The New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34)
This sermon was preached on 20/2/2011
This chapter of Jeremiah seems to be the content of a dream (v. 26) about the restoration of God’s people. The background is the devastating exile in Babylon when the nation of Judah followed her sister-nation Israel into captivity. Their situation was a very dark one, with no prospect of deliverance from the bondage imposed by the most powerful nation on the earth. Yet the Lord would bring great spiritual revival out of the time of trouble.
As with Old Testament prophecy, the predictions in this chapter are described in language that the people of the time would understand. Yet we make a mistake if we interpret them literally. The book of Hebrews, in chapter 8, makes clear that the fulfilment of this prophecy takes place in the church when the author refers to the implementation of the new covenant, and the Lord Jesus connected the blessings of this new covenant to his disciples when he instituted the Lord’s Supper. Therefore we should read this chapter in Jeremiah through New Testament eyes.
Before we think about what Jeremiah says about the new covenant, we can note some of the other descriptions that are made concerning the church. In verse 1, there is a picture of peace (God will be the God of all Israel); in verse 4, there is a reference to joy; in verse 5, there is a promise of plenty; in verses 9ff and 18ff, there is mention of penitence; in verse 12, there is an allusion to the annual feasts of praise. From verse 27 to verse 30, there is a promise of protection of his people and from verse 35 to verse 40, there is a description of the permanence of the restored city of God. As I said, these blessings are described in Old Testament language, but once we have realised what is being described we can feast our souls on the good things of God that are being fulfilled in the church.
This chapter is another example of Peter’s words regarding the prophets of the Old Testament: ‘Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look’ (1 Pet. 1:10-12).
The covenant that failed (v. 32)
When the Israelites were delivered by God from Egypt, he made a covenant with the nation at Mount Sinai. We can read about the inauguration of this covenant in Exodus 20, in the well-known passage about the ten commandments. These commandments were the stipulations that God made upon the people that he had rescued.
Further, God had been good to them and had treated them as his wife. He delivered them by his power from bondage in Egypt and eventually gave them a pleasant environment in which to live in Canaan. He had provided for their many needs. We are not to think that their spiritual requirements were omitted. God gave them a sacrificial system that pointed to the necessity of atonement for sin, and throughout their history he sent his prophets to remind them that the Messiah would yet come. The children of Israel participated in the covenant of Moses aware of the promises that had been made to the descendants of Abraham regarding the coming of a Saviour. They knew that the Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah as predicted by Jacob when he said that it would be the royal tribe until Shiloh would come.
But neither the possession of the law nor the providential blessings were sufficient to keep the people loyal to him. The nation as a whole had failed to honour this relationship and many times was guilty of spiritual adultery, of departing from the Lord. What was the root of the problem? The root was their unchanged hearts. Despite the goodness of God to them, the nation as a whole did not benefit from it.
We may be asking ourselves, ‘What has the history of Israel got to do with us?’ The answer to this question is that what happened to Israel at Mount Sinai is a picture of what happens to many of ourselves. God’s law is in our consciences and he has placed us in pleasant surroundings (including being aware of who he is and having his worship in our midst). Yet the awareness of God’s requirements and the provision of temporal blessings does not keep us loyal to God. Instead of obeying him, we depart from him, we remain estranged from him.
It is important for us to realise that attempts to keep the law of God by an external obedience are not what he wants. Such a practice is legalism, a mere external attempt to please God. Usually it leads to either pride or frustration: pride because a person imagines he has obeyed or frustration because he discovers he cannot obey these commands because of his sin.
Of course, we are not to conclude that there is anything wrong with God’s law. It is holy, just and good (Rom. 7:12). The change has to come in ourselves although we are unable to bring about the change. But the inability to keep the law should not cause us to continue to try and obey it or to ignore it and give up. Instead, our inability and our guilt should cause us to come to the Lord for forgiveness.
The covenant that succeeds (vv. 33-34)
The first detail to note about this promised covenant is that God takes the initiative when he did not have to do so. In this new covenant, God determines to do four things.
First, he will bring about reconciliation between himself and his people. They had turned away from him because of their sins. These iniquities had made a separation between them and God. God promises that he will bring his people back to himself. Here we have a promise of the twofold mission of Christ that is described by Paul in Ephesians 2:16-17: he ‘might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.’
