The New Covenant, The True Gospel
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17 NASB). The New Covenant that God’s people enjoy is reconciliation with God the Father through the atoning sacrifice of God the Son, Jesus the Christ. This New Covenant is offered to every tribe, tongue and nation who will believe on the LORD Jesus Christ (Revelation 5:9). God’s plan from the beginning has been to redeem mankind, both Jew and Gentile, through His only begotten (Eph. 1:3-14; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9 James 2:5; 1 Pet. 1:2). Three things are vitally important to ask and understand when studying the New Covenant; Number one is “Why a New Covenant?” Number two is “How?” and number three is “What’s the result?” The following essay will strive to answer all three questions.
Why a New Covenant?
The only way to do the New Covenant justice is by first revealing the need for a new covenant due to the complete and utter depravity of man and the power of original sin.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned- for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come”(Romans 5:12-14 NASB).
The text is clear. All of mankind is found guilty in the eyes of the Holy God because of the sin of Adam. The account of Adam’s sin reveals the seriousness of man’s condition; “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it cursed is the ground because of you in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3: 17-19 ESV). The seriousness of Adam’s trespass brought sin and death to all of mankind. The Greek word for sin here literally means error or offence, a principle or cause of sin, guilt, or imputation of sin.[1] It’s further defined as “any act contrary to the will and law of God.”[2] This “act” was in violation to the law of God before the law of God was even established. It literally separated man from fellowship with the Holy Yahweh.
The sin of Adam brings death and depravity. The original sin of Adam birthed the desire for all men to commit actual sins. Therefore man, apart from Jesus Christ, (the new Adam mentioned in the previous text) is incapable of choosing good and consequently incapable of choosing God (Romans 3: 9- 20; Psalm 14:1-3; 53: 1-3) and is left with an inescapable eternity separated from God. Martin Luther defines original sin in this manner;
“it is not only the lack of a good quality in the will, nor merely the loss of man’s righteousness and ability to do good. It is rather the loss of all his powers of body and soul, of his whole outward and inward perfections. In addition to this, it is his inclination to all that is evil, his aversion against all that which is good, his antipathy against spiritual light and wisdom, his love for error and darkness, his flight from his loathing of good works and his seeking after that which is sinful”.[3]
The power of sin is evident in the life of the unregenerate. Because of Adam’s willful disobedience to God, all men are born with original sin, commit actual sins, and are condemned to death. Adam is the “father” of the human race- the first man. The Hebrew word for Adam literally means “human being” and because of the actions of one man, all of man inherits the consequences; the desire to sin, the desire for immorality, death and an eternity separated from a Holy God.
Even believers have forgotten their freedom from the bondage of sin, David Wilkerson states, “The body of Jesus Christ today desperately needs a fresh unveiling of God’s New Covenant. We need it because our generation is living in a time of powerful demonic seductions”.[4] Even King David acknowledges the power of sin when he states, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51: 5 NASB). The Mosaic Law (Exodus 20) brought about a collective awareness of the depravity of man, and even specified how one should conduct one’s life, but it didn’t have the power to change man’s deep-rooted sin nature. St. Augustine explains it this way; “Sin could not be taken away through the law, neither through the natural nor the revealed law; for no one could be justified by the works of the law”.[5] Hebrews 8: 7 states, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second” (NASB). The Law (or Old Covenant) made sinners aware of the actual sins, but it did not deliver anyone from the penalty of sin because man is incapable of upholding the law. Donald Hagner states this about the Hebrews passage, “Nevertheless, it remains true that the old covenant was unable to bring the intended salvation to God’s people. Only here in the entire New Testament do we find the language of “first” and “second” in relation to the old and new covenants”.[6] The only remedy was to replace the sin nature with a new nature. The only answer is a New Covenant.
How?
Jeremiah 31: 31-34 states,
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (NASB).
William Mounce notes this about the passage, “…God’s people do not keep his covenant; they break it again and again. Therefore, through Jeremiah God promises to make a new covenant with his people, a covenant that they will not break. By his incredible grace, he will forgive their sins and iniquities. This covenant the NT sees as fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Lk. 22:20; Heb. 8:8; 9:15; 12:28)”.[7] Because of the depraved condition of man, God will send a New Covenant as revealed in the NT. This New Covenant entails the person and work of Jesus Christ. There are four things that should be noted in this passage of Scripture. Number one is that the New Covenant was to come after the time of Jeremiah’s prophecy. Mounce states, “Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant (Heb 8:6; 12:24). The blood he shed on Calvary and symbolized in the cup of the Lord’s Supper is “the blood of the new covenant” (Lk. 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25). Both Paul in 2 Cor. 3 and the writer to the Hebrews in Heb. 8:6-10:18 demonstrate various ways in which this new covenant is superior to the old. It has better promises, and its glory will never fade”.[8] The God of the Bible is the true holy God and he can only dwell amongst people who are holy (Lev. 20:26; 1 Pet. 1:16 ; Isa. 6). Because man is completely incapable of being holy, God sent Jesus to be the Holy One and uphold the Law for the sinner because of the sinner’s inability to meet the demands of Yahweh. This Jesus is also referred to as the “second Adam”; “But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many” (Romans 5: 15 NASB). Just as Adam’s one action brought about original sin, in contrast, Christ’s one action of obedience to the will of God the Father brought eternal life. Douglas Moo states, “These… verses present two basic contrasts between the work of Adam and of Christ”.[9] The grace of God (New Covenant) in every way is greater than the trespass.
