Question:
In Jeremiah 31:31-34 we have a promise of a new covenant, and in Hebrews 8:6-11 it seems to be fulfilled. Some say that this is where the Sabbath of the Bible was changed. Is that true?
Answer:
We do not know how it could be changed through the new covenant when the Sabbath is an integral part of God’s law, and the work the new covenant will do for the believer is to write that law within the heart. That is what the new covenant has done through all the ages. The only time reference there can be to it would be its confirmation at the death of Christ. He was that new covenant incarnate. In Him were “the sure mercies of David.” Isaiah 55:3, 4. He was a witness to the people, a leader, and a commander to the people. In His teaching, He declared that it was easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. Matthew 5:17, 18. When the young man came to Him asking what he should do to obtain eternal life, Jesus replied, “If thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17. Jesus Christ kept the law perfectly, and thus, having taught and exemplified all the covenant principles, He confirmed it with His death upon the cross. Paul tells us that though it is a man’s covenant, no man disannuls or adds to it if it is confirmed. Galatians 3:15. He who seeks to crowd into that new covenant a worship day or an institution of which God has not spoken is endeavoring to change the very hope of Christianity and set aside the new covenant, sealed with the blood of Jesus. Oh, how much better it is to let the new covenant do the same work in our hearts that it did in the heart of Jesus of Nazareth; then will we say like Him, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.” (Psalms 40:8).
