Jeremiah 31:31-34 contains one of the Old Testament's most important promises of future redemption. God announces that He will make a "new covenant" with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, unlike the covenant made at the Exodus that the people broke. This new covenant will involve God's law written upon the heart, a renewed relationship with Him, personal knowledge of the LORD, and decisive forgiveness in which sin is remembered no more.

At the Last Supper Jesus identifies His approaching sacrificial death with this promise. Matthew 26:28 records Him speaking of His blood of the covenant poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins, while Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:25 explicitly use the expression "new covenant." Hebrews 8:8-12 then quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 at length and later returns to it in Hebrews 10:16-17. The New Testament connection is therefore exceptionally strong. Strictly speaking, Jeremiah says that God will make the new covenant rather than that the Messiah Himself "would be" the covenant. Christians understand Jesus as the mediator whose sacrificial blood inaugurates and secures the new covenant promised by Jeremiah.