A New Covenant, Jeremiah 31:7-14, 31
Introduction
It is a rather interesting thing to study the religious context into which Jesus descended. Indeed, apart from at least a cursory knowledge of the strict legalism into which Jesus was born, the full measure of the freedom and grace which is contained in His teachings, life, and work is easily missed. The impact that it had on the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus having healed on the Sabbath day, for example, cannot be felt unless one understands the minute detail to which the legalism of that time had developed in Jewish religious thought and practice. This point is well illustrated by the fact that according to orthodox Jewish tradition, there is only one day between Passover and Pentecost on which anyone may get married or get a haircut.
The grand Law of Moses disintegrated into such foolishness that it had to be replaced with the new covenant, written on the hearts of men. The New Covenant is not so much a completely new thing as it is a new work of God in this era, this dispensation, or period of human history, to restore the full meaning and measure of His covenant with Israel and to graft in the wild olive branch into the blessing and promise of the covenant that God made with Abraham, his physical descendants, and all those who would come by faith.
By faith in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus the Christ, the Christos, the “Anointed One,” the long foretold and promised one of God, you and I are grafted into the Abrahamic Covenant; the promise of God to faithful Abraham which, like all of the covenants of the Old Testament, find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Transition
We are a covenant people. The Bible is chiefly the account of God’s dealings with humanity through covenants; a covenant is something far greater than merely an agreement or a contract. This is primarily because biblical covenants find their roots not in the agreement of two parties of men, but in the sovereign will of God.
This morning, as we prepare our hearts to receive communion, we will look at the great promise of God to Abraham, the Abrahamic Covenant, and its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus the Christ. We will do so in light of the words spoken through Jeremiah the prophet; forecasting the New (renewed) Covenant.
Exposition
The key point that I hope to make for you this morning is that we are a covenant people. My great desire is to give clarity to the nature and manner in which God works in the life of His people, the life of His Church, the Nation of Israel, and indeed throughout the history of humanity.
God works through the covenants which He establishes according to His sovereign decree. God always works within the confines of the covenants which He establishes with men during various dispensations, that is simply epochs or eras history. This is clearly illustrated in the very fall of Adam & Eve.
The Lord established a covenant with humanity that they would dwell in the garden, they would know God intimately and they would relate to Him perfectly, though as with all of God’s covenants, there were conditions; the fulfillment of the covenant always rests squarely on God’s sovereignty, though as a result of having been given a measure of free will so that our love for one-another and our adoration of God has the ability to be genuine, the covenants always have some requirement which is placed on us.
The sovereignty of God’s grace in our lives is not an “escape clause” for right living and the honest pursuit of holiness, it does, however, point us to the inescapable reality that we cannot keep any of God’s covenants or commands perfectly, so rather than not trying at all, we are all the more drawn to our knees in humble submission to God’s will so that we might be in a place to be flooded by His grace and thereby empowered unto every good deed and right action of the heart!
Adam & Eve chose poorly with regard to their responsibility in the covenant and immediately God outlined, according to His sovereign decree, the remedy for mankind’s inability to keep the covenant of works; He, even then in the garden, pointed to the Covenant of Grace; He pointed to the Cross!
Then God commanded Abraham to go to the place that He would give to him and his descendants, the Promised Land, the Holy Land. God outlines the details of the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16.
God often, more often than not I would suggest, to use the unlikely things of this world for His purposes in order to demonstrate His glory; not ours.
In an elderly man and an elderly woman, who was well past the age of child-bearing, God chose to demonstrate His goodness to the world.
Likewise, into a lowly manger in Bethlehem was born a child who would be raised in the then tiny village of Nazareth in the backwaters of Galilee, to be the savior of the world, in order to ultimately fulfill the promise made to Abraham and to fulfill the prophecy which came through Jeremiah the prophet for the New Covenant.
In Romans 11:11-32 the Apostle Paul outlines the manner in which God has grafted in the “wild branch” of gentile believers, us, into the deeply rooted olive tree, the great symbol of life, of Israel. He goes on to say that though the Jews have hardened their heart to their Messiah, Jesus, Yeshua, God has not abandoned them and will ultimately save them and all humanity.
