New Covenant: Forgiveness Is Coming In Christ

Trinity XXIII (Reformation Day Transferred) --- October 30, 2005

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today we look at one of the prophecies of the Old Testament. We must remember that as the Lord speaks to the prophet, He is also speaking through the prophet, to the people of that day. And, since God moved Jeremiah to record these words of prophecy, they are God’s Word to us today. So, in our text, God is speaking to us today about two covenants. God talks about the old covenant which He made with our Fathers, when He brought them out of Egypt and the new covenant He will make with the house of Israel and Judah, those of the faith from every age.

You are probably wondering why there was a need for a new covenant? There was a need for a new covenant because the people of Jeremiah's day had broken the old one. In our text, God again uses marriage imagery. Although God had made Israel His bride - He was a husband to them, they broke that covenant. It was their hearts that were corrupt, their hearts had caused them to wander after their own lustful desires.

The people of Israel saw the gods of the people in the land in which they lived, and took after worshiping in the same way as they did. It was the lust of their hearts which they followed. They saw the pagans living and enjoying certain things in life that God had forbidden. In their hearts then, the people of God lusted after the pleasures of the pagan lifestyle, they forgot God's righteous demands of them, and they went whoring after other gods.

It is in the heart where sin begins, for it is in the heart that sin takes root. It is in the heart that God's commands are broken, long before any outward action of sin may come about. Eve in the garden sinned even before touching the fruit of the tree. In her heart, sin took place, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she too from its fruit and ate." Only after appealing to her flesh, only after she desired it in her heart, did she take of it and eat. The eating, was only the outward appearance of the sin in her heart.

So too, the people of God in Jeremiah's day had a problem, they had a heart condition that rejected the Word God had written on stone and written in their hearts. God had written laws they were to follow, given to them by Moses, yet they couldn't keep them. They also had the laws of God written on their hearts, just like all mankind. Yet, just like all mankind, their consciences weren’t much help either - for they also ignored that.

Do you doubt that all have the laws of God written on their hearts? Look at non-Christians, they know it is wrong to kill, wrong to take another's possessions, and wrong to sexually use another' spouse - all these are the second table of the Law. Furthermore, all people know in their heart that there is some higher being out there that they should be honoring, worshiping, obeying and keeping happy. What is more, every person knows that they are to be doing these things and to not do them is to cause offense to God - even if they may not know His name. People either try to keep these laws which they know in their heart or they tell say that their conscience is something put on them by society and they really don’t need to abide by anything other than their own ideas.

We could sit down and talk about the sins you commit, you know, your sinful actions, where you do what you know you ought not to do, and also your sinful failures to do all that God commands that you should be doing. These sins are obvious.

However, God also takes issue with sinful hearts, these are sins that are not being done visibly, but still, they are in the heart. Jesus explains that hatred is murder, in fact, being angry with somebody and unwilling to reconcile with them is murder. Unwillingness to forgive is murder. Even lust, Jesus calls adultery. So, even what is in your heart is wrong. What is the sin in your heart? Is it hatred, therefore murder? Is it lust, therefore adultery? Is it covetousness? Is it desiring to be like God? Is it the desire to change God - to have God understand things a bit better and do what you'd like Him to do?

God tells how our hearts have sinned, how they have broken His covenant. And, God talks about a new heart in our text. He promised a new covenant. The new covenant was coming in Christ. Despite the covenant God gave, what He wrote on stone tablets and gave to His children - and even wrote on their hearts - they were disobedient.

So, what happens when a covenant is broken? Whoever breaks a covenant must suffer the consequences spelled out in that document. In the case of God's first covenant, the promise was to live in the promised land in peace. To break that first covenant was to suffer the consequence of death - including eternal separation from God.

