Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 27-31 ESV

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Thoughts

Verses 31-34 of chapter 31 are quoted by the apostle Paul in Hebrews chapter eight. Starting with verse 7, Paul said, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

And after quoting those verses from Jeremiah, Paul says, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.”

Beloved, this is the heart of the new covenant, the new testament, the Good News. But the new covenant is far different than the old covenant. In the old covenant, which was written on stone tablets, it was up to man to adhere to a law, which was impossible to do. In the new covenant, God says he will write it on the heart of man, and He says that He will no more remember their sins.

Charles Spurgeon had this to say about the new covenant being written on the heart: “Pardoned sin, as well as the change of nature, is implied in the writing of the law upon the heart. Oh, what a privilege it is to be among these covenanted people! How shall we know whether we belong to them? The seal of the covenant is faith in Christ; I mean the personal seal upon the heart and conscience. Thou believest in Jesus Christ as thy Saviour, thou art trusting alone to his atoning sacrifice, then God is in covenant with thee, for Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant, and he who hath Christ hath the Surety of the covenant, and he shall have in due time every blessing which that covenant guarantees.”

With the old law, the weight of the covenant rested on man. With the new covenant, God takes it all. We have only to accept it.