“FOR ALL SHALL KNOW ME”: THE NEW COVENANT AND THE KNOWING HEART
There is a holy contrast woven into the pages of Scripture—a contrast that shimmers between Jeremiah’s promise and the writer of Hebrews’ proclamation: “None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me” (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:11, NKJV).
These words do not merely decorate the covenant; they define it. They reveal that God’s new covenant is not a continuation of the old—it is a transformation, a rebirth, a divine re-creation of how God relates to His people.
Under the old covenant, one entered the family of God by physical birth; Israelite infants were already in the covenant community the moment they drew their first breath. They were then taught to know the Lord as they grew, instructed in the Law, surrounded by sacrifices and shadows that whispered His name but could not yet reveal His face.
Circumcision was the mark placed on those who belonged, but that belonging began before personal faith, before understanding, before the heart could choose. The covenant community was filled with both faithful and faithless—men like Joshua and men like Achan lived within the same borders, carried the same sign, sang the same psalms, yet possessed entirely different hearts.
But the new covenant sweeps in with a promise as fresh as morning light: You will not be born into this by the flesh; you must be born into it by the Spirit.
Citizenship no longer comes through lineage but through new birth (John 3:3). Entrance is not granted by ancestry but by faith (Galatians 3:26). No one stumbles into this salvation unwittingly, and no one receives its sign unwillingly.
The new covenant community is not a mixed multitude of believers and unbelievers; it is a family of those who know the Lord from the heart—those whose sins have been forgiven, whose consciences have been cleansed, whose hearts have been written on by the very finger of God (Hebrews 8:10-12).
And this is why circumcision is not analogous to baptism—or faith, or any other response to Christ. Circumcision was given to infants who were already covenant members by physical descent; baptism is given to believers who enter the covenant by coming to Jesus in faith.
One marked a child already inside the old covenant; the other symbolizes the new birth that brings a person into the new. To confuse the two is to blur what God Himself has made bright: babies are not in need of salvation, for they have no guilt, no knowledge of good and evil, no sin laid to their charge (Deuteronomy 1:39). The new covenant is not inherited—it is embraced.
The glory of this promise—“all shall know Me”—is not about information, but intimacy; not about ritual, but relationship.
The old covenant called Israel to know the Lord; the new covenant creates a people who do know Him, because He has written His truth on their hearts and placed His Spirit within their souls.
Every citizen of this kingdom enters by faith, walks by the Spirit, and lives by the grace of the God who makes all things new.
Gracious Father, thank You for the new covenant—written not on stone but on our hearts. Thank You for the gift of new birth, for bringing us into Your family not by flesh, but by faith. Teach us to cherish the grace that makes us Yours, to walk in the Spirit You have given, and to rejoice that we know You, even as we are known. Let our lives reflect the beauty of this better covenant and the Savior who sealed it with His blood. Amen.
BDD
