The third item of the contents of the new covenant is that God will be God to them and they will be a people to Him (Heb. 8:10b). This word immediately follows the preceding text, indicating that it is according to the law of life that God is God to us and that we are a people to Him. This means that because the divine life enters into us to quicken our spirit, we can use our spirit to worship God, enjoy God, and fellowship with God (John 4:24). In this way, God can be our God, and we can be His people. Under the old covenant, God was God to the people according to the law of letters, and they were His people also according to the law of letters. But today under the new covenant, God is God to us not according to the law of letters but according to the inward law of life, and we are His people not according to any regulations written on tablets of stone but according to the laws inscribed in our hearts. Therefore, it is according to the law of life that God is God to us and we are a people to Him.
The fourth item of the contents of the new covenant is that they all will know God and will not need anyone to teach them. In Hebrews 8:11 God says, “And they shall by no means teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know Me from the little one to the great among them.” In this verse the word know occurs twice. In the first instance, the Greek word is ginosko, referring to the outward, objective knowledge; in the second it is oida, referring to the inward, subjective consciousness. Since God has put the law of life into us, spontaneously we have the function by which we know God. Moreover, this knowledge does not come from outward teaching of knowledge; it comes from the inward consciousness of life. Therefore, anyone who partakes of the life of God and who has the law of life in him can know God subjectively from within.
The contents of the new covenant are also the contents of the entire New Testament. The entire New Testament is a covenant that God made with all sinners. In Greek the same word is used for both covenant and testament. The new covenant consummated with the blood of Christ is not merely a covenant, but after Christ’s resurrection and ascension it has become a testament, in which He bequeathed to those who believe in Him all the contents recorded in the covenant. Man acquires an inheritance by a testament. The written words of the covenant in the Bible were left to us by the Lord Christ as a testament by which we may inherit the blessings of His salvation. When a person intends to bequeath his possessions, he lists his possessions in a will and bequeaths them to the inheritor. Likewise, the Lord has given His salvation to us by including it in His testament—the Bible. A man receives a bequest according to the clear stipulation expressed in a will. Likewise, we inherit the Lord’s salvation according to the plain statements contained in the Bible, His testament.
The bequests bequeathed to us by the Lord in this testament are inexhaustible; they include such items as the Triune God Himself, redemption, forgiveness of sins, sanctification, justification, reconciliation, regeneration, sonship, life, power, and peace. The contents of the entire New Testament are included in the testament which the Lord bequeathed to us. They are inexhaustible and are for us to enjoy unto eternity.
Jesus Christ is the Mediator, the Go-between, of the new covenant (Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24), being responsible both to God and to man. Having died for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, He enabled those who have been called to receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Through the death of Christ, which accomplished redemption, all the promises of God have become accomplished facts in the new covenant, and all these facts have become bequests in the new testament. As the Mediator, Christ today in His heavenly ministry is the Executor of the new covenant, executing the new testament and carrying out in us every item of the bequests of the new covenant, such as the effectiveness of His all-inclusive death, the power of His resurrection, and His divine life with the law of life, that we may have them as our supply and enjoyment.
Christ is also the Surety, the Guarantor, of the new covenant (Heb. 7:22), guaranteeing that the new covenant will become effective and that all the blessings of the new covenant will become practical experiences to the believers. That Christ has become the Surety of the new covenant is based upon the fact that He is the living and perpetual High Priest, who is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, seeing He is always living to intercede for them (Heb. 7:21-22, 25). The root of the Greek word translated surety means a limb, a member of the body. The meaning here is that a member of the body pledges itself to the body. For example, the hand may pledge itself to the arm to do everything for the arm. As the Surety of the new covenant, Christ has pledged Himself to the new covenant and to all the New Testament believers. He has bound Himself to do everything that is necessary to guarantee the effectiveness of the new covenant, that is, that the new covenant will be fulfilled. Moreover, since Christ is unlimited, His pledge is also unlimited. Therefore, He is the guarantee that the new covenant can never fail and that all the blessings in the new covenant will be fulfilled in the believers to become their practical experience.