It is therefore time for you to leave the old covenant. It has gone forever. It has been superseded by the new covenant. It is time for you to enter into the new covenant arrangement. It has rendered the old redundant. This is a far-superior and longer-lasting covenant
You are assuming something about me that isn't true. I am not dedicated to the Old Covenant. After all, "When He said, 'A new
covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear." (Hebrews 8:13) And, "For if that first
covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second." (Hebrews 8:7)
But finally, "
For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a
new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah . . ."
Was the issue with the covenant itself, or were the people flawed in some way? Paul seems to suggest that the Old Covenant failed because the people were constitutionally destined to break it. The fault was with them.
Yes, the fault was in the people, not in the covenant itself and we can see this from the following:
Jeremiah 31:33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
The text above reveals two main ideas. First, the prophet explains why Israel broke the Old Covenant: The people didn't have the law
within them. And Second, God will once again make a covenant with the house of Israel. Both will be true after those days.
Today, God is writing his law on the hearts of individuals from all walks of life. And on the basis of the cross of Christ, all of these individuals are being forgiven of their sins and will be found in the coming age.
Some time in the future, God will make a covenant with the house of Israel such that,
Jeremiah 31:34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
This has never happened. There has never been a time when it was not appropriate to teach each man and his neighbor and each man his brother "know the Lord." But when God circumcises their hearts, it won't be necessary to teach them "know the Lord" because they will all know him.