If you have ever bought a house that required a mortgage, you have probably gone through the process known as escrow. Escrow checks all of the boxes to ensure the change of ownership happens legally. At the end, you sign a multipage contract which tells you your right and lays out the agreement between the seller and buyer. That is a legally binding contract. In the Bible, you will read about covenants. These are agreements God makes with His people. In Jeremiah, He promises a new covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—”
A New Covenant
God keeps his word. In the Bible, he makes several covenants with His people. The Old Testament is a covenant based on the commandments. The New Testament is a new covenant based on God’s grace and mercy. We live under the new covenant. We don’t have to impress God to get into heaven. Instead, we must believe in his Son, Jesus Christ, and his righteousness will be our covering.
More Than a Promise
A covenant is more than just a promise; it is an oath from God. God was going to make a new covenant with Israel, which would be based on His grace and not their good works. The Old Covenant (Testament) was based on keeping the law. God handed down the commandments, and Israel was rewarded based on whether they followed the law. They didn’t do a very good job of keeping up their end of the agreement. No human could keep the law, so a mediator was needed to stand between God and man and make up the difference. That was Jesus Christ. His death on the cross satisfied sin’s accumulated debt and established the new covenant.
A New Righteousness
That new covenant isn’t based on us at all. It is all based on the work of Jesus. His atoning work on the cross affords us forgiveness of our sins. It also imputes his righteousness into us. That means that the righteousness of Jesus Christ was placed upon us when we put our faith and trust in him. We are no longer judged based on our good deeds or sins but on whether we have Jesus’ righteousness upon us. This is the new covenant that God has given us. It removes our sin, replaces our righteousness with Christ’s, and ensures our eternal salvation. Take a moment and ponder all Christ did for you on the cross. That is the new covenant.