10“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
11They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest.
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.”
10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
11 They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.”
TYNDALETyndale New Testament (1534)
10 For this is the testament that I will make with the housse of Israhell: After those dayes sayth the lorde: I will put my lawes in their myndes and in their hertes I will wryte the and I wilbe their God and they shalbe my people.
11 And they shall not teache every man his neghboure and every man his brother sayinge: knowe the lorde: For they shall knowe me from the lest to the moste of them:
12 For I wilbe mercifull over their vnrightwesnes and on their synnes and on their iniquiries.
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GNVGeneva Bible (1599)
10 For this is the Testament that I will make with the house of Israel, After those dayes, saith the Lord, I will put my Lawes in their minde, and in their heart I will write them, and I wil be their God, and they shalbe my people,
11 And they shall not teache euery man his neighbour and euery man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall knowe me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
12 For I will bee mercifull to their vnrighteousnes, and I wil remember their sinnes and their iniquities no more.
Ezekiel 36:26-28(v10)I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will…
Jeremiah 31:33(v10)“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward…
2 Corinthians 3:3(v10)being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets…
Ezekiel 11:19-20(v10)I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a…
Hebrews 10:16-17(vv10, 12)“This is the covenant that I will make with them: ‘After those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write…
Show all 62 cross-references
Deuteronomy 30:6(v10)Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your…
Jeremiah 24:7(vv10–11)I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Yahweh. They will be my people, and I will be their God; for they will return to me with…
1 Peter 2:9(v10)But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
Romans 9:25-26(v10)As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.” “It will be…
Romans 11:27(vv10, 12)This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”
James 1:21(v10)Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your…
Titus 2:14(v10)who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for…
2 Corinthians 3:7-8(v10)But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the…
Zechariah 8:8(v10)and I will bring them, and they will dwell within Jerusalem; and they will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in…
1 Peter 1:23(v10)having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever.
Ezekiel 37:27(v10)My tent also will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
James 1:18(v10)Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Jeremiah 32:40(v10)I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their…
Zechariah 13:9(v10)I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will…
Jeremiah 32:38(v10)Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.
Matthew 22:32(v10)‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Exodus 19:5-6(v10)Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all…
Hebrews 11:16(v10)But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has…
Exodus 34:27(v10)Yahweh said to Moses, “Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
Genesis 17:7-8(v10)I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to…
Exodus 24:4(v10)Moses wrote all Yahweh’s words, then rose up early in the morning and built an altar at the base of the mountain, with twelve pillars for…
Song of Solomon 2:16(v10)My beloved is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies.
Ezekiel 39:22(v10)So the house of Israel will know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day and forward.
Jeremiah 31:1(v10)“At that time,” says Yahweh, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
Hosea 1:10(v10)Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that,…
Exodus 24:7(v10)He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “We will do all that Yahweh has said, and be…
Hosea 2:23(v10)I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people,…
Exodus 34:1(v10)Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which…
1 Corinthians 6:16(v10)Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.”
Jeremiah 31:34(v11)They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’ for they will all know me, from their…
Isaiah 43:25(v12)I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
Micah 7:19(v12)He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Isaiah 54:13(v11)All your children will be taught by Yahweh; and your children’s peace will be great.
John 6:45(v11)It is written in the prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who hears from the Father and has learned, comes to me.
Jeremiah 33:8(v12)I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against me. I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have…
Acts 13:38-39(v12)Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins, and by him everyone who believes is…
1 John 1:7-9(v12)But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses…
1 John 2:27(v11)As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing…
Jeremiah 50:20(v12)In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the iniquity of Israel will be sought for, and there will be none; also the sins of Judah,…
Ephesians 1:7(v12)in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Isaiah 44:22(v12)I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
1 John 2:1-2(v12)My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ,…
Colossians 1:14(v12)in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
1 John 5:20(v11)We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in…
1 Chronicles 28:9(v11)You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all…
Psalms 25:7(v12)Don’t remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Remember me according to your loving kindness, for your goodness’ sake, Yahweh.
Habakkuk 2:14(v11)For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Yahweh’s glory, as the waters cover the sea.
Acts 8:10(v11)to whom they all listened, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is that great power of God.”
Revelation 1:5(v12)and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and…
Psalms 65:3(v12)Sins overwhelmed me, but you atoned for our transgressions.
Isaiah 2:3(v11)Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his…
2 Chronicles 30:22(v11)Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who had good understanding in the service of Yahweh. So they ate throughout the feast for…
Ezra 7:25(v11)You, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are…
Ezekiel 34:30(v11)They will know that I, Yahweh, their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord Yahweh.
2 Kings 17:27-28(v11)Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let them go and dwell there,…
Jeremiah 6:13(v11)“For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals…
Jeremiah 44:12(v11)I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to live there, and they will all be consumed. They…
62 distinct cross-references across this passage (65 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv10–1110 For this is the covenant that I will…
10 For this is the covenant that I will make, etc. There are two main parts in this covenant; the first regards the gratuitous remission of sins; and the other, the inward renovation of the heart; there is a third which depends on the second, and that is the illumination of the mind as to the knowledge of God. There are here many things most deserving of notice.
The first is, that God calls us to himself without effect as long as he speaks to us in no other way than by the voice of man. He indeed teaches us and commands what is right but he speaks to the deaf; for when we seem to hear anything, our ears are only struck by an empty sound; and the heart, full of depravity and perverseness, rejects every wholesome doctrine. In short, the word of God never penetrates into our hearts, for they are iron and stone until they are softened by him; nay, they have engraven on them a contrary law, for perverse passions rule within, which lead us to rebellion. In vain then does God proclaim his Law by the voice of man, unless he writes it by his Spirit on our hearts, that is, unless he forms and prepares us for obedience. It hence appears of what avail is freewill and the uprightness of nature before God regenerates us. We will indeed and choose freely; but our will is carried away by a sort of insane impulse to resist God. Thus it comes that the Law is ruinous and fatal to us as long as it remains written only on tables of stone, as Paul also teaches us. (2 Corinthians 3:3.) In short, we then only obediently embrace what God commands, when by his Spirit he changes and corrects the natural pravity of our hearts; otherwise he finds nothing in us but corrupt affections and a heart wholly given up to evil. The declaration indeed is clear, that a new covenant is made according to which God engraves his laws on our hearts, for otherwise it would be in vain and of no effect.
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The second particular refers to the gratuitous pardon of sins. Though they have sinned, saith the Lord, yet I will pardon them. This part is also most necessary; for God never so forms us for obedience to his righteousness, but that many corrupt affections of the flesh still remain; nay, it is only in part that the viciousness of our nature is corrected; so that evil lusts break out now and then. And hence is that contest of which Paul complains, when the godly do not obey God as they ought, but in various ways offend. (Romans 7:13.) Whatever desire then there may be in us to live righteously, we are still guilty of eternal death before God, because our life is ever very far from the perfection which the Law requires. There would then be no stability in the covenant, except God gratuitously forgave our sins. But it is the peculiar privilege of the faithful who have once embraced the covenant offered to them in Christ, that they feel assured that God is propitious to them; nor is the sin to which they are liable, a hindrance to them, for they have the promise of pardon.
And it must be observed that this pardon is promised to them, not for one day only, but to the very end of life, so that they have a daily reconciliation with God. For this favor is extended to the whole of Christ’s kingdom, as Paul abundantly proves in the fifth chapter of his second Epistle to the Corinthians. And doubtless this is the only true asylum of our faith, to which if we flee not, constant despair must be our lot. For we are all of us guilty; nor can we be otherwise released then by fleeing to God’s mercy, which alone can pardon us.
And they shall be to me, etc. It is the fruit of the covenant, that God chooses us for his people, and assures us that he will be the guardian of our salvation. This is indeed the meaning of these words, And I will be to them a God; for he is not the God of the dead, nor does he take us under his protection, but that he may make us partakers of righteousness and of life, so that David justly exclaims, “Blessed are the people to whom the Lord is God (Psalm 144:15.) There is further no doubt but that this truth belongs also to us; for though the Israelites had the first place, and are the proper and legitimate heirs of the covenant, yet their prerogative does not hinder us from having also a title to it. In short, however far and wide the kingdom of Christ extends, this covenant of salvation is of the same extent.
