The past weekend focused on the most important event in human history. The death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many gathered together on Thursday or Friday night for the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup as our Lord instructed us to. Many as well quoted from Luke 22:20, where Jesus tells His disciples that, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood." Or perhaps I Corinthians 11:25 where the Apostle Paul gives the same quote in reference to this memorial given us by the Lord. II Corinthians also gives mention to the new covenant which is "Not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life". Again in Hebrews we read of this new covenant, which made the old covenant obsolete (Heb. 8:13). Also that Jesus is the mediator of this new covenant (9:15 and 12:24). But just what is this new covenant? It is founded in Messiah. Kistemaker explains that he old covenant at Sanai has ended. Meaning that the Mosaic Covenant or Torah has been done away with. (Kistemaker, Hebrews pg228 Baker). The New Covenant of grace is a popular explanation for this new covenant. F. F. Bruce is clear on this opinion."The age of the law and the prophets is past; the age of the Son is here, and here to stay" (Bruce Hebrews NICNT pg 179 Eerdmans). Multiple others would agree. They proclaim that the New Covenant is a Spiritual Covenant based on grace and not the Law. The old is past and the new has come.
It should be pointed out that these commentators also recognize that the writer to the Hebrews is quoting Jeremiah 31:31. This is the predictive promise that a new covenant is coming. And it could be argued that this is indeed a spiritual covenant. But is the popular view actually what the Scriptures say? Are Kistemaker and Bruce accurate in what they perceive to be true? What would the readers of this Letter to the Hebrews have understood when the writer quotes Jeremiah and speaks of a new covenant? I believe the readers to be either Hebrews or those very familiar with the teachings of the Hebrews as in the Word of God reveled to and recorded by His people. That being the case they would have known that Kistemaker, Bruce, and others did not need to guess at what the New Covenant was. They did not need to impose their theological understanding on the text to come to the conclusion that the Law or Torah has been done away and replaced with a nebulous law of the Spirit. Jeremiah took the time to tell us what the new covenant is, at least the one that God was instituting. And not only that but the writer to the Hebrews even took the time to quote the rest of Jeremiah's thoughts so we would not miss the point. (See Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews 8:8-12) .Jeremiah indeed says, "Behold the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah 'not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them', says the LORD." So Jeremiah is clear that a time is coming for a new covenant. But what will be the difference compared to the old? Jeremiah goes on to tell us, "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD; I will put My law (Torah) in their minds and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD', for hey all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I shall forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Now this has yet to come in all its fulfillment but most would agree that forgiveness and a new covenant is active today. However, Jeremiah's clear promise and prediction from God is overlooked or creatively explained away. God promises to write Torah on their hearts and to place it in their minds. Those under the New Covenant will become Torah observant and obedient from the inside out.
So what does that mean for those of us how desire to follow Messiah and be obedient to His call today? What do we do with Torah? What do we do with the directions and instructions God has given His people as to how to live? We do know that Messiah's sacrifice was effective, once for all. That the sin offering has been given and accepted by God the Father. One could argue that part of the sacrificial system has been completed but that is only a small part of Torah. As I have persuaded this journey of seeing God's revelation in a more integrated fashion a common reaction to the word Torah or Law is one of near anger. I am told "The Law is gone. Grace is here. The is no place for the Law for it was completed by Jesus and has no bearing on my life," Then what is the promise of Jeremiah and the confirmation of that promise in Hebrews? "Torah will be in my mind and on my heart". By the power of the Spirit of God I will be obedient. Something Jesus, John, Peter, and Paul, to name a few, have instructed me to do. Something the Spirit prompts me about when I am not. My thought is that God keeps His promise even if I don't want to believe Him.
There are many believers in Messiah who believe that Jesus will come and take them away before the Great Tribulation described in Revelation. Others disagree. If the rapture is true would God leave behind those of a differing view? There are those who believe our salvation is secure and cannot be lost while other believers feel you can lose it. Will God take it away if they are mistaken and they were secure after all? God's promises are true whether we believe them or not. We may discuss and disagree over lots of things that we find in God's Word but it doesn't change what is true. What if Jeremiah is true, that God will place Torah in our minds and on our hearts so we obey by the power of His Spirit from the inside out. What if we become Torah obedient not by attempts of our own power but through His power, as Jeremiah predicted. Have you ever seen someone or perhaps had this experience yourself that upon committing your life to Christ you no longer take God's name in vain. Suddenly you can't look at another as your spouse now means more to you than you remember. Stealing and cheating really bother you. You have compassion for the poor, you want to know God's word and to be with His people. Did you know those are all instructions in Torah? Much of what we do as Christians, much of the moral fabric woven into our lives is all Torah compliant. Just because you may not want to believe that God's Law, His Torah, has anything to do with your life of grace and freedom in Christ doesn't negate the promise in Jeremiah and Hebrews. God is placing Torah in your mind and on your heart and empowering you by His Spirit to walk in obedience whether or not you think it is true. God's promise is still true.
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