By his death on the cross, where he answered the claims of God’s law against us, Jesus did away with the barrier to reconciliation. The barrier was the condemnation we were under because of our sins. Jesus became the substitute for sinners on the cross. Not only did he make peace at the cross, Jesus also brought peace to sinners when he came and preached through his servants the message of the gospel. The good news is that we can be reconciled to God by faith in Christ.
Second, God in the new covenant also promises regeneration. This is what is meant when he says that he will put his law within their minds and write it on their hearts. In other words, they will become new creatures. They are made new on the inside. This work of regeneration is a secret work of the Holy Spirit. A sinner is not told in advance that the Spirit is about to do this great work. He knows it has taken place because he now finds himself want to please God by obeying his commandments. It is not an outward compulsion but an inner desire.
The work of regeneration affects each part of the inner man. First, the intellect is enlightened and we understand the truth of the gospel. Obviously there is a gradual growth in understanding; nevertheless the regenerated sinner understands that he is a sinner and that the crucified Jesus is the only Saviour. A regenerated person believes the gospel. One question to ask ourselves regarding our own state is whether or not we understand that Jesus died for sinners. We are not called to explain the meaning of every doctrine in the Bible. Instead, ask yourself if you accept that you are a sinner and that Jesus died for sinners. If you can say yes, then you possess the most important knowledge a person can know.
In regeneration, the Holy Spirit also changes the emotions and the will of the sinner. In addition to understanding that Jesus died for sinners, the sinner delights in this information and loves Jesus for having taken the place of sinners on the cross. Enlightenment of the mind is followed by and accompanied by the embrace of the heart. Calvin said that faith is the warm embrace of love. Closing in with Christ is not a clinical activity. Rather it is a meeting that is full of emotion and desire. The sinner is penitent, which in itself contains enlightenment of sinning against God and sorrow at having done so. At the same time, the sinner receives pardon from God, which brings joy and gladness into his heart. So, in addition to asking ourselves if we understand that Jesus died for sinners, we should ask if we delight in the gospel and in our need depend upon Jesus.
Third, in this new covenant, God promises a new relationship. He will be their God and they will be his people. A new worshipping community is formed in the new covenant. The central feature of this new relationship is that each of the community will know God intelligently as well as know him intimately. Jeremiah does not mean that there will no longer be a need for teachers. What he means is that those who receive the benefits of the new covenant will not be ignorant of who God is and what he is like.
The one question that does not need to be asked in a new covenant community is, ‘What is God like?’ Every member of it will know that he is a God of grace. This will be true of the least as well as of the greatest. Whether they are least in experience, they will know the same basic fact as those who have much experience. Whether they are least in understanding doctrine, they will know the same basic fact as those who absorb Calvin’s Institutes for breakfast. Whether they are least in the sense that they have stained their profession by sin, they will know the same basic fact as those who by his grace maintain an unspotted testimony.
In addition to this common awareness of who God is, this new relationship is based on a commitment by God to ensure that his people will always be his people. Old Testament Israel failed to be loyal, and New Testament Israel would be just as unfaithful if left to themselves. But the God who reconciles and regenerates is the God who is resolved to ensure their adherence to himself. He will keep them in the relationship.
Fourth, God reveals that he will no longer remember their sins. Whatever their past was, each of the members of this new community has been forgiven. They have been shown mercy, and God’s mercy is always based on his wrath having been propitiated by a sacrifice. Jesus became the propitiation (turned away God’s wrath) on the cross. Some get sidetracked by questions as to how an all-knowing God can forget sin. He forgets it in the sense that he does not hold it against us any more. Under the old covenant, people were reminded of their sins every year on the annual Day of Atonement. Our Day of Atonement was when Jesus suffered as our substitute on the cross, and there will never be a second repetition of it. Therefore we know that we are forgiven.
We have the new covenant blessings of reconciliation with God, regeneration by God, relationship with God and remission of our sins by God. What more does a sinner need in this life as far as his spiritual needs are concerned. And we do not have to work to receive them. They do not become ours because we attain a certain standard of spiritual living. Instead they are given freely by God. We enter into the good of them because his grace towards us far excelled the grace he showed towards the Israelites when he redeemed them from Egypt and entered into a temporary covenant relationship with them. With us, he has made an everlasting covenant, which is what he said to Jeremiah in chapter 31.