But it may be asked, whether there was under the Law a sure and certain promise of salvation, whether the fathers had the gift of the Spirit, whether they enjoyed God’s paternal favor through the remission of sins? Yes, it is evident that they worshipped God with a sincere heart and a pure conscience, and that they walked in his commandments, and this could not have been the case except they had been inwardly taught by the Spirit; and it is also evident, that whenever they thought of their sins, they were raised up by the assurance of a gratuitous pardon. And yet the Apostle, by referring the prophecy of Jeremiah to the coming of Christ, seems to rob them of these blessings. To this I reply, that he does not expressly deny that God formerly wrote his Law on their hearts and pardoned their sins, but he makes a comparison between the less and the greater. As then the Father has put forth more fully the power of his Spirit under the kingdom of Christ, and has poured forth more abundantly his mercy on mankind, this exuberance renders insignificant the small portion of grace which he had been pleased to bestow on the fathers. We also see that the promises were then obscure and intricate, so that they shone only like the moon and stars in comparison with the clear light of the Gospel which shines brightly on us.
If it be objected and said, that the faith and obedience of Abraham so excelled, that hardly any such an example can at this day be found in the whole world; my answer is this, that the question here is not about persons, but that reference is made to the economical condition of the Church. Besides, whatever spiritual gifts the fathers obtained, they were accidental as it were to their age; for it was necessary for them to direct their eyes to Christ in order to become possessed of them. Hence it was not without reason that the Apostle, in comparing the Gospel with the Law, took away from the latter what is peculiar to the former. There is yet no reason why God should not have extended the grace of the new covenant to the fathers. This is the true solution of the question.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv10–1210 For this is the covenant that I will…
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Ver. 10. I will put my laws, &c.] God’s covenant is to write his laws and promises "in his people’s minds," so that they shall have the knowledge of them; "and in their hearts," so that they shall have the comfort, feeling, and fruition of them.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv10–12For this is the covenant that I will make:…
For this is the covenant that I will make: for, showeth it should not be such a covenant-form as was given on Mount Sinai, it being wholly different, and that denied before, being carnal and ceremonious, full of types and shadows, and through their sin ineffectual to them. This is the firm administration of the covenant which I will strike. To which three words answer is in this scripture, I will perfect, make, and dispose; which last is the root from whence the notion of a covenant in the Greek is derived, διαθησομαι.
With the house of Israel: Israel is the comprehensive name of all the twelve tribes, as Heb 8:8; compare Exo 16:31; 40:38; and is so used by the Lord himself Mat 10:6, and by Peter, Act 2:36.
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After those days; in the prophet it is, after those days of their delivery from Babylon, Jer 31:1,8,11,16,21, but especially when those days of the first administration of the covenant are accomplished, when the fulness of time for the Messiah’s revelation is come, Gal 4:4. To this God again puts his seal, he saith it.
I will put my laws into their mind; the great God, the Redeemer himself the infinitely wise, and good, and powerful Spirit, who only can reach the soul, will make impressions, and write clear characters of Divine truth on it, 2Co 3:3. None can alter, new mould, frame, and temper a spirit, but him, who hath a true original right of all the good he promiseth, which he will freely, graciously dispense from himself, Joh 4:10,14. All the doctrines of the gospel, which include in them the moral law, as now managed by Christ, all the will of God concerning our salvation, promises, and commands; and these in their spirit and power, which God not only ratified in, but conveyed to the world by, Jesus Christ, and especially into the mind. διανοιαν renders the Hebrew בקרבם the inward parts, in the prophet’s text. The mind or understanding being the innermost part of the soul, is capable of receiving impresses of Divine truth, and its characters are by it made legible to the soul; which as promised here, is so prayed for by the apostle, Eph 1:17,18.
And write them in their hearts: επιγραψω is a metaphor setting out a real, actual, powerful work of the Spirit of Christ, which leaveth the express characters of all God’s saving mind and will upon the heart or soul as plain as writing upon paper, or engraving upon stones; such an operation of the Spirit of Christ on the souls of them, as whereby is conveyed into them a new light, life, power, so that they are made by it partakers of a Divine nature; and though they are not other faculties, yet they are quite other things than they were for qualities and operations, so as they are enabled to know, observe, and keep his laws, which are set up in authority and dominion in their souls, ruling and ordering all there, Eze 11:19,20; 36:26,27; 2Co 3:3,8,9,10,18.
And I will be to them a God: as in the former word was the promise of conversion, regeneration, and renovation, so joined with it is the promise of adoption. In which God engageth in Christ to be to penitent believers, Rom 9:6,8, a God, i.e. the cause and author of all good, Gen 15:1-21; 17:1,7; what he is, hath, or can do for them of good, is all theirs, and himself terminating all the knowledge, faith, and worship of them. He will exercise all his wisdom, power, and goodness to deliver them from all evil, and to make them eternally happy and blessed in himself.
And they shall be to me a people; and to him this true Israel shall be a true, spiritual, eternal, adopted seed and people, partakers of all that he hath promised to them or they can desire of him; so as their name is better than the name of sons or daughters, an everlasting one, not to be cut off, Isa 56:5. They, as his people, attend on, witness to, and contend for, him and his glory, are always at his beck, being purchased, made, and covenanted so for his use and service, that they are not their own, but wholly at his disposal, Jer 23:7; 32:20; Eze 11:20; 37:23,2;7 Zec 8:8; 2Co 6:16.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt1703 · Public DomainOn vv10–12Observe here, 1. The persons with whom this covenant…
Observe here, 1. The persons with whom this covenant is made, the house of Israel, and the house of Judah; not made with them as a political body, because their policy was to be dissolved, but as a part of the universal church.
Observe, 2. The author of this covenant, and that is God himself, I will make it, saith the Lord.
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Note, That the abolishing of the old covenant, and establishing the new, is an act of sovereign wisdom, grace, and authority in God: I will make a new covenant.
Observe, 3. What is the great and comprehensive promise of the new covenant: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; that is:
1. I will make a clear and perspicuous revelation of my mind and will unto them, and give them a thorough knowledge and understanding of my laws, so that their own consciences shall condemn them when they do transgress them.
2. By my holy Spirit I will make a deep and efficacious impression of them upon their hearts and spirits.
Where note, That the precepts of the old covenant are all of them turned into promises under the new; ther preceptive and commanding power remaineth; but grace is promised for the performance of them.
Note farther, That the work of grace, in the new covenant, passeth on the whole soul, in all its powers and faculties, to their change and renovation: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts.
And, consequently, to deny the necessity and efficacy of the sanctifying and renewing grace of God in the habits and acts of it, is plainly to overthrow the evangelical covenant.
Observe, 4. What is the relation which is here said to ensue between God and his people; I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
Here note, 1. God’s relation to us ; I will be to them a God, I who am all-sufficient in myself, will be your all-sufficient preserver, and your all-sufficient rewarder. As nothing less than God’s becoming our God can relieve and help us; so nothing more can be required thereunto.
Note, 2. Our relation to God, they shall be to me a people; that is, a special and peculiar people, owning dependency upon him, and professing all subjection and obedience to him.
And observe, God undertakes for this, they shall be to me a people.
Learn thence, That God doth as well undertake for our being his people, as he doth for his being our God: He that assumes them into that relation freely will preserve them in it powerfully: I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv10–12For this is the covenant that I will make…
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel,.... That is, this is the sum and substance of the covenant, which God promised to make with, or to make manifest and known to his chosen people, the true Israelites, under the Gospel dispensation; or the following are the several articles of that covenant, he proposed to consummate or finish, as before:
after those days, saith the Lord; after the times of the Old Testament, when the Messiah shall be come, and the Gospel day shall take place. So the Jews (i) apply these days, when they represent the Israelites saying to Moses, O that he (God) would reveal (himself or will) to us a second time! O that he would kiss us with the kisses of his mouth, and that the doctrine of the law was fixed in our hearts; when he (Moses) said to them, this is not to be done now, but , in the time to come, (i.e. in the times of the Messiah,) as it is said, Jer 31:33.
