New Covenant

God has consistently used covenants as a way of interacting with people and his created world. A covenant is a formal relationship between two or more parties. The covenant addresses different aspects of this relationship. Marriage is a covenant. The contract you sign with your cell phone provider is a covenant. I know I didn’t read all the terms and conditions either. But they are there. A mortgage is a covenant between a person buying a home and a lender.

Some covenants are between two equal parties. And other covenants are between a person with authority or power and a person with no authority or power. Usually there is a way to sign on the dotted line in a covenant to signify that both parties are now committed to the covenant. How that is accomplished can vary depending on the covenant.

There are three main covenants in the Bible and several minor covenants.

  1. God’s covenant with Abram (name later changed to Abraham).

  2. God’s covenant with the nation of Israel (Moses was the leader at the time).

    This covenant was referred to as the Mosaic covenant or when the New Covenant came into existence it was referred to as the Old Covenant.

  3. God’s covenant that he established through Jesus Christ.

    This covenant is referred to as the New Covenant.

As you consider how you can align your life with God’s plans you need to understand which covenant God has extended to you.

Here is where people get tripped up. They mistakenly think that they are obligated to obey in the Bible. That is not true. Everything in the Bible is written to encourage us and to reveal truth to us and has value. But, believers today are not intended to put themselves under the authority of every covenant in the Bible.

Jesus was born an Israelite under the authority of the covenant God established with the nation of Israel with Moses as the leader of the nation. Jesus lived faithfully under this covenant. Meaning he fulfilled the terms of the covenant and never broke any of the stipulations within the covenant. Having fulfilled the terms of the Old Covenant he went to the cross, shed his blood and instituted a New Covenant.

This New Covenant has different terms than the Old Covenant.

  1. The blood of Jesus purifies us once for all time in the New Covenant.

  2. The Holy Spirit was sent to indwell all believers to guide them in living out the New Covenant.

  3. The people of God now consist of all that believe in Jesus. No more Jew and Gentile.

  4. Our new ethic for behavior is summed up in one command, “Love others”.

  5. Believers are being built into a temple in which God dwells by His Spirit.

  6. Believers make disciples who embrace this New Covenant and honor the work of Jesus.

  7. Believers will spend eternity with Jesus here on earth when he comes back to make all things new.

Because of unsound teachings, fear and the enemies deceit people have merged different covenants together. This is an unhealthy thing to do. We can appreciate the Old Covenant. We can see how God used it to lead people, until Christ came into the world. But to pick various elements of the old Covenant and say they have authority over a member of the New Covenant renders Jesus of no value to them. (Gal 5.2)

Consider the beauty and simplicity of the New Covenant. Believe in Jesus Christ. Love one another. Keep doing it until Jesus comes back.