A better covenant(Reading Jer. 31:1-14;31-34)
This chapter continues the argument of the previous chapters about Christ’s priesthood. We have seen that He was not a priest of the Levitical order, but of the order of Melchizedek. He pursues this thought here to shows that it also involved a change in the nature of the covenant between God and His people.
The word covenant has a heavy, theological sound and may put you off, but it contains depths of meaning and interest for us all. It is an old fashioned word, yet it is relevant to our everyday lives. When you promise to do certain things, on condition that someone else does something else in a legally binding way you enter into a covenant. Although the term is still used by lawyers we normally use the term contract nowadays. We make a contact when we buy and sell a house or car and we sign the papers to make them binding. If we change our minds after signing we can be sued by the person that we had the contract with.
God adapted Himself to our practices so that we might better understand His purposes. Theologians have identified several covenants in the Bible, but we will just consider two covenants, the Old and the New, mentioned in this chapter.
The Old or Mosaic Covenant
The Old or Mosaic Covenant was basically an agreement that the People of Israel would obey God’s commandments and God would treat them as His own, special people; and He would make them a holy nation (Ex. 19v5, 6). The people unanimously promised “All that the LORD has spoken we will do” v8. God went further and promised them their own land, protection from their enemies, good health, a fertile land and many decedents. Ex 23: 20–33. Again the people gave a unanimous shout of assent 24:3. They confirmed their promise again when the Book of the law was read publicly. “All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.” 24:7
How little they knew themselves! Very soon they were dancing wildly around the golden calf. The history of Israel in the Old Testament is one of failure. They forgot God and His laws and He punished them for the failure. They rarely enjoyed the blessings that He promised because they did not live up to the contract that they had entered into.
But what else could be expected of them? There were two great defects in that old covenant, which arose out of the weakness of human nature; firstly it gave them no power to do what they promised; and, secondly, it didn’t really deal with their sins the law made nothing perfect Heb 7:19, cp 9:9. The same is true of all of us.
Why can’t the law make us perfect? Think about the speed limit for a minute. There is a 30MPH speed limit in much of this county, the law says that we must not exceed it, but does that mean that we all, always drive at 30MPH or less when we should? Of course not! Even those who try to keep the law loose track of their speed at times and go faster. That makes us all lawbreakers. You try telling a Police Officer that you have never broken the speed limit before and that driving at 40 was a moment’s aberration!
It is the same with God’s law. It tells us that it is wrong to covet our neighbour’s wife, or Ox or house or BMW, but it doesn’t give us the power to do what it says and condemns us when we fail to keep it. The writer used some strong language about the law. He said that it was ineffective and useless, v18 (JB Phillips)! The NKJ isn’t much more moderate in its language, it says that the law is weak and unprofitable.
Does this mean that God made a mistake by instituting the law? Is that what the writer is saying? No, not at all! He is laying it on thickly to make a point. Paul made similar points in Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
The New Covenant (established on better promises)
How was the New Covenant established? We haven’t entered any agreement with God as the Jewish people did in Moses time. In contrast Jesus Christ mediated “negotiated and agreed” the covenant on our behalf, but more than that He fulfilled for us all its conditions. He bore the penalty of human weakness and sin. He met all its demands for perfect obedience. He then gives us the Holy Spirit to produce a holiness in us which we could never have achieved on our own. In other words it is a better covenant because it has a better mediator, Jesus, than Moses with the Old Covenant – v6.
The New Covenant is also so much better than that of Moses because it pledges God to even better promises v6. From first to last it consists of the “I wills” of the Most High. Follow them with me as God spells them out in vv10–12.
• I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts
The Law was written on tablets of stone, but now God writes it in our minds and hearts. Note first that it is God who takes the initiative. He touches our dead minds and hearts and causes us to want to know and understand His truth. When He writes His laws in our minds and hearts we shall never forget them and keeping them will be no chore, for we keep them out of love, not fear.
Ezek 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Being a Christian is not a matter of mere external observances. God touches our conscience and heart. The OT law of the Hebrews related mainly to external rites and ceremonies; the laws this verse has in mind relate particularly to the inner man. The NT prescribes few external rites, and those are simple ways of expressing what God has done in our hearts.