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I will put my law, &c. and so (k) they are elsewhere applied to the same times. And the first article in it is,
I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; by the laws of God are meant not the precepts of the ceremonial law, which were now abrogated, but either the moral law, and its commands; which is a transcript of the divine nature, was inscribed on Adam's heart in innocence, and some remains of it are even in the Gentiles, but greatly obliterated through the sin of man; and there is in men naturally a contrary disposition to it; in regeneration it is reinscribed by the Spirit of God; and great respect is had to it by regenerate persons, in which lies one part of their conformity to Christ: or else, since the word "law" signifies sometimes no other than a doctrine, an instruction, the doctrines of grace, of repentance towards God, of faith in Christ, and love to him, and every other doctrine may be intended; and the tables where, according to the tenor of this covenant, these are put and written, are two tables, as before, the "mind" and "heart"; but not two tables of stone, on which the law of Moses was written, partly that it might not be lost, through defect of memory, and partly to denote the firmness and stability of it, as also to point at the hardness of man's heart; but the fleshly tables of the heart; not that part of our flesh that is called the heart; but the souls of men, such hearts as are regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of God, and such minds as are renewed by him: and the "putting" of them into the mind, designs the knowledge of them, which God gives; as of the moral law, of its spirituality and perfection, showing that there is no life and righteousness by it, that it is fulfilled by Christ, and is a rule of conversation to the saints; and of all other laws, ordinances, and doctrines of Christ: and the "writing" them in, or on the heart, intends a filling the soul with love and affection to them, so that it regards them singly and heartily; and a powerful inclination of the heart to be subject to them, through the efficacious grace of God; and which is done not with the ink of nature's power, but with the Spirit of the living God, Co2 3:3.
And I will be to them a God; not in such sense as he is the God of all mankind, or as he was the God of Israel in a distinguishing manner, but as he is the God of Christ, and of all the elect in him; and he is their God, not merely as the God of nature and providence, but as the God of all grace; he is so in a covenant way, and as in Christ, and by virtue of electing grace, and which is made manifest in the effectual calling; and as such, he has set his heart on them, and set them apart for himself; he saves them by his Son, adopts and regenerates them, justifies and sanctifies them, provides for them, protects and preserves them; and happy are they that are interested in this blessing of the covenant, which is preferable to everything else; they have everything, and can want no good thing; they need fear no enemy; all things work together for their good; and God continues to be their God in life and in death; so that they may depend on his love, be secure of his power, expect every needful supply of grace, and to be carried through every duty and trial, and to share in the first resurrection, and to enjoy eternal happiness:
and they shall be to me a people; not in such sense as all mankind are, or the Jews were in a more peculiar respect, but as all God's elect are, whether Jews or Gentiles; and who are such whom God has loved with a special love, has chose in Christ, and given to him, and with whom he has made a covenant in him; whom Christ saves from their sins by his blood, and calls them by his grace and Spirit, and who give up themselves to him; these are a distinct and peculiar people, a people near unto the Lord, and who are all righteous in Christ, and are made willing in the day of his power on their souls.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv10–12This is the covenant I will make after those…
This is the covenant I will make after those days - After the Mosaic dispensation is abolished. I will put my laws in their minds - I will open their eyes, and enlighten their understanding, to see the true, full, spiritual meaning thereof. And write them on their hearts - So that they shall inwardly experience whatever I have commanded. And I will be to them a God - Their all- sufficient portion, and exceeding great reward. And they shall be to me a people - My treasure, my beloved, loving, and obedient children.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv10–12Verse 10. This is the covenant] This is the…
Verse 10. This is the covenant] This is the nature of that glorious system of religion which I shall publish among them after those days, i.e., in the times of the Gospel.
I will put my laws into their mind] I will influence them with the principles of law, truth, holiness, c. and their understandings shall he fully enlightened to comprehend them.
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And write them in their hearts] All their affections, passions, and appetites, shall be purified and filled with holiness and love to God and man; so that they shall willingly obey, and feel that love is the fulfilling of the law: instead of being written on tables of stone, they shall be written on the fleshly tables of their hearts.
I will be to them a God] These are the two grand conditions by which the parties in this covenant or agreement are bound:
1. I will be your God.
2. Ye shall be my people.
As the object of religious adoration to any man is that Being from whom he expects light, direction, defence, support, and happiness: so God, promising to be their God, promises in effect to give them all these great and good things. To be God's people implies that they should give God their whole hearts, serve him with all their light and strength, and have no other object of worship or dependence but himself. Any of these conditions broken, the covenant is rendered null and void, and the other party absolved from his engagement.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv10–11Heb 8:10. For this is the covenant that I…
Heb 8:10. For this is the covenant that I will make after those days — In the times of the Messiah; I will put my laws into their mind — I will open the eyes of their understanding, and give them light to discern the true, full, spiritual meaning thereof; and write them in their hearts — So that they shall love them, and shall experience inwardly, and practise outwardly, whatsoever I command. They shall have that love to me and all mankind shed abroad in their hearts, which shall be a never-failing spring of piety and virtue within them, and which, of my mercy and grace, I will accept as the fulfilling of the law. The words are an allusion to the writing of the law on the two tables of stone. And I will be to them a God — Their all- sufficient portion, preserver, and rewarder; and they shall be to me a people — My beloved, loving, and obedient children. Or the former clause may signify, They shall know, fear, love, and serve me willingly and acceptably as their God, and I will protect, guide, govern, bless, and save them as my people.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv10–12For this is the covenant - This is the…
For this is the covenant - This is the arrangement, or the dispensation which shall succeed the old one. “With the house of Israel.” With the true Israel; that is, with all those whom he will regard and treat as his friends.
After those days - This may either mean, “after those days I will put my laws in their hearts,” or, “I will make this covenant with them after those days.” This difference is merely in the punctuation, and the sense is not materially affected. It seems, to me, however, that the meaning of the Hebrew in Jeremiah is, “in those after days” (compare notes on Isa 2:1)}.
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I will put my laws into their mind - that is, in that subsequent period, called in Scripture “the after times,” “the last days,” “the ages to come,” meaning the last dispensation of the world. Thus interpreted, the sense is, that this would be done in the times of the Messiah. “I will put my laws into their mind.” Margin, “Give.” The word “give” in Hebrew is often used in the sense of “put.” The meaning here is, that they would not be mere external observances, but would affect the conscience and the heart. The laws of the Hebrews pertained mainly to external rites and ceremonies; the laws of the new dispensation would relate particularly to the inner man, and be designed to control the heart. The grand uniqueness of the Christian system is, that it regulates the conscience and the principles of the soul rather than external matters. It prescribes few external rites, and those are exceedingly simple, and are merely the proper expressions of the pious feelings supposed to be in the heart; and all attempts either to increase the number of these rites, or to make them imposing by their gorgeousness, have done just so much to mar the simplicity of the gospel, and to corrupt religion.
And write them in their hearts - Margin, “Upon.” Not on fables of stone or brass, but on the soul itself. That is, the obedience rendered will not be external. The law of the new system will have living power, and bind the faculties of the soul to obedience. The commandment there will be written in more lasting characters than if engraved on fables of stone.
And I will be to them a God - This is quoted literally from the Hebrew. The meaning is, that he would sustain to them the appropriate relation of a God; or, if the expression may be allowed, he would be to them what a God should be, or what it is desirable that people should find in a God. We speak of a father’s acting in a manner appropriate to the character of a father; and the meaning here is, that he would be to his people all that is properly implied in the name of God. He would be their Lawgiver, their counsellor, their protector, their Redeemer, their guide. He would provide for their wants, defend them in danger, pardon their sins, comfort them in trials, and save their souls. He would be a faithful friend, and would never leave them nor forsake them. It is one of the inestimable privileges of his people that Jehovah is their God. The living and ever-blessed Being who made the heavens sustains to them the relation of a Protector and a Friend, and they may look up to heaven feeling that he is all which they could desire in the character of a God.
And they shall be to me a people - This is not merely stated as a “fact,” but as a “privilege.” It is an inestimable blessing to be regarded as one of the people of God, and to feel that we belong to him - that we are associated with those whom he loves, and whom he treats as his friends.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv10–11For this is the testament which I will make…
For this is the testament which I will make with the house of Israel, and with all nations, as I promised to Abraham, I will give (literally, by giving) my laws into their mind, and I will write this new law, not as the former, in tables of stone, but in their hearts, and to them I will be a merciful God, and they shall be my elect people. (Witham) --- The Jews were like slaves, and God ruled them as a master; Christians are his children, and God rules them as a father: and so great is the efficacy of this divine teacher, that by means of a short and easy catechism, children are now taught to know God more perfectly than the first sages of antiquity by their abstruse and erudite disquisitions. We moreover observe under the new law the grace and spirit of love, engrafted in the hearts of the faithful by the Holy Ghost working in the sacraments and sacrifice of the new law to that effect....This covenant was made at the last supper, and ratified the next day by the death of the Testator on the cross, when he exclaimed, "consummatum est," all is consummated. [John xix. 30.]
