Part 3: Hope
Day 19: The New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:26-40
There are a lot of unspoken agreements that people live by. I think about our own house lately. My wife is working more, and I am about to bring in less income by choosing a new ministry path, this means that the expectations for me, domestically, have adjusted. Some of those agreements have been spoken, like I make sure the dishes are cleared in the morning before going to work. Some of those are unspoken, I do more dishes around dinner time than I was expected to earlier in our marriage. To be clear after 16 years if anyone in our house feels like they are getting the short end of the stick we know how to talk it out, and in light of our changing professional lives I am glad to do my part, even if I am nowhere near as detail-oriented in clearing the kitchen as my wife.
God interacts with his chosen people, Israel, through a series of specific agreements called covenants. There are 5 major covenants. To Noah God agrees to never destroy the earth with water again. In the meantime, Noah is expected to be fruitful and multiply, punish murder (keep life sacred), and push the blood out of his meat. With Abraham, God promises to bless the whole world through kids of Abrahams that are yet unborn, and Abraham is expected to circumcise males on the 8th day of life. Moses gets the agreements made in “The Law” and King David gets the promise of an enduring royal line.
The New Covenant declared in Jeremiah 31 is God reminding the people that they have failed to keep the previous four covenants and that God will initiate a new covenant. In this new one God will put the covenant in people’s hearts and the keeping of it will not depend on their faithfulness, but on Gods. He will remember their sins no more. And so on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took the cup, and when he had blessed it he said “Take and drink this, it is my blood. The blood of the New Covenant shed so that sins may be forgiven.” He directly references the 5th covenant of Jeremiah seeing himself as the one who initiates this new agreement. This is later confirmed in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 8.
This allows us to live with certainty that God “remembers our sins no more.” We can have great freedom in that assurance. God does not keep a ledger; we are not trying to outweigh our bad deeds with good deeds. Our agreement is not that kind of transaction, Jesus fulfills the promise of the new covenant by absorbing our bad deeds and giving us the merit of His good deeds. That is the good news of the Gospel and Jeremiah 31:31 directly predicts it.
A Prayer for Holy Thought: O God, without whose beauty and goodness our souls are unfed, without whose truth our reason withers: Consecrate our lives to your will, giving us such purity of heart, such depth of faith, family and personal life and such steadfastness of purpose, that in time we may come to think your own thoughts after you; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
God interacts with his chosen people, Israel, through a series of specific agreements called covenants. There are 5 major covenants. To Noah God agrees to never destroy the earth with water again. In the meantime, Noah is expected to be fruitful and multiply, punish murder (keep life sacred), and push the blood out of his meat. With Abraham, God promises to bless the whole world through kids of Abrahams that are yet unborn, and Abraham is expected to circumcise males on the 8th day of life. Moses gets the agreements made in “The Law” and King David gets the promise of an enduring royal line.
The New Covenant declared in Jeremiah 31 is God reminding the people that they have failed to keep the previous four covenants and that God will initiate a new covenant. In this new one God will put the covenant in people’s hearts and the keeping of it will not depend on their faithfulness, but on Gods. He will remember their sins no more. And so on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took the cup, and when he had blessed it he said “Take and drink this, it is my blood. The blood of the New Covenant shed so that sins may be forgiven.” He directly references the 5th covenant of Jeremiah seeing himself as the one who initiates this new agreement. This is later confirmed in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 8.
This allows us to live with certainty that God “remembers our sins no more.” We can have great freedom in that assurance. God does not keep a ledger; we are not trying to outweigh our bad deeds with good deeds. Our agreement is not that kind of transaction, Jesus fulfills the promise of the new covenant by absorbing our bad deeds and giving us the merit of His good deeds. That is the good news of the Gospel and Jeremiah 31:31 directly predicts it.
- What are some of the spoken and unspoken agreements in your household?
- Can you remember a time where you updated an agreement that was not working?
- Can you think of any agreements that are decidedly one sided?
- Do you feel a sense that God has given you power to keep your side of the agreement?
A Prayer for Holy Thought: O God, without whose beauty and goodness our souls are unfed, without whose truth our reason withers: Consecrate our lives to your will, giving us such purity of heart, such depth of faith, family and personal life and such steadfastness of purpose, that in time we may come to think your own thoughts after you; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.