New is Better - Jeremiah 31:31-34

Introduction

Have you ever wished that you lived during the Old Testament instead of right now? Man, I have. I remember when I was a teenager that our pastor did a series of sermons through Exodus and Joshua. He told us how God sent all of the plagues upon Pharaoh so that this great king let God’s people go free. He told us about how God divided the Red Sea and how Israel walked through it on dry ground only to have it crash on Egypt and wipe them out. He told us how God provided them bread from heaven and water from a rock. He told us how Israel walked around the walls of Jericho seven times and then they fell down flat. He told us how God froze the sun in the sky so that Israel could slay the Amorites.

And, I heard those stories, and I thought, “Man, why couldn’t I have lived when God was doing that?” My life felt so ordinary by comparison. To me, it seemed like life in the Old Testament was more exciting, and it seemed like faith was easier. I mean, if you saw God divide a sea, who wouldn’t believe? In contrast, faith today seems hard and ordinary, maybe even somehow less miraculous.

God’s Word

But, (and forgive my ESPN 30 for 30)what if I told you that what was happening back then pales into comparison to what God is doing right now among us? What if I told you that the greatest OT saint would gladly trade places with the lowliest NT believer? This morning, we come to a moment that all of the Big Story has been building toward until now. Jeremiah tells us that a New Covenant is coming, a covenant that will be better than the first, a covenant that Hebrews 8 says explicitly renders the Old Covenant obsolete. This is the deep end, and this is the good stuff. I want us to see today Why the New Covenant is Better: (Headline)

We have a new “trajectory.”

Jeremiah 29:11 is the only competitor to Philippians 4:13 for yearbook verse of the year. I feel like it’s the one you choose if you’re trying to be sharp. And, similar to Philippians 4:13, it’s often stripped of all original context. Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Now, this is often taken to mean, I think, that God has a good plan for your life. And, by good plan, we take that to mean the life that we want, the accomplishments we’re seeking, and the grand adventure we’re looking for. But then, if we believe this, when our spine is shattered in a car accident or our child is born with special needs or our company closes down the plant, we feel like God has lied to us. “I thought He had a plan to prosper me!”

When we want to understand any Bible verse, we have to ask: to whom was it originally written, what was the author intending to say to them, and how does that apply to me today? And, this verse was written to a country that God said that He was going to completely decimate. He was going to turn them into a blank slate. But, He wanted them to know that after they had been decimated that He was going to build them into something new. So, our passage this morning explains and expounds the yearbook verse of the year. This is the plan God has to prosper them. You see...

The Old Covenant moved from “redemption” to “exile.”

Jeremiah 31:31–32 ““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.”

God has chosen to relate to his people through covenant, which isn’t a word we use very often. A covenant is a relationship agreement that lays out the terms of the relationship. This used to be very common between nations — especially great powers and lesser powers. The great power would agree to provide protection so long as the lesser power would honor commitments they made to the greater power, such as not seeking to take territory or providing access to needed resources. God’s covenant with his people takes a similar form.

(Show by drawing a downward trajectory from the Egypt to Babylon, showing Israel/Assyria along the way) You’ll see here that Jeremiah mentions “the land of Egypt.” That’s where the OC began. God — the great power — delivered his people because of his love for them. He takes them into the Sinai wilderness where He gives them the ten commandments — the stipulations of the covenant. And so, began the trajectory toward exile again. You see, the OC is a covenant of works. Keep God’s commands, and He will bless you. Break God’s commands and He will curse you. But, humans are born in bondage to sin. It was a covenant destined to fail.

If your relationship with God is contingent upon your performance for then you’re headed toward exile. That’s why the NC is Good News.

The New Covenant moves from “exile” to “redemption.”

Jeremiah 31:31–32 ““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.”

The New Covenant reverses the trajectory. In the NC, what you know right now isn’t the best it will be. Notice that it points out here the “house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Well, Israel is already in exile. Judah is headed there. But, God says to Judah, “I’m going to inaugurate a New Covenant that will bring ALL of my people — not just you — our of exile and into redemption.

