“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Luke 22:19-20.

The institution of the new covenant by the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of the Passover just before the crucifixion was the inauguration of this covenant which was promised in Jeremiah 31. The LORD God promised hundreds of years before Christ,  in Jeremiah 31:33-34, “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.

 “I will put my law in their minds

     and write it on their hearts.

 I will be their God,

     and they will be my people.

  No longer will they teach their neighbor,

     or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’

 because they will all know me,

     from the least of them to the greatest,”

 declares the Lord.

 “For I will forgive their wickedness

     and will remember their sins no more.”

Jesus sat with his disciples on the Passover day before his crucifixion and Luke records what He did, “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” 

The nature of the new covenant as promised about 700 years before Christ in the Book of Jeremiah includes these points. It is not based on people’s merits and works, God’s law in the hearts (not just in tablets like the Old Covenant mediated through Moses), God will be their God and they will be His people, they know the Lord, the Lord God will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. The name of the covenant promises is called the New Covenant. 

Now Jesus says how the New Covenant is established and fulfilled in Him. He said ‘the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” The new covenant is instituted because the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is poured our for humanity’s sins and the sin issue is solved once for all for those who would believe in the new covenant and its efficacy. 

Now the parties of the New Covenant per Jeremiah 31 were the “house of Israel” and the “house of Judah” (the northern and southern kingdom of Israel in those days.) In short, the parties were Israel as a nation and the Lord God. Does it mean it is not applicable to all believers everywhere in the globe? You see Church was established only after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost (according to Acts 2). Therefore, the Church was not in existence when the New Covenant was promised. Bible affirms because Israel rejected the mediator of the covenant, Jesus, Gentiles and whoever believes in Christ, are availing themselves of its blessings. 

Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 9:30-33, “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;  but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal.  Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.” Bible says in Romans 16:23 that all believers in Jesus Christ, everywhere are grafted into the root of the promise given to Abraham (Genesis 12). All believers in Jesus Christ are grafted into the New Covenant and its promises.

God did not leave Israel out of its blessings either. Salvation is possible only through Jesus Christ, who poured out His divine blood for the remission of our sins and mistakes. Both Israel and gentiles who live all around the world has only one way to come to God. One way for salvation and eternal life – the way of the blood of Christ. The New Covenant is cardinal for everyone. Bible also says one day in the future, Israel as a nation will ratify the new covenant after the “full number of the Gentiles has come in.” The occasion described by the Lord God in Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”

Have you accepted Jesus as your savior yet? If not pray with me now and become a recipient of the New Covenant promised way back in the olden days and fulfilled in Christ Jesus.