New Covenant Promises

What are the promises of the New Covenant (NC)?  How do we analyze Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36 & 37, and the entire NT and systematically identify the glorious promises in the New Covenant? Let me give it a try.

 

1. New Heart. Those two words represent the transformative work of the Holy Spirit when you are converted, which makes you a new creation in Christ Jesus. This is the spiritual circumcision; this is born from above, and this is everything associated with your conversion. With this new heart comes the law of Christ written on it (Jer 31:33).
2. Cleansing. Clean or cleansing is what is promised in Ezekiel 36. Titus 3:5 speaks about the washing of regeneration. Water represents a cleansing agent, and when you were baptized into Christ Jesus, all your sins were washed away by the blood of Christ (Rom 6:3-4). Imputed righteousness and justification all fall under this promise. In John 13, Jesus told Peter, “you are clean”.
3. Forgiven. “I will forgive their iniquity” (Jer 31:34). This is why the NC is a covenant of peace. I have peace with God because, by His Sovereign grace, He has chosen to forgive me of all my sins and iniquity. There is no condemnation because I have been forgiven and am clean. I will never be an object of His divine wrath (1Th 5:9).
4. Sealed with the Spirit. The Triune God of the Bible is your God, and you are His people (His elect) (Jer 31:33). Paul tells us that being sealed with the promised Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of God’s glory (Eph 1:13-14). Is the Spirit in you?
5. Spirit-enabled obedience. In Ezekiel 36:27, Yahweh promises to cause those who have His Spirit in them “to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” This involves victory over sin that, before conversion, was not possible. This is progressive sanctification. Paul says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1Co 6:11). The power of the Spirit of God brings to the believer hope, joy and peace (Rom 15:13) in this fallen world. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (1Jo 4:4). The abundant life Christ promised in John 10:10 is found in my relationship with the Holy Spirit. I need to reconnect to Christ in me (Col 1:27) when I am not experiencing the fullness of the Spirit (Eph 5:18).
6. Eternal. In Ezekiel 37, Yahweh declares that the new covenant is everlasting. The writer of Hebrews describes the covenant as eternal. This, then, is eternal life now and on the new earth. When Yahweh promises land to the recipients of the covenant, this is not living on land for a long period of time—this is eternity on land on the new earth. The writer of Hebrews points to this idea when he says Abraham was looking for a city whose designer and builder is God (Heb 11:10). Jesus says he is preparing a place for believers (Joh 14:3). Peter describes entrance into the eternal kingdom (2Pe 1:11).