New Covenant
by Paul George
A significant biblical covenant that will determine
important issues related to Israel and the future
Kingdom of God is the New Covenant. According to the Old
Testament, the parties of this covenant are God and the
nation of Israel.
God promised many things to the people of Israel in the New
Covenant.
First, He promised regeneration. This would involve the
giving of a new heart and a new nature (Jeremiah 31:33;
32:39-40; Ezekiel 36:26).
Second, God promised forgiveness of sin (Jeremiah 31:34;
Ezekiel 36:25).
Third, He pledged the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel
36:27).
Fourth, He guaranteed a universal knowledge of Jehovah among
the people of Israel (Jeremiah 31:34), the kind of knowledge
that comes through a genuine salvation experience, not just
head knowledge of His existence.
Fifth, God promised that Israel would obey Him and have a
right attitude toward Him forever (Jeremiah 32:39-40;
Ezekiel 36:27; 37:23-24).
Sixth, The greatest of all His promises, He would never turn
away from the people of Israel (Jeremiah 32:40).
The Nature of the New Covenant
The New Covenant is an unconditional covenant. This means
that the fulfillment of the promises of the New Covenant
would not depend upon the obedience of Israel. When God
presented the promises of the New Covenant, instead of
stating conditions for Israel, He continually said, "I will"
(Jeremiah 31:31-34; 32:37-42; Ezekiel 36:24-37). This meant
that the fulfillment of the promises of the New Covenant
would be dependent totally upon God’s faithfulness to His
word. The New Covenant is an everlasting covenant. The fact
that God intended the New Covenant to be everlasting,
together with the fact it would be unconditional in nature,
meant that the New Covenant would never be abolished or
annulled with or by Israel. Once established, its promises
would have to be fulfilled.
Relationship to the Church
The Old Testament said nothing concerning a relationship of
the Church to the New Covenant. This silence should not be a
surprise for at least two reasons.
First, the Apostle Paul indicated that no revelation
concerning the Church was given before the time of the
apostles (Ephesians 3:2-9).
Second, the Old Testament prophets who presented God’s
revelation concerning the New Covenant were Israelite
prophets. It was their responsibility to declare God’s
message specifically to the people of Israel. They described
how the nation of Israel would be related to the New
Covenant, not how others possibly would be related to it.
In spite of the Old Testament’s silence concerning the
relationship of the Church to the New Covenant, the New
Testament seems to indicate that the Church does have some
relationship to it.
First, the Church partakes of the communion service that
Christ instituted on the night before He went to the cross.
When Jesus instituted the communion service, He stated the
following concerning the cup; “This cup is the new covenant
in My blood; do this as often as you drink it, in
remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). Since Jesus used
the word “the” and since God had promised only one New
Covenant prior to Jesus’ statement, it seems evident that
Jesus was referring to that New Covenant. Therefore, Jesus
was saying that the cup of the communion service represented
the New Covenant that God had promised to Israel in Jeremiah
31 and other Old Testament prophetic passages.
Second, Jesus made His statement to Jewish men. They would
have been aware of only one New Covenant, the one God had
promised to Israel in Jeremiah 31. Since Jesus did not tell
them to think otherwise, they would have understood Him to
be referring to that specific New Covenant.
Third, The Apostle Paul’s claim the apostles of the Church
functioned as ministers of a New Covenant (2 Corinthians
3:6).
Since the Church has a relationship to the New Covenant,
partaking of its spiritual blessings, what is the
relationship of the nation of Israel to the fulfillment of
that covenant? Theologians disagree with each other in their
answers to this question; some claim that the New Covenant
is being fulfilled totally in the Church today. According to
this claim, the nation of Israel forfeited any relationship
to the New Covenant because of its unbelief and rebellion
against God. According to this claim, the Church has
replaced Israel in that relationship. Therefore, the
promises of the New Covenant that were presented in the Old
Testament are to be fulfilled in a spiritualized Israel, the
Church, and not the literal nation of Israel in the future.
According to this view, there never will be a fulfillment of
the New Covenant for national Israel.
According to a second claim by theologians, is God promised
to establish the New Covenant with the people of Israel
(Jeremiah 31:31), the New Covenant is unconditional in
nature, and God declared that He would fulfill the promises
of the New Covenant with Israel, not because the nation
would deserve it, but because of its disobedience (Ezekiel
36:21-36), Israel has not forfeited its relationship to the
New Covenant because of its unbelief and rebellion against
God. According to this view, the Church has not replaced
Israel and the New Covenant is not being fulfilled totally
in the Church today. The fact that the Church has a
relationship to the New Covenant does not rule out the
fulfillment of all the promises of the New Covenant with
national Israel in the future, there will be a fulfillment
of the New Covenant for Israel in the future.
