CORE 52 | Week 16 | A New Covenant
July 27, 2022

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Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NRSV)

31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

Hebrews 9:13-15 (NRSV)

13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NRSV)

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Key Points

  1. Jeremiah promised a new covenant during the days of Jerusalem’s destruction.

  2. The hope of a new covenant was common in ancient Israel because of their perpetual sin and punishment.

  3. There are three things promised in the new covenant: personal relationship with the Father, forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of the Son, and the law of God in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.


FOR REFLECTION

  1. What advantages do Christians have under the New Covenant?

  2. What was the biggest change in your life when you accepted Jesus?

  3. How has forgiveness changed you? Do you feel you grasp it’s meaning for you or are you still learning its true meaning?

  4. Do people become more aware of emotions once they are in relationship with God? What has been your experience?

  5. What does it mean that God will write His law on our hearts?

  6. Have you experienced the Holy Spirit directing you in a given situation? Give an example.

  7. Share your experience of the Spirit comforting you internally. Share your experience of Him changing your desires and dreams?

  8. How would you describe the “advantages” of a relationship with God through Jesus to someone who does not know Jesus?

DAILY JOURNAL

WEDNESDAY
Read the essay.


THURSDAY
Memorize Jeremiah 31:33–34


FRIDAY
Read Matthew 3 and Luke 4


MONDAY
Meditate on Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; Hebrews 9:14–15.


TUESDAY
Read the book of Hebrews, making a list of advantages the new covenant offers Christians.


OVERACHIEVER CHALLENGE
Memorize 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.