The second thing the New Covenant does is it writes the law of God on the heart of man. Larry Richards states, “The heart of the New Covenant was God’s promise to transform. Rather than etching His Law in stone tablets, God said, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts”.[10] This sounds a lot like the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the believers (Acts 2). Now the regenerate are secure in the salvation offered through Jesus Christ (John 10:27-30) and live with the conviction and power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). What happens as a result of this? The third point is found immediately after the second point in verse 33 of the Jeremiah passage; “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Richards goes on to state, “With this inner transformation, Israel would come into a relationship with the Lord in which “I will be their God, and they shall be My people” in a new way”.[11] Under the New Covenant, Jews and Gentiles alike are adopted into the family of God; “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1: 4b-6 NASB).
The final point one should note when reading this passage is that the New Covenant has the power to forgive iniquity and forget sin. Paul Enns notes, “It is a gracious covenant. God provides His Son as a guarantee for our salvation; through His grace God enables man to meet the demands of the covenant responsibilities by the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a Trinitarian covenant”.[12] Ephesians 2: 4-9 resounds this great promise of forgiveness,
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (NASB).
Man is saved from the penalty of sin under the New Covenant by the actions and goodness of God. Man is forgiven for his iniquities not because of anything man has done or will do, but because of the love and mercy of a sovereign God who chose sinners because sinners would not choose Him (Rom. 3; 8; 9; Dt. 7:6; Is. 45:4; Jn. 6:44; Ac. 13:48).
What’s The Result?
2 Corinthians 5:17-19 states,
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (NASB).
There are three things in regard to the New Covenant that one must recognize in this passage; believers are new creatures in Christ, the “old” is washed away, and believers are called to the ministry of reconciliation. In regards to being a new creature, MacArthur states, “After a person is regenerate, old value systems, priorities, beliefs, loves, and plans are gone. Evil and sin are still present, but the believer sees them in a new perspective”. [13] Later MacArthur goes on by stating, “This describes something that is created at a qualitatively new level of excellence. It refers to regeneration or the new birth. This expression encompasses the Christian’s forgiveness of sins paid for in Christ’s substitutionary death”. [14] Salvation is freely given to all those who believe because of the New Covenant promise given to the elect. Under the New Covenant sinful man is found holy in the eyes of the Holy God. Jesus’ works are credited to the believer and consequently the believer is reconciled to God and becomes a new creature.
Because of this new identity under the New Covenant, a new nature is birthed. Believers in Christ are not rescued from the presence of sin, that won’t happen until glory, (Revelation 21) but believers are delivered from the power of sin. Believers are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:15-23). “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:5-7 NASB). This new nature allows believers to perceive sin differently; it allows the regenerate to hate the sin that was once deeply loved.
The second thing the New Covenant does for believers is wash away the “old” (sin). Romans 3:23-26 states, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justified of the one who has faith in Jesus” (NASB). God is a just and perfect judge. Because of this, God must punish sin and the sinner; therefore God poured out his wrath toward the sins of the past, present and future of those who believe on His Son, Jesus Christ. Because Jesus paid the price for the sins of the regenerate under the New Covenant, all has been forgiven. Believers can one day enjoy perfect fellowship with God and avoid the penalty of sin because of the word of Jesus Christ.
The final thing that the New Covenant brings about for believers and those who will eventually believe is a mission. This mission is found in Matthew 28: 19-20 which states, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”(NASB). God has commissioned believers to share the gospel of reconciliation with a lost and dying world destined to spend an eternity in hell apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A true regenerate understands the importance of this principle and strives to seize every opportunity to share the truth that believers have so richly inherited. Mark Driscoll in his book, Doctrine, states,
“The church obeys the Great Commission to evangelize and make disciples. The church is an evangelistic community where the gospel of Jesus is constantly made visible through its proclamation of the gospel, the witness of the members’ lives, and its Spirit-empowered life of love. From the first day, “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” because they took Jesus’ command seriously: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”.[15]
Under the New Covenant God’s people are made whole and are given purpose. The purpose is to live for the glory of God.
Wrapping It All Up
This essay has exposed the depravity of man and the inability man has to upkeep the Law and the Old Covenant with God. Because of this, man is in need of a New Covenant. This New Covenant is not like the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is based on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came, lived in obedience, died for the sins of all those who will believe, and rose again. This frees the regenerate from the penalty of sin and creates in Him a new nature and a commission to reach the lost and to teach the saved. Praise God that salvation is not based on the works of man, but rest completely in the hands of a Sovereign Savior who will hold and keep believers for all of eternity.