God's children broke the covenant He made with them, they deserved death, yet He still loved them. As Adam was expelled from the garden, they too deserved to be booted from the promised land. God wanted them still to live in the promised land, eternally. God still wanted them to live in peace, endlessly. But God is perfectly just, and therefore, He is bound by the very covenant He made with them. He is bound by the covenant they broke, and according to that covenant, there can be no promised land and no peace for them - only death and separation from Him.

In His incredible love, God promised a new covenant, a covenant to supersede the first covenant, a covenant that would require nothing from the people. It was to be a covenant of promise. In Jeremiah’s text for us today, we hear God promise to send a Savior. We hear God promise a new covenant which will forgive their iniquity, and will cause God to remember their sin no more. Not that God could ever forget, but in this covenant, God promises not to remember the sins of the people against them.

This promise is for you as well. You still are bound by two covenants. First, if you want to enter God's promised land for an eternal peace, then keep that first covenant - keep God's laws perfectly. As you look at yourself and examine your heart, you know that is impossible. The first covenant stares you in the face - it says to you, "You are a sinner. You deserve God's wrath and punishment - death and separation from Him. You do not deserve a place in His promised land for eternity."

Look instead to this text and God's promise that there is a new covenant He will make with His people. God promises to be your God and make you His people. You know that the first covenant doesn't work. You know that of your own flesh and desires you are unable to fulfill and hold up your end of that covenant. What are you to do?

You could make promises to do better, if only He’ll give you a chance. You could try and do penance, by your own works, making reparations to God for your failures. You could buy indulgences and get out of purgatory with your money, or even get your great uncle Hubert out.

Today, celebrate the Reformation. We thank God for Luther’s rediscovery of God's new covenant which Jeremiah proclaims, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” That new covenant is God’s only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ. You see, the purpose for the coming of God’s Christ is to purchase forgiveness and bear sins. God’s Christ takes your sins into Himself. God no longer remembers your sins against you, but against God’s Christ.

Soon we will enter the Advent season. During Advent, we prepare for the One who is to come, who has already come into the world once and will come again. We will hear again of the Coming One, Jesus the Christ. You will hear again how your God gave His only Son to be born of a virgin. This is the new covenant that came as God took upon Himself human flesh. God's new covenant came in Him who was born of a virgin and kept the laws of God perfectly, as God intended you to keep them.

Christ in human flesh did what none of mankind could do, He kept the first covenant. Then He suffered the consequences of that first covenant - death and the punishment of hell - when He died upon the cross. Through His death, Christ paid the price demanded of the first covenant - death and separation from God. It was a testament sealed in His own precious blood. Jesus' holy, innocent, suffering and death was the new covenant promised by God through the prophet Jeremiah. Jesus' redeeming work forgives iniquity and covers sin so that it is remembered by God no more.

It is this new covenant, or new testament, that you receive today in the Supper that is waiting on the table before you - forgiveness of sins in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is this new covenant into which you were all baptized, into Christ’s death - and also, His resurrection.

It is this new covenant which Kristel has learned about through Catechesis, and which she is confessing today as her eternal hope. For it is in this new covenant that she wants to live her life - trusting not in her own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ which He promises to give to her in Word and meal, the new covenant or testament in Christ’s blood.

Today, as Kristel is confirmed in the faith of her baptism, join her in acknowledging the truth of our text. God’s Spirit moves you to confess the faith that brings eternal life. Jesus Christ, God's fulfillment of the new covenant comes to you and makes His home within your heart. He changes your heart from one filled with sinfulness and stubborn disobedience to a heart that loves the will and law of God. Only the work of God in you, called faith, can do that. This is the work that only Christ can accomplish in your heart through His Holy Spirit, as your sins are forgiven.

Live in this new covenant each week as you prepare to receive the forgiveness Christ won for you. Receive the promise God gave through Jeremiah of that new covenant, every time you hear the Word proclaimed and receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood. God’s eternal promised land and peace that passes all understanding, are the gifts that are yours in this new covenant as Jesus comes to you. So, let us join together in the hope of all God’s children, "Come Lord Jesus, come!" Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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