I Will....

"And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 

I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, 

for their own good and the good of their children after them. 

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, 

that I will not turn away from doing good to them.

And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

I will rejoice in doing them good, 

and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul."

Jeremiah 32: 38-41

I saw this verse on Scotty Smith's blog this morning and was simply amazed. God's love for us is almost unbelievable. God chooses to make us his people. He lovingly changes our hearts, so that we can walk in his ways. He unconditionally binds himself to us in a covenant, to which he is unwavering in his commitment. He constantly is good to us. He keeps us from turning to other gods. Further, God DELIGHTS to do all of this for us! It is his good pleasure to bestow love upon his children. And, he loves us with all of his heart and soul. Now, that is simply amazing. I need some more of that!

I Will.....

  “Now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.  I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.  I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.  I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul."

Jeremiah 32:36-41

The marvelous news is that God has done all of this through Jesus Christ. What a promise! What a Savior! I am simply overwhelmed to be a part of this story; that God has pursued myself (along with all His people) with his whole heart and soul, and has brought me back unto himself. I want to spend my entire life mining the riches of this beautiful gospel. 

Jeremiah 31:31-34 Fulfilled in Jesus

 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, 

   “when I will make a new covenant  with the people of Israel 

   and with the people of Judah. 

It will not be like the covenant  I made with their ancestors 

when I took them by the hand  to lead them out of Egypt, 

because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them declares the LORD. 

 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel 

   after that time,” declares the LORD. 

“I will put my law in their minds  and write it on their hearts. 

I will be their God,  and they will be my people. 

No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ 

because they will all know me, 

   from the least of them to the greatest,” 

            declares the LORD. 

“For I will forgive their wickedness 

   and will remember their sins no more.”

God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah of a New Covenant that He would make with His people. It would be a new and better covenant. Whereas with the Old Covenant, God gave His people the law. Yet, they were never able to obey. They're hearts were sinful. They needed a heart transplant. With the Old Covenant, sin caused a separation of intimacy between God and His people. Though God was their husband, though He brought them out of Egypt, and gave them a King (David), and the prophets, Israel repeatedly turned from knowing God in an intimate way, as we were all created to know him. With the Old Covenant, God's people had to constantly atone for their sins through repeated sacrifices. They needed animal sacrifices and the work of the high priests for forgiveness.

However, the in the New Covenant, God fulfilled these things in Jesus. Through the New Covenant, we have a new experience of obedience, a new experience of intimacy with God, and a new experience of forgiveness. The Son came from heaven to earth, taking on human flesh, died on the cross, and resurrected in order to give us this new experience; in order that He would be our God, and we would be His people. 

In the New Covenant, we are united to Christ, and are therefore indwelled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us a new heart and new life. In our old life, we loved sin. We lived according to the flesh, according to the world. Our taste buds were for sin. Our delight was in sin. Yet, through Jesus, the Spirit dwells in us. The Spirit gives us new hearts; hearts that desire and long to obey God. The Spirit gives us new taste buds. Whereas in the past, sin tasted so good to our souls, it now is disgusting. Our taste buds long to feast on the things of God. We live according to the Spirit. God's law is no longer a burden, but it is a delight. It has been written on our hearts. (Romans 8)

In the New Covenant, we are united to Christ and therefore have an deep intimacy with God. Whereas before, sin and death inhibited us from having fellowship with God. Now, Jesus is our covenant representative. We have access to God through Christ. We were once enemies, but have been made friends. We were once fatherless, but are now called Sons/Daughters! The natural intimacy that Adam and Eve had with God before they rebelled can now be experienced. Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me" (John 10:14), and "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (John 14:7)

Lastly, in the New Covenant, we have a new experience of forgiveness. This forgiveness is different from the Old Covenant in that it is COMPLETE. It is complete in that this sacrifice was once for all. It was for ALL the sins of His people. No longer would God's people have to look to repeated sacrifices of atonement for forgiveness. Rather, with the New Covenant, they would look to their New Covenant representative for forgiveness. The Son came to earth, and died as the all time sacrifice for sins. Our sin greatly angers God. Our sin deserves wrath. It deserves punishment. That is why in the Old Testament, people had to constantly atone for their sins. Something had to pay the price. God is just. Sin can't go unnoticed. But the gospel tells us that God has made a new Covenant, where He would do the most radical thing. His Son would come to earth, and take the once for all punishment for our sins. Even though we have been unfaithful from the beginning. God so loved the world that He (the Son) sacrificed himself on the Cross for His people's sins, once and for all. Let's look at a few verses from Hebrews and Romans...

"he (Jesus) entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats or calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption."  Hebrews 9:12

"But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Hebrews 9:27

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith" Romans 3:23-25

"having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:13-14

Scripture is Christ-Centered

"The bodily resurrection of Christ not only signifies God's victory over sin and death but also declares the nature of that victory. It is total, comprehensive; so comprehensive that it claims that history is moving towards nothing less than a fully restored and glorified universe. Those who are in Christ, along with the entirety of creation, will receive his resurrection life upon his appearing.

