The New Covenant

The gift of the Spirit is vital to the redemption of humanity and God’s covenant with His people, the Church of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament links the gift of the Holy Spirit to the “blessings of Abraham,” the promise that God will bless the nations through the Patriarch. The outpouring of the Spirit on the Church is one of God’s promises to Israel, and the Scriptures confirm this.

Jesus of Nazareth is the heir of Abraham and the Messiah of Israel who fulfills all the promises of God, including the promises of a new covenant and of hearts circumcised and renewed by the Spirit of God. As the Baptist declared, “He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit!” – (Mark 1:8, Acts 1:5, 2 Corinthians 1:20).

In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Peter attributes the authority of Jesus to give the gift of the Spirit to his people to his death and resurrection - (Acts 2:23-33. Compare Matthew 3:11-12, Luke 24:49, John 7:37-39, 16:7).

[Photo by Benjamin le Roux on Unsplash]

Peter also connects the gift of the Spirit to the blessings for the nations promised to Abraham. The outpouring of the Spirit marked the start of the Last Days and the final harvest of men and women from every nation. The time of fulfilment began with the death and exaltation of Christ and the arrival of the Spirit – (Galatians 4:4, “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son…”):

• “Being, therefore, exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this, which you see and hear. <…> For the promise is for you, and to your children and TO ALL WHO ARE FAR OFF, AS MANY AS THE LORD OUR GOD WILL SUMMON” - (Acts 2:33-39. Note the verbal allusions to Isaiah 57:19 and Joel 2:32. Compare Isaiah 44:3, Acts 2:16-21).

• “And in your seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” - (Genesis 22:18. Compare Galatians 3:8-9, 3:16, 3:27-29, Ephesians 2:11-22).

But Israel failed to keep the covenant. The nation swore to perform “all the words which the Lord has spoken,” yet history attests to the transgressions and many failures of Israel and its betrayal of the covenant – (Exodus 19:8).

The men and women of Israel could not meet the Law’s requirements since they did not possess the Spirit of God. Without the enablement of the Spirit, no one can hope to keep all the laws and statutes of the Torah - (Exodus 24:1-8, Numbers 11:1-15).

The Mosaic Legislation anticipated Israel’s failure and the need for something beyond the written Law. After predicting the dispersal of the nation, God promised that after the people of Israel repented wholeheartedly, they would “return to me and obey my voice with all your heart and soul.”

The day was coming when God would gather His people from all the nations where He scattered them, and when He would “circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed to love the Lord your God with all your heart” - (Deuteronomy 30:1-6).

The themes of renewal and circumcision of the heart are addressed in the Book of Jeremiah. God “will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah.” However, this will not be a covenant like the one He made at Mount Sinai, and this new covenant of the heart and spirit will render the former agreement obsolete – (Jeremiah 31:31-34):

• “But now he has attained unto a more distinguished ministry, by as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which indeed, upon better promises, has been legislated. For if that first had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. <…>  In that he says, A NEW COVENANT, he has made the first old. But that which is decaying and aging is close to vanishing away” - (Hebrews 8:6-13).

God has implemented the covenant in which He writes His laws in the hearts of His people through His Son. The circumcision of the heart predicted by Moses and Jeremiah has become a present reality in the Church because of the sacrificial death of Jesus:

• “This cup is THE NEW COVENANT in my blood, even that which is poured out for you” – (Luke 22:19-20. Compare Jeremiah 31:31, 1 Corinthians 11:25).

• “Now, the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an EVERLASTING COVENANT, our Lord Jesus” – (Hebrews 13:20).

• “And I will make with them a covenant of peace; it will be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will establish my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever” - (Ezekiel 37:26).

The New Testament applies the promise of the new covenant to the Gospel, salvation, and the Church inaugurated by Jesus and founded on his death and resurrection. Likewise, the Prophet Ezekiel describes this same covenant but adds the vital component of the Spirit:

• “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. And they will be my people, and I will be their God” - (Ezekiel 11:19. Compare Ezekiel 36:24-28, John 7:37-39).

Thus, the Book of Ezekiel combines the promises of a new covenant, the gift of the Spirit, and the circumcision of the heart.

SPIRIT AND COVENANT

The Apostle Paul applies these promises to the Church of Corinth:

• “You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, noted and read by all men, manifesting yourselves that you are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, inscribed, not with ink, but with the Spirit of a Living God; NOT IN TABLES OF STONE, but in tables which are hearts of flesh. <…> Not that we are of our own selves sufficient to reckon anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also has made us sufficient to be ministers of THE NEW COVENANT, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive” (2 Corinthians 3:1-6. Note the verbal allusions to Ezekiel 11:19, 36:25-27).

The promises of the Hebrew Scriptures point to the centrality of the Spirit for God’s new covenant. With the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the long-awaited gift of the Spirit has been given to the Church, beginning with the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost:

• “And in filling full the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues parting asunder, as of fire. And it sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” – (Acts 2:1-4).

• “These men are not drunk as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day; but this is that spoken through the prophet Joel: AND IT WILL BE IN THE LAST DAYS, SAYS GOD, I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT UPON ALL FLESH. AND YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS WILL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN WILL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN WILL DREAM DREAMS…” – (Acts 2:15-17).

The connection of the Spirit to the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant demonstrates the continuity of what God is doing today. What began with the Patriarch is brought to fulfillment by Jesus. He is the Lord who pours the Spirit of God on his Church, empowering them for ministry and righteous living – (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8).

Neither the Church nor the gift of the Spirit was an unplanned event or a detour in God’s redemptive plan made necessary by unexpected historical developments. The Abrahamic Covenant is fulfilled by Christ as he redeems men and women, incorporates them into his holy assembly, and fills them with the Holy Spirit.

Circumcision is no longer necessary for membership in the people of God - (Acts 15:13-21). Nevertheless, Paul uses a most appropriate metaphor based on the ancient rite of circumcision in his Epistle to the Philippians:

• “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the Mutilation. For we are the circumcision, those who are rendering divine service by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” – (Philippians 3:1-3. Compare Colossians 2:10-12).

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[Citations of Old Testament passages in this article are based on the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (see the links here and here). Text printed in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS represents quotations and verbal allusions from the Old Testament. The Septuagint is represented by the Roman numeral for ‘seventy’ or LXX based on the Latin name of the translation, ‘Interpretatio septuaginta virorum’]

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SEE ALSO:

• Children of Promise - (Through Jesus, we become heirs of Abraham and the promises, and the gift of the Spirit is the guarantee of our participation in the inheritance)

• The Blessing of Abraham - (The gift of the Spirit is part of the covenant promises made to Abraham, including blessing the nations of the Earth)

• The Sign of the Covenant - (The gift of the Spirit is essential to the identity, mission, and life of the Church. It is foundational to the New Covenant)

• El Corazón Circuncidado - (El don del Espíritu es vital para la redención de la humanidad y el pacto de Dios con Su pueblo, la Iglesia de Jesucristo)