The New Covenant (Jeremiah 31.31-34)

Introduction

Last Saturday, I conducted a wedding at Long Newton. The groom Kevin arrived early and looked nervous. The bride Lucy arrived late and looked lovely. And everyone else arrived on time and looked happy.

Towards the beginning of the ceremony, I asked the bride and groom if they would take one another as husband and wife, if they would love, honour, protect and cherish each other and, forsaking all others, be faithful to each other as long as they live. They each said “I will.”

They made vows. And those promises were legally binding. They committed Lucy and Kevin to stick with it for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sickness or in health until one of them dies.

And after the vows were said, their new marriage was symbolised by giving and receiving a ring. I said “these rings are a symbol of unending love to remind this man and this woman of the vow and covenant they have made this day.”

I say all this because the truth is that God marries those he loves. This is the language the Bible uses to describe how God relates to his people. He doesn’t say “Let’s just move in together and see if it works out.”

What would you think of God if he said “Do you know what? I’m tired of being God for these people. Forget the Church. I think I’m going to try out the Jehovah’s Witnesses instead.”

No, God loves enough to commit himself, whatever happens. He makes promises. He binds himself to his people. He says “I will.” He is always faithful and he calls you, his Church, the bride of Christ.

The Old Testament is basically the sad and sorry tale of marriage breakdown between God and Israel. They didn’t live happily ever after because, while God always kept his side of the covenant, they broke their vows again and again.

Romance usually starts out fine and dandy doesn’t it? There’s an old story about a young man and his fiancée – this was before the days of texting and Facebook and e-mail. Like Kathie and me, they used to write love letters to each other most days. The young man said, “Whenever I get a letter from you, I always kiss the back of the envelope before I open it because I love to think that your lips have touched it when you sealed it before putting it in the post.” Well, she blushed and smiled awkwardly. She said, “Actually, I moisten the flap on the dog’s nose!”

If I was ever to read our old love letters now I’d probably be embarrassed at the sentimental drivel we wrote to each other when we were 20 and courting. We’ve changed physically and emotionally over time. Having children changed us. We’ve developed new interests as we have got older.

Every married couple knows that no matter how sincere the “I will” on the wedding day, they need to work hard to keep the fire burning. If you don’t, love can lose its appeal and die down.

Fixing Something Broken

In Jeremiah 31, after centuries of a strained marriage between God and Israel, God says that he is going to do a new thing.

Let’s read those words again.

‘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.
‘This is the covenant that 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.
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,’
declares the Lord.
‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’

God sums up about 1,800 years of Old Testament history here. He says; “They broke my covenant.” This is the old covenant.

He’s talking about the marriage he made with the Israelites who came out of Egypt in Moses’ day. God made fantastic promises towards his chosen people at that time. “I will bless you, I will make you a great nation, I will oppose you enemies, I will provide for you.”

Then he gave them the Ten Commandments to help them understand how to live happily ever after. He said, “If you do this, all will go well for you.”

You see just how much a covenant is like a marriage in verse 32 where God says, “I was a husband to them”.

Life a good husband, he always provided. He nourished and cherished his chosen people: manna in the desert and clothes, which didn’t wear out.

Life a good husband, he always protected. He defended them from their enemies, brought them into a pleasant land flowing with milk and honey.

But it wasn’t good enough for Israel and the marriage broke down.

So God says here “I’m going to renew my vows with you. I am going to make new promises to you” (though he had never broken the old ones) and here they are:

I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel (v31)

I will put my law in their minds (v33)

I will write it on their hearts (v33)
I will be their God and they will be my people (v33)
I will forgive their wickedness (v34)

I will remember their sins no more (v34)

And then, if as that were not enough, he makes it easier for his bride to keep her promises.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, “Yeah, but all this happened centuries ago. Why do we need to look at this now?” But it’s really important for two reasons.

Firstly, this passage shows us how God relates to you and me in 2014, because the new covenant, the Bible says, is an everlasting one. It lasts forever.

You buy a new fridge, even an ultra-reliable German one, and you’ll get a warranty that lasts two years. The best guarantee you can get on a computer is one year. Then you have to pay £70 to insure it for another 2 or 3 years. What’s the shelf-life of the new covenant? It is copper-bottomed to infinity and beyond. It will never be superseded. It will never be annulled. There are no add-ons. These are the terms and conditions of our relationship with God and always will be.

And secondly, this is important because it warns us of one of the biggest threats to our Christian lives today, which is going back to the old stuff, trying to be good enough to make God love us, coming under law which is obsolete, which doesn’t work and cannot give life.

If you had the choice of living in a brand new house with all mod cons or an old shack with lead paint, asbestos and poor insulation, which one would you choose?

If you had a choice between an old banger with broken windows and flat tyres or a new top of the range four-door saloon, road taxed with a full tank of petrol which would you take?

You don’t have to think too long. It’s a no-brainer. You’d take the new.

In v31, God says; “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant.” And in v32, he says that it won’t be like the old one.

The old covenant is about outward religion with its temples and altars and sacrifices and special priesthood and 613 laws to keep. That’s finished now and there’s no going back.

That’s your leaky shack with cockroaches and a busted flush. That’s your rusty Cortina with moss growing on the seats.

