Sermon Talkback—J.I.T. Grace
March 29, 2009
Jeremiah 31:31-34
This passage is well known to Christian listeners. In Hebrews 8:8b-12, it’s the longest citation of an Old Testament passage in the New Testament. A portion of Jeremiah is also found in Hebrews 10:16-17.
Israel was once united under kings David and Solomon. During the period of Solomon’s son Rehoboam’s reign, the northern kingdom of Israel separated itself from the southern kingdom of Judah. Our passage is a part of the divine promises to a reunited Judah and Israel to be restored to God and to the land from which they have been physically and spiritually removed, due to their breaking God’s covenant, as one might break a marriage covenant. In Jeremiah 31:31-34, the people will now have a God-given means of keeping God’s new covenant—God’s law within them and written on their hearts.
New Covenant
In the context of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, God has been establishing “new” covenants all along since ancient times. God established a covenant with humanity and all creation in Genesis 9 in Noah. God established covenants with Abraham and his descendants. And God established a conditional covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai: God would be their God and they would be God’s people. God had delivered Israel out of slavery and through the sea, but Israel was expected to follow the laws and commandments that were associated with the covenant. They would be blessed for keeping the terms of the covenant, but it would be to their peril to break them. And break them they did.
What makes this new covenant “new” is: “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. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me.”
For Christians, the new covenant is in Jesus Christ who has established “the new covenant in my blood” as cited in the Lord’s Supper. The writer of the book of Hebrews (in the New Testament), frequently connects the shedding of Jesus’ blood with the establishment of God’s new covenant and the forgiveness of sins through Jesus: Hebrews 9:13-22; 10:29; 12:24; 13:20-21. And Hebrews frequently asserts the superiority of several new things God is doing through Jesus Christ compared to what was done formerly. It is within this context that the writer of Hebrews uses this long citation of Jeremiah 31:31-34 as part of his promises, along with pleas/warnings to the listener to take care to continue to follow in the ways of the new covenant, and not go back to the old ways.
Just in Time
While it is not unusually for some to experience an instantaneous recognition of Christ in one’s life as Lord and Savior, how have you experienced knowing God perhaps slowly in your heart just at the appropriate times? Is this for you J.I.T. grace?