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv10–12make with--Greek, "make unto."
make with--Greek, "make unto."
Israel--comprising the before disunited (Heb 8:8) ten tribes' kingdom, and that of Judah. They are united in the spiritual Israel, the elect Church, now: they shall be so in the literal restored kingdom of Israel to come.
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I will put--literally, "(I) giving." This is the first of the "better promises" (Heb 8:6).
mind--their intelligent faculty.
in, &c.--rather, " ON their hearts." Not on tables of stone as the law (Co2 3:3).
write--Greek, "inscribe."
and I will be to them a God, &c.--fulfilled first in the outward kingdom of God. Next, in the inward Gospel kingdom. Thirdly, in the kingdom at once outward and inward, the spiritual being manifested outwardly (Rev 21:3). Compare a similar progression as to the priesthood (1) Exo 19:6; (2) Pe1 2:5; (3) Isa 61:6; Rev 1:6. This progressive advance of the significance of the Old Testament institutions, &c., says THOLUCK, shows the transparency and prophetic character which runs throughout the whole.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv10–1210. With the house of Israel—The new covenant was…
10. With the house of Israel—The new covenant was truly made by Christ with (or rather to, as the Greek word signifies) the literal house of Israel, as the Hebrew readers of this epistle knew, and had accepted it. Yet only a remnant for the time, and until this time, accepted, and were by it saved. The Gentiles accepted, and are gathered in within the limits of this house of Israel; and it is within the limits of this covenant that the literal Israel shall be gathered into the fold of Christ. Here St. Paul’s statement in Rom_11:1-32 should be most deliberately read. It will then be seen that Israel’s restoration is not a national return to Palestine, but a universal, yet individual, restoration to the covenant under Christ.
After those days—The days or period of the Mosaic covenant, covering several centuries. The student of prophecy should here carefully note the comprehensive use of the word days, to signify great periods and dispensations of time. So in the words, Heb_8:8. And it should be also noted, that these days of centuries positively contradict the notion that Christ’s second advent was expected by the inspired writers to take place in the apostolic age. On the contrary, these centurial days measured out a new probational dispensation—a new aeon, or age. In that age are we; and the complete fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecy is yet in prospect before the second advent; that is, the second advent is not pre-but post-millennial.
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Write them in their hearts—They shall no more be recorded on the insensate stone, to be observed with a mechanical obedience. There shall be a quickened conscience, a clearer knowledge, and a bounding readiness of heart to obey the holy law.
To them a God—With no false god intervening.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv10–1210. and write them in their hearts] The gift…
10. and write them in their hearts] The gift of an inner law, not written on granite slabs, but on the fleshen tablets of the heart, is the first promise of the New Covenant. It involves the difference between the Voice of the Spirit of the God in the Conscience and a rigid external law; the difference, that is, between spirituality and legalism. This is brought out in Eze_36:26-29.
I will be to them a God] For similar prophecies see Zec_8:8; Hos_2:23; and for their fulfilment 1Pe_2:9-10; 2Co_6:16-18.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv10–12(10) I will make.—Literally, I will covenant—not the same…
(10) I will make.—Literally, I will covenant—not the same word as in Heb_8:8.
Israel.—Formerly (Heb_8:8), Israel and Judah. When the reunion of the nation had once been signified, “Israel” could stand alone as the name of the one people.
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I will put.—Better, putting my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. In the former clause the Hebrew has, “I will put my law in their inward parts;” the law shall be within them, not an external code. In the latter, the “fleshy tablets of the heart” are contrasted with “the tables of the Law.” This is the first of the “better promises.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv10–11Law and love in the new covenant.
Law and love in the new covenant.
"For this is the covenant that I will make," etc. The paragraph from which our text is taken is a quotation from Jer_31:31-34. It is said that the Lord "will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;" but this is spoken, not of Israel according to the flesh, but of the spiritual Israel the spiritual seed of Abraham. (cf. Rom_2:28, 29 9:6-8 Gal_3:7-9) Notice
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I THE REVELATION OF LAW IN THE NEW COVENANT. One of the great distinctions between the two covenants arises from the materiality of the old one and the spirituality of the new one. In nothing is this more manifest than in the matter of Law. Law is present in both of them. But in the old it was engraved upon tables of stone; in the new it is written upon the hearts of men. Under the old the people were led "by the hand," guided by visible symbols; under the new they are led by the heart, guided by spiritual influences. Our text sets forth certain aspects of Law in the new covenant.
1. Law present in the mind. "I will put my laws into their mind." It, the former dispensation Law was spoken to the outward ear, it was made visible to the bodily eye; and so given, it was often soon neglected and forgotten. But in the present dispensation, to those who have by faith entered into covenant relation with God, Law is given as a possession of their spiritual nature. It is not external to them, but is present within their minds as a rule of action and as a theme for meditation.
2. Law treasured in the heart. "And on their heart also will I write them." When a thing is highly esteemed by us, or when a cause has awakened our deep interest, we say with propriety that it lies near our heart. With greater emphasis and deeper significance do we say the same of one whom we love. So in the new covenant Law holds a high place; it is prized and loved. It is loved as being good in itself. "The Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good." It is loved, also, as being the expression of our Father"s will. There were instances under the old covenant in which the Law was loved and delighted in, but they were rare exceptions to the general rule. Under the new covenant the Law of the Lord will be increasingly prized and loved and obeyed.
3. Law embodied in the life. "Out of the heart are the issues of life." Writing the Law upon the heart is a pictorial way of expressing the inspiration of a disposition to obey Law. God will give his people courage to profess his laws, "and power to put them in practice; the whole habit and frame of their souls shall be a table and transcript of the Law of God." The Law which they love in their heart they will express in their lives. This is the highest revelation of Law. It is most effective in relation to the individual; it is most clear in relation to others, and most influential also. This revelation is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is he who illumines the mind, inspires the heart, etc.
II THE EXPRESSION OF LOVE IN THE NEW COVENANT. "And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." We do not mean to imply that the giving of the Law unto the minds and hearts of God"s people was not an expression of his love; for such in truth it was. But here is a brighter manifestation of his love. Notice:
1. God"s relation to the Christian. "I will be to them a God." He will be to them all that they could desire and expect to find in their God. He gives himself as the chief blessing of the new covenant. He will be to his people "as great, as wise, as powerful, as good as he is in himself." We have all things in him. (1Co_3:21-23) We have his wisdom for our direction, his power for our protection, his love for our spiritual satisfaction and joy, his Spirit for our instruction, consolation, and sanctification, his heaven for our abiding and blessed home. A whole library dealing with these words could not fully express the number and preciousness of the blessings which are comprehended in them I will be to them a God.
2. The Christian"s relation to God. "And they shall be to me a people," This is set forth as our privilege; and a great one it is. But the privilege has its obligations. If by faith in Jesus Christ we have entered into this covenant relation with God, we have the right to expect its blessings from him, and we axe solemnly bound to fulfill its duties to him. Our duty to which the covenant binds us includes
1. supreme affection to God;
2. reverent worship of him;
3. hearty consecration to his service;
4. cheerful compliance with his will
May we be enabled both to perform the duties and to enjoy the privileges of this gracious covenant. W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v10I will put My laws into their mind
Heb_8:10-12
I will put My laws into their mind
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Gods covenant with the New Testament Church
I.
WHAT IS IMPORTED GENERALLY IN THE WORDS.
1. That a covenant shall be made, and a covenant-relation shall subsist, between God and every member of the New Testament Church.
2. That both parties, so related to one another, shall behave in a due and becoming manner, agreeable to the relation in which they stand.
3. That the relation itself and the due behaviour of the relatives on both sides shall be wholly the work of God.
II. WHAT IS MORE PARTICULARLY IMPORTED IN GODS PROMISING TO BE OUR GOD.
1. That God will graciously bring us to have a real and saving interest in Him as our God. Now, in order to our having such an interest in God, two things are necessary; both which are secured by this promise and both are accomplished in behalf of every one who is brought within the bond of this covenant.
