Heirs of a New Covenant, Jeremiah 31:31-37
Introduction
We live in an age of passing fancies and boredom. When men and women enter into that most sacred of institutions, for example, it is seldom with the genuine intention of union unto death. It is often a union whose ties will be severed as quickly as comfort passes, prosperity ceases, or newness wears off.
In the practical experience of our culture we know almost nothing of true covenant. In the experience of modern church culture it is not much more likely that our eyes will be really illuminated to true biblical covenant.
This culture moves rapidly. If even a small family lives within relative proximity it is a true blessing. Within the walls of our churches our focus is not necessarily upon things which create within us a deep sense of, appreciation for, or understanding of the importance of covenant. In our day, promises are often made only to be broken.
God is often portrayed and seen as the bringer of immediate happiness, pleasure, security, and while He does offer these things to those who are within the covenant, its blessing is far greater than temporary peace.
The covenants of God are unshakable promises made by the sovereign hand who hung the moon in its place to you and to me. The promises of men are fleeting, too often made on a whim. The covenant of Almighty God is as unshakable as the ocean is deep. The deepest part of the ocean, in fact, is Mariana Trench. The bottom there is more than 35,000 feet below sea level. If Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, were placed at this location it would be covered by over one mile of water.
Verse 37 of our text today was recorded thousands of years before modern technology allowed us even to peer into those depths and to humbly photograph the heights of space, the heavens. In it the prophet Jeremiah records the wonder of God’s everlasting, unshakable, steadfast commitment to His covenant; to the people of His covenant.
This is what the LORD says: “Just as the heavens cannot be measured and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored, so I will not consider casting them away for the evil they have done. I, the LORD, have spoken!” (Jeremiah 31:37 NLT)
Transition
The Covenant people of God are securely in the palm of His hand. If, dear Christian, you take nothing else from this message, leave assured of the steadfast nature of His promise to you and to me, for today we speak of covenant.
That is specifically, the New Covenant of which you and I are heirs in Christ Jesus!
Exposition
Jeremiah 31 is among the most celebrated and beautiful passages of the Bible, though its interpretation is not without some measure of debate. For the most part that debate centers on the question of the participants of the New Covenant being spoken of in this passage. Is this a covenant which differs from the New Covenant spoken of in New Testament, inaugurated in Christ?
Is this some later covenant promise strictly reserved for Israel in millennial reign after Christ returns and Israel receives her Messiah?
When does the covenant begin? Who are the recipients? Upon whose heart will the law be written? On the far ends of the spectrum are those who contend that the promises of this passage are for Israel alone or that that this passage is for the Church alone, saying that the Church is spiritual Israel.
Both viewpoints are understandable but both are rooted, I would argue, too much in historical theology and theological tradition and not enough in the explicit teaching of major biblical themes. This passage has major implications in various theological systems and many defend their system vehemently.
Those who say the promises contained here are only for Israel neglect proper and complete understanding of the continuity of the redemption plan of God. Those who say the promises of this passage refer only the church spiritualize Israel to an extent which is inconsistent with the overall themes of the Bible.
They ignore the plain language used in this text. Clearly these promises are for Israel; the house of Israel (Northern Kingdom) and the house of Judah (Southern Kingdom). Why does this matter for us today? Is this not a theological debate that is better suited for the seminary than the pulpit?
It matters entirely for one reason. How we interpret passages like this have everything to do with how we understand the revelation of the Bible to be. Our biblical hermeneutic, that is the way we interpret the Bible, must be plain, obvious, simple, and honest to the text for it to be valid.
In our personal study of the Bible and in our public use of it we must strive to allow the Bible to speak for itself. It says Israel. Therefore, it’s for Israel. But are these promises only for Israel? A plain reading of the text must be coupled with a broader understanding of biblical revelation.
The Bible must be allowed to speak for itself. The promises of this text are for national, literal Israel in the ultimate sense, and the Church partakes of and dwells within the blessing of the New Covenant today. There are two basic ways to understand the promises of the New Covenant spoken of here in Jeremiah.
(1) The New Covenant is explicitly a present reality for the Church today. We are currently living within the covenant, in the dispensation of God’s grace. God will one day rescue Israel from her enemies (as spoken of by the prophets), restore her to her land completely, and bring Israel into the Covenant when Christ returns. This is basically my position.
(2) Some take a slightly different position saying that the promises of Jeremiah 31 are for Israel after the return of Christ when this covenant is inaugurated and lived out during the millennial reign of Christ on this earth. The Church currently enjoys many of the blessings of this covenant and all will enjoy the full blessing of the covenant upon Christ return.
The differences between these two central, biblical understandings are highly nuanced and not terribly consequential in the practice of our faith. In both cases the central doctrine is Christ because it is Christ whose blood was shed to make the covenant a reality. In either case we are heirs of the covenant of God.
