Traditional Christianity would say that we are living in the church age ever since the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That means the old covenant has ended and we are living under “The New Covenant.” What exactly is that New Covenant? In Luke 22:20, Jesus says, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.” But the terms of that Covenant are not defined there, so what did He mean? I can’t really find the definition of this New Covenant in the Gospels so where is it? It is mentioned in the New Testament in Hebrews 8:8-12 and those verses are quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34, so it is really an Old Testament prophecy.
Let’s examine this New Covenant in Jeremiah 31. Verse 31, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Did He do this when He spoke the words in Luke 22:20? Since the eighth century B.C.E., continuing to this very day, Israel has been scattered to the nations. He was only speaking with Jews (the house of Judah) when He spoke those words. How exactly did He make this covenant with Israel at that time?
In verses 32-33, we read, “It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them, But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law [Torah] in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.” He does say the covenant will be different and Christians would tend to agree. These verses say that He “will make with the house of Israel.” As said above, Israel is not even there in Luke 22:20, only Judah, when He spoke of this New Covenant. Yehovah God says that He will put His law, His Torah which is the Law of Moses, in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. Again, Hebrews in the New Testament is quoting this; that the Mosaic Law will be written on our hearts. If we are currently living under this New Covenant, is that true? Christians claim that the law was done away with. Which is it? Is it written on our hearts or is it abolished? Can’t be both. I would take this to mean that Yehovah God’s law written on our hearts would make it instinct, we would follow it without question as it would just be who we are, part of us, innate. Is that the world that you see today? I don’t. Murder continues. Human trafficking continues. Rape continues. October 7th happened. Do you know the penalty in the Torah for all of those things I just listed? Death.
Moving to verse 34, “No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘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 iniquities and will remember their sins no more.” Please read that again and ask yourself if that verse looks like the world you are living in today. Don’t we in fact “teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD?’” Don’t Christians evangelize? Don’t they attend church and hear a message preached to teach them about God? This New Covenant that Jeremiah writes and Hebrews quotes says, “they will all know Me (Me being God Himself).” Again, why evangelize and teach if everyone knows Him? It would be unnecessary.
With an honest reading of these verses defining the New Covenant, you can’t arrive at the conclusion that this covenant is currently in effect. What a wonderful world it will be when it is, but it isn’t, yet. So that brings us back to Luke 22:20, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.” It is a translation problem. A better translation would be, “This cup is the renewed covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.” I wrote about this in my prior piece on The Ten Commandments:
This means that they had broken the blood covenant that they had already agreed three times to keep; that didn’t take long! Yehovah God was going to make them pay the price that they had agreed to for breaking the covenant, death. But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand (Exodus 32:11)?” Moses was successful and (verse 14) “then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.” Just because Yehovah God relented at that time does not mean the death was not owed, after all, God is just. The morning and evening sacrifices were not part of the Torah prior to this; those sacrifices were instituted because of this event to remind the people twice daily that death was still owed. That death would eventually be paid by Yeshua when He came and died to pay this price after which the morning and evening sacrifices were eventually taken away. This is the renewed covenant in His blood! He renewed the Covenant made at Sinai, taking away the penalty, not the requirements.
Please comment below if you have another explanation. Thank you for considering!
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