Jeremiah 31:31-34
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We are moving along in the season of Lent, as we follow Jesus on his journey to the cross. Ever since he climbed up to the top of the mountain and was transfigured there, he, we have been seeing the stories of him traveling every day, every week, on to Jerusalem, where we will finally get the story of his death, and then his resurrection. It's leading up to the moment that we remember and celebrate as Christ's sacrifice for our forgiveness, to establish a new covenant with all of God's people. That was different from the old one, a new covenant that we actually get to read about, in our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah. Jeremiah talks about the two covenants, the two great covenants of the old, and the New Testaments, the one that would come after him, and the one that was established many years before him. And what he says is that God is going to make a new covenant. Here are the words to behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah. It's not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. What we see here is a reference to God's covenant with Israel, during the time of Moses, Jeremiah gives us a hint of the story we all know, where Moses brought the people out of the land of Egypt, and then to the mountain of Sinai, where Moses received the 10 commandments, and all of the rules and the laws and the benefits and the blessings and the curses that were part of the Old Covenant, Moses's covenant. And it included a whole lot of stuff, more than just the commandments that we know. This covenant was established then at Mount Sinai for God's people. And it was a covenant that Israel broke. Jeremiah is also referencing a New Covenant, a covenant that he did not see very clearly yet, because it would have to wait until the days of Jesus. This covenant was established at a table with bread and wine. When Jesus said, this is the blood of the new covenant, shed for you for the forgiveness of sin. You may recognize that because we say it every Sunday, as we remember this meal, and eat and drink of it ourselves, to bring this new covenant to us, a covenant in Jesus's Body and Blood, which was initiated by His sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, to deliver all of the blessings of the New Covenant to you. The question question we have for ourselves today is, what is the difference between this Old Covenant and a new covenant? What is Jeremiah trying to tell us about this great new covenant that God is giving his people? Fortunately, Jeremiah tells us, isn't that nice? And he gives us three things that are about the new covenant that God will make, and we have received through Jesus Christ. Here they are. The first one is I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. Number two, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Number three, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. What I'd like to do today is take a look at each of these and compare it with what the old covenant was like to help us understand how amazing God's gift is for us. Let's take a look at the first one, we'll add this one, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. Now, as we look at this, we see, first there is a word in there that might be confusing for us Lutherans, we're used to the word law, referring to God's law, which are His commands, the demands that God puts on all of us. But that's because there is a frequent mis translation of this the word that was originally written, it is probably better as teachings, or instruction, or perhaps the Word of God. More generally, it's the same word that we use for the first five books of Moses, the Torah. And so it's the whole thing, the whole counsel of God, everything that God has ever spoken, all of his word. So it's not I will put that my law on their hearts, as in, I will demand everything and write that on their hearts. It is, I will put my word on their hearts, I will write it within them. This is different from the old covenant. Because under the Old Covenant, we didn't get the Holy Spirit working on all of the people for whom the covenant applies. That's because the old covenant wasn't just a covenant with believers. It was a covenant with unbelievers, too. It was a covenant with a nation, a nation with borders, and armies, people who believed and didn't. Israel was filled with a whole big group of people. And not everyone was filled with the Spirit, and believed in God. And we see this because over and over and over again, from the moment they leave Mount Sinai. And those unbelievers just kept turning away. They grumbled against God and against Moses, they built a golden calf, they got to the promised land and said, No, thank you. Once they got in the Promised Land, they turned to all the different gods and they did all sorts of things. And it was a covenant with a group of people that included believers and unbelievers alike. I want you to think about what it might be like to think whether the God's promises would come true for you. If it included everybody in America, where God said, I will keep my promise to you if everyone in America is faithful. Ah, spirit shoo in right? Perhaps not. Because there wasn't a covenant with individuals. It was a covenant with the whole nation. Which meant that it was a covenant that depended on the entire nation, following God's law, which was a problem for them because this covenant contained this warning from Exodus chapter 20. I, the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to 1000s of those who love Me and keep My commandments. And so many in Israel turned away, did not keep his commandments, and hated God, which meant their iniquity was on the whole nation. Isn't it wonderful? God's promises don't depend on an entire nation following him. But today in the New Covenant, it is not a covenant between God and every person, in a geographical area are genetically related to Abraham, but with all who believe in Him,
