Print

The New Covenant: Promise for the Future

When Thomas Alva Edison was asked how it felt to fail so many times when inventing the incandescent lightbulb, Edison replied, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thomas Edison with light bulb

Thomas A. Edison
Image: Definingcreativity.com

I’ve always liked his response. It’s taking what everyone else would consider a negative and turning it into a positive. This same principle can be applied to the Christian walk. It’s discouraging to see the beauty in the divine law, to want to obey Yahuwah because we love Him, only to sin again and again.

To handle the guilt of continuing to sin even when we know we shouldn’t, many Christians believe that “the law was nailed to the cross.” Satan doesn’t care which side of the straight-and-narrow Christians get off on, as long as they get off. A Christian who strives and labors to keep the divine law, only to be so consumed with guilt that he holds back from Yah when he inevitably stumbles into sin again, serves Satan’s purposes as much as the Christian who thinks she doesn’t need to keep the law because it was nailed to the cross. Sin—and its twin, guilt—separate us from Yah, so the devil can work with overwhelming guilt as easily as someone who thinks obedience isn’t necessary.

Sinless living will be a reality only when Yah makes a new, different covenant with believers when Yahushua returns.

Behold, the days come, saith Yahuwah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith Yahuwah:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith Yahuwah, 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)

This is a promise that has not yet been fulfilled! We can’t perfectly keep the law so long as we have sinful, fallen natures. The “New Covenant” Yah will establish when Yahushua returns will remedy that problem. Yahuwah is going to gift believers with new hearts on which His law is written.

Like Edison seeing possibilities with every “failure,” the beautiful fact believers overlook in their continued struggle against sin is the change that has already taken place in their fallen natures under the Old Covenant. The very desire that keeps us striving to bring our wills into alignment with the divine will is due to a portion of the Holy Spirit Yah gifts believers, an earnest of the full out-pouring that shall occur when He writes His law on our hearts. Sin becomes distasteful and the law we used to loathe, we now love and wish to obey. This is grace at work on the heart!

We should “strive to enter in at the straight gate.” (Luke 13:24, KJV) But don’t hold back from returning to Yah when you inevitably stumble and fall because you have a fallen nature. The promise of sinless living is yet future. There are elements to this promise that clearly demonstrate just when this promise will be fulfilled. The very next verse in Jeremiah 31 reveals an important part of the prophecy that clearly has not yet been fulfilled: “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahuwah,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahuwah. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34, NKJV)

sunflowerClearly, people are still teaching others about Yahuwah, so this promise has not yet been fulfilled. Then He goes on in verse 38: “Behold, the days are coming, says Yahuwah, that the city shall be built for Yahuwah from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.” While this had a partial fulfillment when Cyrus allowed the Israelites to return from Babylonian captivity, the context makes clear the ultimate fulfillment refers to the New Jerusalem that will be brought down to the earth made new.

And what promises are linked to this prophecy! Jeremiah chapters 32 and 33 are all part of this same passage promising future rewards for the faithful.

Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul. (Jeremiah 32:37-41, NKJV)

Spiritual Babylon, of course, is all who have joined Satan in his rebellion against Yah. We have indeed been “scattered” among error-filled belief systems. But Yah’s promise is that He will gather His own and establish a new covenant with us. He will be our God and we will be His people. When the earth is made new, when Yah’s law is written on the hearts of believers, then His original purpose in the creation of mankind will be fulfilled. The proof that He will establish this new covenant with us is found in the fact that His word never fails. “Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them.” (Jeremiah 32:42, NKJV)

Continue to strive even when you fail. But take comfort in the fact that Yah’s word never fails and someday soon, Yahuwah Himself “will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4, NKJV)
 

woman wiping away tears