What advantages do Christians have under the new covenant?
“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” – Jeremiah 31:33-34 (full)
“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” – Jeremiah 31:33-34 (partial)
Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet, was beaten, mocked, arrested, and threatened for proclaiming God’s words. In Jeremiah 38:6, the king’s officials lowered Jeremiah into a muddy cistern.
Many Bible scholars have noted the similarities between Jeremiah and Jesus. People compared Jesus to Jeremiah (Matthew 16:14), they both wept over Jerusalem (Jeremiah 13:17; Matthew 23:37-39), and Jesus cited Jeremiah’s words on the very spot they were first uttered (Matthew 21:13; Jeremiah 7:11).
In today’s verse, Jeremiah predicts a new and better covenant; a new hope echoed by other Old Testament prophets including Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36:26-27) and Joel (Joel 2:28,32).
The new covenant is different and better from the old covenant (the law) in three ways, according to Mark Moore in Core 52:
- Everyone would know God personally without a mediator (Hebrews 4:16; Exodus 29:45; Leviticus 26:12).
- Our sins are forgiven through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-22).
- The internalization of God’s law through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:17-21).
The entire book of Hebrews is an exposition of the superiority of the new covenant. That book can be confusing because it’s written from a Jewish perspective to Jewish converts. Nonetheless, the topic was so substantial (and shocking) that it deserved an entire book of the New Testament to answer our question, “What advantages do Christians have under the new covenant?”
