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The preceding seven covenants were covenants that God made with man in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, through the death of the Lord Jesus, which accomplished redemption for all men, God made a covenant with all sinners, the eighth, and the last, covenant that God made with man (Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20; Heb. 8:8-13).
The One who made the new covenant is the Lord Jesus (Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20). Jesus is a wonderful name which means Jehovah the Savior, or the salvation of Jehovah. This name includes three factors: Jehovah, the Savior, and salvation, indicating that this wonderful Person is Jehovah coming to be the Savior to man and to become salvation to man. He is the very God coming into man to be incarnated. Therefore, He is a God-man; He is both the complete God and the perfect Man. He died and shed His blood on the cross to accomplish redemption for the sins of all men, thus enacting the new covenant. Hence, the One who made the new covenant is the Lord Jesus, who shed His blood to accomplish redemption for the sins of all men.
The One who made the new covenant is also God (Heb. 8:8; Jer. 31:31), who had promised Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him (Gen. 22:18). He did not say, “And to the seeds,” as concerning many, but as concerning one, “And to your seed,” who is Christ (Gal. 3:16). Christ died on the cross, shedding His precious blood, to accomplish redemption for all men. In this way, according to His promise to Abraham, God can deal with man according to grace in Christ and bestow the blessing upon all people, thus making a covenant with man.
The ones with whom the covenant was made are all the sinners (Rom. 3:23-24), who are the descendants of fallen Adam, sinners who must die. When Adam fell, sin entered into mankind through him (Rom. 5:12) to become the constituent of man (Rom. 5:19), and it is passed on from generation to generation in man. Therefore, the descendants of fallen Adam are born sinners with the sinful nature inherited by birth. Actually, sin is the evil nature of Satan, the evil one, dwelling, acting, and reigning in fallen man. Furthermore, since the fruit of sin is death (James 1:15; Rom. 5:12), fallen men have become sinners who must die (Heb. 9:27a); no one can escape death. Nevertheless, God made a covenant with such ones who are descendants of fallen Adam, sinners by birth, who inherited sin in their nature, and sinners who must die.
Fallen sinners are not only born sinners and inherit sin in their nature, but they also sin and do evil according to Satan, committing sins themselves, and become transgressors who deserve death. Because fallen men have a life in them that is mingled with the life of Satan, the Devil, and a nature that is mixed with Satan’s nature, they have become the children of the Devil (1 John 3:8, 10; John 8:44), walking according to the ruler of the authority of the air (Eph. 2:2) and sinning and doing evil according to him. It is with such ones who sin and do evil according to Satan, transgressors who deserve death, that God made a covenant.
Since fallen sinners have the sin which they inherited by birth and the sins which they committed themselves, they have fallen under God’s judgment and condemnation and have become persons who should die and perish. Originally man was created in the image of God to express Him and to represent Him. However, man sinned and fell so that he was unable to express God; on the contrary, he expresses sin and Satan. Hence, man comes short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) and offends God’s righteous law (Rom. 3:20). Therefore, man is under God’s condemnation and wrath (Rom. 5:18; John 3:36), deserving death and perdition.
It is with such a man, who is a descendant of fallen Adam, who sins and does evil after Satan, and who is under God’s condemnation to die and perish, that God made the new covenant, the last covenant that He made with man.
This covenant is the new covenant (Luke 22:20; Heb. 8:8-13). The word new in Greek is kainos, denoting new in nature, in quality, and in form. Before the enactment of the new covenant, God made an old covenant, the covenant of the law. Because the old covenant was faulty, weak, and unprofitable, it was annulled (Heb. 7:18; 8:7). Hence, through the Lord Jesus, God made another covenant, the new covenant, with all sinners. This covenant is eternal (Heb. 13:20), and it is eternally effective.
This covenant is also a better covenant (Heb. 7:22; 8:6). This better covenant was not only enacted upon better promises of a better law, the inner law of life (Heb. 8:10-12), but also was consummated with Christ’s better sacrifices (Heb. 9:23), which have accomplished for us an eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12), and with the better blood of Christ, which purifies our conscience (Heb. 9:14). Not only so, the High Priest of this better covenant, the eternal Son of the living God, ministers also with a more excellent ministry (Heb. 8:6) and in the greater and more perfect tabernacle (Heb. 9:11). Moreover, unlike the old covenant, which was lifeless, the new covenant is constituted with the indestructible life. Hence, everything in the new covenant is much better than the things in the old covenant. Therefore, the new covenant is a better covenant.
