Remember the New Covenant

Jeremiah prophesied of a day when God would “make a new covenant with the house of Israel.” This covenant would involve wholehearted personal engagement: He would write his law in our hearts, and we would each come to know Him personally (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

When this passage appears in the epistle to the Hebrews, the Greek word used for “covenant” is diathéké (διαθήκη), which means a will or a testament, a legally binding document with terms set by one party, not negotiated by two. In fact, every time the word “covenant” appears in the New Testament, the Greek word is diathéké, rather than symphono (σύμφωνο), which means contract or agreement.

Several places in the King James Version, the word diathéké is translated as “testament” instead of covenant, which emphasizes the unique nature of this covenant. God sets the terms, and we choose whether or not to accept them and receive the corresponding blessings. (See “Covenant,” Bible Dictionary.) When Jesus introduced the sacrament, He called the wine “my blood of the new testament” (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24), which was a direct reference to Jeremiah’s prophecy about a new covenant.

The books of the Bible are grouped into two “testaments” or “covenants.” In both the Old and the New Testament, God sets forth the terms for us to enter a deeper relationship with Him. The Book of Mormon fulfills the same function, which is why it is subtitled “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” (See Ezra Taft Benson, “The Book of Mormon—Keystone of Our Religion,” General Conference, October 1986). The Savior also taught that the book itself is a sign that God is fulfilling the covenants He made with our ancestors. (See 3 Nephi 21:1-7.)

All of this helps to explain the way God talks about the Book of Mormon in an 1832 revelation to Joseph Smith:

Your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received …

And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.

And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written.

Doctrine and Covenants 84:54-55, 57

Elder Gerrit W. Gong explained that the Book of Mormon functions as a “covenant” in at least three ways:

1. It is “the promised instrument for the gathering of God’s children, prophesied as a new covenant.”
2. It assures us that we are “children of the covenant,” because its authors received promises on behalf of future generations.
3. It invites us to “enter into a covenant with the Lord” by baptism and become part of a covenant community.

(See “Covenant Belonging,” General Conference, October 2019.)

Today, I will “remember the new covenant.” I will accept the invitations in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, to renew and to live by my covenants with God.