(Show by drawing an upward trajectory from Babylon to the New Jerusalem.) And so, to understand the perspective of the Apostles, you have to understand that they recognized what was happening in their ministries as a reversal of the trajectory they were on. Jesus had come to them in the midst of their exile and occupation to lead them toward the redemption. This is why Peter opens up talking to the Christians that being lit up like torches in the emperor’s garden by calling them “elect exiles.” This is why Paul says the suffering of this present age isn’t worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed. God’s people are on their way to redemption. They won’t suffer long. The new heaven and the new earth are coming.

The New Covenant forms the context for how you view your life. If you know your trajectory, then you can know your future. And, if you know your future, then you can press on by faith. You can make through disability and cancer. You can make through depression and disappointment. You can make it because redemption is coming.

We have a new “relationship.”

If you wake up tomorrow looking gaunt and gray, make up might help you look better. Plastic surgery might help you look a lot better. It can help you look healthy and vibrant. But, if you need a heart transplant and you treat it with plastic surgery, you’re just decorating a soon-to-be corpse.

And, this gets to the problem of the Old Covenant. God’s people could decorate their lives a bit with sacrifices and ceremony, but their hearts were unchanged. Josiah’s reforms at the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry had proven be only skin deep. That’s why Judah would be decimated. That’s why the Old Covenant had to give way to something new. They needed a heart transplant. And, that’s what the New Covenant was going to give them.

That is, what God is doing in Jeremiah 31 is establishing the terms of a new kind of relationship with his people. In our passage God says five times “I will.” God was going to take it upon himself to initiate a new type of relationship with his people, and He was going to do it — not by changing his standards or diminishing his holiness — but by changing the heart of his people. He says, “I will put my law within them. I will write it on their heart.” God was going to put in them what He wanted to receive from them. And...

A new heart “brings” a new “understanding.”

Jeremiah 31:33 “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.”

The heart as the Hebrew people understood is much different than we understand it. They saw it as the place of knowing, feeling, and deciding. It’s the seat of cognition, affect, and volition. And, with the New Covenant, when God says He’s changing the heart, He’s saying the entire person will be totally different. They’re going to understand their relationship with God and his law differently. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” So, what is going to happen in the New Covenant? God is going to do a supernatural work so that his people understand his Law, love his Law, and walk according to his Law. What was foolish before is the only thing that is rational now. They’re going to think differently. They’re going to think in a new way, a way that is alien to the rest of mankind.

You see, the Law is the means by which God’s people are meant to express their love toward him. And now, God’s people would actually understand the Law the way it was meant to be understood. This deeper understanding leads to an obedience of passion, not slavery. You see...

A new heart “creates” new “desires.”

Jeremiah 31:33 “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.”

When God says He will write it on their hearts, the idea is not of God creating some robotic, mechanical response to him. God is going to give them a heart transplant so that they want what they wouldn’t have wanted before. That is, God is taking the initiative to overcome their slavery to sin so that they will actually love what they were designed to love — Him.

That’s why the greatest litmus test for salvation and regeneration by God is a single question: Do you love God? Not that long ago, I saw where someone wrote describing what they hoped heaven would be. They described beauty and tranquility. They described the family and friends they loved. They described perfect health and happiness. But, there was something missing from the description — God himself. You see, what God is doing in the New Covenant, accomplishing through Christ is transforming his people so that they love him and not what He can do for them. He’s radically transforming their hearts so they want to honor. AND SO THAT THEY CAN!

A new heart “enables” new “abilities.”

Jeremiah 31:33 “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.”

A new heart changes what you think. A new heart changes what you love. And, a new heart changes what you do. Before you were suffocating from a lack of oxygen. Now, you can run free because you’ve been given a deep breath in Christ. In Exodus 6, God tells Moses why He’s redeeming Israel out of slavery — “they will be my people, and I will be their God.” And, He had certainly been their God, but they had failed at being his people. But, the New Covenant would change that. Now, they “shall be.” They would because they wanted to. They would because they were able to.

The New Covenant is a heart transplant. Jesus so fundamentally changes who you are that you can now do what you once couldn’t do. You want what you used to not want. You understand what used to seem crazy to you. And, that’s why you stand out in this world. You have a different heart. You’re alive living among corpses. You’re a light living among darkness. You’re salt living in the midst of rot. Oh, you do live differently, don’t you? You do stand out, don’t you? Don’t resent it. Praise Jesus for it!

