Identity Crises
People struggle to know their identity and purpose.This message seeks to clarify both.
Covenant Rules
New covenant
Greek expression: kainē diathēkē
Pronunciation: kigh NAY; dee ah THAY kay
Strong’s Numbers: 2537, 1242
KEY VERSES
Hebrews 8:8; 9:15; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:6
A “covenant” is an arrangement between two parties involving mutual obligations. In ancient times, nations would enter into covenants with each other—a stronger nation would promise to protect the weaker nation, while the weaker promised some sort of service to the stronger. In the Bible, the covenant, which is diathēkē in Greek, is the arrangement that establishes the relationship between God and His people. The “old covenant” stipulated a relationship with God based on keeping God’s law. This covenant failed because the people failed to keep God’s law. The new covenant is based on what God has promised to do in the hearts of believers. This is expressed clearly in the book of Jeremiah:
“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.”
(Jer. 31:31–33)
The quotation of Jeremiah 31:31–34 in Hebrews 8:8–12 is the longest Old Testament quotation found in the New Testament. This quotation explains that the new covenant will one day supersede the old covenant. The theme of the new covenant dominates the book of Hebrews, which was written to encourage faltering Christians by demonstrating the superiority of the Christian faith over older Jewish beliefs and practices. The writer compares the new covenant to a person’s “will” throughout the book of Hebrews, tying the two different meanings of the word diathēkē—“covenant” and “will”—together. Just as the stipulations of a will go into effect when a person dies, so Christ died to initiate the new covenant—the covenant that frees us from bondage to the law of God, or the “old covenant.”
The expression “new covenant” is found at least six times in the New Testament (1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 8:8, 13; 9:15; 12:24) and perhaps a seventh (Luke 22:20 according to some manuscripts). Jesus saw the Lord’s Supper as instituting a different, and therefore, new covenant. The covenant was sealed by His own sacrificial death, and the cup of the Lord’s Supper symbolizes the blood of Christ’s sacrifice. Every time we gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we are celebrating the new covenant—the wonderful truth that Christ died to save us from our sins and give us new life.