Bible StudyNew Covenant.. Jeremiah 31:31-40
31 "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, 32 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. 33 "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. 34 "And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall 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."
35 Thus says the LORD,
Who gives the sun for light by day,
And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar;
The LORD of hosts is His name:
36 "If this fixed order departs From before Me," declares the LORD,
"Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease From being a nation before Me forever."
37 Thus says the LORD,
"If the heavens above can be measured,
And the foundations of the earth searched out below,
Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel
For all that they have done," declares the LORD.
38 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD,
"when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 "And the measuring line shall go out farther straight ahead to the hill Gareb; then it will turn to Goah. 40 "And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, or overthrown anymore forever." NAS
This is the New Covenant that was sealed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the covenant that Jesus preached as the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom where He will reign as King on earth, which will fulfill God's covenant with David. The New Covenant is between God and the son of Israel, not the church. The church is a secondary beneficiary of God's promises to His chosen people. Paul explains this to be the fact in Romans 11.
Now at some time in the past men shifted the focus of the New Covenant from the Kingdom to the King of the Kingdom. 1 st Corinthians 15:3-11
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
NAS
The King who is Jesus is in fact of first importance to those who have any hope of entering His Kingdom since He will decide who is allowed entrance to His Kingdom. When we read the Gospels we see that Jesus' main topic was the Kingdom and how to live a Kingdom life. Jesus stressed love and obedience in His teachings. From Romans through Jude the Bible authors also stressed how to enter the Kingdom, live a Kingdom life, and how to live a life of love and obedience for and to the King and with each other.
| View dfilename Return Home |