Jeremiah’s prophecy in vv. 31-34 concerning the new covenant was quoted by the apostle Paul in Heb. 8:8-12 and was applied to the New Testament believers. Thus, the new covenant with its privileges and blessings is for the New Testament believers to enjoy in the present age. Israel’s participation in the new covenant will be in the millennium, in the coming age of restoration (Matt. 19:28), in which Christ will be Israel’s righteousness, redemption, and life and will be exalted to be their centrality and universality. Eventually, through the new covenant God will make the believers and Israel a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15), which will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-3).

See note Jer. 11:3¹.

Here habitation of righteousness refers to Jerusalem, and mountain of holiness, to Mount Zion.

See note Heb. 8:10¹. The center, the content, and the reality of the new covenant is the inner law of life (Rom. 8:2). In its essence, this law refers to the divine life, and the divine life is the Triune God, who is embodied in the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 2:9) and realized as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and who has been processed and consummated to become everything to His chosen people.

According to its life, the law of the new covenant is the Triune God, and according to its function, it is the almighty divine capacity. This divine capacity can do everything in us for the carrying out of God’s economy. According to this capacity we can know God, live God, and be constituted with God in His life and nature that we may become His increase, His enlargement, to be His fullness for His eternal expression (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19-21). Furthermore, the capacity of the inner law of life constitutes us the members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30) with all kinds of functions (Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:11, 16).

The writing of the law of life on our heart mentioned here corresponds to the New Testament teaching concerning the spreading of the divine life from the center of our being, our spirit, to the circumference, our heart (see note Heb. 8:10¹, par. 1, note Rom. 8:9², and note Eph. 3:17¹). God writes His law on our heart by moving from our spirit into our heart to inscribe what He is into our being. Cf. note 2 Cor. 3:3^4d.

See note Heb. 8:10⁵.

To know God is to live God. Through the spontaneous, automatic function of the divine life within us, we have the capacity to know God, to live God, and even to be one with God in His life and nature so that we may be His corporate expression. See note John 17:3¹.

Forgiveness implies redemption and even equals redemption (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). In the new covenant God forgives the iniquity of His people based on Christ’s redemption (Heb. 9:22).

As seen in 23:5-6 and in vv. 33-34, God’s way to make Christ everything to His elect is by the way of righteousness, redemption, and the divine life with its law and capacity. These three matters, revealed intrinsically in Jeremiah’s prophecy, are fully developed in the New Testament. See note Jer. 23:6².

Jeremiah reveals what God wants from us, what we are in our fallen condition, and what Christ is to us. God wants us to take Him as our source and to drink of Him so that He may become the river of water of life within us (Jer. 2:13; cf. John 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1). However, we forsook Him, and in our fallen condition we became hopeless, utterly corrupt, incurable, and unchangeable (Jer. 13:23; 17:9). But Christ has come to be our righteousness (Jer. 23:5-6) and our inner life (v. 33). Outwardly, He is our righteousness for us to be justified by God, and inwardly, He is the divine life to fill us, to make us one with God, and even to constitute us with God that we may live God (Phil. 1:21a). Christ’s being our righteousness and our inner life causes us to be a corporate Body, the organism of the Triune God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. These matters are the kernel of the book of Jeremiah, and they are also the complete teaching of the entire Bible.

From the time of restoration, i.e., the coming millennium, Israel will exist forever. They will not cease from being a nation, and their descendants (seed) will never be cast off (v. 37).