(16)
(2)
Scripture Reading: Jer. 30; Jer. 31
In this message we will continue to consider Jehovah's promise concerning the restoration of Israel. We will focus our attention on the crucial matter of the new covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 reveals that Jehovah, as their Husband, will make a new covenant with Israel. "Behold, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by their hand to bring them out from the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their Husband, declares Jehovah" (vv. 31-32). This new covenant was enacted by the Lord Jesus when He was about to die on the cross for the accomplishment of redemption. As He was instituting His supper, He said, "This cup is the new covenant established in My blood, which is being poured out for you" (Luke 22:20). No doubt, the new covenant here is the new covenant spoken of in Jeremiah 31:31. This new covenant is emphasized by Paul in Hebrews 8, where he quotes Jeremiah 31 in a very particular way.
In the entire Bible God made eight covenants with man, seven in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. The first was God's covenant with the created man (Gen. 2:8-9, 15-17), and the second was His covenant with fallen man (3:8-21). After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah (9:1-17). Later, God made a covenant with Abraham (12:2-3, 7-8; 15:4-18; 17:1-2; 22:17-18), and this covenant was repeated with Isaac (26:3-5) and with Jacob (28:13-15). The fifth covenant was made with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai (Exo. 20—23); the sixth was made with those who were to inherit the land (Deut. 28—29); and the seventh was made with David (2 Sam. 7:8-16). The eighth covenant is the new covenant.
In the Bible, however, only two of these covenants are designated by numbers. The covenant made with Israel at Mount Sinai is called the first covenant (Heb. 8:7, 13; 9:1), and the new covenant is called the second covenant (Heb. 8:7). After the new covenant, God will not make any other covenants, for the new covenant is the consummation of God's covenanting with His people.
The first covenant is called the covenant of law, and the second covenant is altogether wrapped up with God's divinity. The law is a portrait, a picture, of God, depicting Him. But the law is not God Himself. The Ten Commandments give us a full portrait of what God is, but they do not give us the person of God. In contrast, the content of the new covenant is God Himself.
The first item of the new covenant is found in Jeremiah 31:33a. "This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law within them and write it upon their hearts." What kind of law can be put into people and be written upon their hearts? Such a law must be a law of life, and this law itself must be a life. Otherwise, it could not be put into us. Furthermore, this law will be written upon our hearts, indicating that it will spread from the center of our being, our spirit, to the circumference, our heart. Thus, this law must be God's life, the divine life, and God's life is God Himself. In the new covenant God will put Himself into His chosen people as their life, and this life is a law.
Every life is a law. For example, the dog life is the dog law, and the bird life is the bird law. Likewise, the life of the peach tree is the law of the peach tree. The principle is the same with human beings. As human beings we have a human life, and this human life is a law that regulates us in every way. In particular, the law of the human life regulates the growth and development of a human being and causes all the parts of one's body to be in the right place and to function in the right way.
God's life is the highest life, and the law of this life is the highest law. The New Testament calls this life eternal life, a life that is divine, uncreated, and indestructible. This eternal life is embodied in Christ (1 John 5:11), and it is actually Christ Himself (John 14:6). The law of this life is wrapped up with the life-giving Spirit, who in Romans 8:2 is called "the Spirit of life." Hence, God, Christ, and the Spirit are this life, and through our regeneration this life is now within us to function as a law to us. This law is righteous and holy, and it is a law of love and of light. Because the eternal life within us is a law, it controls, governs, regulates, and restricts us in everything. What a marvelous law we have within us!
The law of life within us is for God's economy. Without giving us His life as the inner law, God has no way to accomplish His economy. God's economy is to dispense Himself into our being that our being may be constituted with His being to be one constitution with His being. This can be accomplished only by God putting Himself into us as the divine life.
Today hardly any Christians pay attention to the divine life as the inner law. Where can you hear a word about this in the Catholic Church, in the Orthodox Church, or in the Protestant denominations? Even the Brethren speak of this only in a very limited way. In Pentecostalism there is much interest in outward things but not in the inner law of life. In the Lord's recovery, however, we place great emphasis on eternal life and on the inner law as the function of this life.
