Jeremiah 31:34

All the Israelites, from the least to the greatest, would also know the Lord intimately, without having to be exhorted to do so.

"The verb know here probably carries its most profound connotation, the intimate personal knowledge which arises between two persons who are committed wholly to one another in a relationship that touches mind, emotion, and will. In such a relationship the past is forgiven and forgotten." [Note: Thompson, p. 581.]

They would know Him in this intimate way because He would forgive their sins and not bring them to memory or judgment any more. True forgiveness, in contrast to the covering of sin that the Old Covenant sacrifices provided, would make intimacy with God possible (cf. Isaiah 54:10; Ezekiel 34:25; Ezekiel 37:26).

"The old covenant spoke of a great physical deliverance from Egypt through the blood of lambs and the power of God; the new covenant proclaims a great spiritual deliverance from sin and death through the efficacious blood of the Lamb of God and the power of God. The Passover Feast memorialized the first; the Lord’s Supper memorializes the second." [Note: Feinberg, "Jeremiah," p. 575.]

"In the old covenant, the law with its requirements is the impelling force; in the new covenant, the grace shown in the forgiveness of sins is the aiding power by which man attains that common life with God which the law sets before him as the great problem of life. It is in this that the qualitative difference between the old and the new covenants consists. The object which both set before men for attainment is the same, but the means of attaining it are different in each. In the old covenant are found commandment and requirement; in the new, grace and giving." [Note: Keil, 2:39.]

"Based on similar content and contexts, the following expressions may be equated with the New covenant: the ’everlasting covenant’ in seven passages (Isaiah 24:5; Isaiah 55:3; Isaiah 61:8; Jeremiah 32:40; Jeremiah 50:5) and later in Ezekiel 16:60; Ezekiel 37:26); a ’new heart’ and a ’new spirit’ in three or four texts (Jeremiah 32:39 [LXX]; and later in Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 18:31; Ezekiel 36:26); and ’a covenant’ or ’my covenant,’ which is placed in the context of ’in that day’ in three passages (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:8; Isaiah 59:21; Hosea 2:18-20). That makes a total of sixteen or seventeen major passages on the ’New covenant.’

"Still, Jeremiah 31:31-34 was the locus classicus on the subject, as may be seen from several lines of evidence. It was this passage that stimulated Origen to name the last twenty-seven books of the Bible ’the New Testament.’ But it was also the largest piece of text to be quoted in extenso in the NT, vis., Hebrews 8:8-12 and partially repeated a few chapters later in Hebrews 10:16-17. Furthermore, it was the subject of nine other NT texts: four dealing with the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25); two Pauline references to ’ministers of the new covenant’ and the future forgiveness of Israel’s sins (2 Corinthians 3:6; Romans 11:27); and three additional references in Hebrews (Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 10:16; Hebrews 12:24; cf. the two large teaching passages mentioned above)." [Note: Kaiser, Toward an . . ., pp. 231-32.]

There are three basic views concerning the identity of the people with whom God would make this New Covenant and when He would make it. One view is that God will make it with Israel alone when He resumes dealing with that nation as formerly, namely, in the Millennium (cf. Romans 11). A second view is that God made it with the church alone, which advocates of this view (i.e., covenant theologians) say replaces Israel in God’s plans, and He made it at the Cross. A third view is that God made it with Israel at the Cross, and the church, which does not replace Israel, somehow enters into its blessings.

I hold the third of these views. It seems that God made the New Covenant with Israel when Jesus Christ died on the cross (Luke 22:20). The church now operates under this covenant (1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:1-14; Hebrews 8:8-12; Hebrews 10:16-17). [Note: The Apostle Paul pointed out seven contrasts between the Old and New Covenants in 2 Corinthians 3:6-11. See other comparisons of the two covenants in Hebrews 8:8-13; 9:15-28; 10:15-18, 28-29; and 12:18-24. E. W. Hengstenberg, "The New Covenant," in Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation, pp. 237-51, argued that the differences between the old and new covenants were only matters of degree, but this view fails to recognize the profound differences between these two covenants.] However, Israel will enter into the blessings of this covenant, which God promised her, at the time of Israel’s restoration, namely, at the second coming of Christ. [Note: See John F. Walvoord, "The New Covenant," in Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands: Biblical and Leadership Studies in Honor of Donald K. Campbell, pp. 186-200; J. Dwight Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come, pp. 164-77; Rodney J. Decker, "The Church’s Relationship to the New Covenant," Bibliotheca Sacra 152:607 (July-September 1995):290-305; Bruce A. Ware, "The New Covenant and the People(s) of God," in Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church, pp. 68-97; and Craig A. Blaising, "The Fulfillment of the Biblical Covenants," in Progressive Dispensationalism, pp. 179-211. John R. Master, "The New Covenant," in Issues in Dispensationalism, pp. 93-110, argued for two new covenants, one with Israel and one with the church, as did L. S. Chafer, Systematic Theology, 4:325. See also Charles C. Ryrie, The Basis of the Premillennial Faith, pp. 105-25.]

