FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT
I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER
THOSE DAYS SAYS THE LORD: hoti aute e diatheke en diathesomai (1SFMI) to
oiko israel meta tas hemeras ekeinas legei (3SPAI) kurios: (Hebrews
10:16,17) (Exodus 24:4,7; 34:1,27; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 31:33; 32:40;
Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26,27; 2Cor 3:3,7,8; James 1:18,21; 1Pet 1:23) (11:16;
Genesis 17:7,8; Song of Solomon 2:16; Jeremiah 24:7; 31:1,33; 32:38; Ezekiel
11:20; 36:28; Ezekiel 37:27; 39:22; Hosea 1:10; 2:23; Zechariah 8:8; 13:9;
Matthew 22:32; 1Corinthians 6:16) (Exodus 19:5,6; Romans 9:25,26; Titus
2:14; 1Peter 2:9)
Recommended Resource:
For an excellent review of Hebrews 8:1-13 listen to Dr
S Lewis Johnson (former
professor of Systematic Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary)
-
Right Click here - download and
listen on your computer or Ipod - ~61 minutes but well worth the time -
Hint: Listen in a setting where you can take a few notes.
This is the covenant - Now the
good news of the new covenant of grace.
Covenant
(1242)
(diatheke from dia = two + tithemi = to place)
conveys the picture of
that which is placed between two parties, thus, a covenant is something placed
between two, an arrangement between two parties. It was a commonly used in the
Greco-Roman world to define a legal transaction in settling an inheritance. Diatheke denotes an irrevocable decision, which cannot be cancelled
by anyone. A prerequisite of its effectiveness before the law is the death
of the disposer and thus diatheke was like a "final will and
testament". In reference to the divine covenants, such as the Abrahamic
covenant, diatheke is not a covenant in the sense that God came to an agreement
or compromise with fallen man as if signing a contract. Rather, it involves
declaration of God’s unconditional promise to make Abraham and his seed the
recipients of certain blessings.
I will make...says
the Lord - God is (always) the Initiator when it comes to grace gifts.
Every good gift comes from Him. He is the Author of grace. Israel absolutely
did not deserve this covenant promise, but God in mercy gave it out of His
great heart of everlasting lovingkindness and amazing grace.
I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS
AND I WILL WRITE THEM UPON THEIR HEARTS: didous (PAPMSN) nomous mou eis ten
dianoian auton kai epi kardias auton epigrapso
(1SFAI) autous: (Exodus 19:5,6; Romans 9:25,26; Titus 2:14; 1Peter
2:9)
I will - This
is a covenant of I will's from Almighty God to needy men. I will
is the Divine word which stands behind His promises. God's sovereign
activity is involved in fulfilling all of these "I will's".
I will put -
More literally "continually giving my laws".
Minds...hearts
- These terms cover the whole of man’s inward nature. Johnson notes that a
friend of his referred to this as "a new inner control center in
the individuals who are inheritors of this covenant". This is the
essence of the term regeneration, for the one who has been spiritually
regenerated has the laws of God placed in his mind and written in his heart.
In
Romans 6:17,
Paul rejoices
that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart
to that form of teaching to which you were committed. (See note
Romans 6:17)
The new covenant
changes our hearts of stone into hearts tender toward the Lord and His Laws.
While life in the New Covenant does require obedience, it is not the
external obedience of rules, rituals and regulations, but obedience from the
heart out of love for God. Now we can more fully understand what Jesus meant
when He said "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15).
When the Holy Spirit was given to us at the moment of our entrance into the
New Covenant by grace through faith, He also poured out the love of God
within our hearts (see note
Romans 5:5).
We can only love now because He first loved us. It is His love that
constrains, controls and compels us or moves us along the path of obedience
(cp 2 Cor 5:14)
In Paul's second
letter to the Corinthians he explained that the believers were...
being manifested...(as) 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.
(2 Cor 3:3)
Remember however that
this promise was not fulfilled until Christ returns as Stephen Cole
explains...
