Concerning the new covenant that would be ratified by Christ's blood, Jeremiah prophesied, "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." (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
After reading Hebrews 7-10 and considering other New Testament passages (see chart on following page), it should be clear that Jeremiah's prophecy referred exclusively to the new law to be fulfilled in Christ, the new covenant. The Hebrew writer wrote, "In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary." (Hebrews 8:13-9:1)
The Hebrew writer, in chapters 7-10 consistently and repeatedly drew a contrast between the old covenant (the Law of Moses) and the new covenant (the law fulfilled in Christ). In this continuing contrast, he clearly set forth the new covenant's superiority over the old. Observe the writer's use of the word "better" (cf. Hebrews 1:4; 7:19,22; 8:6; 9:23; 10:34; 12:24). By the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord proclaimed it was "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."
Of the new covenant, Jeremiah proclaimed, "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." The new covenant, unlike Moses law, which was written on tables of stone, is spiritual in nature and written in men's hearts. The tabernacle and its worship under the old covenant "was a figure for the time then present" and "stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." (Hebrews 9:9,10)
And last, of the new covenant, Jeremiah prophesied, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Of the first covenant, the Hebrew writer wrote, "But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." (Hebrews 10:3,4,9) Only the one-time sacrifice of the blood of the sinless Son of God that ratified the second covenant could purge the sinner's conscience of dead works (Hebrews 9:11-15).
Now, considering this Bible evidence, are you aware of any other covenant with a nature like unto the supreme and powerful nature of the new covenant, which was fulfilled in Christ?
A Comparison of the Two Covenants
| The First-Hebrews 10:9 | The Second--Hebrews 10:9 |
|---|---|
| 1. Old Testament (2 Corinthians 3:14) | 1, New Testament (Hebrews 9:15) |
| 2. The first taken away (Hebrews 10:9) | 2. Established the second (Hebrews 10:9) |
| 3. Moses was the mediator (Hebrews 9:19) | 3. Christ the Mediator (Hebrews 9:15) |
| 4. Purified the flesh (Hebrews 9:13) | 4. Purifies the soul (1 Peter 1:22) |
| 5. Written in stone (2 Corinthians 3:7) | 5. Written in the heart (2 Corinthians 3:3) |
| 6. A figure of the true (Hebrews 9:24) | 6. The true (Hebrews 8:1,2) |
| 7. Required continual offerings (Heb.10:1) | 7. Christ offered once (Hebrews 7:27) |
| 8. By blood of animals (Hebrews 10:1-4) | 8. By the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:14) |
| 9. Dead sacrifices (Hebrews 10:1) | 9. Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1) |
| 10. Yearly remembrance of sin (Heb.10:3) | 10. Sin remembered no more (Heb.8:12) |
| 11. Did not make perfect (Hebrews 7:19) | 11. Made perfect in Christ (Colossians 1:28) |
| 12. Priests had sins (Hebrews 10:7) | 12. A sinless Priest (Hebrews 7:26) |
| 13. Priests died (Hebrews 7:23) | 13. Priest continues forever (Hebrews 7:24) |
| 14. Ministration of death (2 Cor.3:9) | 14. Ministration of life (2 Cor.3:9) |
| 15. Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 7:12) | 15. Royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:5) |
| 16. Old priesthood and law (Hebrews 7:12) | 16. Priesthood and law changed (Heb.7:12) |
| 17. Faulty law (Hebrews 8:7) | 17. Perfect law (James 1:25) |
| 18. Blotted out (Colossians 2:14) | 18. Remains (2 Corinthians 3:11) |
| "Then He said, Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God. He takes away the first that He may establish the second." (Hebrews 10:9) |
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By reading Galatians 4, we see the apostle Paul's contrast between the two covenants. "For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar--for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children--but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all." (Galatians 4:22-26)
The old law was taken out of the way and nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity." (Ephesians 2:14-16) Indeed, the Bible clearly teaches there are TWO covenants-we live under the new one. (KMG)