(1) That God make a gracious grant and offer of Himself to us declaring us welcome to claim an interest in Him, and to look for the rest and happiness of our souls in the enjoyment of Him. Without such an offer it would be impossible that ever we should be interested in Him as our God. Such a happiness is incapable of being purchased by any creature.
(2) It is likewise necessary that He enable us to accept this gracious offer, and really to choose Him as our God and Portion. There can be no covenant without the consent of both parties.
2. This part of the promise imports that God will do all that for us that any people has reason to expect or usually does expect from their God. He would be ashamed to be called our God, if He were not to act up to the character. And His allowing us to claim Him in that character may be viewed as an engagement that He will do for us whatever corresponds unto it.
(1) Be will set you free from all spiritual bondage, oppression, and misery of every kind, and put you in ample possession of the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
(2) He will guide and conduct you through this weary wilderness in every step of your journey towards the land of promise.
(3) He will lead you forth against all your enemies, and make you completely victorious over them in due time.
(4) In a word, He will bring you home in the event to the possession of a plentiful and pleasant inheritance.
III. WHAT IS IMPORTED IN OUR BEING TO GOD FOR A PEOPLE.
1. That God would gather into one all the members of the New Testament Church; so that in whatever place of the world they should have their residence, from whatever nation they should spring, whatever should be their kindred, tongue, or language, they should all be closely united one to another and constituted one body mystical.
2. That this dignified people, and every particular person among them, shall, in due tree, be enabled to dedicate themselves unto God, and cheerfully to acknowledge themselves to be His property.
3. That having made such a dedication of themselves to God, the Church and her members shall be preserved from ever attempting to alienate what they have devoted.
4. That God will graciously accept the dedication that we make of ourselves to Him and all those evangelical services which we perform in consequence thereof.
Lessons:
1. From what has been said, we may see one very remarkable difference between the covenant of grace as it is exhibited in the gospel and actually made with every Christian in the day of believing, a difference, I say, between this and all other covenants. In all covenants there are mutual engagements entered into by both parties respectively; and something which they become bound to perform one to another on both sides. So far this covenant agrees with all others. But the amazing difference between this and every other covenant lies in this, that here one party binds Himself for the performance of the engagements of both.
2. We may see that all true Christians are really covenanters with God, however little relish some of them may have for the name.
3. From hence we may see that neither faith, nor repentance, nor sincere obedience, nor anything else wrought in us or done by us, can be the condition of the covenant of grace.
4. We may see from this subject that real Christians are the only happy person- in the world. All the things that men value or esteem, and in which they look for happiness, riches, honours, power, pleasure, they possess in a supereminent degree. They arc the only persons who deserve to be called rich, having an interest in God Himself, an infinite and inexhaustible good as their portion and inheritance. (John Young, D. D.)
The religious relations of the intellect
That there is mind, and that it is superior to matter, I assume, and I have a right so to do: for assumption is not illogical where the demonstration of the thing assumed can be instantaneous and popular--that is, within the range of ordinary understandings. That our bodies are but the organs of our minds, and therefore inferior to them, and totally distinct from them, is seen in this: that the one can be destroyed, while the other remains intact. The surgeon can cut both legs of a man off near the trunk, and then he can cut both arms off at the shoulder, until a full half of his body as represented by bulk has been destroyed, and still the energies of the mans mind are in no way affected. The symmetry of the body is gone, but the symmetry of the undestroyed and the indestructible mind remains. The mind and the saw have not touched it; they cannot. Now, holding that mind is immortal, I would point out to you some of its religious relations, to the end that we may all apprehend how natural to the mind itself are those states, moods, and natures which the Bible enjoins. For religion is only nature corrected--nature perfected. When man stands in his natural powers, with all hisadjustments correct, with all his instincts just, and with all his aspirations holy, he has in him the same mind that was in Christ; for in Him all religion existed organically. Reverence, obedience, affection, humility, truthfulness, and whatever other element piety includes, lived incarnate in Him. He embodied them. Hence, imitation of Him is piety in its highest phase. Hence, His life is the light of men, morally. Hence, Christian studentship is a studentship of His character.
1. Well, the first characteristic of the mind, religiously considered, is activity. Mind is motion, mind is impulse, mind is vibration, mind is only Gods thought; and His thought keeps for ever thinking. Mind, therefore, in its religious connections, must be for ever active. Be not afraid, therefore, to think, young men. Let your minds go forth continually in search of facts. Knock at the door of every phenomenon; press against the door until the fastenings of it yield to your pressure, and, passing in, you stand eye to eye in presence of its long-pent mystery. Wherever there is darkness, creep into it; and when you have entered within its gloom, kindle the torch of investigation and look around you, to discover the hidden wonder. Explorations, spiritually, are for ever in order. The proof of God is found, beyond all else, in your thinking; and the thinkers of the world are the perpetual evidences of the truth of the Bible when it declares that God made man in His own image. The human intellect is the offspring of the Supreme Intelligence. No less cause than this can be assigned as able to produce such a result. There was but one orb that could throw out such a beam. The primal relation of the human mind to the Deity was filial. Of this there can be no doubt. Nature alone is sufficient evidence. And what, pray, is the peculiar characteristic of filial connection? What is the initial attitude of the childs mind into which it grows continually as it advances in years?
2. There is but one answer: the attitude is that of reverence. Well, what shall we say, then, touching the proper attitude of the human mind to its Creator, if not this, that its attitude should be reverential? This conclusion we reach, you observe, not by following the line of any dogma, but by following the line of nature. Nature alone constitutes a perfect bible from which to read the commandment of duty. Your minds are the offspring of that Supreme Intelligence which they resemble. And if your minds are not in a reverential attitude toward God, they are in a state of transgression; not as touching any verbal statute, but as touching the great ineradicable principle of natural relationship. This reverence on the part of the human mind touching God refers not only to Him as to His nature, but to Him equally as to His creations and surroundings. The mind that rightly apprehends its relationship to the Divine Being reverences not only Him, but all that He has made. It apprehends Him in His divergence, in His distributiveness, in the varieties of His expression. Like the Hebrew, it apprehends Him in the beauty of the firmament. Like the Egyptian, it sees Him in the patience, the usefulness, and the cunning of animal life. Like the Greek, it admires the divinity as seen in the symmetry of outline and the loveliness of the human figure. Like the historian, it beholds Him in the progress of events and in the succession of forces, as they have been evolved from the various attempts at government. Nor does such a mind fail to see the evidence of its Masters presence in little things. In grasses, in flowers: in shrubs, in trees, in whatever there is of growth round about, the mind which is properly constituted reverentially apprehends Deity.
3. The third characteristic of mind that has a special religious relation is humility, and the exceeding excellence of this trait will be more clearly apprehended when it is set in contrast with its opposite, arrogance. This arrogance of intellect is as old as studentship, and as offensive as human pride. Its results are beyond expression deplorable. Its tendency is to make men self-opinionated, domineering, and insulting. It has been the mother of oppression. It has dictated persecutions beyond number. It has driven the sword of war even to its hilt into the white bosom of peace, and often made the Church, which is by nature a dispenser of the mercies of God, an engine of the devil. Its culmination is seen in the assertion of infallibility. He who lays claim to such powers of judgment advertises himself as the colossal arrogance of the world. The worst phase met with to-day is the arrogance of what is known as Radicalism. There is a class of men whose whole philosophy is that of negation. Their wisdom consists in denial. They deny the existence of God, they deny the exaltation of Christ, they deny the truth of the gospel, they deny the intelligence of piety, they deny everything that faith credits or the converted soul believes. Their sole object seems to be to undermine and pull down every structure which Christian faith and hope have builded. A more self-conceited and arrogant set of men never lived. They fulminate their scepticism as if they spoke with the authority of a god. A scientific supposition is made to subserve the purpose of a fact. Their speculations arc announced as if they were demonstrations. They are all kindred in the fashion of their behaviour. Their utterances are monotonous. He who has heard one of them lecture has heard all. He who has read one volume has mastered their entire system, if such vagaries of thought can be called a system. Bring them all together, strip them of their various names and their personality, lump them in one embodiment, and they represent a solid mass of self-conceit. That such men can have any lasting influence on the thought and morals of the race is preposterous. They are simply an accident of the times. They simply represent human eccentricity. I have now discussed the relations which mental activity, the quality of reverence, and the quality of humility hold to religious development. If you desire religious growth, you must keep your bodily organs thoroughly healthy, your mind active, reverential, and humble. One more thing alone remains to be said.
