Jesus’ Death: The Beginning of a New Covenant

By Richard Cox

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”Jeremiah 31:31, 33 (KJV)

It's Easter time once again; when churches reflect upon Jesus Christ's sacrificial death and celebrate His triumph Resurrection. Faithfully, many churches conduct communion services periodically throughout the year in remembrance of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice of love, redemption and reconciliation. It’s especially a time to remember the new covenant of grace established by God after Jesus’ sacrifice for mankind’s sin as the Lamb of God.

Jeremiah prophesied long ago that God would establish a new covenant with humanity. In Jeremiah 31:34 (KJV) he said, “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” This new covenantwould be implemented through Jesus’ blood as the sacrificial Lamb of God that had the awesome power to redeem mankind from sin and reconcile God’s relationship back with mankind.

John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God in John 1:29 (KJV) where he said, “…behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Lambs were sacrificed on Old Testament altars as sin offerings.

Today, we can have a daily right and privilege to commune with God in prayer, praise and worship. Some of the primary Old Testament covenants observed were levitical priesthood, animal sacrifices and circumcisions. These traditional practices all ceased after the new covenant was established by the early church.

We find in First John 4:9-10 (KJV) how much God really showed His love to mankind, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The idea of the new covenant is a correlation to Jesus’ message He preached on earth concerning the Kingdom of God: both are expressions of God’s saving act for mankind.