The New Contract

The New Contract 7-26-20 Beginning Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34 31 The day will come, says the Lord, when I will make a new contract with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It won’t be like the one I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a contract they broke, forcing me to reject them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the new contract I will make with them: I will inscribe my laws upon their hearts, so that they shall want to honor me; then they shall truly be my people and I will be their God. 34 At that time it will no longer be necessary to admonish one another to know the Lord. For everyone, both great and small, shall really know me then, says the Lord, and I will forgive and forget their sins. What does this passage mean to me? To me it says that this new contract or covenant between me and God is NOT that of a servant who obeys because if he doesn’t he will get wacked or punished. That is, I no longer have a servile relationship with God based on a bunch of external laws and rules written down on stone tablets or in State laws that will be enforced by the spiritual police. But this contract between me and God is a relationship that I obey because I love God and I want to honor him and his love. Our relationship is more like a friendship. And I don’t HAVE to have a friendship. I WANT to have a friendship. Something has happened inside of me that makes me want to enter into God’s heart like I would want to enter into a beautiful green meadow and lay there in the cool clover and bask in the sunlight and feel the cool breeze of God’s Spirit wash over my body. When I was baptized I came up out of that water and was greeted by the applause of the congregation, my wife and our close friend Sarah and my spiritual brothers who had come to the service especially to be there to support me and welcome me into the community. That was a moment of grace. I did not make it happen because I was a good boy and obeyed all the rules. It happened TO me. It was a free gift to me. At that moment I was born again. The shackles of all my past sins and bondage were thrown off of me. And I had a new relationship with Jesus that was freely given to me at that very moment. THAT is what is meant by the statement that faith comes from grace. Yes, I had immersed myself in God’s Word and it had inspired me and led me to walk up those stairs onto that stage with the baptismal vessel on it. I had said yes to my relationships with the guys in the men’s group. But none of those actions and choices were done so that I could manipulate God into giving me faith – so that I could convince God that I was worthy – so that I could simply avoid punishment. When I rose out of that water I was born again. In a sense this was my little resurrection with Jesus Christ and it did not happen because I deserved it or earned or worked for it or obeyed this rule and that rule. It happened TO me. Another way to say it is that moment of faith came to me solely by the mercy of God, that is, by grace. To me that is what is meant by the statement in Hebrews 8:11 where the writer repeats the words of Jeremiah - God’s promise to the people of Israel that God will write his laws in their minds, that they will be in their hearts and everyone great and small will know God already. That promise or covenant spoken of in Hebrews 8 is something “inside” of the people, rather than something “outside.” Unlike the Levitical priesthood that required a reliance on human priests, laws, obedience, rituals, and ongoing, imperfect sacrifices for sins, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself offers a personal, internal, eternal, and complete forgiveness for sins. To me, this experience I had of baptism and rebirth is a perfect illustration of what John 16:8 says: “And when [the Comforter] …has come he will convince the world … of the availability of God’s goodness…” That day of my baptism and rebirth, August 31, 2015 I was delivered from judgement and I experienced the complete free availability of God’s goodness and grace. This was the grace promised by God as a new covenant and was ushered in not by a human high priest but by the Holy Spirit and it focuses on a personal relationship and response to God, through Jesus Christ. Challenges and Questions • • • Examine your relationship with God and try to remember when that grace of rebirth happened in you. What would you say God wrote in your mind and on your heart at the moment or moments of that rebirth? How did you feel? How do you feel about it now? Describe an instance or instances in which you have experienced small rebirths in Christ in your life. Prayer Jesus, thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to comfort us and to fill our hearts with grace. We are so grateful. Lord, help us to again experience the fiery grace of rebirth. This is a time when we need it. Jesus, I know I cannot MAKE it happen, but I pray that you will. I rededicate myself to our covenant with each other at this moment. You have my promise to pray and read Sacred Scripture and delve into it deeply, for I know it is there that I will find you spread freely, available to me throughout its lines, paragraphs and page. My gratitude for you and your goodness overflows. I pray these things in the name of my precious savior Jesus Christ, Amen.