Compare the new covenant promises of Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26-27. How are they related?
The first covenant document was written by God on tablets of stone and was deposited in the ark of the covenant as an important witness of God’s covenant with His people (Exodus 31:18, Deuteronomy 10:1-4). Documents written in stone, however, could be broken; and scrolls, as Jeremiah had experienced, could be cut up and burned (Jeremiah 36:23).
Image © Daniel Pape from GoodSalt.com
But in the new covenant God now will write His law in the hearts of the people. The heart refers to the mind, the organ of memory and understanding (Jeremiah 3:15, Deuteronomy 29:4), and especially to where conscious decisions are made (Jeremiah 3:10, Jeremiah 29:13).
This promise did not simply secure access to and knowledge of the law by everyone. It also, and more importantly, was to bring about a change in the heart of the nation. The problem of Israel was that their sin was engraved “with a pen of iron,” “with a point of diamond … on the tablet of their heart” (Jeremiah 17:1, NKJV). They had a stubborn heart (Jeremiah 13:10, Jeremiah 23:17); therefore, it was impossible for them to do the right thing (Jeremiah 13:23).
Jeremiah did not announce a change of the law, because the problem of Israel was not the law but the heart. God wanted Israel’s faithfulness to be a grateful response to what He had done for them; thus, He gave the Ten Commandments to them with an historical prologue expressing His love and care for them (Exodus 20:1-2). God wanted Israel to obey His laws as an acknowledgment that He wanted the best for them, a truth revealed in their great deliverance from Egypt. Their obedience was to be an expression of gratitude, a manifestation of the reality of their relationship.
The same is true today for us. Jesus’ love and care in dying for us is the prologue of the new covenant (Luke 22:20). True obedience comes from the heart as an expression of love (Matthew 22:34-40). This love is the distinguishing mark of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. God pours His love on us through His Spirit (Romans 5:5), which is expressed in love (Galatians 5:22).
| If ancient Israel was to love God, even without the understanding of Christ’s death, why shouldn’t we love God even more than they did? How does obedience make manifest the reality of that love? |
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