“The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.” (Hebrews 8)
The New Covenant, as late as the writing of Hebrews was still future (“the days are coming”). The New Covenant is not the gospel of this present age. It is a covenant to and for a future Israel. It was not given to The Body in the Present Age.
Grace is not a covenant.
Jeremiah 31
The first covenant was made with Israel; the second must be so likewise, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah… Although there is no difficulty here [Heb 8], it is important to have light with regard to these two covenants, because some have very vague ideas on this point, and many souls, putting themselves under covenants, that is, in relationship with God under conditions in which He has not placed them-lose their simplicity, and do not hold fast grace and the fullness of the work of Christ, and the position He has acquired for them in heaven. – J.N. Darby (Darby's Synopsis of the New Testament)- At that time, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people”
- “The people who survive the sword will find favor in the wilderness; I will come to give rest to Israel.”
- I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt
- You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, And shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.
- You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria; The planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food.
- For there shall be a day, When the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, To the Lord our God.
- Behold, I will bring them [Israel] from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child And the one who labors with child, together; A great throng shall return there. They shall come with weeping, And with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, In a straight way in which they shall not stumble; For I am a Father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn.
- Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, And declare it in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’ For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, And ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion
- Turn back, O virgin of Israel, Turn back to these your cities. How long will you gad about, O you backsliding daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth
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 in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
- If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.
- Thus says the Lord: “If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord. “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate...