The new covenant has been enacted upon better promises. These promises are given in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and are quoted in Hebrews 8:8-12 and in 10:16-17. The contents of the new covenant include the following four items:
The first item of the new covenant is that God will forgive the sins of all those who believe in Christ and will not remember their iniquities anymore. Hebrews 8:12 says, “I will be propitious to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins I will by no means remember anymore.” To be propitious is to make propitiation for our sins. Christ made propitiation for our sins (Heb. 2:17) to appease God’s righteousness, to reconcile us by satisfying the demand of God’s righteousness. Based upon this propitiation, God forgives the sins of all those who believe in Christ, and He does not remember their iniquities anymore. This also indicates that God’s forgiving is His forgetting of the sins of the forgiven ones. Once He forgives men of their sins, He forgets their sins and does not remember them anymore. This is the first item of the contents of the new covenant.
The second item of the contents of the new covenant is that God will impart His laws into the minds of those who believe in Christ, and on their hearts He will inscribe them. Hebrews 8:10 says, “I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them.” In Jeremiah 31:33 the word law is singular, but in Hebrews 8:10 it is plural. This proves that one law will spread into a number of laws within man. This is the law of life in Romans 8. Every life has a law. The higher the life, the higher is its law. The divine life is the highest; therefore, it has the highest law. When we believe in Christ, God immediately imparts His eternal life into us, and by so doing He puts this highest law into our spirit, from whence it spreads into our inward parts, such as our mind, emotion, and will, and becomes several laws. This is the meaning of God’s imparting His laws into the minds of those who believe in Christ and inscribing them on their hearts, which is the second item of the contents of the new covenant.
The third item of the contents of the new covenant is that God will be God to them and they will be a people to Him (Heb. 8:10b). This word immediately follows the preceding text, indicating that it is according to the law of life that God is God to us and that we are a people to Him. This means that because the divine life enters into us to quicken our spirit, we can use our spirit to worship God, enjoy God, and fellowship with God (John 4:24). In this way, God can be our God, and we can be His people. Under the old covenant, God was God to the people according to the law of letters, and they were His people also according to the law of letters. But today under the new covenant, God is God to us not according to the law of letters but according to the inward law of life, and we are His people not according to any regulations written on tablets of stone but according to the laws inscribed in our hearts. Therefore, it is according to the law of life that God is God to us and we are a people to Him.
The fourth item of the contents of the new covenant is that they all will know God and will not need anyone to teach them. In Hebrews 8:11 God says, “And they shall by no means teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know Me from the little one to the great among them.” In this verse the word know occurs twice. In the first instance, the Greek word is ginosko, referring to the outward, objective knowledge; in the second it is oida, referring to the inward, subjective consciousness. Since God has put the law of life into us, spontaneously we have the function by which we know God. Moreover, this knowledge does not come from outward teaching of knowledge; it comes from the inward consciousness of life. Therefore, anyone who partakes of the life of God and who has the law of life in him can know God subjectively from within.
The contents of the new covenant are also the contents of the entire New Testament. The entire New Testament is a covenant that God made with all sinners. In Greek the same word is used for both covenant and testament. The new covenant consummated with the blood of Christ is not merely a covenant, but after Christ’s resurrection and ascension it has become a testament, in which He bequeathed to those who believe in Him all the contents recorded in the covenant. Man acquires an inheritance by a testament. The written words of the covenant in the Bible were left to us by the Lord Christ as a testament by which we may inherit the blessings of His salvation. When a person intends to bequeath his possessions, he lists his possessions in a will and bequeaths them to the inheritor. Likewise, the Lord has given His salvation to us by including it in His testament—the Bible. A man receives a bequest according to the clear stipulation expressed in a will. Likewise, we inherit the Lord’s salvation according to the plain statements contained in the Bible, His testament.
The bequests bequeathed to us by the Lord in this testament are inexhaustible; they include such items as the Triune God Himself, redemption, forgiveness of sins, sanctification, justification, reconciliation, regeneration, sonship, life, power, and peace. The contents of the entire New Testament are included in the testament which the Lord bequeathed to us. They are inexhaustible and are for us to enjoy unto eternity.
Jesus Christ is the Mediator, the Go-between, of the new covenant (Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24), being responsible both to God and to man. Having died for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, He enabled those who have been called to receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Through the death of Christ, which accomplished redemption, all the promises of God have become accomplished facts in the new covenant, and all these facts have become bequests in the new testament. As the Mediator, Christ today in His heavenly ministry is the Executor of the new covenant, executing the new testament and carrying out in us every item of the bequests of the new covenant, such as the effectiveness of His all-inclusive death, the power of His resurrection, and His divine life with the law of life, that we may have them as our supply and enjoyment.