We live within the covenant. Just as God chose the Nation of Israel according to His own good pleasure to bring to humanity the fulness of revelation of His glory and grace, He has chosen us in Christ, the firstfruits of the covenant, the wild olive branch (the gentiles) who have been grafted into the blessed promises of God’s covenant.
Romans 11:24 “For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.” (ESV)
God made a covenant with Israel. They rejected their Messiah. Israel is the olive tree. We (gentiles) were taken off of the wild olive tree (out of the world) and grafted into the cultivated tree (the covenant family of God). Israel, as a nation, will one day receive the Messiah that she in her blindness rejected.
They will be grafted back into the covenant, the New Covenant that we now enjoy fully. The references in Jeremiah 31:31 to the house of Israel and house of Judah are literal but it is also wording consistent with saying “all of God’s covenant people.”
Israel had broken its unity. God will restore them. What of the Church? Has not the Body of Christ broken unity? Here is a practical question related to this subject matter: is God pleased with the fractured, disunited, broken, scattered nature of the Church? Some say that the various denominations are like trays on a buffet.
Choose which one is right for you. This is how God works. I would suggest to you that God is not a celestial Burger King owner, giving it to us “our way.”
He is unified. There is one truth and that is the Bible. The disunity, brokenness, and division we experience within the body of Christ, that is, the Church universal, is evidence of sin and discord.
It is not evidence of God’s having a “buffet theology.” Indeed, this is one of the more beautiful aspects of the historical Congregational Way as we have received it. Unity in diversity, charity on secondary matters, bound together in Christ we strive forward as one covenant people.
One of the most striking things about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is the warring Christian factions there.
At the very place where Jesus was crucified, laid in a tomb, and resurrected, the Roman Church, the Eastern Orthodox, and the Coptic Church (Egyptian), live in an edgy cursory peace. Occasionally, particular on high holy days of the Church, tensions sometimes erupt into physical brawls. (As recently as 2008) Imagine the insanity of fist fights between monks and clergy of various Christian groups at the holiest site in all of Christendom! Is there any clearer commentary on our need for the Christ who died and rose there? Is there any more potent symbol of our need for His return to bring perfect healing to this world?
The twelve tribes of Israel had divided into two kingdoms. Israel was in the North with 10 tribes. Judah was in the South. The Church is divided into well more than 12 denominations. In America alone there are hundreds of denominations and subcategories of conferences and associations. Israel today is not a terribly unified place.
Even among the Jews there is a wide variety of practices and belief. All of God’s covenant people are in desperate need of having the law written upon our hearts.
Application
In Hebrews chapter 8 our text from Jeremiah is quoted almost in its entirety. Before it is quoted though, its importance is defined.
Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain." But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” (Hebrews 8:1-6 ESV)
We are heirs of the New Covenant. The law of God has been written on our hearts. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (II Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
We often don’t act like it but we are new creations, heirs, participants of the New Covenant, washed in the blood of Christ, forgiven, redeemed, reconciled to God, freed from the burden of sin and its consequences. “And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20 ESV)
One day the same Jesus who shed His blood at Calvary where His followers currently live in tense anxiety shall come to crush all sin and conquer all fear. He will gather all of God’s covenant people into one family, one kingdom, one holy and righteous nation. But glory to God precious saints, we are not bound to wait until that day to know the beauty of the covenant.
We are current active participants of the New Covenant, bound together by love for God, drawn together by the Holy Spirit by the love of God, dwelling together in covenant community.
We are not only heirs of the New Covenant waiting knowing its promise, awaiting its consummation. We are residents, citizens, of the kingdom of God; dwelling within the boundaries of covenant with God. His promises are unshakable. His love is unquenchable. Jesus is our mediator.
He has intervened on our behalf before the Father. He has laid down His righteous life so that we could pick up His righteousness. “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15 ESV)
We have received that inheritance now in Christ and the day is coming when it will be consummated fully.
Conclusion
It is common for homeowners to have many locks in their houses, each with different keys, but to have one master key which opens all. So the Lord has many treasuries and secrets all shut up from carnal minds with locks which they cannot open; but he who walks in fellowship with Jesus possesses the master key which will admit him to all the blessings of the covenant; yea, to the very heart of God. Through the Well-beloved we have access to God, to heaven, to every secret of the Lord.
There is coming a day my friends when Christ shall descend with the shout of the trumpet, He shall abolish sin and the carnal mind, bind together the broken bonds of Israel, she shall turn to Her Messiah, and we, the Church shall be healed and brought into one accord as Jesus prayed during His earthly ministry (John 17:21), and we shall receive in full what we now know in part: the full extent and blessing of the Covenant of the Lord!
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:1-5 ESV)
The New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 is promises to one day restore Israel. We experience its blessing today. We look forward with great anticipation to the hope it offers for tomorrow. The same Jesus who bore our sin on Calvary, where men now bicker foolishly in His name, shall descend to the holy mountain of Zion and make all things new. We are heirs of the covenant! Amen.