4. And this one thing which we need, we need beyond everything else: it is the love of the truth. Truth is the soul of form. It is the spirit which lurks in all substance. It is the genius which lives in law. It is the inspiration of love. It is the crown and glory of mans noblest effort. In seeking it men have passed their lives. To behold the brightness of its /ace, men have walked bravely into the darkness of death. In order to know truth you must first desire it--desire it with your whole heart, desire it for its own sweet sake. In order to find it you must free your mind from all prejudice, from all vanity, from all pride. You will look for it on a throne, and you will find it in a manger. You will look for it in honour, and you will find it in shame. You will look for it among the wise, and you will find it among the ignorant. You will look for it under the royalty of a crown, and you will find it on a cross. You will search the letter, and you will find that the letter does not include it. You will search for it in creeds, and after forty years of belief, you will discover that your creed does not contain it. You cannot stamp it on the pages of a pamphlet any more than you can tie the wind to the tree tops, But he who searches for it actively, reverently, humbly, and because his soul loveth it, will, somewhere, sometime, find it; not all at once, nor in the way he expected, but little by little, and in the way of surprise. As he finds it, so shall he find delight. It will be sweet to his soul. Peace, too, shall come with it--the peace which passeth understanding--the peace that makes man a marvel unto himself. (W. H. H. Murray.)
The highest literature of Christianity
I. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST LEGIBLE. Those who know not the alphabet-children and heathens--can read characters. These life-commentaries on the Bible we want.
II. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST INCORRUPTIBLE. Man may write his interpolations in connection with Gods truth on paper or parchment, but not on souls.
III. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST CONVINCING. The arguments of Butler, Paley, &c., are powerless compared with the argument of a true life.
IV. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST LASTING. Paper, marble, and brass will decay, but not souls. (Homilist.)
Divine renewal
I. THE PROPER CHARACTER OF SANCTIFICATION. This, as it is an act of God upon the human soul, consists in the establishment in it of a divine principle of holiness, expressed, here, as the putting Gods laws into the mind and writing them in the heart. This is begun in regeneration. The law of God, the principle of true holiness, is re-established in the inward parts; the man is brought into habitual conformity to it, in all its spirituality, as the one governing principle of his life. This is the proper character of sanctification, as it is a grace of the true Christian.
II. THE SEAT OF SANCTIFICATION. This is, in general, the soul of man: the mind and heart. In both these this blessed principle has its throne, and exerts its paramount, though not undisputed, dominion over the whole man. The body of the believer, itself, experiences the benefit of the sanctification (Rom_6:13; Rom_12:1). Divine grace, in the renewed mind, is a pervading principle, that, like leaven, to which it is compared, never ceases its operation, till it have assimilated to itself all with which it comes in contact. It attacks not one vice, and spares another; corrects not one evil habit, and tolerates the rest. The law of the new creation is nothing less than Gods law; and whatever in thought, word, or deed, whatever in tempers, habits, and dispositions, consists not with perfect love to God and man (which is the fulfilling of the law), that the renewed man instantly detects, by a kind of spiritual instinct before unknown; an antipathy of nature, as true to itself, as uniform in its actings, as that of water to fire, or of darkness to light. The two cannot exist together in peace. The man now hates sin; strives against it in all its shapes--against corrupt reason and passion both. Satan and his allies in man--the lusts of the flesh and of the mind--are driven into corners; they cannot tyrannise as before; but they yield not easily. The words of the promise lead us to distinguish two parts in this great work, the sanctification of the human soul.
1. The enlightening of the understanding, expressed by putting Gods laws into the mind.
2. The engagement of the affections, expressed by writing them in the heart. Both these go together when the man is born again of the Spirit. The soul is sweetly but powerfully drawn to choose what the judgment has been taught to approve. There is given, not the rule only of obedience, but the spirit of obedience; there is a taking away the stony heart out of the flesh, and giving a heart of flesh.
III. THE AUTHOR OF SANCTIFICATION. I will put … I will write. God, then, is Himself the agent in the establishment of His law in the hearts and minds of His people. None beneath Himself is equal to this great work. The outward means which He uses as preparatory and auxiliary to this great work, are endlessly diversified.
1. The mercy which distinguishes one man from another is not the result of holiness foreseen in the subjects of it. The terms of the covenant of grace run directly counter to such a notion. Sanctification is promised in it to sinners, as a free gift.
2. Holiness is connected with mercy, as the effect with its cause. The revelation of mercy to unrighteousness is Gods great means for winning the sinner from his enmity, to love and delight in Him. I will sanctify, saith He, for I will be merciful. These two can never be disjoined.
3. Sanctification is never perfect while the believer is in the body. The conflict between the flesh and the spirit continues to the end, with various success; but, upon the whole, the actings of corruption get weaker, and the habit of grace strengthens in the soul. Still, the spark of evil is not extinguished. Satan lives, and, if permitted, can easily re-kindle it into a flame.
4. The law of the Ten Commandments is still the rule of life to the believer. From the law, as a covenant, we are eternally delivered, through Christ. As a means, therefore, of meriting life, we have nothing whatever to do with the terms of it. Eternal life is given us in Christ (1Jn_5:11). But we are therefore delivered from the law, that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit Rom_8:2; Rom_8:4, compare Rom_7:6). The law of Christ is indeed a law of love; but still this new commandment is the old commandment which ye had from the beginning (1 John if. 7).
5. The security of the believer in Jesus. God has put His hand to the work, and who shall let it? (Francis Goode, M. A.)
Gods law written in the heart
I. THE THINGS TO BE WRITTEN ARE THE LAWS OF GOD. But what laws these are may be doubted. For some will have them to be the Decalogue. Yet these are said to be written in the heart of the very heathens (Rom_2:5). Yet suppose they be already in their hearts, yet the writing of them there is very imperfect; for both the knowledge of them and the power to keep them are very imperfect, so that the love of God and our neighbour may be imprinted there more perfectly. Yet the word termed Laws signifies in the Hebrew, Doctrines. And these are the doctrines of the gospel concerning Christs person, nature, offices, and the work of redemption; the doctrines of repentance, faith, justification, and eternal life; and these either presuppose or include the moral law. Further, they are doctrines concerning Christ, glorified, reigning, and officiating in heaven.
II. THE BOOK OR TABLES WHEREIN THEY MUST RE WRITTEN ARE THE MIND AND HEART OF MAN. There is the spring and original of all rational and moral operations, of all thoughts, affections, and inward motions. There is the directive counsel and imperial commanding power. There is the prime mover of all humane actions as such. This is the subject fit to receive not only natural but supernatural truths, and doctrines, and all laws. There divine characters may be imprinted, and made legible to the soul itself. This is the most noble and excellent book that any can write in.
III. THE SCRIBE OR PEN-MAN IS GOD; FOR IT IS SAID, I WILL GIVE OR PUT, I WILL WRITE. He that said so was the Lord. And it must be He, because the work is so curious and excellent that it is far above the sphere of created activity. He alone can immediately work upon the immortal soul to inform it, move it, alter it, and mould it anew.
IV. THE ACT AND WORK OF THIS PENMAN IS TO WRITE, AND WRITE THESE LAWS AND WRITE THEM IN THE HEART. HOW He cloth it we know not. That He doth it is clear enough. His preparations, illuminations, impulsions, inspirations, are strange and wonderful, of great and mighty force. For in this work He doth not only represent divine objects in a clearer light, and propose high motives to incline and turn the heart, but also gives a divine perceptive and appetitive power, whereby the soul more easily and clearly apprehends, and more effectually affects heavenly things. The effect of this writing is a divine knowledge of Gods laws, and a ready and willing heart to obey them, and conform unto them, a power to know and do the word of God. This is that work of the Spirit which is called vocation, renovation, regeneration, conversion actively taken, without which man cannot repent, believe, obey, and turn to God.
1. The laws. The laws of God are written in the heart, not the inventions, fancies of men, nor natural, nor mathematical, nor moral philosophy; much less the errors and blasphemies of seducers and false prophets.
2. The heart of man is by nature a very untoward and indisposed subject, and not capable of these heavenly doctrines. It is blind and perverse, and there is an antipathy between it and these laws. As it hath no true notions of the greatest good, so it hath no mind to use the means, which conduce to the attaining thereof. This defacement of so noble a substance is the work of the devil and sin.
