God's New Covenant

Jeremiah 31:31-34

God Made A New Covenant with His People

The main theme of Jeremiah 31:31-34 relates to the new covenant that the Lord has promised will take place. The basic concept of a covenant is an agreement or contract between two persons. The new covenant inaugurates and establishes the new page between the relationship of God and the Israelites.

We will discuss this topic in four areas by explaining this passage of scripture.  Notice that there is repetition of the phrase “I will”:

1. I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and the people of Judah.

2.I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.

3.I will be their God and they will be my people.

4.I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.

“I will” indicates that it is the Lord who shall personally, actively, and willingly initiate the actions. In between these actions is the phrase that keeps repeating, “declares the LORD,” and thus it is something that is very discreet and sacred, and something that the LORD will surely accomplish.

The Old Covenant was replaced by the New

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 31:31-32)

The LORD wanted to make a new covenant, and it meant that there was an old covenant to be replaced by it. What was this old covenant then?

The Scripture tells us clearly that the old covenant was the Covenant of Moses or the Covenant of Mount Sinai. It was the covenant made by the LORD with the Israelites on Mount Sinai after He had led them out of Egypt.

The Sinai Covenant established the relationship between the LORD and the people of Israel, and scripture denoted this relationship to signify the relationship between a husband and his wife. Therefore, many times when the Israelites forsook the LORD, they were described as an adulterous woman or a harlot in the Bible.

Because the Israelites had violated their relationship with their LORD, the old covenant had to be replaced by the new covenant. What then is this new covenant?

We remember these words of the Lord Jesus Christ whenever we observe our communion, “This cup is the new covenant made in my blood, that is shed for the sins of many. Take and drink it in remembrance of me.”

The new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah refers to the salvation, and the forgiveness of sin by our Lord Jesus Christ, enabling sinners to build an intimate relationship with the holy God. This relationship is not about the relationship of a husband and his wife, but of a father and his son. Hence, we call God our heavenly Father.

Christians are the children of God, and we live under the love, mercy, and grace of God. May we never forget the Father who loves us. Sometimes we pray and the heavenly Father refuses to answer us, and we might get angry and say that God doesn’t love us; sometimes we go through unpleasant moments and we complain that the heavenly Father has ignored us; sometimes we are low in spirits, and we condemn the heavenly Father for not comforting us.

Is God answerable to us? Do we not know who our heavenly Father is? The heavenly Father is unchanging, and He loves us fully yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The amazing thing is that, though we often break His heart, He still loves us fully.

We have a new covenantal relationship with our heavenly Father, and it is a loving relationship. We must remind one another frequently that God loves both you and me.

The Law of God in the New Covenant

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” (Jeremiah 31:33a). 

The covenant of Moses was engraved on the tablets of stone and parchment, but the law of the new covenant will be written on our hearts.

The law was summarized by the Lord Jesus into two main items, the first is to love God with one’s entire being, and the second is to love your neighbour as yourself. It hangs on the measurement of loving God and loving others.

We must be careful with this application of love because many people allow themselves and others to sin with love as their excuse. For example, homosexuality might be approved by men but not by God. It also means that the action of loving God must be our actions to love people, but the action of loving people is not necessarily an action of loving God.

Let’s change our perspective as we reflect upon the application of law under the old and the new covenants.

The law is the obvious will of God, and by submitting to God’s law, it is equal to submitting to the will of God. However, from Moses to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Israelites failed to submit themselves under the will of God. They were not able to solve their rebellion of going against God. Hence, the old covenant had to be replaced by the new.

In the old covenant, the laws influence others from without, and it changes the hearts of people as long as they submit to it. However, the new covenant influences the hearts of people from within.

When the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit, changes our rebellious hearts to hearts that submit to God, we can obey God’s will right from our hearts. By then, the laws of God can be said to be truly written in our hearts.

Just take offering as an example. Many Christians perceive that the new covenant does not command us to give tithe and the practicing of tithe giving is legalistic. Hence, they only give according to their willingness with cheerful hearts. As a result, their giving often ends up giving God what is excessive or left over.

However, since our lives now belong to God in the new covenant, why not our money as well? Not to mention the 10% to be given to God, we should give cheerfully and willingly if we were to give 20% of our income. Under the new covenant, a person who loves God with his entire being will do beyond what the laws require of him. By doing so, the laws would be truly considered written in our hearts.