• I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
How wonderful to know that God is our God, and even more wonderful to know that we are His people, His prize possession that He cherishes and watches over to keep us safe.
I, the Omnipresent, will be ever present with you, in all My grace and love. I, the Almighty One, will each moment work all in you by My mighty power. I, the Thrice-Holy One, will reveal My sanctifying life within you. (Andrew Murray)
• all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
We are the people of Queen Elizabeth, but we do not know her. A few special people are privileged to meet her, even to be invited to the palace, but even they can’t claim to know her. God doesn’t just want us as His special people, He wants to know us. And not just the special people, the Billy Grahams, pastors and the like. He wants to know and have fellowship with all of us ordinary folk as well!
Do you know Him? This is what it means to be a Christian. It is not just knowing about Him, but entering into a real, personal relationship with Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3 It is this that separates true Christianity from all religions. It is not what we believe or do that saves us, but the person we believe in.
Knowing Jesus was Paul’s great ambition: that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death Philippians 3:10. If we want to know Him in power then we must also be ready to suffer with Him. The first step to knowing Him is to have our sins dealt with:
• I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
The law could only point out our sinfulness. Only through Christ’s sacrifice can we be forgiven through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 “and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses Acts 13: 38. Our sins are forgiven and forgotten – for ever – because of God’s great mercy!
Isaiah 44: 22 I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
Psalm 103: 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Someone has said that God has buried our sins in the deepest sea and put a sign there saying ‘No fishing!’ It is this entire blotting out of sin that cleanses and sets us free from its power, so that God can write His law in our hearts, and show Himself in power as our God, and by His Spirit reveal to us His deep things—the deep mystery of Himself and His love. It is the atonement and redemption of Jesus Christ wrought without us and for us, that has removed every obstacle and made it meet for God, and made us meet, that the law in the heart, and the claim on our God, and the knowledge of Him, should now be our daily life and our eternal portion. (Andrew Murray)
We are forgiven when we are saved. Have you been saved? Do you know that your sins are forgiven? If you are saved does Satan rob you of your peace by causing you to dwell on past failures when God has forgiven us and forgotten them. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1John 1:9
Of course we can only enjoy this if we have admitted our sins and confessed them to Him asking for His forgiveness. As David found hiding or ignoring our sin does great harm, to us and to others.
Ps 32:1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
The law was intended to show us our need of Christ by reminding us that we cannot live up to its standard. In contrast, when we are saved Christ gives us His life through the indwelling Holy Spirit; this life enables us to live in a way which pleases Him. He wants to change our desires so they come into line with His. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son Rom 8:29. This is a difficult process and we tend to resist it tooth and nail.
God does not want us to live according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life 7v16. Life in Old Testament days was all to do with keeping the law, or making sacrifices in atonement for a failure to keep it yet God had much more in mind for His people. True Christian living is Christ living out His endless life in us by the power of His Spirit.
The law puts us down because of our inevitable failure. Christ’s life flows through us to lift us up and to give us the power to do his will. The law promises death to all who break it. Christ promises life to all who trust in Him. Truly this is a better covenant and Jesus is its surety 7v22 – the guarantee of God’s promises.
Is it surprising that v 13 tells us that the new covenant has made the old one obsolete. Why then do so many people seek to hang on to the OT law and live as though Christian’s are bound by it? We can certainly learn from it for as Paul said in Galatians 3 – the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
The principles of the law are still relevant and we can even learn from the details, but we are not bound to follow it in its detail. God writes those principles in our hearts when we become Christians. When we study the Scripture, He recalibrates our consciences so that we understand what pleases Him and what hurts Him. If we are truly saved then surely we shall want to do what pleases Him and avoid what hurts Him. If you love Me, keep My commandments. John 14:15
FB Meyer asked: Are you enjoying the terms of this covenant in your daily experience? God is prepared to fulfil them to the letter. Count on him to do as he has promised. Reckon on his faithfulness. Claim that each pledge shall be realized in you to the fullest limits of his wealth, and your need. Do not try to invent conditions or terms not laid down by him; but gladly accept the position of doing nothing to earn or win, and of accepting all that God gives, without money and without price.
Ga 3: 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. … 19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made… 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