Salvation has come to the world through the covenant of God made with Abraham according to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Lord and redeemer. By faith we are the sons and daughters of Abraham! So too are all who confess the name of Jesus the Christ; whether Jew or Gentile and the day is coming when God will move miraculously upon Israel to bring the nation to salvation in Christ!
These are exciting times in which we live, oft troubling, but exciting nonetheless as the very events foretold here may well be coming to pass in our day.
Covenant Expanded
We are a covenant people. Christians everywhere enjoy the blessing of the covenant of God as He has brought us to salvation according to His promises, His sovereign will, and His divine decree. We are a covenant people.
A covenant, dear saints, is far greater than a contract, because, as I stated earlier in this message, a covenant is rooted not in the will of men but in the will of the Almighty Everlasting God of eternal glory! We stand on the foundation of His promise, not our will. We live in the in the life which He gives.
There are several specific covenants between God and mankind found in the pages of the Bible. The Abrahamic covenant, which God made to Abraham and fulfilled and is, fulfilling in Christ, is one such covenant. The Noahic Covenant in which God promised never to flood the earth again; sealed with the rainbow.
There are also covenants of God which are found in our own lives. The family operates under the covenant of God as it is bound in much tightly than mere agreement or genetics, but as it is has been instituted by God and operates in the bonds of holy affection.
Congregational Christians everywhere celebrate the covenant of the Church family through the affirmation of a Church covenant in accordance with Scripture. Historically, Congregational Christians and Churches have placed great emphasis on the idea of covenant within the life of the believer and the local fellowship.
This is the very reason that we do not require the affirmation of historic creeds, reformed dogmas, or other such formula systems of belief for church membership in a Congregational Church. It is not that we reject their value. We use them in teaching and they present in our practice continually.
It is that we place of highest value the covenant made between a man and woman upon entering the body of Christ by faith in Jesus as foremost. It is because we recognize that faith is something which is far greater than mere intellectual assent to a creed or dogma, but that it is the gift of Almighty God to the heart of an individual believer.
This does not mean, as some have misunderstood in modern times, that Congregational Churches have no standard of belief; it means that when understood properly, the Congregational Way allows the community of faith transcend the mere recitation of creeds in favor of encountering the sacredness of God in the pages of the Scripture, in Sacramental life of the Church, and in the fellowship of genuine “Koinonia” as we “one another” together.
It is in the bonds of affection that is wrought in genuine faith community, following after Christ as He is revealed in the pages of the Holy Scripture, that we are fully alive in the message and meaning of Christian life and community!
Indeed, the early Congregational Christians on this continent developed the Savoy Declaration of 1658, which guided the belief and practice of Congregational Christians for many decades in this country. In it is contained a strictly high view of the Bible as God’s Holy Word and a high view of the covenant of God.
Conclusion (Communion)
We are a covenant people. God made a promise to Abraham and grafted us in according to faith in Jesus Christ. In Genesis 15 God made a blood covenant with Abraham by cutting five animals in two and laying their carcasses on both sides of a path, with God “walking through” these body parts. This represents the absolutely binding nature of a covenant, for it says that “If I ever violate this covenant, may I be torn in two just like these animals.”
Covenant, not mere sentiment, not vain promise, lasting, serious, eternal, biding covenant; how differently would we act with regard to our families when viewed in light of covenant? How differently would we understand marriage, Church life, our relationship to God if our primary assumptions about the manner of these things in our lives?
What if we allowed the supremacy of God’s decree reign in our lives? When we view our family as the supreme gift of God, perhaps seemingly like a gag gift at times, but the gift of God nonetheless, would it be difficult to find the patience, forgiveness, and love needed for those relationships?
How different would the body of Christ be if the biblical concept of each member of the church having entered into covenant relationship together with God were restored to its fullest and rightful position?
We shall in a few moments celebrate the pinnacle expression of covenant; Holy Communion. As we do so, I invite you to consider well the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that was made atop Calvary’s hill so that you and I might be joined together with God, one holy family, one nation, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither male nor female, neither rich or poor, only the covenant family of God; united in the love of our savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
