A Better Covenant, Foretold

 Bob died, & St. Peter met him at the pearly gate. "What did you do worthy enough to be admitted?" Bob thought. "I was driving once & saw a biker gang harassing a woman. So, I pulled over. I got out my tire iron & looked at their big, hairy, muscular leader. Tattooed all over, he had a ring in his nose. I walked up & tore out his nose ring. "Stop bothering her or you'll have to deal with me!" "Good enough," said St. Peter. "When did this happen?" "2 minutes ago." Even in the Old Covenant, there's no "good enough." If God didn't deal with sin, no one would go to heaven. Ever. What about the sacrificial system? God forgave sins. Not sin. Even then, forgiveness is provisional. Complete forgiveness of sin waited for Christ's perfect sacrifice. The problem? Sin. Not just sins. Sin. Our sin nature. God tried everything to keep Israel from sinning. Signs & wonders leaving Egypt. Fire & earthquakes on Mt Sinai. But before the covenant was ratified, Israel worshiped a golden calf. So, God laid the law on them. In Ex 20-23, God gave her Covenant 101. 10 Commandments. Obey the Law for covenant blessings. Israel broke all 10 laws. She couldn't stop sinning. How could God keep His people from sin? How will He love us into eternal bliss? How will He hold our hands to keep us from sinning? Covenant 201. His Son will fulfill the 1st covenant where we can't. He'll forgive sin as well as sins. And to keep us from sins, He'll put His Spirit in us. It's in Jer 31:31-34. 31a"The time is coming," declares the Lord. The Messiah's Day. 31b"I'll make a new covenant." A contract is void if either party breaks it. But a covenant? It's only void if God says so. Covenants define 2 things. 1st, how God will deal with His people. 2nd, how His people are to respond. 1st was Abraham's, in Ge 17:7-8, 10-11. God promised Abraham land, & countless descendants. Abraham? Trust & obey God. Circumcise all males in each generation. From Abraham's descendants, God also promised a seed (Ge 3:15; offspring = singular seed). He'll defeat satan. Who? God's Son. At Sinai, God made the 1st Covenant. In Dt 29:1, 9, 12-13, God renewed it. A new generation needed to make it their own. They made it at Moab, the promised land's doorstep. In it, God revealed even more of Abraham's covenant. God promises to be their God. As His people they obey so they can stay & be blessed in the land. In David's Covenant, 2 Sam 7:11b-16, God revealed even more about Abraham's descendant. A King with an eternal kingdom. All covenants but The Law relate back to Abraham's Covenant. Each revealed a little more. What about the 1st Covenant? The Law? God added it because of human failure. Gal 3:19, 24 explains why. People kept sinning. So, God gave the law until the promised Seed came. The Law was our nanny. Inability to keep it shows us we need a Savior. In Jer 31:31-34, God promises a new covenant. In it, God will give us the Savior we need. Who's the New Covenant with? All God's people? No, just 31c"the whole house of Israel & Judah." All Israel. Where do we come in? How did Gentiles get in? It was always God's plan to include the Gentiles-us. Israel was supposed to invite us. They failed. Even worse, they rejected their Savior. So, Jesus invited us. Where? Look at Jn 12:20-21, 23-24. Greeks wanted to see Jesus. They wanted to be saved. Jesus' answer? They'll be part of the harvest from his death. Now look at Ro 11:18. When Jews rejected Jesus, God opened the way (Peter). Gentiles were grafted onto vine of Abraham's promises. Grafted into Christ, we inherit their promises, too. What will the New Covenant be like? 32a"It won't be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt." Why? 32b"They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. God was a faithful husband to His bride. But His bride? His people? They've been unfaithful from the start. God's faithfulness couldn't make us keep that covenant. He'll make a new covenant. A better covenant. 33a"This is the covenant I'll make with the whole house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord." That time, day of the Messiah. The One Who'll live the perfect life we can't. The One who'll offer His life in exchange for ours. Best of all? 33b"I'll put my law in their minds & write it on their hearts." The 1st Covenant, The Law, was etched on tablets of stone. This new covenant is written on our hearts. But how? In Jer 17:1 God says 1"Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts." Iron pen with a flint point? Hearts of stone! How will God write His law on stony hearts? Look at Ezk 11:19-20. God says He'll remove our heart of stone. He'll give us a new heart of flesh. We'll be reborn. God's purpose? Same as all covenants. A wedding! 33c"I'll be their God, & they'll be my people." He'll be husband, His people the bride. It'll be the closest, most intimate relationship. Best of all? God won't leave us struggling to obey. How? 34a"No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord.' " How? That brings us to the best news of all. 34b"They'll all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord." How will He do that? In 2 aspects of the better covenant. 1st, He'll deal with the sin problem. How can sinful people come near enough to know a holy God? 34c"I'll forgive their wickedness & will remember their sins no more." Complete forgiveness of sins. 2nd, He'll help us know Him. How? He'll put His Spirit in us. Regenerates us. The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. He'll also do in us what we could never do: He'll obey God. One more thing. A covenant requires a death. In the OT, make a covenant is literally, cut a covenant. Cut acceptable animals in half & lay them out. Walk between the pieces. Ge 15:9-10, 17 (2080 BC) & Jer 34:18 (600 BC) show that was their practice for 1400+ years. On what death would God make this new covenant? He foreshadowed it with Abraham & Isaac, on the mountain where He'd do it. But it was Isaiah to whom God showed who it'd be. Look at Isa 53:6-7. Jesus became sin to bear our sin. He became the Lamb of Passover. He was sacrificed at exactly the specified time. The New Covenant was literally made on Jesus' crucified body. Our participation in is also involves a death-death to self so we can be alive in Christ. In every way, our new covenant is better, superior. God has done the impossible. He's enabled a sinful people not only to obey but to be able to receive a priceless treasure, His Spirit. And His Spirit in us brings eternal life with God. It's an eternal covenant. How much of this New Covenant has been fulfilled? In Jer 31:33-34, God makes 4 promises. 1st, God promises His law written on our hearts. To some extent that's been fulfilled. We want to please Him because His Holy Spirit works in us. But we don't yet have the complete understanding of God's that's promised. 2nd, God includes Gentiles (us) in His covenant relationship with Israel. But it isn't exactly the same covenant relationship God promised her. 3rd, all God's people can know the Lord intimately to some degree. But we don't all have the promised depth of relationship. We still need teaching & teachers. God's promise is that in the future neither we nor Israel will need them. 4th, Christians do enjoy complete forgiveness of sins. So will Israelites in the future. The point? All God's people already enjoy great blessings from this better covenant. When will it be complete? When Christ returns. Remember what happens then? The wedding feast. The marriage of The Bride to The Lamb. God's wedding ceremony. We're betrothed when He regenerates us. We're putting on our wedding clothes-our garments of salvation. He already sees us in Christ's righteousness. In His righteousness, we're forgiven. Our wedding clothes? Acts of compassion, mercy, & love. Fruit of the Spirit. Loving, joyful obedience to His commands. Love God with all we are. Love others as ourselves. Getting better at it all. We'll keep putting on our wedding clothes till the wedding. It's like a fine meal. Course after course of the finest food. What we're already enjoying is awesome. We'll keep enjoying it till the end of the meal. But dessert is still coming. The best of this 2nd covenant is also yet to come. Save your dessert forks! A Better Covenant, Foretold - Jeremiah 31, 31-34 Page 1 of 1