Fifth Sunday in Lent 03/29/09 Text Jeremiah 31:31-34 Title: It is all God's work
Fifth Sunday in Lent (2)
03/29/09
Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Title: It is all God’s work.
I once saw a sign in an antique store window that read, “Quality is a thing of the past.” The sign is right; newer is generally not better. One of the most frustrating things in my life is to buy a tool and have it break. I take it back and if it is not in warranty the cost of fixing it is higher than the purchase price. Warranties are for the most part not worth the paper they are written. Things are flimsy, cheap, and inferior. Give me my old heavy skil saw over the new light plastic ones any day.
Jeremiah 31, our Old Testament reading for today promises a new covenant which implies that it is better than the old covenant. But if quality is a thing of the past, it seems reasonable to have a healthy suspicion of all things new. Is the covenant new and improved, or is it just new? Let’s see.
God has always dealt with humanity by way of covenant. A covenant is an agreement between two or more persons. Covenant is often compared to contract, treaty, or alliance. Many theologians downplay the contractual aspect of the Biblical covenants. They prefer to think of a covenant as a testament rather than as a agreement. In other words, like a last will and testament, the blessings of the covenant are bequeathed as free gifts.
Even a gracious covenant, however, calls for a response on the part of God’s people. A good definition of a Biblical covenant is that it is a binding relationship of eternal consequence in which God promises to bless and his people promise to obey.
The history of God’s people is a story of covenants. In the covenant of works, Adam was bound to obey God perfectly. For his part, God promised to reward Adam with life if he obeyed and threatened to punish Adam with death if he disobeyed. God made a covenant of safety with Noah and every living creature. The rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant promise that he will never again destroy the world with a flood.
God made a covenant with Abraham. He promised to give him a land populated with descendants as numerous as the stars. God said, “This is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.… I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you.” He also promised that through Abraham’s offspring all nations on earth will be blessed. For his part, Abraham was bound to obey God by circumcising every male in his household. Every one of these covenants was a personal bond in which God promised to bless and his people promised to obey.
In Jeremiah 31 verse 32 God refers to “the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.” For Jeremiah, therefore, the old covenant meant the covenant God made with his people at Mount Sinai. The Mosaic Covenant was for a people already saved by grace. We know that because in Exodus 20:1-2, “God spoke all these words: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery’ ”.
Once they were saved, God’s people had to keep God’s covenant in order to receive God’s blessing. They had to worship God alone, keep the Sabbath holy, preserve the sanctity of human life, tell the truth, and obey the rest of the Ten Commandments. The Mosaic Covenant was a good and gracious covenant.
There was only one problem with the Old Covenant; sin. The covenants that God had made with his people were broken even before it could be ratified. We read in Exodus 32:19, “When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain”.
Jeremiah rightly identified sin as the problem with the Old Covenant. In the first 28 chapters of Jeremiah are an exhaustive record of how Judah shattered the covenant and ground the fragments into dust.
Here is the real shocker, however: If every sin is an act of covenant-breaking, then every sinner is a covenant-breaker. Every time you sin, you are being unfaithful to God. That is why sin is so tawdry, cheap, and degrading. As the Apostle Paul so carefully explained in Romans 7: 7-13 that there is nothing wrong with the Law, the commandment, or the old covenant. The problem is with us. We are covenant-breakers by nature.
There are five promises in the covenant God made with his people, and since we have been grafted into Israel, has made with us. First, in verse 31, the new covenant promises reconciliation, the bringing together of all God’s people into one redeemed race. Notice that the reconciliation is not an individual promise, but a corporate promise.
Second, we see in verse 33, the new covenant promises restoration, the transformation of God’s people from the inside out. They needed restoration for if anything is written on our hearts it is sin. Now it is important to know that at the time that Jeremiah was speaking for God the heart was understood as being the area in which the will resided, the decision making place. We would say the brain today, since we know that is where thought process takes place.
With the new covenant, however, God solved the problem of the sinful heart by giving his children new hearts and new minds. It must be emphasized that the new covenant did not abolish the old covenant, for we are told in Matthew 5:17 that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Thus, the new covenant is not called new because it is contrary to the first covenant, but that Jesus fulfilled the old covenant, the Law, in our place.
