JEREMIAH 31.31-33: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, (32) not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. (33) For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: 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.” (ESV)
In this prophecy of Jeremiah above, a new covenant is promised to the people of Israel. The first covenant, also referred to as “Old Testament” or the “Mosaic Covenant”, governed the relationship between God and the people of Israel. God kept His word and was always faithful to the people of Israel, but Israel was unable to carry out its responsibilities of the covenant. What can be seen all through the writings in the Old Testament of the Bible is Israel’s rebellion and incapacity to keep its side of the agreement.
But God was loving and forgiving towards Israel and promised to the people of Israel that He would in the future enter into a new covenant with them. This promised New Covenant, or New Testament, will provide for the forgiveness of sin and the promise of eternal life, but it will in no way require acts of obedience in order for the promise to be effective.
The New Covenant will call out to all of the people of all of the world to enter into this covenant relationship by means of faith, not by works of righteousness. And as God’s plan will unfold, the New Covenant will be brought into being by the virgin birth, sinless life, death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, God’s only Son.
And it is by faith in Jesus Christ that every person may enter into this New Covenant relationship with God the Father, and thereby receive the free gift of salvation from sin, and the promise of eternal life.
And so it is that during this Christmas season, a time for the remembrance of the birth of Jesus, we recall and celebrate God’s action of bringing to pass His promise of a New Covenant. Not only to Israel, but to all of the people of all of the world.