God gathers the new Israel, out of every nation on earth, every identity every people, and he gives the Holy Spirit by the word of Jesus Christ, which means He writes this word on your hearts, by the power of the Spirit. When you receive the Holy Spirit, he writes this teaching this gospel, this grace on you. So you can know the Lord and hear him and understand Him and believe and understanding God's Word and His will. The the instruction of God is only available to those who have this Spirit. Without faith in Christ, it just doesn't make sense the way it does, when you believe in the resurrection of Jesus, and know where you are going. Because if you believe that you're just going to die, and be worm food, why would you give up the things that Christians give up so that we can rise from the dead and live forever? Why would you waste a couple of hours on Sunday morning, when you could be out living it up, because tomorrow you die. But we know that's not true. We know that Christ is coming. And this simple idea written on our hearts by the power of the Spirit changes everything. Sometimes, when we Christians go out into the world, and we try to share the gospel with people, we forget that the message has to be written on the hearts of people before they realize that they have to change. Right? It doesn't make sense if you go out and say, discipline yourself, and they don't have Jesus right? It doesn't make sense. If you say live like us, I don't know why. The change, the beginning of holiness must come by the power of the Spirit, first, through faith in Christ. Only then will it actually make sense. The second piece of this new covenant that Jeremiah predicts is this, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. He explains this when he says, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. I will be their God, and they will be my people. The old covenant is a little different. So here are the words that Moses says in Exodus 19. Report reporting God to the people. He says, Now therefore, if you will, indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. There's some nice promises in there a kingdom of priests to treasured possession a holy nation, but it is preceded by the most important words in the Bible. If it's a big word, right, if if you do this, then you get this. If you don't do this, then you don't get this. And that's the heart of the Old Covenant right? Now. Therefore, if you indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you get the promise. Worked out great. If God asks us to do something that we can do, it's not so much if it's something we can't. And Israel never did it. And Jeremiah says that he would make a new covenant that was not like the Covenant, the covenant that they broke and they broke it a lot. The Bible is filled with stories of God's people saying no thank you, God, we would pray refer other gods. Baal Ashra Moloch, the gods of Assyria and Babylon, every god under the sun except for the one true God. And the prophets their whole story is calling people back, saying, no the Lord turns to him return to the covenant. And what's fun when you when you look at the prophets, sometimes they play a really interesting trick. When they speak the word of God, to people that's been failing the covenant. What they do is they report God saying, instead of my people, they say, this, people it's a very subtle change, when you read the prophets, but look for it. Because God doesn't say, My People. Instead, he says, Those people, this people, anyone but my people, in fact. We get that, from Isaiah, where he says, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me from their lips, while their hearts are far from me. And their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. When they break the covenant and turn away, God calls them this people, not my people, because they didn't get the promises when they broke it. That's not how the New Covenant works. Because Jesus fulfilled the old, he is the one who does the if, if you indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be My treasured possession, that is Christ. And all who are in in him to receive this amazing blessing, which is why the New Covenant does not have an if it says, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And then for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. That is because all who are in Christ receive this covenant. It is not a covenant with believers and unbelievers, it is just those who are called out of the world, brought into Christ and gathered around his his body and his blood and his word. All who are in Christ become God's people. There is no ifs. There is no if you obey my voice, there are no commandments. It is just you are my people. Because of Christ's perfect obedience, and fulfilling this covenant, you get these promises. And that leads to the final point where I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. This is not the promise that was given to Old Testament Israel. Remember, they had an IF covenant, not, I will covenant. God didn't give them away to have their sins forgiven when they committed them. It was to be faithful to him and offer the right sacrifices and believe in Him and do all the things they were supposed to do, but they didn't do. And that is why they were eventually sent into exile, after being punished over and over and over again. But because of Christ, this is not you. God does not make that kind of covenant with His Church and his believers. A covenant that says if you do it right, you will be forgiven. God simply says, I will forgive their sins, I will remember their sin no more.
Which means that for all who turned to Jesus Christ looking for mercy, it is always there. There is no sin that will cast you out. There is no doubt that will push you away. There is nothing that you can do that will make Christ turn away from you. His grace is always there. Which is why a pastor can stand up in front of all of you and say, very casually. I forgive your sins in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and actually mean it. And not look out and say it well. Except for you. Everybody, when you write, which is sometimes what we think, in our hearts, we think oh, yeah, that's your doesn't know what I did. And I'm the worst. And we're maybe even more perniciously pastor doesn't know what he did. He's the worst, right? That's not how it works. All who turned to Christ. All who come to Him, knowing they need grace. All who asked for it, who confessed their sins, receive forgiveness. And we do this because God has written His instruction on your hearts, and he has made you his people which causes us to turn to Him for relief when we have that guilt, because we are brought into this new covenant through Jesus Christ. What a great gift he has given us. In Jesus name, Amen.