This arrangement resembles one that is possible to set up in a Charitable Lead Unit Trust under the Internal Revenue Code of the United States. Suppose there was a vastly wealthy and generous philanthropist of the magnitude of a Bill Gates. As he prepared his will he bequeathed millions of dollars to various charitable causes that would benefit millions of people all over the world when he died. He also wrote into his will that when his only son reached the age of 21, he would inherit billions of dollars. When this man died, his son was only five years old, so for 16 years he did not enter into his father’s inheritance. However, as soon as the philanthropist died, the millions of dollars he had bequeathed to charity went to work immediately-to help many people.

This illustration shows how the church enters into the blessings of the New Covenant. When Christ established the Lord’s Supper, it was as though He notarized His will; it became official then. The will is the New Covenant. When He died, His "estate" became available to those He chose to profit from it, namely: both Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus Christ. Soon many people around the world, Jews and Gentiles in the church, began to benefit from the blessings of His death. However, God’s chosen people, His son Israel, will not enter into his unique inheritance until the appointed time, namely: the Millennium. Blessings for the church began almost immediately after Christ’s death. Blessings for Israel will not begin until God’s appointed time arrives: Christ’s second coming.

"Perhaps an[other] illustration will help us better understand this duel fulfillment of the new-covenant prophecy. Standing with Jeremiah and Ezekiel at their vantage point in history, we are in a dark tunnel. As we look with them toward the light at the end of the tunnel, we see God making a new covenant with ethnic Israel. We then move through the tunnel and emerge into the light. There ahead of us we see the same scene we saw from afar-God implementing his covenant with ethnic Israel. But now that we have stepped out of the tunnel into the light, our peripheral vision is expanded. To the side of us, incapable of being seen from back in the tunnel, is another scene-God implementing this same covenant with the church of the present era, comprised of both Jews and Gentiles. The prophets were not wrong-they simply had ’tunnel vision’ because their focus was on ethnic Israel." [Note: Chisholm, Handbook on . . ., p. 196.]

Which blessings of the New Covenant does the church enjoy now and which are for Israel in the future? There are four promises in Jeremiah 31:33-34. The promise of having God’s law written on the heart has been fulfilled to a limited extent. Christians do have an innate desire to please God because of the indwelling Holy Spirit’s ministry, but we do not have the innate understanding of God’s will that God promised here since that was a promise for the Israelites. All people do not know the Lord, from the least to the greatest, now. Second, we have a unique covenant relationship with God as Christians, but we are not the same group that will have a unique covenant relationship with God in the future, namely, the Israelites. Third, all Christians know the Lord to some degree of intimacy now, but we do not all have the depth of relationship with God that He promised the Israelites here. We still need teaching and teachers, but apparently this will not be the case for Israel in the future. Fourth, Christians enjoy complete forgiveness of sins individually, as the Israelites will in the future, but the Israelites will also enjoy complete forgiveness of their corporate sins as the nation of Israel as well. So I would say Christians enjoy all these blessings to some extent, but not to the extent Israel will enjoy them in the future. As the return from exile was a partial fulfillment of the promises of restoration, so the church’s enjoyment of these blessings is only a partial fulfillment of what God promised Israel. [Note: See also Dyer, in The Old . . ., p. 620.]

The New Covenant is a branch or outgrowth of the Abrahamic Covenant. In the Abrahamic Covenant, God promised Abraham a piece of real estate for his descendants, an incalculable number of descendants, and blessing for his descendants and for all people through his descendants (Genesis 12:1-7; et al.). Deuteronomy 29-30, sometimes called the Palestinian Covenant, gave more information about the land God had promised Abraham. The Davidic Covenant gave more information about God’s promises regarding descendants (2 Samuel 7). The New Covenant revealed the particulars of the promised blessing (Jeremiah 31). Each of these later covenants relates to the Abrahamic Covenant organically; each is an outgrowth of it in the progress of revelation. In contrast, the Mosaic (Old) Covenant does not relate organically but "was added" (Galatians 3:19) to explain how the Israelites could maximize the benefits God had promised in the Abrahamic Covenant. Consequently, when God terminated the Old Covenant, it did not eliminate anything He had promised in the Abrahamic, "Palestinian," Davidic, or New Covenants. [Note: I have put "Palestinian Covenant" in quotation marks because Deuteronomy 29-30 does not contain all the features of a typical ancient Near Eastern covenant, as the other covenants mentioned do. Some interpreters prefer to view these chapters as simply more information about the land promises in the Abrahamic Covenant. For a helpful distinction between which items in the New Covenant continue from the Old Covenant and which ones are new, see Kaiser, Toward an . . ., pp. 233-34.]