Jeremiah Proclaims The Lord's Message

II. God’s gospel that heals

Jeremiah realized that. There’s lots of law in Jeremiah, but there’s also many promises for God’s people. When the people crowded around him and hoped he would change his mes-sage, when they hoped he might soften what God had said, he says, ‘God gave me all these words to speak…everything in your hearing.’ He did give them hope didn’t he? He didn’t say that God would immediately destroy them. He says: 13Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. That’s the law there. It’s also understood with the gospel. They weren’t going to change unless the gospel had worked in their hearts. They weren’t going to listen to God unless the gospel took root and their faith grew. He said if they would reform, if they would change, if they would truly listen to what God had to say, then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. That is the gospel. The Lord was willing to forgive. He was willing to forget the fact that they worshipped false gods. Once again they had turned against Him and would not even listen to Jeremiah, the prophet. If they would listen, He would relent. The gospel could heal them. It had the power to do that. It had the power to change their lives so that they would change their lives.

Jeremiah realized the situation. The people in the church were against him. They were willing to put him to death. This uproar brought down the princes from the government who could pronounce that final judgment. (It reminds us of Jesus—not guilty, but the church thought He was, so they took Him to the Roman government. They tried to put Him to death and they did!) In the midst of this uncertainty of his life and death, Jeremiah is still certain. 14As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. He knew that whatever God wanted would get done…even if they wanted to put him to death. Then he reminded them of the law again didn’t he? 15Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it… And thus, the judgement that he had pronounced against them would be brought to pass because they would put to death someone who was innocent. Then he says, “…For in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing." The words of the law condemned and stung them, but the words of the gospel said they would be saved and they could be saved. The Lord could change their hearts so that they might change their lives.

Yes, it is not pleasant to hear the law, but until we hear the law and until we understand that we can’t stand on our own before God—until we understand that, we cannot appreciate the gospel. We need to see that we cannot help ourselves that we cannot save ourselves. We can’t do enough good works, we can’t buy our way into heaven, and we can’t even pray our way into heaven. The Lord saves us by His grace. He saves us by the comfort of His gospel. We appreciate that when we understand just how low we’ve gone because of our sinfulness. God raises us up with the healing of His gospel. "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full ac-ceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst"(1 TIMO-THY 1:15). When we see ourselves as the worst of sinners, we realize the depth of the love that God has for each one of us. He saves us from our own destruction by His grace out of love.