Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Old Testament Lesson just read, from Jeremiah 31. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- There are scholars who have worked hard to identify all of the “covenants” which God has made with human beings, as recorded in Holy Scripture. However, this whole business of “labeling” the various covenants is somewhat difficult – for often the same promises are repeated.
- The “Adamic Covenant,” the promise to Adam and Eve of a seed of the woman who would crush the devil’s head, is essentially the covenant of Jesus Christ, of God’s free gift of redemption in Christ Jesus. This covenant is essentially repeated to Abraham – along with many other promises. But God promised Abraham a “seed” in Whom “all the nations of the earth would be blessed,” another promise of a Savior and redemption – fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
- The “Noahic Covenant” has to do with floods. The “Mosaic Covenant” has to do with the moral, ceremonial, and political laws of the nation of Israel. But in our text we read of a “New Covenant” that God will make with His people – and Jesus, you recall, calls the Sacrament of His body and blood “the New Testament” or “covenant” in His blood. This is a reiteration of the Adamic and Abrahamic covenants. So we might say that this “New Covenant” is both the first covenant and “THE LAST COVENANT.” Obviously it is the most important and the most blessed of the covenants that God has made with mankind.
- And just so that we’re clear, a “covenant” is a solemn and legally binding agreement. A covenant can be conditional or promissory. The first and “THE LAST COVENANT” are obviously “promissory,” in that all that we have is promises from God, assertions of what He is going to do for us. So what we have in this “LAST COVENANT” is God binding and obligating Himself to do exactly what He is promising. So, in that God does not lie, but always speaks the truth, what is promised to us is absolutely sure and certain!
- So we consider this blessed Word of God recorded by Jeremiah the prophet! And we first note that:
I. This Last Covenant Supersedes All Other Covenants
Text: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and 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, My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.”
Statement: The “broken” covenant referred to in these verses was the Mosaic Covenant – regarding God’s moral, ceremonial, and political law. This covenant – in that it could be “broken” by mankind – was “conditional.” If those entering into this covenant “performed” their conditions – which had to do with keeping the laws – then God would perform His promises, which was to bless them with land, peace, and prosperity. The historical books of the Old Testament, as well as all of the prophetical writings, bear witness to the fact that the children of Israel broke and violated this covenant virtually all the time. And ultimately, God performed the consequences He had promised to them if they were to break His commandments – and they lost the land and their nation.
Application: This had not yet happened completely when this text was recorded by Jeremiah. The Ten Northern tribes had disappeared – about a hundred years earlier when the Assyrians conquered them. But the consequences of the violation of the Mosaic covenant was imminent when this text was written – the Babylonians soon invaded the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and utterly destroyed Jerusalem, including Solomon’s magnificent temple, and took the leading people back to Babylon, including Daniel.
So it was time for a “new covenant,” time to reassert and reiterate the Adamic and Abrahamic covenants, and for Jeremiah to describe the blessings of this “LAST COVENANT,” which would be fulfilled in the coming of Jesus, in His sufferings, death, and resurrection! For:
II. The Last Covenant Is Based In God’s Gracious Mercy And Redemption In Christ Jesus
A. This Covenant Establishes Mankind’s Forgiveness And Salvation
Text: “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
B. This Covenant Establishes God’s Commitment To Us And His Gracious Work In Us That We Should Come To Have Him As Our God
Text: “And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Statement: Again this is a purely promissory covenant of God’s gracious mercy, forgiveness, and salvation, a covenant fulfilled finally and completely in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a wondrous covenant which assures us of God’s perfect love for us and His will that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth! It is a pure statement of His commitment to us, to be our God! And certainly it contains invitation to us – that He deeply desires for us to be His own dear people of faith!
Application: And this is precisely what He has done for us in the gift of His Son, our dear Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ! All of our sin, all that stands between us and God has been forgiven, washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. And God assures us not only of His forgiveness, but also that He will not even remember our sin! What glorious freedom this gives us, and what sure and certain ground for utter confidence in His great love for us! And again, it is all give to us by promise of God, without any conditions that we must fulfill – and therefore it is absolutely sure and certain! This is what “THE LAST COVENANT” is all about – the eternal and steadfast love that God our Savior has for each and every one of us, and the certainty of His free gift of salvation and eternal life!
Transition: And this is important for us to contemplate, for:
III. The Last Covenant Includes The Blessing Of A Renewed Knowledge Of God As He Truly Is, Which Is Restoration To A New Life
A. Under This Last Covenant We Know God As He Is, That God Is Love
Text: “No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.”
B. Under This Last Covenant God Himself Instructs Us To Know His Will, His Word – Including The Ways Of True And Genuine Love
Text: “I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.”
Statement: Jesus asserted, in His great prayer to the Heavenly Father recorded in John 17: “This is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.” This is precisely what is promised under the New Covenant, “THE LAST COVENANT.” And this is the blessing we have received through faith in Jesus Christ, that we know God’s gracious love, mercy, forgiveness, and the gift of eternal life that He has given to us in Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection! And by means of this demonstration of His love for us He has taught us what it is to love, and also created within us, in our hearts and minds, a true and genuine compulsion to love one another as He has loved us!
Application: With this, “THE LAST COVENANT,” there is no need for anything further from God, for He has given us everything! It is in this way that He has proven to be our God, and by which He has enabled us to become His people, to claim Him as our God! How blessed we are if we know these things and have received them from God through faith in Jesus Christ. And remember, each time we commune in the Sacrament of our Lord, we are participating in “the new covenant” in His blood, as we receive His body and blood “for the forgiveness of sins.” And in this sacramental fellowship with the Lord Jesus Himself, we again receive all the promised blessings of God’s love and salvation, including a new life of love.
Conclusion: And God wants us to be sure to notice that these things are “covenantal,” they are binding upon the One making these promises to us, and God does not lie or stray from the truth; He is faithful to fulfill all of His promises and obligations! God is love, and we see the completeness of His love for us in this “LAST COVENANT.” All that remains is for us to join the apostle Paul in praise of God:
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” [Rom. 11:33-36]
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.