3. Concerning Gods writing His laws in the heart of man, you must know
(1) That they are not written there by nature. If they were, what need God write that which is already written?
(2) He writes nothing in this heart but His laws and His saving truths. Therefore that which is not written without in the Scripture He doth not promise to write within the heart, and whosoever shall fancy any doctrine received in his heart to be written by the hand of Heaven, and yet cannot find it in the gospel, is deceived and deluded.
(3) Before these divine doctrines can be written in the heart, all errors, lusts, false opinions, must be raised and rooted out of the soul, and it must be made like blank paper.
(4) God doth not write His laws in our hearts by enthusiasm, rapture, and inspiration, as He wrote His word in the hearts of the prophets and apostles; but He makes use of the word, and the ministers of the gospel, and the instructions of man, as also of the outward senses, as of the eye and ear, and also of the inward, and of reason, and of all the powers He bath given man to do anything in this work. And whosoever will not use these means and exercise this power by reading, hearing, meditation, conference, prayer, let him never expect or think that God will write these things in his heart.
(5) The effect of this writing of God is not only knowledge, but also a love of the truth, light, and integrity, power and dominion over sin, and the powerful sanctifications and consolations of the Spirit. And whosoever doth not find these in his heart, let him not think that God hath written His laws in his heart. For He writes with power, and leaves a permanent tincture of holiness, and a constant habitual inclination to that which is good, just, and right.
(6) God doth not write these laws perfectly and fully in mans heart whilst he is in the flesh; for He proceeds in this work by degrees. Therefore seeing God hath ordained means, and commanded them to be used, no man must neglect them whilst this mortal life continues, for these truths are not written in any of our hearts further than we use these means, which were given not only for the first inscription of these laws, but for the increase and perfection of our Divine knowledge. (G. Lawson)
The law in the heart
It was a choice tribute that was lately rendered to a noble Christian woman, that her natural life was so completely Christian, that her Christian life became completely natural. (Sarah F. Smiley.)
The miracle of miracles
The miracle of miracles is this--A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. To put the law in the inward parts, and to write it on the heart, is more than to fill the firmament with stars. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Commandments, not burdensome
Cicero questions whether that can properly be called a burden which one carries with delight and pleasure. ° If a man carries a bag of money given him, it is heavy; but the delight takes oft the burden. When God gives inward joy, that makes the commandments delightful. Joy is like oil to the wheels, which makes a Christian run in the way of Gods commandments, so that it is not burdensome. (T. Watson.)
Obedience from love
The son of a poor man, that hath not a penny to give or leave him, yields his father obedience as cheerfully as the son of a rich man that looks for a great inheritance. It is, indeed, love to the father, not wages from the father, that is the ground of a good childs obedience. If there were no heaven, Gods children would obey Him; and though there was no hell, yet would they do their duty; so powerfully doth the love of the Father constrain them. (J. Spencer.)
Two conversions needed
We all need two conversions. First of all, we need to be converted from the natural man to the spiritual man, and in the second place, we need to be converted from the spiritual man to the natural man, until the spiritual man becomes a natural life, and the burden is opportunity and the bondage is delight. (Theodore Monod.)
Inner-devotion
If those who are in the employ of others do but meet the outward and visible engagements into which they have entered with their masters, the latter are satisfied. Let but the proper hours be kept and the day fully and diligently filled up, let but the books be accurately posted, and the articles of merchandise which are being manufactured be put together in a workmanlike way; and the wages are cheerfully and promptly paid. The majority of masters do not concern themselves with the motives of their men. The latter might profess to like other masters better than they do their own, yet if they but fulfil their tasks their employers are content. The preferences and motives of their servants most masters regard as being no concern of theirs. In this respect there exists a striking contrast between the claims of God and those of men. The Almighty will accept of no service which is not a service of love. The heart must first be given before the service is accepted. The connection subsisting between God and those employed by Him resembles rather the services rendered to each other by the members of a loving and united household. (T. Thompson, M. A.)
The law in the heart
Just as each plant in its growth spontaneously obeys the law put into its inmost parts by God, so the believer who accepts the new covenant promise in its fulness, walks in the power of that inner law. The spirit within frees from the law without. (Andrew Murray.)
Attraction
Just as the water naturally follows the channels which are constructed to conduct it from the mountains to the sea, so the holy heart follows the channels of Divine law, marked out by Divine law, not through compulsion, but through the power of attraction.
The grand morality
A noted secular paper once prophesied concerning Moody and Sankey that Professor Tyndall would do more to purify London than these men! Professor Tyndall may help us to purify the atmosphere of our houses and streets, but what word has he ever dropped that would purify a human heart! He may discourse eloquently of duty, but Plato could have done that; Aristotle did that. But who has not found out before he has had many years experience in dealing with men, that what is needed is not so much to show men their duty as to get them to do it? To show men their duty yon want light, to get them to do it you want power, and the only adequate power is love. Gods clearest light, Gods mightiest power is in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! (C. Clemance, D. D.)
I will be to them a God
Divine relationship
I. A MUTUAL RELATION OF GOD AND MEN. I will be to them a God. In other words, Whatever I am in Myself, that I will be to them; of that they shall have the free use and blessed experience: all My perfections will I exert for their present and everlasting welfare. How greatly do we need the increase of faith, to receive this amazing promise I to embrace it, to the comfort and joy of our souls. We shrink from appropriating it; we try to live on something less for happiness. But He who knows the souls that He has made, knows that nothing beneath Himself can ever fill their boundless desires. No gifts of nature, no, nor even the largest gifts of grace itself, can supply the place of Him who is the Author of them all. God, then, makes Himself a God to His people, communicates Himself to them by indwelling. I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God. Two things are necessary for your enjoyment of this promise.
1. Realize God as your God. Claim the relation of a child; live as if you were one; and God will so own the relation that you can hesitate no longer.
2. Live on God as a God to you--and this in two ways.
(1) Live on Him for all your need.
(2) Live on Him for all your happiness.
Under this twofold aspect God revealed Himself to Abraham (Gen_12:1) for the encouragement of His faith, in the long-continued trial of it. (Francis Goode, M. A.)
They shall be to Me a people
Divine relationship
I. This relation of redeemed sinners to their GOD. They shall be to Me a people.
1. His people owning God as theirs.
(1) They yield themselves to His authority.
(2) They separate themselves from an evil world.
(3) They devote themselves to His services.
(4) They live on Him for protection and happiness.
2. God owning them as His people. Consider the terms of endearment under which He speaks of them. He calls them His children; the sheep of His pasture, for whom the Shepherd bled. Such is the preciousness of His purchased people in His eyes.
(1) How infatuated are the enemies of Gods people! How great is the folly (to say nothing of the wickedness) of hating those whom God loves!
(2) How glorious is the character, how exalted the privileges, of the saints!
II. Gods own engagement to establish this RELATION BETWEEN US AND HIM. They shall be to Me a people. These words clearly express a resolve of God in this matter. He Has so ordered the covenant of grace, that it is a sure covenant to all who have once embraced it. They shall be to Me a people. His word is passed for the effectual accomplishment of His grace; and, therefore, His own Divine character and glory are involved in it. If God be able to do what He has resolved to do, this relation cannot fail to be made good between Him and them. This doctrine is a precious cordial for the fainting soldier in the day of battle. It strengthens his weak hands; confirms his feeble knees; animates him under all the terribleness of conflict. (Francis Goode, M. A.)
All shall know Me
Divine knowledge
I. A knowledge of God covenanted under the GOSPEL. They shall know Me. This is a knowledge little thought of, or valued, by men in general; and, which is stranger still, it is that of which all men in Christian countries think they are in possession. But to know God indeed, according to the true sense of the term, is to have such an apprehension of His infinite majesty and holiness as shall lay us low before Him, and to bow with deepest submission to His will. It is to have such a knowledge of His glorious goodness as shall fill us with holy delight in Him, intense desire after communion with Him, and enjoyment of His favour. Further, it is so to behold His glory, as to be ourselves transformed into the same image of holiness and goodness; to be ourselves partakers of the Divine nature 2Pe_1:4). This knowledge of God, which is matter of promise to His covenant people, we may consider under two heads. It consists in saving acquaintance with God
(1) As He is in Himself, in His revealed nature and character.
(2) As He is to us, in His purposes towards us, and the interest which we have in Him.