The divine life has a function, and with this function there is a capacity, an ability. We can be holy because we have the capacity of holiness. We can be righteous because we have the capacity of righteousness. We can love others, even our enemies, because the divine life within us has the capacity to love.
The teachings in the New Testament are just to develop this capacity, to encourage this capacity to grow. Likewise, all the messages given by this ministry are to strengthen and develop the divine life in its capacity for its function. The goal of this function is for God to dispense Himself into us to accomplish His economy, that is, to produce the increase of God for His expression, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
In Jeremiah 31:33b we see the second item of the new covenant. "I will be their God, and they will be My people." From the time we were saved, we have had the desire that God would be our God. For God to be our God implies a great deal. This means that He will be known by us, understood by us, apprehended by us, and lived by us. It also means that we will be constituted with Him to be utterly one with Him.
"They will no longer teach, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for all of them will know Me, from the little one among them even to the great one among them, declares Jehovah" (v. 34a). This word indicates that we will know God to such an extent that we will not need anyone to teach us.
When I was a young Christian, I had a problem with this verse. I did not understand how we could do without teaching. Eventually I began to see that this word about knowing God and not needing others to teach us is related to the spontaneous, automatic function of the divine life within us. As an illustration, let us suppose that a child is given two different things to taste, something bitter and something sweet. The child will automatically reject what is bitter and receive and enjoy what is sweet. This reaction is a matter not of teaching but of taste. By the sense of taste, which is an aspect of the function of human life, the child knows to reject what is bitter and to receive what is sweet. The proper teaching the child receives regarding the sense of taste will serve to develop, but not to replace, the life capacity within the child.
The principle is the same with knowing God through the function of the divine life, the eternal life, within us. Eternal life has a special function, and this function is to know God (John 17:3). To know God, the divine person, we need the divine life with its function. Eventually, there will be no need for outward teachings, for we will know God by the function of the divine life.
No religion on earth can replace the new covenant or even compare with it. Confucius and Socrates were good, but they could not put themselves into their followers as life. Only Jesus Christ as the embodiment of God can do this. Throughout the centuries He has put His life into millions of persons. As believers, we all have received His eternal life. This is indicated strongly in John 3:16. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life." By believing into Christ we have received eternal life, the divine life. This divine life is the centrality and universality of our Christian life. This life is nothing less than Christ Himself, and Christ is the very God. Since we have God within us as life, we can know Him, apprehend Him, live Him, and be constituted with Him. Furthermore, by dispensing Himself into us as life, God is accomplishing His economy, that He may have a corporate expression of Himself for eternity.
Today we know Christ as our life (Col. 3:4). He is the divine life, the eternal life, the uncreated life, the life that is all-inclusive. Because we know the divine life, we can experience the divine dispensing — God's dispensing Himself into us that we may become His increase, His enlargement, for His expression. This is God's intention, God's goal, God's purpose, God's economy with His dear dispensing.
The Triune God has been processed and consummated in order to dispense Himself into our being. Now, through this dispensing, we have the capacity to know God and to be His people.
In Jeremiah 31:34b we have yet another aspect of the new covenant. Here Jehovah says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Our sin and iniquity are great problems, but they have been dealt with. Before Jeremiah spoke of the new covenant, he spoke concerning Christ as the righteous Shoot of David, as the One whose name will be called Jehovah our righteousness (23:5-6). This One has accomplished redemption; He has taken away our sin. "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). He has solved the problem of sin, and now He is our redemption and our justification. In Him we have been justified by God, and God has forgiven our iniquity and our sin. Because we have been justified, there is no obstacle or frustration to keep us from having fellowship with God and to prevent Him from dispensing Himself into us. Because we have been redeemed, justified, forgiven, and cleansed, we are free to contact God, and He is free to work Himself into us.
God has forgiven our sin, and He does not remember it. As a result, there can now be communication, fellowship, between us and God. Day by day we may converse with Him, enjoying Him and receiving His dispensing.
A further promise of Jehovah concerning the restoration of Israel is in Jeremiah 30:9. Here we are told that Israel will serve Jehovah their God and David their King, whom Jehovah will raise up for them in the time of the millennium.
