Written on Our Hearts

November 24, 2016

Devotions:

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah‬ ‭31:31-34‬ ‭KJV‬‬

        Israel was never meant to be the only ones saved by God.  God's plan is to save the whole human race, though some refuse to accept His mercy.  So the New Ciovenant that is prophesied here is for the whole human race and as Paul points out in Galatians that all that receive God's mercy in Christ Jesus become partakers in the New Covenant and are born again to newness of life.  God states here that the New Covenant will not be like the Old one which depended upon normal humans to keep the covenant which our representatives, Israel broke continually.  He then delineates the New Covenant.  First God said that His laws would be written on our hearts and on our inner most being.  That is the law is no longer outside of us.  The law was only a measuring stick and could not produce life.  The law was also a description of the character of God.  In the new birth God has given us His life which the law described.  We then need to learn to lean on the inward leading of our spirit as led by the Holy Spirit.  The one who totally kept the law now has transformed our spirit to be exactly like His nature and character. We do not have to try to remember the law to try by the strength of our flesh to keep it and fail but we look to the greater one in us to live the divine life through us and totally reflect the righteousness of God.