The “Everlasting Covenant”

13, 14. In what ways is the new covenant everlasting?

¹³ What happens when the last of the 144,000 realize their heavenly hope? Will the new covenant cease to apply? At that time, there will be on earth no remaining member of the Israel of God. All participants in the covenant will be with Jesus “in the kingdom of [his] Father.” (Matthew 26:29) But we remember Paul’s words in his letter to the Hebrews: “The God of peace . . . brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an everlasting covenant.” (Hebrews 13:20; Isaiah 55:3) In what sense is the new covenant everlasting?

¹⁴ First, unlike the Law covenant, it will never be replaced. Second, the results of its operation are permanent, even as is Jesus’ kingship. (Compare Luke 1:33 with 1 Corinthians 15:27, 28.) The heavenly Kingdom has an eternal place in Jehovah’s purposes. (Revelation 22:5) And third, other sheep will continue to benefit from the new covenant arrangement. During Christ’s Thousand Year Reign, faithful humans will keep on “rendering [Jehovah] sacred service day and night in his temple” just as they do now.

17. In view of the joy that awaits us, what should each of us be determined to do?

¹⁷ What role, if any, will the “everlasting covenant” play in the exciting era that will then begin? That is not for us to say.