New Covenant

Biblical Texts

In the Old Testament, the expression "new covenant" appears explicitly only in Jeremiah 31:31-34. There God promises to make "a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." He also says that this covenant will not be like the one He made with their fathers when He brought them out of Egypt, a covenant they broke. The content of the promise can be summarized in three points:

• God will put His law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts.
• "They shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them" (Jeremiah 31:34).
• He will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 does not use the term "new covenant." However, it contains a similar promise to give a new heart and a new spirit, and the two passages are often read together.

The central New Testament text is the Last Supper. As Jesus gave the cup, He said, "This cup is the new testament in my blood" (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25). Paul described himself as one of the "ministers of the new testament" (2 Corinthians 3:6). Hebrews quotes the Jeremiah passage at length in 8:8-12 and calls Jesus the "mediator" (one who stands between two parties and brings them together) of the new covenant (Hebrews 9:15; 12:24).

Background and Terminology

Jeremiah ministered during the period when Judah fell to Babylon. The promise was given while the people, having failed to keep the Sinai covenant, were undergoing judgment and the Babylonian exile. It is a promise of restoration: God would not bring His covenant to an end but would make it anew.

The Hebrew word for "covenant" is berit, and the Greek word is diatheke. The Latin Bible rendered diatheke as testamentum, which is the source of the name "New Testament."

Significance Across Scripture

The words "in my blood" recall the scene at Sinai in which Moses sprinkled blood and spoke of "the blood of the covenant" (Exodus 24:8). The New Testament writers read two things as the fulfillment of Jeremiah's promise: first, the forgiveness of sins accomplished through the death of Jesus; and second, the renewal of the human heart by the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 8:13 explains that by speaking of a new covenant, God "hath made the first old."

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• Israel and the church: The Jeremiah passage is addressed to "the house of Israel, and … the house of Judah." The covenant theology tradition holds that the church has inherited this covenant and enjoys its blessings now. Dispensationalism holds that the promise will be fully fulfilled for national Israel in the future. Even within dispensationalism, views differ on how the church participates in this covenant.
• Relationship to the old covenant: Chapter 7 of the Westminster Confession of Faith teaches that the time of the law and the time of the gospel do not represent two covenants of grace differing in substance, but one covenant of grace administered differently in different eras. The Presbyterian and Reformed churches that follow the Confession emphasize the continuity between the two covenants. Other traditions place greater weight on the differences between them.
• The covenant community and baptism: Denominations that practice infant baptism hold that, just as circumcision was the sign of the covenant, baptism may likewise be administered to the children of believers. Baptists appeal to the promise "they shall all know me," arguing that the new covenant community consists of those who have personally professed faith; they therefore baptize believers only. This discussion is tied to the infant baptism debate.
• A common confusion: The name of the 27-book New Testament and the "new covenant" of which the biblical text speaks derive from the same term. Nevertheless, the collection of books and the covenant itself are distinct concepts.

In Korean Churches

Many Korean churches read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 as the words of institution during the Lord's Supper. As a result, church members know the phrase "the new covenant in my blood" chiefly through its association with Communion.