The Messianic Covenant (part 5)

The new covenant contains promises that pledged the “sanctification” of God’s people and their preservation in a growing state of holiness until their final glorification. These promises are summarized in:

· Heb 8:10-12 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."  

We have just seen this passage earlier. There are four promises listed here.

· First, the Lord would write His laws on the hearts of those for whom Jesus died. When this happens a change takes place in the person that results in God’s law being received and respected.

· Second, God assures His people that He will be their God and as their God He will supply their every need. He is the God of His people in a spiritual and everlasting sense.

· Third, this third promise is so critical to our understanding. It has to do with the Knowledge of God. Verse 11 is strange sounding at first, until we understand what God is here promising. Under the Mosaic covenant God revealed various aspects of His character but even the most spiritual people had difficulties really understanding God. The great masses of the people had little understanding. Again, so far as the nation of Israel as a whole is concerned, the revelation God made of Himself was external and many of the people knew the letter of the Scripture, but had no idea of anything higher.

· Jer. 5:4, "These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God.

· Jer 9:3, "They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me," declares the LORD.

The teachers of the nation Israel began to be divided into different schools of thought and this resulted in the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and others.

I want to read you two versions of two verses. Listen carefully and tell me if you can distinguish a difference between them.

· Mal. 2:11-12 Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. 12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the LORD cut him off from the tents of Jacob-even though he brings offerings to the LORD Almighty. (NIV)

· Mal. 2:11-12,Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts. (KJV)

This is a good example of what we have been talking about as to how you interpret the Bible.

What is the significance of “the tents of Jacob” and “the tabernacles of Jacob”? Notice that this refers to a “master and the scholar” in the KJV and one who “brings offerings to the Lord” in the NIV. This is a leader of the church, but he is “of Jacob”. Meaning what? Yes, that he is of the natural seed and not the spiritual seed.

“No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest”.God has now given a perfect revelation of Himself by giving His Son, the Mediator, but He has also provided the Holy Spirit as our guide into God’s truth. Those believers in Jesus have an additional aid in knowing and obeying God.

· 2 Cor. 4:6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

We have something far better than human teachers to explain God’s Word. The Holy Spirit is what is meant in:

· John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.

· 1 John 2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 27, As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit-just as it has taught you, remain in him.

It is this anointing that provides the power to the believer of understanding and obedience. And this power, or ability, is not limited to a special few. It is given to all true believers and it is far more than an intellectual ability. It deals with the heart and it is this that God means when He says He will write His laws on the hearts of flesh. Since the Holy Spirit was not available to all prior to the Messianic covenant, the teaching of man was mostly external in its effect.

· The fourth promise was:

· Heb. 8:12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

What an amazing promise! God will pardon all of the sins of the believer and what’s more He will not even remember them. When God refers to “their” of course He is referring to believers and these are the people who have been regenerated, reconciled, and given a sanctifying knowledge of God. This applies only to those who are in a covenant relationship to God.

Now let’s recap the passage:

· First, “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts”.       This is accomplished at regeneration and this is the foundation for all that follows.

· Second, “I will be their God and they will be my people.”  This signifies a reconciliation on the part of God and the believer.

· Third, “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” This is the sanctification process, or the life-long growth in spirituality that comes as we grow in knowledge and obedience by direction of the Holy Spirit.

· Fourth, “For I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more.”  The final guarantee that the covenantees will be regarded as sinless, and as such receive their reward in heaven.

This is what makes the new covenant so much different from the old, or Sinai covenant. In the old covenant there was a hint of forgiveness, with limitations but there was no point at which there was an enabler, The Spirit, nor was there any assurance that their sins were permanently forgiven. Under the new covenant the forgiveness was free, full, perfect and everlasting.

The KJV says that “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness…”  The word here “merciful” is a word that we have seen but do not always understand. It is “propitious”. Propitious emphasizes that it is not absolute mercy without any justice. So we learn that Jesus died to make God propitious toward sinners. This is an example of the amazing wisdom of God. How can justice be enforced against the guilty, yet be merciful toward them? No finite intelligence could come up with an answer. Well, Jesus was the answer.

So this is the remarkable prophecy of Jeremiah. The Messianic covenant, unlike the Sinai covenant, accomplished the eternal salvation of the elect. The new covenant does for those who are in it what the old covenant failed to do for the Jewish people. To them God gave the law as written on tables of stone; to the New Covenant saints God also gives the law, but writes it on their hearts. That which makes all the difference is the Holy Spirit.

Those who are brought into the covenant are the objects of God’s electing love. And they owe it all to grace alone.