Only fourteen more days until Easter. Only seven more days until Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. And for those of you who are counting, there are only 282 more days until Christmas. We are people who like to count. We like to have count downs for days. We like to have count downs as we look forward to some big event. If you are graduating from Jr. High, from High School, from College, if you are getting married, or if you are having a baby, you like to count down the days until the big event. Counting days is a natural thing to do as we look forward to something. Even in the Bible, in our text for today, Jeremiah is counting down. He says that “the days are coming.”
Jeremiah’s count down is for the making of a New Covenant. We read beginning at verse thirty-one, “31Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32not 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” (v.31-32).
Our text says that the “the days” are coming. The days that are coming are the days of the making of a new covenant, the days of the sending of a Savior, and the days of eternity. This is a text that is looking forward to the beginning of the end of the world and the beginning of life in eternity, in heaven.
Our text tells us that there will be a new covenant. For there to be a new covenant means there must have been an Old Covenant. Why do we need a new covenant? What happened to the Old Covenant? Is this a different covenant? And if it is a different covenant, how is it different? We need a new covenant because the children of Israel were disobedient to the old covenant. The old covenant was a covenant initiated by God and was based on faith, faith that a Savior would come. The old covenant was a covenant that God would be the God of the children of Israel and they would be His people. Unfortunately, the children of Israel gave up their covenant by running after other gods who were not God. God did not break the old covenant, the children of Israel broke the old covenant, so that it was no longer in effect, at least the earthly part of the covenant, the part about an earthly land and property.
The new covenant is very similar to the old covenant, because it is also a covenant based on faith. The old covenant looked forward to the sending of a Savior and was based on faith that He would come. The new covenant is looking back at Jesus and faith that Jesus is the Savior who did come. The new covenant is based on faith that Jesus is our Savior. Just as the old covenant was initiated by God, so this new covenant was also initiated by God. God sent His Son to be our Savior. At our baptism we were made a part of this new covenant. The question we might ask ourselves today is: Are we any different from the children of Israel? Are we faithful to the Lord, or are we disobedient and do we go running after other gods that are not God?
Our text continues with a description of the New Covenant. We pick up at verse thirty-three, “33But 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. 34And 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” (v.33-34).
The Lord, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah tells the people that “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” He will do this instead of setting it before them externally, instead of merely presenting it in writing through inscribing it on some durable stone, like He did the first covenant. This writing the covenant on their hearts will distinguish this new covenant from the old covenant. But a bit more subtly, the Lord is reminding us that for change to take place, it must take place in the heart.
Note that this new covenant is very much like the old covenant. God tells us that He will be our God and we will be His people. As always, God is the initiator, God is the giver and we are the given to. Both covenants are based on faith. The first covenant was based on faith that God would fulfill His promise and send a Savior. The new covenant is also based on faith, not faith in a coming Messiah, but faith that Jesus is the Messiah promised by God.
We noted earlier that this is a text which talks about the last days. As we approach the last days our text tells us that no longer will there be a need to tell others about the Lord. This is because the Lord will so fully do His work that all people will know Him. This does not mean that we are off the hook when it comes to personal evangelism and witnessing. Our text is referencing first, the fact that the Gentiles will more readily hear the message of the Lord and second that there will be an abundance of the Word of the Lord. This is where we understand that to know and experience the grace of God implies that God’s gracious will in Christ Jesus has already been proclaimed. In other words, there will be no need to tell others about Jesus because they will know about Him by the very fact that we will be living as witnesses of the faith that is in our hearts.
All of this takes place because the basis for the new covenant is the forgiveness of sins. Last week we were reminded that God did not take the venomous snakes from the children of Israel when He gave them a cure. This week we notice that, this side of heaven, we will not be sinless, but we will be forgiven. Only when we reach heaven will we be forgiven and then sinless for eternity.
Why did God need to give a New Covenant? God needed to give a new covenant because of the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel. God needed to give a new covenant because the children of Israel broke His first covenant. God gives us this new covenant because of our unfaithfulness. The children of Israel could not live up to the demands of the law and neither can we live up to the demands of the Law.
This new covenant came about as a consequence of God’s faithfulness. God knew we would never be able to live up to the demands of the law so He sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to be born as one of us, truly human, truly divine. Jesus fulfilled all the Law perfectly for us, in our place. Jesus lived up to the demands of the Law for us. Jesus fulfilled all the promises and prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, perfectly. Jesus obeyed God perfectly which is His demand, “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,” because we cannot.
Now I want to take a moment to summarize the differences and similarities of these two covenants, to make sure we understand the differences and similarities. Both covenants were instituted by God. As always we see that God gives and we are given to. Both covenants save by faith. The old covenant looked forward to the coming of a Savior, the new covenant looks back at the Savior who came.
The old covenant was filled with ceremonial laws that demanded sacrifices, daily sacrifices. These sacrifices did nothing except remind the people of the price for sin, that blood must be shed for their sins. In the new covenant we see that Jesus has fulfilled all the ceremonial laws because He was the sacrifice, the once for all sacrifice. Jesus gave His life, once for all, on the cross for our forgiveness.
The old covenant was written on stone tables. The new covenant is written in our hearts through the means of Grace, the Word and the sacraments, through the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. The new covenant is written in our hearts when we are baptized or when the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through the means of the Word.
Both covenants were given by God’s grace. We had nothing to do with initiating, keeping, or completing the covenants. They were initiated, kept and completed by God for all people of all times of all places.
Our text for today is quoted in Hebrews chapter eight. In the footnote in my self-study Bible it makes this interesting note about this passage in comparing the two covenants. About the new covenant it says, “Its superior benefits are:(1) God’s laws will become inner principles (v.10a) that enable his people to delight in doing his will (cf. Eze 36:26-27; Ro 8:2-4); (2) God and his people will have intimate fellowship (v. 10b); (3) sinful ignorance of God will be removed forever (v. 11); and (4) forgiveness of sins will be an everlasting reality (v. 12).”
And one final note concerning the time of this new covenant. Jesus birth ushered in the new covenant and the end times. We are living in the last days of this world. Yes, God waited some four thousand years from creation and Adam and Eve’s fall into sin and His promise to send a Savior, for the sending of Jesus as the Savior. That does not necessarily mean that He will wait some four thousand years until He comes again. So far we have waited about two thousand years. We may wait another two thousand years, but perhaps not. The point is, we are living in the end times and we need to be ready at all times for His return.
So, as we approach the end of our Lenten Season we continue to be reminded that it was our sins that put Jesus on the cross. We are also reminded that no matter how unfaithful we are, God is faithful to His promises and because He is faithful He has established His new covenant with us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, the new covenant is not based on us and what we do or do not do, rather it is based on Jesus and what He has done, does and will continue to do for us. We continue our Lenten Season in solemn preparation as we continue to contemplate our part in putting Jesus on the cross and the fact that it was because of us and our sin that Jesus came to die on the cross, to shed His blood, to give His life, because of His great love for us. We are also reminded that death and the grave have no power over Him, but He rose victorious over sin, death and the devil and even now as we move through this Lenten Season we look forward to our joyful Easter celebration and Easter season. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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