Knowing God in the New Covenant

I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Jeremiah 31:33b-34a)

“I will be their God and they will be my people.” This is a very precious statement found in the Bible, and these are words of a holy covenant that establishes the relationship of God and the Israelites. The following statement explains the concept of this relationship, “because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”

The new covenant enables the LORD to have an intimate, personal, direct and mutual loving relationship with the Israelites.

Under the new covenant, God not merely keeps a covenantal relationship with us, but we can have a personal, direct, and intimate knowledge of God. Therefore, we can pray to God directly, be it confessing our sins or offering our petitions, and there is no need for us to go through a mediator.

People tend to have a wrong thinking that pastors are closer to God than any others, and hence God will listen more to their prayers. Therefore, it is more effective to ask their pastors to pray. This misunderstanding is specially revealing in Catholics, for Catholics believe that a clergy is a bridge between believers and God.

For example, Catholics will go to a priest to confess their sins, and the priest will instruct them to do something after listening to their confession (like reciting the Lord’s Prayer for a thousand times) as a means of showing their genuine repentance. After that, the priest will declare that the sins of the believers are forgiven.

However, the new covenant that is made by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ institutes a personal, direct, and intimate relationship between us and God. God knows us and we know Him, and there is no need for a pastor or a priest to stand in between us and God.

The Forgiveness of Sin in the New Covenant

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34b)

The declaration of the forgiveness of sin by the LORD has two main elements, firstly, the forgiveness of sins; and secondly, the sins will be remembered no more. We put our focuses on the two verbs mentioned here: forgive and forget.

The forgiveness of God is a complete pardon, and it counts no more of our sins and trespasses. People in the old Testament had to offer their guilt offerings whenever they sinned, and each offering could only wash away the sin committed at that moment. They would have to offer sacrifices to redeem themselves if they were to sin again next round.

After a while it produced a superstitious belief, that they presumed it was the blood of the animal that cleansed their sins and forget about it was the grace of the LORD that pardoned their sins.

In the new covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ has become our atonement of sin, and He was offered for all times one sacrifice for sins and rescued fully all those who put their trust in Him (Hebrews 10:11-14). It is through the Lord Jesus Christ that God pardons and remembers no more all our sins.

When we accept the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ, we should forgive one another too. We must forgive those who have hurt us and offended us with the love of God. It is impossible for men to do so, and it is only through the forgiving love of the Lord Jesus Christ that we can learn and practice it. We should forgive and remember no more the sins of one another as how the Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven us and remembered our sins no more.

Conclusion

Whatever that could not be achieved by the old covenant has now been accomplished by the new covenant. The old covenant is replaced by the new covenant. The new covenant reveals to us that the LORD is magnanimous, that He is a God that is full of initiative, mercy, grace, love and forgiveness.

The New Covenant enables us to see our own unworthiness and the greatness of God. If God didn’t take His initiative by sending the Lord Jesus Christ to be crucified on the cross for us, to resurrect on the third day and ascend to heaven and sit on the right hand of the Almighty God, the Father, we would still be observing the laws, worshipping idols, and our sins shall remain unforgiven.

Moreover, it would not be possible for us to be called His people and His sons.

The mercy, sovereignty, greatness, and glory of God have been revealed through the new covenant. We see it and we come to understand that we are a blessed sinner by His grace. We could only give thanks and worship God, and give ourselves fully to be used by Him, and love others as how God has loved us.

Psalms and the Seven Sayings on the Cross

 

Psalm 22:1-21, 69:1-21

Psalms and the Suffering of Christ

In Luke 22:44, the resurrected Lord spoke to His disciples, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Psalm has a close relationship with the suffering of Jesus. Jesus said, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Psalms.”

What He referred to as “everything” is the fulfilment of His suffering that was written in the Scripture. Psalm can be used as parallel readings to the suffering of Jesus. This is the most advance way of interpreting the scriptures, and it is called either “inter-textuality” or “canonical approach”.

We shall focus on the several phrases of the famous seven sayings of Jesus on the cross. Actually, the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross reveal the theology of “laments” in Psalms!

1.    Psalm 22

“About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” （Matthew 27:46）

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?” （Psalm 22:1）

People used to ask a question from their theological perspective. “Why was the Holy Father and the Holy Son separated?”