It is important to keep in mind that
while this represents a fundamental change from the old covenant, it is not
perfected until Christ returns. In 2 Corinthians 3, where Paul contrasts the
new covenant ministry with the old covenant ministry of Moses, he makes it
clear that it is a process. As we behold “as in a mirror the glory of the
Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2Cor. 3:18). Although we are new
creations in Christ, and God has shone into our hearts with the knowledge of
His glory in Christ, yet we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2Cor.
5:17; 4:6,7). While we have the gift of the Spirit, who is a part of our new
covenant blessings (2Cor. 3:3, 6), He is only the pledge of our future full
new covenant blessings (2Cor 5:5; Eph. 1:13,14). While the new covenant
promise is to remove our heart of stone and give us a compliant heart of
flesh, yet in the present, the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit
against the flesh (Gal 5:17). So we must walk by the Spirit, putting to
death the deeds of the flesh (Gal. 5:16, 25; Ro 8:13,14).
Much more could be said, but at the very
least, God’s writing His law on our hearts means that our affections towards
God’s Word are changed. Before, the Bible was a burden or we were
indifferent towards it. Now, it is a delight because of our love for God.
But even this is a process that requires discipline. As Craig Blaising
explains, “This [process] is the condition of living under inaugurated new
covenant blessings. Only in the future will those blessings be granted in
full, and the complete transformation promised by the new covenant will be
realized” (Progressive Dispensationalism, with Darrell Bock [Baker], p. 209;
italics his; the previous paragraph was developed from his treatment) (The
Better Covenant - Pdf)
AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD
AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE: kai esomai (1SFMI) autois eis theon kai autoi esontai (3PFMI) moi eis laon:
I will be their God
- They who had run after the so-called gods of idolatry, who are really
no gods at all, are here given the glorious promise that the true God is to
be theirs forever (there is no condition but just His promise "I will
be their God")
My people - As
wonderful as this is to belong to the true and living God, to be His very
possession and treasure, such an honor certainly brings with it our
responsibility to conduct ourselves in such a way that would bring glory and
honor to His holy Name. Sound doctrine should always lead to right conduct.
This verse speaks of
communion between the Father and those who are members of the New
Covenant family.
Kent Hughes
writes that...
“I will be their God” (means He
gives Himself to us), and “they shall be My people” (means He takes us to
himself).
It is interesting that
God made a similar statement in Exodus...
Then (when God brings Israel "out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians") I will take you for My people, and
I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
And yet although there
is a similarity between God's declaration in Exodus and the New Covenant,
they are not the same. Leon Morris explains it this way...
The God Who saves people in Christ is the
God of His redeemed in a new and definitive way. And when people have been
saved at the awful cost of Calvary, they are the people of God in a way
never before known. (Gaebelein,
F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament. Zondervan
Publishing)
Spurgeon writes
that...
The Lord’s people delight in the covenant
itself. It is an unfailing source of consolation to them so often as
the Holy Spirit leads them into its banqueting house and waves its banner of
love.
They delight to contemplate the
antiquity of that covenant, remembering that before the day-star
knew its place, or planets ran their round, the interests of the saints were
made secure in Christ Jesus.
It is peculiarly pleasing to them to
remember the sureness of the covenant, while meditating upon “the
sure mercies of David.” They delight to celebrate it as “signed, and sealed,
and ratified, in all things ordered well.”
It often makes their hearts dilate with
joy to think of its immutability, as a covenant which neither
time nor eternity, life nor death, shall ever be able to violate—a covenant
as old as eternity and as everlasting as the Rock of ages.
They rejoice also to feast upon the
fulness of this covenant, for they see in it all things provided for
them.
God is their
Portion,
Christ their Companion,
The Spirit their Comforter,
Earth their lodge, and
Heaven their home.
They see in it an inheritance reserved
and entailed to every soul possessing an interest in its ancient and eternal
deed of gift. Their eyes sparkled when they saw it as a treasure-trove in
the Bible; but oh! how their souls were gladdened when they saw in the last
will and testament of their divine Kinsman, that it was bequeathed to them!
More especially it is the pleasure of
God’s people to contemplate the graciousness of this covenant. They
see that the law was made void because it was a covenant of works and
depended upon merit, but this they perceive to be enduring because grace is
the basis, grace the condition, grace the strain, grace the bulwark, grace
the foundation, grace the top stone.
