It is really unfortunate that our bible is divided into “old” and “new” testaments, as though there is a disconnect between the two. We hear testament and we think of something akin to a will. It’s like a last will and testament—it’s about something that is supposed to happen after we’re dead. But, the word “testament” when used in relation to the Bible means “covenant.” Covenant is what we’ve been exploring through this Lenten season. There really is no disconnect between the “old” and the “new.” I’ve heard it said this way—“the new is in the old concealed, the old is in the new revealed.” Though we call it old and new, it really is one covenant. The persistent thread that runs throughout is the One who makes the covenant—God. God is the covenant maker and God is the covenant keeper.
So, what of this promise of a “new” covenant that we read about in the prophecy of Jeremiah? If God is the covenant maker and covenant keeper, why do we need a new covenant? Perhaps a review is in order to understand the context. There are numerous covenants in the Old Testament. This series has covered a number of those covenants: God’s covenant with creation through Noah, God’s covenant with Abraham and God’s covenant with the nation of Israel through Moses, which we know as the Covenant of the Law.
As we said earlier in the series, we tend to think of covenant more like a contract, but biblically, the idea runs deeper than that. This covenant God makes reads in the Old Testament like an ancient treaty that a prevailing king would offer to his recently defeated adversaries. The victorious king would offer his terms to the defeated in what was then called a suzerainty treaty. The victor would state, “I’m going to do this, this and this,” and then the treaty would say in relation to the defeated, “You will do this, this and this.” That’s the form of each of the treaties we’ve looked at over the past few weeks. The victorious king was maker of the treaty. It was not a contract between two parties. It was a one-way thing. All the second party had to do was be obedient. The obedience would lead to blessing.
We’ve seen over the past several weeks that the nation of Israel had a problem with being obedient. As a result, they missed all of the blessing. We know that before the ink was dry on the deal, the people were involved in all sorts of sin…including idolatry. They had no sooner been the recipients of the greatest miracle of salvation when God parted the Red Sea, than they started making golden calves to worship. The books of Exodus and Numbers record the nation’s inability to keep the covenant.
Fast-forward several hundred years to the sixth century B. C., to the prophet Jeremiah. He was a prophet to the nation of Judah, which was the remaining remnant of God’s covenant people. The people, even several hundred years later, did what they had always done. They had forsaken God again. They were living in idolatry, greed and pride, and were neglecting the poor and widows among them. Jeremiah's prophecy is filled with doom and gloom and warnings to Judah. Jeremiah has even been called “The Weeping Prophet.” He wept over the nation and its sins. He had the unenviable task of calling the nation back to God. The people wouldn’t listen to Jeremiah, though. They ridiculed him. They beat him. They made fun of him—called him a bald little man! Finally God said, “Have it your way!” God allowed the Babylonians to attack, defeat, and deport them from their homeland for 70 years. That is the historical backdrop of Jeremiah’s account.
Don’t be too hard on them, though. We’re the same way. The disobedience started all the way back in the Garden of Eden when Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit. She and Adam yielded to the temptation, and it’s been downhill ever since. Someone said, “Opportunity knocks but once, but temptation bangs on the door every day.” Unfortunately, we like they, don’t handle temptations very well.
Let’s face it. It was the “old” covenant that put them (and us) in that situation. The “old” covenant could only convict of sin. It could not convert one from that sin, or control the sin in one’s life. So, God says, “You know what? I’m going to make a ‘new’ covenant with my people.” When we say “new,” we don’t need to think He did away with the “old” one. He didn’t discard the old covenant, but rather offered the new and improved version. Like the iPhone, right? Remember a long time ago when the iPhone 4s came out? It was the best ever…until the iPhone 5 arrived. Here’s the thing: the essence of the iPhone is the same, but something has been added to it that makes it better. That’s the kind of new Jeremiah is talking about. That’s the kind of new God is working in His covenant.
So, what about this “new” covenant? Jeremiah writes:
33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 …“And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
The old covenant was like this: If People did their part, God would do his part. But his people never did their part. In fact, if we are honest, no person has or ever will keep God's commands perfectly. So, God looked forward in time to a day when his new covenant would come to fruition. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.”
The Hebrew word for “law” is torah, and it means the written law. Torah can simply mean “a teaching,” and this teaching is one that God would write in their minds and in their hearts, on the inner soul of his people. And, this new law, this new covenant was later revealed to be the Gospel—the Good News! And God says, “I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
The new covenant relationship with God is not based on what people do; it is based on God, the One in whom they believe. It, too, is a covenant rooted in faith. Remember what we’re told in Genesis? “And Abraham believed and it was accounted to him as righteousness.”
And, the Good News is that Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah brought this new covenant relationship to fruition by his sacrifice. That’s the prophecy of Jeremiah: “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Sins forgiven and forgotten. That’s Good News! I love how the Psalmist puts it: “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103: 12 NLT).
God remembers not our sins but his Son's sacrifice on the cross. No strings attached. No fine print. It’s a one-sided deal, a unilateral covenant signed, sealed, and delivered by the precious blood of Jesus. That covenant is ours through faith in Christ Jesus.
Despite our efforts at overcoming sin and rebellion, despite our amateur claims to be self-sufficient without God, God came forward with the divine rescue plan of his new covenant.
God not only came forward, but he came down to our world in the person of Jesus Christ. He came with righteousness that covers our sinful hearts. He came with the sacrifice that atones for not only our sin but the sin of the whole world. Jeremiah's promise of a new covenant was fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah. I like the way the writer of Hebrews says it:
13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant (Hebrews 9: 13 – 15 NLT).
It really was God’s plan all along. We have entered the season of March Madness. Do you remember March Madness from 1983? Coach Jim Valvano had a great game plan for his North Carolina State Wolfpack against the Houston Cougars in the title game. He told the media one thing, but then he did another. All along, everyone thought that NC State would come out and hold the ball (there wasn’t a shot clock in those days). All the while Valvano knew he would come and run the ball up and down the court. Ultimately, Valvano’s plan was to hold the ball, but it was only after he caught the other team off guard. That’s not to say that God played a trick on us. It’s just that God had a plan. He wasn’t looking to fool anybody or catch anybody off guard. The plan was the plan all the time, and God knew what was going to happen and when.
It was always God’s plan that His covenant would be fulfilled through His Son, Jesus. Jesus came to offer us forgiveness from sin and to write God’s law on our heart. This is the culmination of God’s plan of redeeming humanity. No one was sure where God was headed in this matter, but God had a plan all along. Like Jimmy V, God’s plan worked. It can work for you, too, if you put your faith in Jesus Christ.
