KNT-03 The New Covenant

Have you ever noticed how followers of Christ use a lot of familiar expressions in different ways? This was certainly the case with the words “new covenant.” We repeat what Jesus said — “This cup is the new covenant” — every time we observe the Lord’s Supper. And all over the world, local churches have names with the words “new covenant” in them. But if you ask most Christians, “What is the new covenant?” you get about as many answers as the number of people you ask. Sometimes differences like this don’t matter much. But as we’ll see in this lesson, the concept of the new covenant influenced New Testament authors so much that we may speak of their theology as “new covenant theology.” And for this reason, we need to do all we can to understand what the new covenant is.

This is the third lesson in our series Kingdom and Covenant in the New Testament. We’ve entitled this lesson, “The New Covenant.” And in this lesson we’ll explore how New Testament authors relied on the concept of the new covenant to shape some of their most significant theological perspectives.

Our lesson will divide into two main parts. First, we’ll see how the new covenant characterized God’s kingdom administration. Second, we’ll explore how the new covenant reveals certain dynamics of interaction between God and his people. Let’s look first at God’s kingdom administration through the new covenant.

The Hebrew term we normally translate as “covenant” is “berith.” In the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, this Hebrew word is translated “diatheke.” “Diatheke” also appears for “covenant” in the New Testament. Both berith and diatheke have connotations of “a solemn agreement or pact.” In the Bible, we see covenants between peers. We also see covenants between kings and their citizens and between kings and other kings. And God covenanted with nations and people. In this lesson, we’re particularly interested in God’s covenants with people, especially his new covenant in Christ.

It’s important to know that one of the most significant breakthroughs in our understanding of God’s biblical covenants took place in the second half of the twentieth century. At this time, many scholars began to compare biblical covenants with a group of ancient Near Eastern documents usually called “suzerain-vassal treaties.” These documents were international treaties among nations in Old Testament times. In these treaties, suzerains, or great kings, administered their kingdoms through treaties with vassals, or lesser kings under their authority. As we’ll see, the similarities between biblical covenants and these suzerain-vassal treaties make it clear that God’s covenants in Scripture were his primary means for administering the affairs of his kingdom.