This means that Christ is the center of the biblical story. Through out its length, Scripture has a Christ-centered thrust: he will come! The Bible tells the redemptive story of the promised Messiah who came to redeem. That thrust must define our understanding of the nature of Scripture and the way we read it. As we look back to the earlier chapters in the story, we must see that the coming of the covenant promise to Adam that God will crush the power of the evil one (Genesis 3:15). The coming of the Messiah forms the foundation for God's covenant promise with Noah that creation will be sustained for all time (Genesis 8:22). The coming of the energizes God's covenant promise to Abraham that he and his posterity will be a blessing to all nations (Genesis 12:3). And the coming of the Messiah burns in the covenant promise to the prophets that God will write his law on the hearts of his people and will give them the gift of the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 31:31-34). In the resurrection of Christ, God has begun to make good on his promise....Because God's plan of salvation is fulfilled in Christ, Jesus is the leading player, the protagonist of the biblical drama of redemption."

From Mike William's Far as the Curse is Found

YHWH is incomparable

"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD?

Who is like you,

majestic in holiness, awesome in glory,

working wonders?

Exodus 15:11

Through the exodus, Israel came to know that YHWH is incomparably greater than other gods. He is without equal. There is none like Him. This rhetoric also runs throughout the Old Testament. YHWH is without equal....

• in keeping promises and fulfilling his word (2 Samuel 7:22)
• in power and wisdom, as seen in creation (Jeremiah 10:6-7, 11-12)
• in the heavenly assembly (Psalm 89: 6-8)
• in ruling over the nations (Jeremiah 49:19)
• in pardoning sin and forgiving transgression (Micah 7:18)
• in saving power on behalf of his people (Isaiah 64:4)

Alienated Enemies

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in yours minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation"

Colossians 1:19-22

These verses reveal such a great deal about the Biblical story as a whole.

First, in verse 19, we get a glimpse of the cosmic scope of redemption. God is reconciling ALL things to himself, whether things on earth or in heaven. If we recall, God is the creator of all. He is sovereign over all. All of creation displays His glory and His greatness. In the beginning, God created the earth, the heavens, day and night, the land and sea, plants and animals. They were all good. Lastly, He created man. Although God loves His creation, and His creation was 'good', man had a special place in God's heart. To reflect His very presence on His created earth, God made man in His own image. How amazing is that? We were created in His likeness. We were created with a special capacity, to know and be intimate with our creator. We were created with a special capacity to reflect His glory, to love and be loved. We walked with God in harmony. We were created to be the caretakers of His creation, to mediate His presence. It was very good.

Secondly, these verses present the magnitude of the fall. While God's creation was good, and He so freely and lovingly made man in His own image, and graciously walked with man in utter harmony, Man rebelled. Man turned. But, the fall of man didn't just effect one man (Adam), it effected the entire creation. The Woman (Eve) would experience pain in child bearing. The ground was cursed, and Adam's work would bring him pain and toil. Harmony was broken between Man and God, between Man and Woman (relationships), between Man and earth (nature). That is why 'ALL' things are to be reconciled. Not just individual souls. The Gospel is about God bringing about a complete restoration or reconciliation to 'ALL' things. God redeeming a people for himself is the center of this complete restoration.

It is important to notice the words Paul uses to describe our previous fallen state. He says that we were 'alienated' and 'enemies'. When Paul says 'enemies' he isn't merely stating a passive disruptance between us and God. It is not 'God hated you', where we have passively received this conflict. Rather, we are actively enemies. The fall shows our rebellion. It is us turning our backs on God, not God turning His back on us. We are actively hostile towards God. It has been that way from the beginning. The Bible tells one story, where time after time, this theme of restoration is found. I'll probably make another quick post in a few days trying to show how, from since creation, to the fall, God through various covenants has been bringing about the restoration, or re-creation of His original good creation.

Thirdly, this passage shows the magnificent means by which peace is reestablished. Given that we have openly rebelled against God, and whether we think so or not, have declared in our hearts our autonomous hostility towards God, it is amazing to think that God would even try to win us back. But that is why the Gospel is so amazing. We play the part of the undeserving. The Bible tells time and time again, of God begging His people to turn back to him, to believe unto Him, to follow his guidelines. Yet, just like in the garden, when God told Adam not to eat the fruit, we repeatedly choose to disobey, we repeatedly choose to rebel. This is open hostility.

But, along the way, God promises us something unbelievable. He says,

³¹ "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, ³²not 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. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴And 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. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

God promises to make a way to re establish peace. It will come through a new and better covenant. Whereas before, God's people, Israel, repeatedly broke the covenant, God says in the new covenant, He will put His law on our hearts, and that they will truly be His people again. He will forgive their iniquity and forget their sins. This is the Gospel. From the beginning, God had a marvelous plan to restore His people once and for all. Jesus was the answer. The Son came to earth, and lived the perfect life, and died the death in order to forgive our sins. He died the only death that could possible bring peace. More so, God gives His Spirit to His people, so that they are continually transformed. The law of God no longer condemns us, but is written on our hearts. This is reason to praise God. Though I was in constant rebellion, constant hatred towards God, though I never upheld my end of the bargain, though I was unfaithful to my call to bear God's image, Jesus died to reconcile me. I was at war with Him, yet He crossed enemy lines and took the sting of death, so that there would be peace. Praise be to God!