covenant could not set people free from sin, the New Covenant could. The heirs of the eternal inheritance are those who have placed their faith in Christ. The promised inheritance is salvation and a permanent place in God’s kingdom. And Jesus’ blood is the “written signature” on the document, proof that he died and with his own life paid the price for our sins. Hebrews also points out that the benefits of a will are only available after the death of the owner of the estate:

In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.  (Hebrews (9:16-17)

New Covenant inheritance

Another word for will is testament. This is why the Christian scriptures are called the New Testament. Although we associate this with the book, New Testament really means the covenant promise God made to save those who believe in Christ, which is the theme of the book.

Under the New Covenant, salvation is like an inheritance which is a gift and not earned. The New Covenant is not an agreement between God and believers in Christ. It doesn’t refer to the believer’s agreement to follow Jesus. It refers to God’s unconditional promise to believers to inherit salvation through Christ.

Those who receive an inheritance do not sign the will or have any part in writing it. The testator is the person who makes the will and puts it into effect, usually the owner of the estate. Under the New Covenant, this is Christ who died for our sins. Names are written on a will only by the testator and it would be invalid for anyone to put their own name on it. In the case of eternal salvation, our name is on the will through Christ and by Christ, and our faith in him guarantees we have a part in the inheritance.

This New Covenant is irrevocable and its outcome is guaranteed by God’s promise, giving us a solid hope:

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. (Hebrews 6:17-18)

Effective through faith

The fulfillment of the New Covenant depends on God himself, who did the work through Christ’s death and resurrection, not on the beneficiaries’ performance as in the Old Covenant.

God’s people have no part in creating their eternal inheritance. Their part is only to accept what God did on their behalf through Christ. This is why it is effective individually upon the faith of the believer. Those who benefit from it enter into the covenant through faith. Those who do not have faith are not beneficiaries.

Faith in this context is not an action or obligation; it is simply trusting the work that God has already done. The recipient relies completely on the work of the One who made the promise. God, not the recipient, fulfills the promise.

And unlike the Sinai covenant, every individual under the New Covenant—the entire faith community—knows the Lord.

No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:34).

Righteousness

The Old Covenant required righteousness, but the New Covenant provides righteousness, which is Christ’s righteousness. The fact that the covenant is unconditional doesn’t mean the recipients have no part in it. God’s law now indwells the hearts of the faithful. He provides cleansing and internal transformation by his Spirit so that believers desire to obey God from the heart. Christ’s death and resurrection unleashed God’s power and gave righteousness as a gift to those who believe:

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (Romans 8:3-4)

As part of this transformation, God calls each believer to follow Jesus into a life of service, which brings major changes to their earthly lives. And he will reward each at the final judgment in proportion to their response and obedience to his call.

Believers will receive their full inheritance at the coming of Christ, when he redeems their bodies and transforms them fully into his image, and they become mature sons of God (Romans 8:22-25).

Abrahamic covenant linked to the New Covenant

In Galatians, Paul explained how God’s promise to Abraham was closely linked to the New Covenant:

…. Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:6-9)

We receive the inheritance of salvation through faith, not by adherence to the Mosaic Law. And God made this promise to Abraham many years before he gave the Law of Moses:

…. The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.  (Galatians 3:17-18)

S0, Moses’ Law could not have negated the promise to Abraham and thus to all God’s people who inherit salvation through faith.

Christ the High Priest

Under the Sinai covenant, only the priests had direct access to God. But under the New Covenant, anyone can have access to God through Christ. Jesus is the high priest, sacrificing his own life to atone for our sins, once for all. Because he rose from the dead and lives forever, he serves forever as priest and mediator and therefore can save completely:

…. because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.  (Hebrews 7:24-27)

And Jesus’ ministry is far superior to that of the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 8:3-6). His one sacrifice provides everything needed for our salvation. Thus, there is no longer a need for earthly priests to continually offer sacrifices or distribute blessings.

Priesthood of believers

Now, all believers have a priestly ministry of representing God on earth to those around:  

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)

Under the Sinai covenant, Israel was God’s “chosen nation.” But now the church of Jesus, those collectively who trust in Christ, is God’s “chosen nation,” holy and set apart for his purposes.

Blessings of the New Covenant

Under the New Covenant Christ’s death and resurrection are the basis for the blessings we receive. God forgives the believer’s sins and puts them in the past:

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12).

God transcribes his laws on the hearts of believers so they know and desire his will:

I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts…. (Jeremiah 31:33)

…. you are a letter from Christ …. written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.  (2 Corinthians 3:3).

God’s life-giving Spirit indwells each believer, giving life, freedom, and transformation:

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.  (Romans 8:10)

…. where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

All believers have a personal knowledge of God and therefore a personal relationship with him:

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”  (John 17:3)

Believers become an adopted member of God’s eternal family with all rights, privileges, and an inheritance, with Christ as the firstborn among many brothers:

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ ….  (Romans 8:16-17)

Summary

The following summarizes the differences between the Sinai (Old) and the New Covenant:

I hope this clarifies this topic for you. If this is new to you, please understand that God invites you to be adopted into his family! If you haven’t already, trust in Christ and receive this incredible inheritance of salvation that he offers to all.

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