Third, Jeremiah tells us in the last half of verse 33 that the new covenant promises possession by God. He has a claim on us as he tells us, “I will be their God, and they will be my people”. God’s people are not their own. They belong to God and God belongs to us. We are in relationship with him.
The fourth promise of the covenant is knowledge of God’s law. We see that in verse 34. God’s law written on the hearts of his people is a promise about the coming of God’s Spirit, for we are told in Hebrews 10:15-16 that “The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
Only the Holy Spirit can change a heart. A Christian whose heart has been regenerated by God’s Spirit knows how to please God and does not need to pull out a Bible every time a decision needs to be made. The law that is the Word of God written on the heart helps the Christian know what to do instantly and instinctively. This is not a prior condition for entering the new covenant. Rather, it is one of the promised blessings of the new covenant, for we read, in verse 34, “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.” In the new covenant, this hearty obedience is promised.”
In a limited way, the covenant has already come true in the God’s Church. Every believer knows Jesus Christ. So although every Christian needs the gospel every day, every Christian does not need to be converted every day. This part of the covenant will be completed when Jesus comes back in all his glory. It is then that everyone, even those who have rejected him will know God. They will not be saved, but they will know him and know for all eternity that they messed up.
Fifth, we see in verse 34 the new covenant promises satisfaction for sin, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” This is no doubt the best part of the new covenant. The old covenant tried to deal with the problem of sin through the sacrifices of the Law. In the new covenant, sin is dealt with once and for all. The price for sin was paid in full with the death of Jesus on the cross.
We see then that the old covenant is not abolished but fulfilled in the new covenant. The reason the new covenant is so much better is because the new covenant offers full and final satisfaction for the curse of God against every kind of covenant-breaking. It is permanent.
As much as we, in our pride, would like it to be different there is nothing left for us to do; only believe with the faith God has given you. All the promises of the new covenant are things God himself undertakes. He made the covenant. He restores. He possesses. He gives knowledge of him and his saving work. He, on the cross, made satisfaction once and for all time, for all of our sins. All the terms of the new covenant are promises. And for that I give praise to God, for what he promises takes place. Amen.
03/29/09
Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Title: It is all God’s work.
I once saw a sign in an antique store window that read, “Quality is a thing of the past.” The sign is right; newer is generally not better. One of the most frustrating things in my life is to buy a tool and have it break. I take it back and if it is not in warranty the cost of fixing it is higher than the purchase price. Warranties are for the most part not worth the paper they are written. Things are flimsy, cheap, and inferior. Give me my old heavy skil saw over the new light plastic ones any day.
Jeremiah 31, our Old Testament reading for today promises a new covenant which implies that it is better than the old covenant. But if quality is a thing of the past, it seems reasonable to have a healthy suspicion of all things new. Is the covenant new and improved, or is it just new? Let’s see.
God has always dealt with humanity by way of covenant. A covenant is an agreement between two or more persons. Covenant is often compared to contract, treaty, or alliance. Many theologians downplay the contractual aspect of the Biblical covenants. They prefer to think of a covenant as a testament rather than as a agreement. In other words, like a last will and testament, the blessings of the covenant are bequeathed as free gifts.
Even a gracious covenant, however, calls for a response on the part of God’s people. A good definition of a Biblical covenant is that it is a binding relationship of eternal consequence in which God promises to bless and his people promise to obey.
The history of God’s people is a story of covenants. In the covenant of works, Adam was bound to obey God perfectly. For his part, God promised to reward Adam with life if he obeyed and threatened to punish Adam with death if he disobeyed. God made a covenant of safety with Noah and every living creature. The rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant promise that he will never again destroy the world with a flood.
God made a covenant with Abraham. He promised to give him a land populated with descendants as numerous as the stars. God said, “This is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.… I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you.” He also promised that through Abraham’s offspring all nations on earth will be blessed. For his part, Abraham was bound to obey God by circumcising every male in his household. Every one of these covenants was a personal bond in which God promised to bless and his people promised to obey.
In Jeremiah 31 verse 32 God refers to “the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.” For Jeremiah, therefore, the old covenant meant the covenant God made with his people at Mount Sinai. The Mosaic Covenant was for a people already saved by grace. We know that because in Exodus 20:1-2, “God spoke all these words: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery’ ”.
