Holy Bible - Obsidian Study Guide

New Covenant

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New Covenant

Overview

  • Testament: Both
  • Book: Jeremiah, Hebrews
  • Chapters: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8-10
  • Summary: God promised through Jeremiah a new covenant radically different from the Sinai covenant — written on hearts, not stone; full and final forgiveness; all people knowing the LORD directly; quoted extensively in Hebrews as fulfilled in Christ.

Details

In Jeremiah 31, in the context of the Book of Consolation (chapters 30-33), God made an astounding promise: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD.”

The new covenant would be different in four ways: First, it would be internal — “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” Second, it would constitute a restored relationship — “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Third, it would be universally known — “they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.” Fourth, it would be built on total forgiveness — “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” These four elements describe a transformation beyond external covenant compliance to organic, internalized covenant life.

The author of Hebrews quotes this passage in full in Hebrews 8:8-12 — the longest OT quotation in the NT — and argues that Jesus is the mediator of this new and better covenant (Hebrews 9:15). The fact that God called it “new” made the first covenant “old,” and what is old is “ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13). At the Last Supper, Jesus took the cup and said “this cup is the new testament in my blood” — directly connecting the Eucharist to Jeremiah’s promise.

Key People Involved

  • Jeremiah — The prophet through whom the promise was given
  • Jesus Christ — The mediator and fulfiller of the new covenant (by NT interpretation)

Key Places

  • Jerusalem — The city of the covenant’s future fulfillment
  • Israel — The initial recipients of the promise

Important Verses

“I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” — Jeremiah 31:33

“I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” — Jeremiah 31:34

Cross-References

Notes

The New Covenant oracle is the prophetic foundation for the entire NT. The word “testament” in “New Testament” is the same Greek word (diatheke) used for “covenant” — the NT is the book of the new covenant. Ezekiel’s parallel promise (36:26-27) of a new heart and the Spirit within provides the mechanism: the internalization of the law happens through the indwelling Spirit. Paul’s contrast of letter and Spirit (2 Corinthians 3) and his description of the Spirit writing on hearts of flesh (not tablets of stone) are both explicitly in dialogue with this Jeremiah text.

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