The New Covenant

the covenant on tablets of stone would be replaced by a covenant written on the hearts

He spoke of the “new covenant” in his own blood. His words were an echo of the prophet Jeremiah who had promised a day when the covenant on tablets of stone would be replaced by a covenant written on the hearts of men: “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people … for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:33–34).

The time of the new covenant, said Jesus, has come. A new people of God, enjoying the forgiveness of sins, is now possible through the shedding of his own blood.