“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah."
Jeremiah 31:31
Surprisingly, the above verse is the only place in Scripture where the explicit language of "new covenant" is used. However, a similar theme is expressed many placed elsewhere including both the Old Testament and the Gospels. (Isa. 55:3, Jer. 32:40, Ezek. 16:59-63, Luke 22:20, Matt. 26:27-28, Mark 14:23-24).
This new covenant is the one that along with the believing people of Israel and Judah mentioned above, we Gentiles are able to be included in. The inclusion of the Gentiles is indeed something new. Yet beyond this facet of the covenant, when the incarnate Christ comes to dwell among His creation, He is revealing something about the Father's heart, namely that He is a God who is relational and emotional in nature. He has come to tear down the dividing wall of hostility and this is fulfilled by Jesus giving the blood necessary for the covenant, the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, and the relationship now shared between Jews and Gentiles.
The New Covenant's fulfillment makes way for the birth of the Church. The Church is now the agent through which God is choosing to work. Before, he used Israel as a beacon for the nations to draw them to Himself and then that was passed on to the Church through Christ as the Great Commission commands all believers to now be people that makes disciples who make disciples. All those who belong to Christ are now one with another through Him. The Church is now the physical image of Christ in the Earth. What a beautiful image we have of oneness and blessed assurance of purpose as the missio dei of God continues to go forth in this present Church Age.