Once they were saved, God’s people had to keep God’s covenant in order to receive God’s blessing. They had to worship God alone, keep the Sabbath holy, preserve the sanctity of human life, tell the truth, and obey the rest of the Ten Commandments. The Mosaic Covenant was a good and gracious covenant.
There was only one problem with the Old Covenant; sin. The covenants that God had made with his people were broken even before it could be ratified. We read in Exodus 32:19, “When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain”.
Jeremiah rightly identified sin as the problem with the Old Covenant. In the first 28 chapters of Jeremiah are an exhaustive record of how Judah shattered the covenant and ground the fragments into dust.
Here is the real shocker, however: If every sin is an act of covenant-breaking, then every sinner is a covenant-breaker. Every time you sin, you are being unfaithful to God. That is why sin is so tawdry, cheap, and degrading. As the Apostle Paul so carefully explained in Romans 7: 7-13 that there is nothing wrong with the Law, the commandment, or the old covenant. The problem is with us. We are covenant-breakers by nature.
There are five promises in the covenant God made with his people, and since we have been grafted into Israel, has made with us. First, in verse 31, the new covenant promises reconciliation, the bringing together of all God’s people into one redeemed race. Notice that the reconciliation is not an individual promise, but a corporate promise.
Second, we see in verse 33, the new covenant promises restoration, the transformation of God’s people from the inside out. They needed restoration for if anything is written on our hearts it is sin. Now it is important to know that at the time that Jeremiah was speaking for God the heart was understood as being the area in which the will resided, the decision making place. We would say the brain today, since we know that is where thought process takes place.
With the new covenant, however, God solved the problem of the sinful heart by giving his children new hearts and new minds. It must be emphasized that the new covenant did not abolish the old covenant, for we are told in Matthew 5:17 that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Thus, the new covenant is not called new because it is contrary to the first covenant, but that Jesus fulfilled the old covenant, the Law, in our place.
Third, Jeremiah tells us in the last half of verse 33 that the new covenant promises possession by God. He has a claim on us as he tells us, “I will be their God, and they will be my people”. God’s people are not their own. They belong to God and God belongs to us. We are in relationship with him.
The fourth promise of the covenant is knowledge of God’s law. We see that in verse 34. God’s law written on the hearts of his people is a promise about the coming of God’s Spirit, for we are told in Hebrews 10:15-16 that “The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
Only the Holy Spirit can change a heart. A Christian whose heart has been regenerated by God’s Spirit knows how to please God and does not need to pull out a Bible every time a decision needs to be made. The law that is the Word of God written on the heart helps the Christian know what to do instantly and instinctively. This is not a prior condition for entering the new covenant. Rather, it is one of the promised blessings of the new covenant, for we read, in verse 34, “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.” In the new covenant, this hearty obedience is promised.”
In a limited way, the covenant has already come true in the God’s Church. Every believer knows Jesus Christ. So although every Christian needs the gospel every day, every Christian does not need to be converted every day. This part of the covenant will be completed when Jesus comes back in all his glory. It is then that everyone, even those who have rejected him will know God. They will not be saved, but they will know him and know for all eternity that they messed up.
Fifth, we see in verse 34 the new covenant promises satisfaction for sin, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” This is no doubt the best part of the new covenant. The old covenant tried to deal with the problem of sin through the sacrifices of the Law. In the new covenant, sin is dealt with once and for all. The price for sin was paid in full with the death of Jesus on the cross.
We see then that the old covenant is not abolished but fulfilled in the new covenant. The reason the new covenant is so much better is because the new covenant offers full and final satisfaction for the curse of God against every kind of covenant-breaking. It is permanent.
As much as we, in our pride, would like it to be different there is nothing left for us to do; only believe with the faith God has given you. All the promises of the new covenant are things God himself undertakes. He made the covenant. He restores. He possesses. He gives knowledge of him and his saving work. He, on the cross, made satisfaction once and for all time, for all of our sins. All the terms of the new covenant are promises. And for that I give praise to God, for what he promises takes place. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 1:30 PM
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