The New Covenant is better than the old…

Under the New Covenant God Himself lives inside of us…

Read Jeremiah 31:31-34

The New Covenant (31:31–34)

One section in the book of Jeremiah (chs 30–33) stands above other passages in the OT in its optimistic view of Israel’s future.

The high point (31:31-34) is the announcement that the Lord God will form a new covenant with his people.

It points toward Jesus of Nazareth, whose death would seal this new covenant.

One sentence in particular gives a new context to the key affirmation of the Sinai covenant:

“I will be their God, and they will be my people” (31:33; see also Exod 6:7).

The relationship between God and His people envisioned in the Sinai Covenant was surrounded by laws chiseled in stone and a priestly class in charge of all religious institutions and activities.

The new covenant would differ from the old in one primary way:

It would no longer be external to the worshipers, but would now be written on their hearts (31:33).

The great defect of the old covenant was that it lacked the power to enable people to do what it commanded (Rom 8:3).

The new covenant would be internalized through the power of the Holy Spirit, whose indwelling would be made possible through the sacrifice of Christ (Ezek 36:24-27).

Thus, it would become possible for people everywhere (not just a select few) to fulfill God’s covenant plan for life as summed up in the two “Great Commandments” (Matt 22:35-40):

“You must love the LORD your God” (Deut 6:5) and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18).

In the new covenant, God’s role as Creator goes beyond making all material things.

The new covenant would achieve the goal that the old one pointed to, but could not reach: creating new persons and a new community.

The goal is a deep transformation of sinners, beginning with forgiveness of sins and culminating in a holiness exemplified by good works (Eph 1:4; 2:8-10).

According to the NT, all believers in Jesus Christ will know Him directly by the activity of the Holy Spirit.

They will know Him personally and experience Him powerfully, as only a few did in OT times.

Jesus applied the new covenant to Himself when He instituted the communion ritual (Matt 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; see also 1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 3:6).

Jesus’ death inaugurated the new covenant, and Christians commemorate that reality each time they take communion.

Hebrews 8:8-12 quotes Jer 31:31-34, and Heb 9 contrasts the old and new covenants.

The writer clearly states that Jesus’ death brought the new covenant into existence and made Him the mediator of the covenant for whoever believes in Him.

The day of the new covenant was realized when Jesus Christ accomplished His redemptive mission on earth.

The key difference between the new covenant and the one God made with their ancestors is that the Lord would write His instructions deep within His people’s hearts (see Heb 11:16).

The old covenant was external and legal, whereas the new covenant would be a vital, person-to-person relationship.

The new covenant would emphasize the redeeming, transforming change of an individual’s spiritual nature.

God says:
*I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” (Psalms 32:8)

SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Faith Food Devotions
by Kenneth Hagin

PROPHETS

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, 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

When Jesus appeared to me and told me to teach His people how to be led by the Spirit, He stated, “I didn’t set prophets in the Church to guide people.

The New Testament does not say, ‘As many as are led by prophets, they are the sons of God.’

“New Testament believers,” Jesus told me, “SHOULD NOT seek guidance through prophets.

The prophets of the Old and the New Testaments are similar in some ways.

Both see and know things supernaturally.

But in the Old Testament, the people did not have the Spirit of God in them, or on them.

They had a promise of the New Birth, but they didn’t have it.

“So, if they were to be led by the Spirit, they had to go to someone who was anointed with the Spirit.

But under the New Covenant, every believer has the Spirit of God.

They don’t have to go to anyone to seek guidance. The only thing the prophet’s ministry may do in this area under the New Covenant, is to confirm something someone already has.

And if it doesn’t confirm something you already have in your spirit, forget it!”

Confession:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. God leads me!

[Source: Faith Food Devotions by Kenneth E. Hagin]
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