In fact, there is a more relevant perspective from the theology of lamentation here: In Psalm, the psalmist cried out in such a way in order to express that he was indeed extremely agonized, as well as lonely and helpless.

When we are extremely painful, we might ask why God abandons us. Didn’t Job ask the same question before?

The question Jesus asked should not be a theological question in view of His painful suffering on the cross. It was plainly His heartfelt cry in the midst of His extreme pain, sorrow and helplessness.

The content of the whole Psalm 22 enables us to see that the predicament and sorrow of the psalmist were fully embodied on Jesus. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?” （v 1）

“But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” (v 6-8)

“Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” (vv.12-18)

If we were to read it in comparison with the sufferings of Jesus in the books of Gospel（Refer Matthew 27:32-46; John 19:23-24）, the “I” and “he” in the psalm is no other than “Jesus”, “God”, “Jews and Romans” in the books of Gospel.

Jesus experienced the sadness and the context of the lamentation in Psalm 22. Jesus was experiencing the same sadness described by the psalmist in order to redeem the sin of the world.

Jesus was in an extreme pain, and he was bullied by others and was further crucified on the cross. It was not that he couldn’t run away from it, but willingly he went to the cross to be pushed around by people and be crucified on it. It wasn’t that He couldn’t avoid it, but willingly, He went on the cross and bore the punishment of sinners.

May the sacrificial love of the Lord Jesus, and the suffering that He had gone through touch us and inspire us to follow Him and respond to Him with love. Shouldn’t we also suffer in some ways as we follow and serve God this day? Why should we keep complaining then?

When we are persecuted and when we suffer, we should know that the Lord Jesus suffered through all these hardships too. Therefore, Jesus could understand our pain and suffering, and He would walk with us through the valley of death. His presence brings us much comfort and healing.

2.    Psalm 69

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 

A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28-30).

“I am thirsty” is another phrase found in the seven sayings of Jesus on the Cross. “I am thirsty” is also another climax of the suffering of Jesus. He was enduring the ill-treatment and humiliation of the soldiers who stood under the cross.

“I am thirsty” is also a phrase quoted from Psalm 69:21 in the Old Testament. “I am thirsty” is the climax and pivotal point in this entire Psalm.

The Psalmist said sadly, “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.” (v1)

“Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.” (v4)

“For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.” （v7-9）

“You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” (v19-21)

“I am thirsty” is an important dividing crest in Psalm 69, for after this verse, all the scriptures are about curses, and all these curses are against the “enemies.”

Verses 22-28:

“May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.”

When Jesus quoted the phrase “I am thirsty” in Psalm 69, He was aware that all the seven verses subsequent to this phrase were all curses! Jesus was trapped in a severe test amidst His extreme pain, hatred and grievances that could tempt Him to utter curses out of His flesh.

However, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34）

Jesus broke through the bottleneck of the theology of lamentation. The great love of the cross shall remove curses for one’s enemy (“he”). This is because the great love of God brings forth revolutionary breakthrough and turnaround for people. It changes the relationship between God and men, and between men and men, the “You, he and I” relationship.

 “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14-16)

This word of Jesus out of His seven sayings on the cross refers to His death and resurrection. Just like Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, all these refer to God’s great love – that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God wants to save all the Jews and the Gentiles, and this includes both the two thieves who were nailed beside His cross, whose deaths were reserved mercilessly, and the high priest, scribes, and Roman soldiers, etc., who stood under the cross.

God enabled Jonah to see that His greatest love was not merely rescuing the Israelites but rescuing those people of Nineveh who were not only sinful and wicked, but extremely vicious and violent as well.

“Father, forgive them, for they do not knowing what they are doing.” The most powerful gift of God is love and forgiveness. There is the strongest resilience within it that removes all bitterness and hatred completely.

May we be touched by the love and forgiveness offered by Christ to the world, that we come to understand that we are sinners who have received the grace of God!

We have received freely from Jesus His grace to forgive our sins, and hence, we should respond to the sacrificial love of our Lord, and go and serve others, and be gracious to them and pardon those who have offended us somehow.

The Lord gives us grace, and we should also be gracious to others. One who is not gracious to others shows that he never truly knows Christ’s grace, and he is ungrateful for it.