Perhaps you have heard about the man who went to buy a chain saw? The salesman showed him the chain saw and told him how he would be able to cut 50 trees a day with this saw. So the man purchased it and went home. He came back a few days later and told the man there was a problem with the saw. He couldn’t cut 50 trees a day but only two or three. He showed it to the salesman. He looked at it, checked the gas, primed it a few times, pulled the cord and it started right up. As the engine roared to life the man exclaimed, “What’s that noise?” You see, the fatal flaw of the chain saw was not with the chain saw but with the man.
In the same way there was a fatal flaw within the confines of the Old Covenant. And this brings us to the key idea of the passage. The fatal flaw of Israel’s discontinuance of the Old Covenant caused God to reject it. This new covenant given by God would be new in scope to prevent its failure.
We see the fatal flaw of the Old Covenant in vv. 8 & 9. What is this fatal flaw? Let’s read about it. “For finding fault with them, He says, ‘Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not care for them says the Lord.” The fatal flaw found in the Old Covenant was due to the people’s inability to follow it. In verse 8 the Scripture says God found fault with them. It was the people, not a problem with the covenant itself. The covenant and its ordinances were perfect. The person who would follow them completely would find life. But no one could. And we also see this in verse 9 when the author says, “For they did not continue in My covenant.” They could not continue because the covenant had no condition to seal the individual into it. This covenant itself did not provide direct provision to change a person’s heart. They were written on tablets of stone. The people were responsible to write them upon their own heart. What happened, however, is the people were content to allow it to remain on tablets of stone and not engraft it upon their hearts. And because of this the people drifted from it. The Old Covenant allowed individuals to be members of the people of God, as the nation of Israel, and still not have their hearts changed. There was a great rabble in Israel that did not have a desire for God or His law but merely a desire to follow the ritual. And when there was no external impetus to follow Yahweh, such as a godly powerful king, or strong godly parents, the people openly practiced the idolatry that existed in their hearts. Had they had the law written on their hearts the country would not be moved greatly when different kings came to power. But as the kingdom progressed from Judges to Jeconiah we see the waning of the worship of Yahweh in the nation and the accretion (the buildup) of the idolatrous worship as the product of an unregenerate people who refused to allow the law to circumcise their hearts.
And when it came to the point that God would give the nation of Israel over to Babylon for judgment we see the very presence of God leaving the temple in the midst of blatant and sickening idol worship (Look at it yourself in Ezekiel 8ff). So was there something wrong with the God of Israel? No. Was there something wrong with the covenant He made with the nation? No. It was only because of the nature of the people. As Stephen, the martyr, describes in Acts, the people turned back to Egypt in their hearts. They never followed the covenant because they refused to allow the law to convert them.
And because of this, the prophets spoke of another time, a time in which God would make a new covenant with the nation of Israel and Judah. This passage conveys two aspects of this new covenant God would accomplish.
I. Millennial
The first aspect of this new covenant we might call millennial. There are some characteristics of this covenant that will only take place when Jesus returns to rule His people from the city of Jerusalem. And in this millennial aspect of the New Covenant we see two characteristics.
A. It is national
The first millennial characteristic of this covenant is it is national. We see this in verse 8. “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a New Covenant with the HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH The HOUSE OF JUDAH.” And in verse 10 he says, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the HOUSE OF ISRAEL after those days.” The author of Hebrews makes this quotation from the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 31. In the midst of the nation’s desolation God brings hope to the Israelites by declaring what He is going to do in the future. The time frame for this covenant is “after those days.” When you read through the Old Testament prophets you cannot help but to see the numerous references to “the Day of the Lord.” The prophets spoke of this coming period of judgment upon the earth after which the LORD would rule it from His capital city, Jerusalem. Look at some of these passages or at least note them. Isaiah continually uses the phrase “in that day.” What does Isaiah claim “that day” looks like? In that day it will be a period of spiritual prosperity for the nation of Israel. In Isaiah 10:20 it says, “In that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.” At this time God is going to forgive and restore His people whom He formerly hardened. In Isaiah 12:1 the prophet says, “You will say on that day, ‘I will give thanks to You, O LORD; for although you were angry with me, Your anger is turned away.” And in Zechariah 12:10 the Lord says, “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and impurity.” Wonderfully, the Jewish people will call upon the Savior whom they so long had rejected and God will open a fountain to wash away their sin and impurity.
But not only will Israel experience spiritual restoration they also will find themselves in physical prosperity. In the closing chapters of Isaiah he speaks of this prosperity. There will be a restoration of their cities and financial strength. He tells us the ruined cities will be rebuilt; strangers will pasture their flocks and be their farmers. They will receive a double portion IN THEIR LAND. There will also be a turning back of the curse upon their physical bodies, in that he says, “As the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people.” It will be a glorious time for Israel. God will bless the Jewish people as a nation because of the New Covenant He will complete with them.
