What is the “New Covenant”?

[Proletarian]

What is the “New Covenant”?

The stock standard Protestant answer is that the New Covenant is the establishment of a system of salvation based upon “faith alone”. So considering that we reject the fallacy of faith alone how are we to understand the New Covenant? In what way does it differ from other covenants?

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

What is the “New Covenant”?

The stock standard Protestant answer is that the New Covenant is the establishment of a system of salvation based upon “faith alone”. So considering that we reject the fallacy of faith alone how are we to understand the New Covenant? In what way does it differ from other covenants?

The Ancient Israelites either didn’t beleive in an afterlife, or believed that the soul wnet to a place called “sheol”, a place of shadows and half-light, where there was neither suffering nor joy, and those that had died for love passed each other unacknowedged in the streets.

In Jesus’ time, the afterlife had become a controversy. Jesus was of the party that believed in a meanigful life after death. Hence the question about the wife with seven husbands - a reference to the book of Tobias. The new covenant finally established beyond all doubt the possibility of life after death.

 

[Proletarian]

Sorry guys, but there’s something else that’s been bothering me…

Jeremiah 31:32-33

But this is 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 in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; 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 their sin will I remember no more.

I don’t know of any Christian Church that does not have to instruct its members in the faith. Does this at all discredit the Christian claim the we are the people of the New Covenant?

 

[Nita]

Sorry guys, but there’s something else that’s been bothering me…

Jeremiah 31:32-33

But this is 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 in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; 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 their sin will I remember no more.

I don’t know of any Christian Church that does not have to instruct its members in the faith. Does this at all discredit the Christian claim the we are the people of the New Covenant?

Very good question and thread.

In the Old Covenant “knowing” God consisted in what could be taught by word - and the recipient then believing it.

In the New Covenant “knowing” God, (while still including faith) goes beyond the intellect and will. It is a real **union; **“know” in it’s complete sense. This union is accomplished in the reception of Our Lord into our very being in Holy Communion - and not through being taught by word.

Everyone, from the least to the greatest, young or old, “knows” Our Lord when they **receive Him **into their very being in the Holy Eucharist.

The ability to experience this “knowing” will occur after the iniquity of man is forgiven and our sin remembered no more - after Jesus’ death for our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.

Just my thoughts. Will be anxious to hear what others have to say.

Nita

Just a postscript!! There is also the possibilty that the passage refers to our heavenly experience.

 

[Teflon93]

Sorry guys, but there’s something else that’s been bothering me…

Jeremiah 31:32-33

But this is 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 in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; 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 their sin will I remember no more.

I don’t know of any Christian Church that does not have to instruct its members in the faith. Does this at all discredit the Christian claim the we are the people of the New Covenant?

Knowing the Lord and knowing the faith are not the same thing.

What’s referenced in this passage is what is commonly called “natural law”—the inherent knowledge of right and wrong written on the human heart by the Creator.

It does not imply that no other knowledge is necessary.

 

[Lev23]

The Ancient Israelites either didn’t beleive in an afterlife, or believed that the soul wnet to a place called “sheol”, a place of shadows and half-light, where there was neither suffering nor joy, and those that had died for love passed each other unacknowedged in the streets.

2 Samuel 12:21-23

His servants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”

He(King David) answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me."

 

[mdcpensive1]

Sorry guys, but there’s something else that’s been bothering me…

There are two things (at least) that make the New Covenant different than the Old.

1. We are now adopted by Christ by His Grace through faith to be His sons and daughters. This is much different than the past relationship with God.
2. The Old Covenant had the dwelling place of God in the temple. Since it was destroyed and the Old Covenant fulfilled, the new temple is “in us” as a “new creation” where God resides in us in His new temple.

This is about as simple as I can get it. Covenants are like family relationships where they define how people will interact with one another. Each Covenant in the past showed how God defined how He will react and be God to His people and how much more He will reveal Himself to us with each new Covenant.

mdcpensive1