The New Covenant

The question for today is, what is the new covenant? This is not a difficult question to answer, as we will see in short order through the scriptures: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 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. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”(Jer. 31:31-33). So then, according to God, the new covenant was to be about (1.) Writing his laws in the hearts of believers, not in stones or scrolls, or contained in symbolic ordinances, as was the old covenant; and (2.) All of his people knowing him, and not just a select few, as was the case with the old covenant; regarding prophets, priests, judges and kings; and (3.) Believers sins being forgiven and not remembered, as they were remembered from year to year under the old covenant (Heb. 10:3,4). Now I want us to see how plainly and simplistically these things were fulfilled and brought to pass: “For by one offering he [Jesus] hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Heb. 10:14-17). So the apostle Paul informs us that the words of Jeremiah were fulfilled by the sacrifice of Christ when he went back to the heavenly tabernacle and presented himself before God for the remission of our sins (Heb. 1:3; Heb. 9:12,24).

The holy Ghost is the witness of the reality of this heavenly offering taking place, away from the eyes and ears of all men. This witness came after Jesus ascended back to heaven, being taken up by a cloud out of the sight of his followers (Jn. 16:7; Acts 1:9). None of his followers were able to receive the Spirit until he went back to heaven, because as we read from Heb. 10, the holy Ghost is the witness of the sacrifice and priesthood of Christ in heaven (Jn. 7:37-39). So the baptism of the Spirit, which was first received by the 120 at Pentecost; is, as it was then, the only witness of the heavenly sacrifice and priesthood of Christ; which experience alone constitutes the remission of sins. We need also consider, how exactly are God’s laws written in the hearts and minds of believers? "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” (II Cor. 3:3). Also how is it now that all of God’s children have the capacity to know him? “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things" (Jn. 14:26). And again, "But the anointing [which is the Spirit] which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (I Jn. 2:27). So the holy Ghost itself is the new covenant, for it is the fulfilled law of God written in our hearts, if we have been baptized with the Spirit (Gal. 5:14; Rom. 5:5; Rom. 6:3,4; I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27). Once again, what this means is that the holy Ghost baptism, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, is not an extra part of the new covenant; but in fact it is the very experience of entering the new covenant. And as it was in the beginning of this covenant, it is still the only witness of the remission of our sins. Amen.