The Scripture behind the Scripture
A New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:33 promises a new covenant, with God's law written on the heart and the pledge I will be their God and they shall be my people. The letter to the Hebrews quotes this new covenant passage at length in Hebrews 8:10 and again in Hebrews 10:16.
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, 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 31:33
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:”Hebrews 8:10
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;”Hebrews 10:16
In its own place
In its own place. Jeremiah prophesied in Judah in the years surrounding the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon, a time of judgment and looming exile. Amid oracles of coming disaster, Jeremiah 31 shines with promises of restoration, and its center is the announcement of a new covenant. God says the days come when he will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah, not like the covenant made at the exodus which they broke. This new covenant will put God's law in their inward parts and write it on their hearts, so that he will be their God and they will be his people. All will know the Lord, from the least to the greatest, and he will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. In its original setting this is a promise to a covenant breaking people that God will one day deal with the root of their failure. The old covenant was external, written on tablets, and the people repeatedly broke it. The new covenant promises an inner transformation, God's law internalized, direct knowledge of God, and full and final forgiveness. It is one of the highest points of Old Testament hope, that God himself will change the human heart and secure the relationship his people could not keep.
Where the New Testament takes it up
This is a direct quotation, and it is the longest Old Testament passage cited in the New Testament, quoted twice in Hebrews. In Hebrews 8:8 to 12 the writer sets out the entire new covenant promise of Jeremiah 31, using it to prove that the first covenant was not faultless, since God himself promised a new one, and that by calling it new he made the first old and ready to vanish away. The whole argument of Hebrews turns on the superiority of the covenant Christ mediates over the covenant given through Moses. Then in Hebrews 10:16 to 17 the writer quotes the passage again, this time emphasizing the promise that God will write his laws on their hearts and remember their sins no more, to prove that where there is full forgiveness, no further sacrifice for sin is needed. Hebrews follows the Greek Septuagint text. The apostolic reading takes Jeremiah's promise as fulfilled through the death of Christ, which inaugurated the new covenant, as Jesus himself said at the Last Supper when he called the cup the new covenant in his blood. The internal law, the intimate knowledge of God, and the final forgiveness that Jeremiah foresaw are all understood to arrive through Christ and the gift of the Spirit.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. Jesus deliberately connected his death to Jeremiah's promise when he took the cup at the Last Supper and called it the new covenant in his blood. Hebrews unfolds what that means. Through his once for all sacrifice, Christ established the covenant Jeremiah foretold, securing the forgiveness that the repeated sacrifices of the old covenant could never finally provide. Because he remembers our sins no more, the whole sacrificial system is fulfilled and set aside. And through his Spirit, God writes his law on the hearts of his people, giving them the inner transformation and direct knowledge of God that the old covenant could not produce. The relationship Jeremiah promised, I will be their God and they shall be my people, is realized in those united to Christ. The new covenant is not a distant hope but a present reality sealed in his blood.
Questions people ask
Why is this passage so important to Hebrews?
It is the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament, cited twice, and it grounds the whole argument that Christ mediates a better covenant. By promising a new covenant, God himself showed the first was not final, and its promise of full forgiveness means no further sacrifice for sin is needed.
When was the new covenant established?
The New Testament sees it inaugurated through the death of Christ. Jesus called the cup at the Last Supper the new covenant in his blood, and Hebrews explains that his once for all sacrifice secured the forgiveness and heart transformation Jeremiah foretold.