A New Covenant and a New Body
Dearly beloved of God, three groups of people are mentioned in I Corinthians 10:32: the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church of God.
The first group mentioned is the Jews. God made a covenant with the Jews [Judeans] that He would be there God, and they would be His people. He gave them the covenant of the law until the seed should come, who was Christ.
If that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second covenant. The new covenant is found in Jeremiah 31:31-34, and in Hebrews 8.
Hebrews 8:8-13
8 For finding fault with them He said, “Behold the days come, saith the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10 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:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
That which is old, decays and vanishes away. Christ took away the first covenant [the Law,] so that he may establish the second [the covenant of the spirit].
Jesus Christ came to accomplish the will of God. He is the mediator of the new covenant we are told in Hebrews 9:15, and 12:24. A mediator mediates between two parties. The two parties are God and the house of Israel. [See also: Galatians 3:20; I Timothy 2:5 and 6].
In the new covenant, Jesus Christ was the High Priest of good things to come. By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for Israel. He gave his blood as the blood of the covenant.
In the new covenant, he consecrated a new and living way through the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. He provided access to enter through the veil into the presence of God for the house of Israel and Judah.
This man, Jesus Christ, after he offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God. By one offering he perfected forever them that he sanctified.
God said that He would put His laws in their hearts, and write them in in their minds; and their sins and iniquities will He remember no more.
How did those out of the Gentiles enter the new covenant?
Romans 9:23 and 24
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of [ek: out of] the Jews only, but also of ek: out of] the Gentiles?
God formed a new group of people out of those who were formerly Jews, and formerly Gentiles. In Christ, He formed the Church of God.
II Corinthians 3:2-6 speaks of the new covenant. The new covenant was not written with ink, but with the spirit of the Living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. This covenant was not of the letter, but of the spirit. The old covenant killed; but the spirit given in the new covenant gives life.
The old covenant made all men guilty before God, but Jesus Christ justified us, and delivered us from the reign of death dealing sin.
Romans 8:1-4
There is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do [it could not give spirit life,] in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
Romans 10:4-13 tells us that Christ was the end of the law [the old covenant] for righteousness to everyone that believes regarding him. “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The Church is the body of Christ formed from those out of the Judeans, and from those out of the Gentiles that confessed Jesus as Lord, and believed that God raised him from the dead. The members of this body are saved by the grace of God toward us in Christ Jesus, not by our works.
In Christ, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He abounded to us. We received the gift of holy spirit, and we are sealed with it unto the day of redemption. We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus on the basis of his accomplishments.
In Christ there is no longer any distinction between the Judeans and the Gentiles; God made one body out of the two in Christ Jesus, and by his accomplishments. Through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. We are no longer strangers and foreigners from the commonwealth of Israel, we are fellowcitizens, and of the household of God.
God revealed the revelation concerning the administration of the grace of God, which is also called the administration of the mystery, to the Apostle Paul.
The members of the Church are the body of Christ and all the members are filled with all things that Christ accomplished. We are completely filled in him; it is all in all. The Gentiles that believed regarding Christ are fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers with the Judeans of the promise in Christ by the gospel.
God called us in Christ, He justified us, and He glorified us. He freely gave us all things with His Son. God called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus. He called us to His kingdom and glory.
Rejoice, dearly beloved of God, we entered the new covenant, and we are saved the moment we confessed Jesus as Lord, and we believed that God raised him from the dead. In the new birth, and we are members of the Church, which is the body of Christ.