The Future Fulfillment of the New Covenant
One of the major Old Testament passages in which God
presented promises of the New Covenant (Ezekiel 36:21-38),
He clearly indicated that He would fulfill those promises
with the same people who profaned His holy name among the
Gentiles. The context (Ezekiel 36:16-20) and language,
“house of Israel” (vv. 22, 32, 37) of this passage signify
that those people were the literal people of Israel. Because
of its unbelief, national Israel has not yet received the
fulfillment of the New Covenant promises of Ezekiel 36 since
the time Jesus established that covenant when He shed His
blood on the cross. Since God indicated that He would
fulfill the New Covenant promises with Israel, and since
that nation has not yet received the fulfillment of those
promises, one must conclude that they will be fulfilled with
national Israel in the future.
Although the Church partakes of the spiritual blessings of
the New Covenant, the material and national promises of that
covenant are not being fulfilled with the Church. Since the
material and national promises of the New Covenant are not
being fulfilled with the Church that means that those
promises have not yet been fulfilled. Since God has declared
His determination to fulfill all His promises, including the
material and national ones, of the New Covenant (Ezekiel
36:26), one must conclude that those promises will be
fulfilled with the nation of Israel in the future.
After the Church came into existence and began to partake of
the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant, the Apostle
Paul declared that the nation of Israel would experience the
fulfillment of the New Covenant when the Messiah would come
in His Second Coming (Romans 11:25-29). Paul was not
original in this declaration, for the Old Testament taught
that God would fulfill the New Covenant with Israel when the
Messiah would come in conjunction with Israel’s final
regathering from its dispersion and permanent restoration to
the land of Israel (Isaiah 59:20-21; Jeremiah 32:37-44;
50:4-5; Ezekiel 36:22-28; 37:21-28).
Paul also claimed that God would not change His mind
concerning this future calling for Israel which He announced
in the Old Testament (Romans 11:29). In other words, God’s
calling for Israel to enter into New Covenant relationship
with Him in the future is irrevocable. It must happen. When
Israel enters into that relationship with God, the New
Covenant prophecy will be fulfilled.
In verse, one of Romans 11 Paul clearly indicated that he
was talking about the people of God who were physical
descendants of Abraham and members of Israelite tribes as he
was. Second, in verse 14 Paul declared that the Israel to
which he referred was his own fellow citizens. Third, Paul
contrasted the Israel of this chapter with the Gentiles (vv.
11-14, 25). It is evident that in Romans 11 Paul was
teaching that the nation Israel will enter into New Covenant
relationship with God in conjunction with the Second Coming
of the Messiah.
The fact that Paul taught this after the Church had come
into existence and had begun to partake of the spiritual
blessings of the New Covenant indicates two things. First,
the nation of Israel has not forfeited its promised
relationship to the New Covenant because of its unbelief and
rebellion against God. Second, although the Church is
partaking of the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant, it
has not replaced Israel in its promised relationship to that
covenant, Paul clearly stated that God has not cast away His
people of Israel (Romans 11:1-2).
According to the Apostle Paul’s teaching in Romans 11,
during the time of the Church, a remnant of Israel is being
saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ. Those
Israelites become members of the Church through salvation.
They partake of the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant,
as do the other members of the Church. However, they do not
partake of the material and national blessings of the New
Covenant, as the rest of the Church does not.
By contrast with this remnant of Israel, the majority of
Israel during the time of the Church does not become saved
because of its hardened unbelief. As a result, that majority
does not obtain any of the promised blessings of the New
Covenant, even though it seeks many of those blessings
during that time. Because of their unbelief, the majority of
the nation have been removed by God from the place of
covenant blessing which the nation of Israel enjoyed with
Him in the past. This means, Israel failed to enter the New
Covenant relationship with God in conjunction with the
Messiah’s First Coming.
While Israel remains in unbelief outside the place of
covenant blessing, many Gentiles, who originally were not in
that place of blessing, are being grafted into it by God’s
grace through faith in Christ. These saved Gentiles are
members of the Church, grafted into the place of covenant
blessing in the sense that they partake of the spiritual
blessings of the New Covenant.
Although believing Gentiles are grafted into the place of
covenant blessing in place of the unbelieving Israelites
does not mean that the fulfillment of the New Covenant with
Israel has been nullified. Paul made it very clear that the
majority of Israel will not be removed from the place of
covenant blessing forever. That removal is only temporary,
when the great harvest of Gentile souls has been gathered
and the Messiah returns, Israel will be saved and placed
back into the place of covenant blessing (Romans 11:23-27).
At that time Israel will enter fully into the New Covenant
relationship with God, and all the promises of the New
Covenant will be fulfilled completely. Although Israel
failed to enter the New Covenant relationship with God in
conjunction with the Messiah’s First Coming, it will enter
it in conjunction with His Second Coming.
In Romans 11, Paul explained how the Church now partakes of
the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant. The complete
fulfillment of that covenant with Israel, however, has not
been and never will be nullified.
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