B. It is universal
The second millennial characteristic of this covenant is it is universal. This New Covenant would encompass a universal aspect in which the nation of Israel would become a blessing to the entire world as God had promised. In Genesis 12, God spoke to Abraham and said the whole world would be blessed through Him. And by the inauguration of this covenant this universal characteristic of the covenant would be realized. Look at verse 11 of Hebrews 8. “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.” Here is a remarkable thing. As the kingdom begins, everyone will know the Lord and be saved from their sin. The evangelistic ministry God gave to the Jewish remnant during the Tribulation period will have ended. Everyone will know the Lord. The nations will have stood before Him in the valley of judgment and those allowed into His kingdom will have had a personal audience with the King Himself. All will know Him.
Friends, we are not in the kingdom yet. A vast multitude of both Jews and Gentiles need to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you are a believer in Christ you have been given such a task to tell others about Him until He does make His power and coming known. This is why Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” Many need to know the Lord but those who have truly set themselves to ask the Lord for opportunities to tell people about Him are few. What about you? Has the Lord saved you? Then speak about it. Tell them what it is He has given to you. One day you will not have this blessed opportunity to speak of your salvation to unbelievers.
But we see from this passage the universal scope of the kingdom. In Isaiah 11:10, the prophet says, “In that day the nations will resort (they will flock) to the root of Jesse.” The root of Jesse is Jesus Christ and in that day the nations will come to find refuge in the Lord God of Israel. And the nation of Israel will lead the Lord’s worship before the nations. All the nations will come to the LORD but Israel will be given the privilege of bringing the nations into joyful worship before Him. Isaiah 61 says, “You (Israel) will called the priests of the LORD; you will be spoken of as ministers of our God.”
The universal worship of the LORD will also be seen in the fact of the fantastic alliance between Israel’s old enemies and itself. In Isaiah 19:24 the passage notes Israel with be allied with Egypt and Assyria! Can you imagine this? The very people who are currently seeking to scrape the nation of Israel into the Med will be true allies with her and they will worship the LORD together! (Not Allah)
II. Perennial
The second aspect of this covenant we might call perennial. Some characteristics of this covenant are perpetual. Though they loom large in the kingdom of Christ they are available to people today. We won’t need to wait until Jesus returns to receive them.
But an important question arises. If this is a covenant made with the nation of Israel how did we, Gentiles, get in on this? How were we able to share in its blessings as well as they? You could say we entered in on the coattails of a Jew. Zechariah 8:23 tells us, “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, “Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.”’” In the millennial kingdom of Christ the nations will seek the favor of the Jewish people that they might go into worship with them. But now we may participate in these perennial blessings of the New Covenant because we are in Christ, the ultimate Jew. We who have placed our trust in Jesus Christ have, if you will, grabbed hold of the hem of His robe for entrance into the holy place of worship. Everyone who has come to place their trust in Christ alone for their salvation can receive the sprinklings of the blessing of this New Covenant. Three perennial characteristics of this New Covenant exist in which we can participate if we are in Christ. What are they?
A. It is internal (Regeneration)
The first perennial characteristic of this New Covenant is it is internal. It regards the blessing of regeneration. Look at verse 10 from the passage. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts.”
This covenant contains an internal characteristic in which God will change the heart and mind of an individual by regeneration. This is what Jesus was speaking of to Nicodemus in John 3. “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” When a person is born again God adjusts their desires so they want what God wants. The apostle Paul described this in Romans 6. He says, “What benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed?” Before you were converted, before God changed your heart by repentance and faith in the Messiah, you rejoiced in the sins of the flesh and you were ashamed to speak about God, purity, righteousness and holy justice. But now that you have been born again you see those sins of the flesh as your shame and those things that once shamed you are now your glory.
When you are born again by the Spirit of God and He comes to reside in you He writes His law upon your heart. We can note this in 2 Corinthians 3:3. Paul says, “You are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” Before our conversion we might have tried external religion. We might have sought to live up to some code or standard by which we sought to please God. We might have even included Jesus in there somewhere though it was simply an outward show of religion. But when we came into a living relationship with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we were given a new mind, “the mind of Christ.” We were given a new conscience through the Holy Spirit. God’s Word became precious to us as we were regenerated from the inside out. This is the blessing of the New Covenant. We can have our hearts and minds changed by God Himself. His Word can become our joy and refreshment.
And this regeneration is such a wonderful event that when we do not live as we should God’s Spirit is there prodding us, even causing us to be miserable when we grieve Him. When you repent and receive Christ as Savior you had better make room for company because the living God is coming to stay and He will write His law on your heart and mind. And if you are seeking to make Him comfortable He will make you very uncomfortable.
This internal relationship with God is described in the fact that His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. God works by His Spirit and with His Word to show us the truthfulness of this relationship with Him.
Someone I knew many years ago came to Christ. And as we were talking one day this person said, “You can’t get away from Him (meaning God).” That’s right because He is now in us He will never leave us nor forsake us nor can we leave Him. And if I spoke with that person today, having seen them grow in grace through the years, they would probably say, “I still can’t get away from Him but now I don’t want to!” This is the difference between true internal heart religion and external religion. You put on external religion sort of the same way you put on your Sunday clothes. And you take it off. If you can do that with your religion then you have not received this internal, regenerational aspect of the New Covenant.
