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"WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE NEW COVENANT"
In Jeremiah 31:31, the Bible says, "Behold, the days are coming, says
the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah. " This covenant was made possible by the death
of Jesus, and was sealed by His blood (Matthew 26.28; Mark 14.24; Luke
22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; Hebrews 8:8-13; 9:15; 12:24).
The Bible
says that this new covenant was designed to bring life to its adherents,
versus the death that the old covenant that God made with Israel brought
to bear (2 Corinthians 3:6). In Hebrews 8:6-7, 13, the Bible says, "But
now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also
Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
" (7) "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place
would have been sought for a second. " {13] "In that He says, "A new
covenant, "He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete
and growing old is ready to vanish away. "
According
to the preceding verses God clearly did not intended for the old
covenant given to Israel to remain in force for all time and for all
people. In Galatians 3:19-25 the Bible states that the old covenant was
a "tutor" to bring mankind to the time that Jesus would come and
institute a new covenant. That Bible says that once this new covenant
was ratified by the death of its maker there was no longer a need to
keep the old covenant as a system of law and authority (Hebrews 9:16-18;
Galatians 2:11-21).
The Bible
says that this new covenant between God and man will never be changed or
amended (Hebrews 7..20-28; 13:8). It involves the removal of our sins by
the blood of the covenant maker (Romans 11:27; Hebrews 9:15). The Bible
says that under the new covenant, "... Their sins and their lawless
deeds I will remember no more. " (18) "Now where there is remission of
these, there is no longer an offering for sin, " (Hebrews 10:17-18). For
this reason alone the new covenant is better than the old.
David
Decker |