We have a new “access.”

Plato, the philosopher, has a famous allegory called “the Parable of the Cave.” He argued that what most of us see is not reality but shadows of reality. He imagines someone who is locked away in a cave, and their only concept of what is happening in reality are the shadows cast upon the wall of the cave by the fire’s light. So, they see the partial shape of reality, but not reality itself. The author of Hebrews writes to greek Jews who would’ve been familiar with this parable, and he says in 10:1 that “the law (that is, the OC) has but a SHADOW of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities.”

That is, the Old Covenant was the shadow of reality, but the New Covenant is the real thing. The Old Covenant was a portrait, but the New Covenant is the Person himself. The Old Covenant left you thirsty, but the New Covenant keeps you satisfied. Consider how wonderful this new reality is for us:

We can all “know” him “personally.”

Jeremiah 31:34 “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, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””

In the OC, there were certain members of the nation that had a special relationship with God that others didn’t have. David had the Spirit, but not his people. God spoke to the prophets, but the prophets spoke to the people. And, I LOVE THIS. Something very unique within the OT happens here. God, who is almost always talking about the entire nation zooms in for a second on individuals. And, He says He’s going to relate to them individually, not just nationally. “They shall ALL know me!” Each one — regardless of who they are will know God personally.

How wonderful is this: Jesus knows YOU personally. And, YOU know Jesus personally. He makes your body the very temple where his presence dwells. Jesus knows everything about you, and He loves you. You can’t scare him away. Jesus is not out there somewhere. He’s with you. You never have to live apart from him. Jesus knows what you’re worried about, and He cares. You don’t have to trust what you’re neighbor says about him. YOU can know him for yourself and treasure him for yourself and enjoy him for yourself.

We can all “go” to him “directly.”

Jeremiah 31:34 “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, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””

In the OC, you went to priests, and priests went to God. And, in the very deepest presence of God — the Most Holy Place — only one priest went once per year, and He was lucky to survive it. But then, in the inauguration of the New Covenant, Jesus the Great High Priest offered a superior sacrifice in a superior temple that offered a sufficient atonement. When Jesus shouted from the cross “It is finished!” the veil that separated God’s presence from his people was torn from the top to the bottom. And now, it doesn’t matter if you’re from the tribe of Levi or the tribe of Dale Earnhardt, you have unhindered access to the throne of God when you go through Jesus. Those early priests were mere shadows of who Christ is and mere shadows of who we now are. WE are a royal priesthood with unfettered access to the Holy of Holies through the sacrifice of Christ.

Are you afraid? Go directly to God himself. Are you sad? Go and lie down in your Father’s presence. Are you weak? Take refuge in the One who is omnipotent? Are you unsure? Ask the omniscient God for wisdom from above. Are you thankful? Praise God directly in his presence. You can go directly to God. So, what in the world are you waiting for?

We can all be “forgiven” by him “decisively.”

Jeremiah 31:34 “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, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””

The OC served to show how bad we were. There are 613 commands in the OT. How are you doing with them? Jesus said that even if you think you’re good because you haven’t murdered that your a murderer in spirit every time you hate. How are you doing? I doubt I have to tell you that there are sins in your life that need paying for. And, in the OC, bulls and goats had pay. But, you knew that couldn’t fix you, right? But, at the cross, in the New Covenant, bulls and rams don’t die. The perfect Son of God did. And, He defeated your sin decisively so that you might be forgiven entirely. In fact, Hebrews 9:13–14 says, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Your sin loses. Your death loses. Your condemning conscience is being washed clean. It loves to bring up how bad you are. It loves to remind you of what you did and didn’t do. It loves convince you that your worthless and unredeemable. But, Jesus is at work to perfect your conscience so that it never accuses again, and He’s given you a sermon to preach: “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow.”

I’m clean because He made me clean. I’m forgiven because He has forgiven me. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Oh, I’m glad I live now. I’m glad I didn’t live in the OT days. I’ll take the cross over the manna. I’ll take the torn veil over the divided sea. I’ll take the risen Christ over the falling walls of Jericho! Faith is easier today because it’s been bought, verified, and now given to me.