Think about this for a moment. In the church age, we can live out this internal relationship on an individual basis. And in a limited sense we share this with those in the church around us. We are a company of those who have been born again. Yet there are more around us in our communities who do not know Christ than those do know Him. But what do you think it will be like when the entire world population will have God’s law written in their hearts and minds? This will be a wonderful day in earth’s history. But the truth is we can now share in this wonderful blessing of the New Covenant. You can be born again and have God write His law upon your heart and mind. And you can live in the joy of this close relationship with the Spirit of God in daily dependence upon Him.
B. It is personal (Allegiance)
The second perennial characteristic of this New Covenant is it is personal. It regards the blessing of allegiance. In the latter part of verse 10 the passage says, “I will be their God and they shall be my people.” There is a new relationship in this New Covenant. It is a mutual commitment between God and man. When God had given the first covenant the people boasted, “Everything the Lord has said we will do!” But God told Moses, “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me.” But in the New Covenant there can be this mutual commitment. We will be His people because He has put a new heart in us. This is why God can say we can have this allegiance to Him.
We need no foreign gods like the Israelites had in the Old Testament. There is no need, as the Apostle Paul mentions in Colossians 3, for sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire or greed for this amounts to idolatry. Friends, if you are harboring these things in your hearts you are forgetting your allegiance to God. You are setting up idols in your hearts. You are grieving the very Sprit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Don’t do this. God has given you the opportunity for a very close relationship with Him. He says, “I will be your God and you shall be mine.”
We are given a taste of the coming kingdom of Christ right now. We can experience the personal relationship between God and ourselves. And we can have a pure allegiance to Him. In Zechariah 14:9 we see in that day “the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.” There will be no competing interests. Satan will be locked away in the abyss and Christ will reign supreme. His name will be the only one. Let your heart be His alone. Let Him write His law upon your heart and mind. And let Him be the only one.
C. It is judicial (No condemnation)
The third perennial characteristic of this New Covenant is it is judicial. In this I mean it carries no condemnation. Verse 12 describes this. “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” This is a rich verse. God hates sin because He is holy. He must condemn it as a just judge. He cannot wink at it and overlook it. Otherwise He would not be good. I have said this before. Many people think it will be God’s goodness that allows them into heaven. But this very attribute of God will keep most people out of heaven. Since He is good He cannot simply ignore sin. This verse does not teach God will neglect to punish sin. “I will remember their sins no more” are not the words of a god with Alzheimer’s or those of a bad bookkeeper.
God’s mercy is not based on an unqualified wishy-washiness on His part. In fact the word “merciful” is not the usual word for mercy employed in the Scripture. It actually reads I will propitiate them or I will turn away my anger that is due for them onto another. The New Covenant is about God placing the punishment of our sin upon His Son Jesus Christ. He can be merciful to our iniquities because they have been paid for. God can choose to forget our sins because His wrath has been turned upon His Son.
Because the Son of God received the righteous wrath of God on our behalf everyone who trusts in Him will find, as Romans 8 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This describes our position before God. There is NO CONDEMNATION! NONE! When we stand before the throne of God we will receive no condemnation from God because His wrath has been completely turned aside. I think because people still sin after they have been born again they have some lingering doubts about their position before God. What will God do with my sin I have committed since I have been saved? Are those gone too or will they be brought up against me at some point. The Scripture says all of it has been placed upon the cross. All of it has already been judged there. The penalty has been paid and the rule against double jeopardy in American law courts applies in the court of heaven. You cannot be punished twice for a crime. Jesus Christ has paid for it. There is no condemnation for we who are in Christ Jesus.
Corrie ten Boom said, “God casts your sins into the depths of the sea and He places a sign over the spot where He threw them, ‘No fishing allowed.’” But what do we do? We bring them back up with regrets. We mull them over again in our head, “Oh I wish I wouldn’t have done that.” You cannot live for God in the present if you are always thinking about how you failed in the past. Paul said forget what lies behind and press forward for the prize that lies ahead. There is complete forgiveness in Christ. We need to live in this. Jesus paid it all! There isn’t one sin the Lord leaves on our account. If He did we would all go to hell. Let us stop living in the doubt that damns us to be unproductive for our Savior. Satan would have us all on the psychiatrist’s chair reminiscing about our past instead of thinking about all Christ did for us and living for the Lord with gusto and looking forward to the glorious future we have with Christ our Savior. Believer, recognize your position in Christ. It is one of NO CONDEMNATION! Don’t let Satan lie to you again.
But this position before God only comes through faith in Christ. It must be mixed with faith in those who hear. You may have heard often about Christ and His work but have you placed your trust in Him alone for salvation from your sin? He died for all your sin not just some of it. Will you receive Him today and enter into these New Covenant blessings? Christ will not turn you away if you come to Him in the way He ordains.