Who Are the Heirs of the New Covenant?

"I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" (Hebrews 8:8b). God said through His prophet Jeremiah that He would make a new covenant with Israel, and this begs the question, "who are the heirs of the new covenant in Christ's blood?" Whom does the Lord mean by "Israel" and "the house of Judah"? Many answers have been proposed to this question, but this is by no means merely academic in nature. At stake is the purity of the local church, since the New Covenant is the constitution of the New Testament church just as the Old Mosaic Covenant was the constitution of national Israel. Furthermore, this question is of deep personal importance since to be an heir of the new covenant is to be an heir of eternal life, whereas to be outside of this bond is to be the heir of eternal spiritual death. In order to answer this vital question, then, three answers are proposed and then proven from Holy Scripture:

1. The natural descendants of Abraham are not the heirs of the New Covenant by physical birth.
2. The natural descendants of born again believers are also not the heirs of the New Covenant by physical birth.
3. The spiritual descendants of Abraham ARE the heirs of the New Covenant by spiritual birth.