The new covenant is not about outward religion at all; it’s about inward reality. The old covenant is between God and one chosen people – Israel. The new covenant is between God and people from every tribe and nation (“all people from the least to the greatest” says v34).

In v33-34, God explains how the new one will be different from the old one. Not only different, but better.

In the new covenant, God reveals his purpose to us in a new way.

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

Instead of, “Thou shalt not,” you have, “I will put”, “I will write” and “I will forgive.” God says he will write his law on hearts, not on stone tablets.

That means as we grow in our relationship with God, he gives us a desire to please him and do his will. When we wander into sin or get wrapped up in temporary, worldly stuff, we lose the flame of our first love for God and we feel a need in our hearts to get right with him again. It all happens in the heart.

In the new covenant, God is concerned with relationship. God doesn’t want to be in a dreary, loveless marriage.

When our children were young and I asked them to do something, like empty the bin or help with the washing up, it made all the difference if they responded cheerfully. When they grudgingly dragged their feet, rolling their eyes and doing just enough to technically complete the task, I could see their hearts weren’t in it. God says here I’m going to put this in their hearts.

But even though the new covenant is better, some people like the old one and keep returning to it.

Last week, Chris Hughton was sacked as manager of Norwich City Football Club. According to his win/defeat record this season, he was a failure. It wasn’t working. But when he was fired, some people came out and said, “Why are we appointing a new manager? Hughton is one of the nicest guys in football. He’s only been in the job a couple of years. Give him longer. He just needs more time and a few lucky breaks.”

This is exactly what happens with the new covenant. Some Christians want to stick to the old way of doing things even though it doesn’t work. Ritual and law keeping, instead of helping people to know God personally, become substitutes for knowing God personally.

God doesn’t want us to agonise about the fine print of the law as if we were trying to find our way round a train timetable to please him. No! It’s a matter of the heart.

You talk to some people about knowing God. They look at you with glazed eyes. “Oh, I don’t want all that...”

But v34 says, no that’s not right. “They will all know God from the least to the greatest.” Do you know God?

And v34 ends with these words; “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sin no more.”

I once heard a true story about an old lady who was miserable for years because she had done something terrible in her twenties. And one Sunday after a church service, she stayed behind and just cried and cried. Eventually, the pastor finished shaking hands with everyone at the door and went up to the lady and said, “Whatever is the matter?” She replied that she had done a terrible thing many years ago and had been asking God to forgive her ever since.

So the pastor said, “You poor thing, God forgave you the very first time you said you were sorry and meant it. He then forgot all about it. I’m afraid that all these years he doesn’t know what you’ve been talking about.”

He showed her this passage and the end of v34. It took a little while for it to sink in, but she ended up dancing for joy around the church.

The book of Hebrews in the New Testament says, “the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”

Why all that blood in the Old Testament? It was to show the seriousness of sin. Romans 6.23 says “The wages of sin is… death.” Hebrews 9.22 says a similar thing. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.”

That blood not only showed how serious sin is - it also showed how enslaving sin is. Sacrifices had to be offered systematically, every day of every week of every year, without a break, according to the exact, prescribed method. What a bind.

But when Jesus said at the last supper, “This is the new covenant in my blood” he was saying that his one sacrifice of himself, once for all, dealt with all sins for all time.

Pathologists who have studied crucifixion have concluded that Jesus probably died from shock due to loss of blood and fluid, plus traumatic shock from his injuries, plus cardiogenic shock, causing his heart to pump weakly, then fail altogether.

Whatever the final cause of death, there is no question that it was truly excruciating. The important thing is this; he died for you.

And the very first thing that happened after Jesus died shows us that the new covenant had come into force. The temple curtain was ripped in two.

It was a huge, woven veil, 18 metres long by 9 metres wide. This ornately decorated blue curtain separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the temple. Behind the curtain was the symbolic dwelling place of God Most High among His people.

It was a place so hallowed, so sacred, so holy, that it could be entered only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. Only one man, the high priest, could enter, and then only for a few minutes. Having gone through prolonged cleansing himself and having confessed his own sin, this high priest would enter the Most Holy Place in order to sprinkle blood on the altar to atone for the sins of the people.

What’s it all about? Why was the curtain torn in two? It means “no more sacrifices.”

Not only do you not need to bring a goat to church, you don’t need to come to a priest to confess your sins and seek absolution. The Bible says that there is one God, and one mediator between him and us, and that’s Jesus.

The way to God is open and always will be. No more sacrifices, no more mediators, no more separation.

Ending

Has it all become a bit stale lately like a marriage going through the motions? Do you feel you need to come back to God again and make a fresh start, like a couple renewing marriage vows?

Are you plodding through your Christian life grudgingly? Do you need to let your worship come back to the heart. Do you need to taste again and see that the Lord is good?

Are you carrying a heavy burden you need to put down? Do you need to receive forgiveness from God and let go of past sin? Do you need to release forgiveness to someone else so you can be free from the prison of bitterness?

Come with faith, and spiritual need. Come if you are tired or sick or discouraged, or hungry. Come if you are a sinner, come if you are thirsty, come if you don’t deserve to. There is no RSVP. Just come.

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 13th April 2014