Christ is also the Surety, the Guarantor, of the new covenant (Heb. 7:22), guaranteeing that the new covenant will become effective and that all the blessings of the new covenant will become practical experiences to the believers. That Christ has become the Surety of the new covenant is based upon the fact that He is the living and perpetual High Priest, who is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, seeing He is always living to intercede for them (Heb. 7:21-22, 25). The root of the Greek word translated surety means a limb, a member of the body. The meaning here is that a member of the body pledges itself to the body. For example, the hand may pledge itself to the arm to do everything for the arm. As the Surety of the new covenant, Christ has pledged Himself to the new covenant and to all the New Testament believers. He has bound Himself to do everything that is necessary to guarantee the effectiveness of the new covenant, that is, that the new covenant will be fulfilled. Moreover, since Christ is unlimited, His pledge is also unlimited. Therefore, He is the guarantee that the new covenant can never fail and that all the blessings in the new covenant will be fulfilled in the believers to become their practical experience.
The old covenant was consummated through the sacrifice of bulls and goats as burnt offerings and peace offerings (Exo. 24:4-5); the new covenant was consummated through the offering of Jesus Christ Himself as the sacrifice (Heb. 9:14, 23; 10:12). As Christ is the eternal Son of the living God incarnated to be the Son of Man, who offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit, so His sacrifices are better than all the sacrifices of the old covenant. Bulls and goats as sacrifices were shadows which could never take away sins (Heb. 10:11), but He as the sacrifices is the reality of the shadows, and He has put away sin once for all, thus finding an eternal redemption (12, Heb. 9:26), fully satisfying God’s desire, and enabling the believers in Him to have peace and fellowship with God that both God and man may be satisfied (Rom. 5:1; Col. 1:20-22; 2 Cor. 5:18-19). The new covenant was consummated in this way.
Since the new covenant was consummated through Jesus Christ as the better sacrifices, it was, of course, enacted with the blood of Jesus, the Son of God (1 John 1:7). It is not like the old covenant, which was consummated with the blood of bulls and goats which cannot take away sins (Heb. 10:4). The blood of Christ was shed for the forgiveness of sins (Matt. 26:28). It has accomplished eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19) and has purchased the church of God (Acts 20:28). It washes us from our sins (Rev. 1:5; 1 John 1:7), purifies our conscience (Heb. 9:14), and sanctifies us (Heb. 13:12). By this blood we enter the Holy of Holies (Heb. 10:19) and overcome Satan, the accuser (Rev. 12:10-11). Therefore, it is precious and better than the blood of goats and bulls (Heb. 9:12-14). The new covenant was consummated with this precious blood (Luke 22:20).
Thousands and thousands of sinners have received forgiveness of sins by believing in Christ. They are no longer sinners or offenders. They have been delivered from the eternal penalty of sin, and they have been freed from the bondage and power of sin.
The believers not only have been forgiven of their sins by believing in Christ, but they have also received the eternal life with its law of life. By this law of life God can be God to them and they can be a people to Him. Furthermore, the natural function of the law of life enables them to know God subjectively from within and to enjoy all the riches of what the Triune God is to them.
The believers have an organic union with the Triune God in Christ. By being joined to Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension, the believers enjoy all the riches of His divinity and humanity and participate in all that He has accomplished and attained through His all-inclusive death, His powerful resurrection, and His transcendent ascension. Thus, they become the church as the Body of Christ that God may be expressed in Christ. They will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the complete expression of God to fully express God to the uttermost in the new heaven and new earth in the new universe unto eternity. This is the ultimate issue of God’s making covenants with man throughout the generations.
In the New Testament, through the death of the Lord Jesus, which accomplished redemption for all men, God made a covenant with all sinners, the eighth covenant that He made with man. This covenant is the new covenant; it is also a better covenant. Hence, everything in this covenant is much better than the things in the old covenant. The contents of the new covenant include the following items: God will forgive the sins of all those who believe in Christ and will not remember their iniquities anymore; God will impart His laws into their minds, and on their hearts He will inscribe them; God will be God to them, and they will be a people to Him; and they all will know God and will not need anyone to teach them. The contents of the new covenant are also the contents of the entire New Testament; they include such items as the Triune God Himself, redemption, forgiveness of sins, sanctification, justification, reconciliation, regeneration, and sonship. These bequests which the Lord bequeathed to the believers are inexhaustible and are for them to enjoy unto eternity. The Mediator of the new covenant is Jesus Christ, who executes the new testament, carrying out every item of the bequests of the new covenant in the believers. He is also the Surety of the new covenant, guaranteeing that the new covenant will become effective and that all the blessings of the new covenant will become practical experiences to the believers. The new covenant was consummated with Christ Himself as the better sacrifices and with His better and precious blood, causing the believers to have forgiveness of sins, the law of life, and a union with the Triune God in the Triune God. This is the ultimate issue of God’s making covenants with man throughout the generations.
