The Promise of the New Covenant
Covenant Theology 101 (#10)
Covenant Breakers and the Covenant Keeper.
A girl tiptoes at the window, waiting for Dad to come home. Shadows stretch, streetlights flicker, and she wonders if Dad’s promise still holds. Then headlights appear. The door opens. Hope turns to joy.
That’s biblical hope—not a wish, but certainty that what God promised will come because he’s shown himself faithful in the past.
God’s people have always waited by that window in hope. Each covenant has shined in the darkness. Each has echoed the promise a little louder: “He’s coming!” The story moves from shadow to substance until the dawn breaks in Christ.
Centuries after the covenant with David (ca. 1000bc), in Jeremiah’s days, the clouds of sin darkened that hope. Covenant breaking led to exile. Yet in judgment, God spoke a “Book of Hope” (Jer. 30–33): a new covenant was coming when he would write his law on hearts, forgive sins, and dwell with his people forever.
Continuing Covenant Theology 101, we explore the promise of a new covenant.
The Setting: Hope in the Dark (Jer. 31:31–34)
Israel lived among the ruins of its own broken promises. Centuries of sin led to Babylonian exile. The faithful could only see hope faintly through the darkness. In judgment, the covenant God said “the days are coming…when I will make a new covenant” (Jer. 31:31). This was like the sound of a key turning in a locked door—proof God hadn’t abandoned his peoplebut would give them something new—a new covenant.
The Promise: A New Covenant
God promised this covenant would be new—not because his grace had changed, but because the way it reached his people afresh.
Throughout Jeremiah’s Book of Hope, the new covenant is described as Jerusalem emerging from its ruins (30:18–34), as another wilderness experience (31:1–6), as another exodus (31:7-14), and as entering anew the Promised Land (31:23–30). Then he speaks 31:31–34.
The end of the legal administration. The particular legal administration of the covenant of grace with Israel was a national covenant; Jeremiah said it was soon to end: “not like the covenant that I made with their fathers…my covenant that they broke” (31:32) Jeremiah spoke to those who related to God through the law and spoke in terms they knew. The law would be prominent in a new way: “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” (Jer. 31:33). The Mosaic covenant was written on stone and administered through sacrifices and ceremonies. It pointed to grace but its legal structure couldn’t give it. The new covenant would do what the old could only foreshadow: change hearts: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33).
The law that once condemned would now be written in love. What God required, he provided.
The end of human mediators. “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” (Jer. 31:34). Moses, the Levitical priests, and the prophets were all described as the “teachers” (Deut. 4:1; 2 Chron. 17:7–9; Ezra 7:10; Jer. 32:33). Light was on the horizon when they wouldn’t be needed as mediators. There would only be the divine-human mediator—Jesus!
The end of ceremonies. Not only does he write the law on his people’s hearts (Jer. 31:33) but he will “forgive their iniquity” (Jer. 31:34) apart from ceremonies “and…remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:34). God’s “forgetfulness” was mercy. The slate is wiped clean, not because sin was ignored, but because it was punished at the cross.
The People: A New Family
The new covenant joined the houses of Israel and Judah (Jer. 31:31), long divided by sin. This pointed beyond to a worldwide family. The Holy Spirit applies Jeremiah 31 in Hebrews 10 to the new covenant church—God’s family that stretches across nations (Jews and Gentiles) and generations but one in Christ. Believers are “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16), “a chosen race, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). This covenant gathers from all lands into one Church.
The Fulfillment: Christ Our Mediator
On this side of Jeremiah’s clouds, we enjoy the full sunshine of the covenant Israel could only glimpse as a ray! “Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better” (Heb. 8:6). Jesus’ once for all offering for all sacrifice is better than the priests’ daily sacrifices (Heb. 10 quoting Jer. 31:31–34).
Centuries later, Jesus lifted the cup at the Last Supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” The hopeful wait was over. The father had come home.
At the cross, Christ bore the curse of the broken covenant so that sinners could receive the blessings of the new.
The new covenant rests not on our obedience but on the perfect obedience of the Son. His blood doesn’t just cover but cancels sin. His Spirit doesn’t just instruct hearts; he indwells them.
There is no more need for priests between God and man; we have a great High Priest.
The Consummation: All Things New
The story that began in Genesis ends with its fulfillment: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people” (Rev. 21:3).
What Jeremiah glimpsed, John saw in full sunlight—a redeemed people, renewed creation, and reigning King. The new covenant will one day be complete; faith will become sight; waiting will turn to worship.
Covenant Breakers and the Covenant Keeper
We are all like that waiting child at the window, restless in the dark, wondering if the promise still stands. The new covenant assures: The father has come home in the Son. The Spirit now lives in our hearts as the seal of that promise.
When you feel weary in the waiting—when sin seems too close and grace far off—remember: the One who said, “I will make a new covenant,” has already made it in his blood.
The Covenant Keeper fulfills every promise.
One day the door will open again—not to another covenant, but to the home he’s prepared for us.