II. The universality of this knowledge of God BY HIS COVENANT PEOPLE. All shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. There is not one true child of God under the gospel but has his measure of it. He discerns the perfections of God, as they are displayed in the work of redemption; that mystery which, in other ages, was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His apostles and prophets (and by them to the Church) through the Spirit. The least of Gods covenant people, as well as the greatest, has now a satisfying, soul-quieting acquaintance with God; such an understanding of the method of peace with God, through Christ, as even prophets, and righteous men of old, the most spiritual of their day, desired in vain. Yea, often the poor and ignorant and weak in intellect of this world are, in the sovereignty of Divine grace, pre-eminently rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him.
III. A SUPER-HUMAN SOURCE OF THIS KNOWLEDGE. They shall not teach, &c. This is certainly not said to disparage Gods appointed ordinance of public preaching, or mutual exhortation. It was under this very gospel covenant that He first gave the command, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. But the believer does not so learn of man as that He receives the truth in that uncertainty, or sense of possible error, which attaches to every mere word of man. There is a revelation of God to His children, a knowledge of Himself by His Spirit, that is, like light, its own witness. The man who has it is sure that he has it, and that it is of God. Lessons:
1. Do we possess such superior light and knowledge of God to any which the saints of old enjoyed? O, then, let the superior effects of this knowledge be clearly discernible in our conduct. To see God indeed is to be like God.
2. Be satisfied with no knowledge of God to which you have yet attained. Though, like Paul, you had been caught up into the third heaven, yet should your prayer be, with Paul, That I may know Him; yet should your language be, as his was, Not as though I had already attained. Still have you reason to say, Now I know in part.
3. Learn to live on God in the use of ordinances. This is a very different thing from that pernicious conceit of living above ordinances. That is the privilege of heaven alone. God can indeed supply the place of means, and, in particular cases, He does so; acts independent of them; to teach us to trust in Him, in the dearth of them. But, ordinarily, it is otherwise.
4. This promise of the covenant, like the preceding, has its complete fulfilment only in an eternal world. The knowledge of God which the believer now has is real and delightful; all the things that can be desired are not to be compared unto it. But the sweetest part of its enjoyment is, that it is an earnest of what shall be. (Francis Goode, M. A.)
The knowledge of God
I. In the first place, WHAT IS INTENDED IN THE TEXT BY THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. All shall know Me. It cannot be a mere knowledge of the existence of God, for the devils believe that God is. It cannot be a mere partial acquaintance with the character of God; because we cannot for a moment doubt that the Jews were partially acquainted with Gods character, and yet our Lord said to them, Ye neither know Me nor My Father. Neither can it be a dry, uninfluential, notional knowledge of God, however accurate (2Pe_2:20-21). To know God includes far more than this. It implies a real, personal, experimental, sanctifying acquaintance with God.
1. It especially regards Him as a reconciled God in Christ.
2. But more than this; the knowledge of God implies a knowledge of Him as our God in covenant; a God who has pledged His very perfections to bring His people safe to glory; who will not have them to judge Him by their feelings, nor by their providences. Who can unfold the knowledge of God which springs from the consideration of Him as a pitying Father? He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. To know God implies a knowledge of Him as a God all-sufficient; My brethren, how long you and I have been learning this lesson, and how little we know of it after all!
II. Observe, in the second place, here is a positive word of certainty THAT ALL GODS PEOPLE SHALL KNOW HIM, from the least to the greatest. This was no small part of the work of our adorable Immanuel. It is sweet and pleasant to look at Him as bearing the very name of the Word of God, because He is the revealer of God. He does indeed tell us the secrets of Gods heart; He brings to light those perfections in Deity which we could never conceive to have existed but for His work. The work of Jesus is glorious throughout, and there is no part of His work which ought more to endear Him to our hearts than this, inasmuch as He disclosed more of the Father, and brings us into more intimate acquaintance with the character of God, than could have been devised by any other means. But it is not this that secures the infallible teaching of all Gods Israel; it was the covenant ordered in all things and sure. But there is a point connected with this that I would not overlook, and that is, the way by which the Holy Spirit (for it is His especial work), brings the knowledge of God into the soul. I will give them a heart that they may know Me, saith the Lord. It is not, I will give them knowledge, but I will give them a heart. Now this was communicated in regeneration. Oh the wonders of redeeming love, flowing out from the heart of God by Christ Jesus! Oh what a beam of light is that which the Holy Spirit brings into the conscience, developing God our Saviour in Christ Jesus!
III. But observe, WHAT ARE THE BLESSINGS OF THIS KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. I hardly know where to begin or where to end. It is true wisdom: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of Him is understanding. Here lies also the secret of peace, They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee. Whence is it that the careworn brow marks thy countenance? If thou weft only conversant with the great secret, Casting thy care upon Him that careth for thee, thou wouldst find out the blessed lesson, of living above the region of disappointment, and finding peace in believing, Acquaint thyself with Him, and be at peace. In a word, this true knowledge of God has in it the material of all holiness. Whatever there is of love, whatever there is of hope, whatever there is of obedience, whatever there is of careful walking, whatever there is of watchfulness unto prayer, whatever there is of making a conscience of ones deeds, whatever there is of walking secretly with God as in the sight of God--it is all involved in one truth, a true, real, personal, experimental knowledge of God in Christ.
1. Be thankful, then, for the least measure you have of the true knowledge of God.
2. Covet earnestly the most. The true secret for a heavenly walk with God is a real acquaintance with Him.
3. Do not quarrel with the way by which God makes Himself known to thee. I remember the expression of a child of God who, feeling her heart too much attached to some earthly object, prayed that God would take away the idol, whatever the idol might be. In the course of a week He took away her husband. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
The universal diffusion of Scriptural knowledge
These words, quoted Jer_31:34, are here applied to New Testament times. They plainly teach, that these times shall be greatly superior to all that preceded them, in the general diffusion of that knowledge which is essentially necessary to the everlasting salvation of the soul. This blessing, which is of infinite importance, belongs to a new economy, different from the ancient covenant which God made with Israel, the peculiar privileges of which were of an earthly character, were shadowy or emblematical, and were chiefly confined to one nation. But the privileges of the new economy were to be of a spiritual character, and were to extend to men of all ranks, and of all nations, on the face of the earth.
I. THE CHARACTER OF THAT KNOWLEDGE WHICH SHALL EMINENTLY DISTINGUISH THIS PERIOD.
1. It is the knowledge of God, of things divine, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
2. This knowledge is communicated to the ignorant as the fulfilment of a gracious promise by the agency of the Divine Spirit (Isa_54:13).
3. This knowledge of the Lord, by which the period referred to in the text shall be eminently distinguished, shall be very generally diffused among all ranks and descriptions of men.
II. THE MEANS WHICH OUGHT TO BE USED BY US FOR HASTENING THIS PERIOD. It is said in the text, that when this happy era is come, they shall not teach, or, as it is expressed in the prophecy, they shall teach no more, every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; which seems plainly to intimate, that certain means, which are now very properly used for advancing this period, shall then become unnecessary. (Wm. Schaw.)
Coming of the millenium
The world is preparing day by day for the millenium, but you do not see it. Every season forms itself a year in advance. The coming summer lays out her work during the autumn, and buds and roots are forespoken. Ten million roots are pumping in the streets; do you hear them? Ten million buds are forming in the axils of the leaves; do you hear the sound of the saw or the hammer? All next summer is at work in the world; but it is unseen by us. And so the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. (H. W. Beecher.)
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
Mercy to unrighteousness
I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS GRACE IS COVENANTED. IS it I, will each of us inquire, whom God means to include in a promise so cheering, so all-sufficient?
II. THE CONDITION IN WHICH IT SUPPOSES THEM TO BE. Throughout this covenant no mention is made of anything in man but guilt and ruin. The promise in my text obviously assumes such to be his condition. Man is in himself all unrighteousness, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one (Rom_3:10). Sorely there is nothing more suited to respire hope in the breast of an awakened sinner than the consideration of this truth. My sins, such an one may say, are exceeding great; but, thanks be to God, He who best knows them speaks to me of mercy I But it is long, in general, before an awakened sinner, though again and again God discover to him the vanity of all attempts to bring any deservings of his own, can be persuaded to go quite without hope or plea of any kind but this--Lord, I am a sinner, and Thou art a free Saviour. We dare not believe that grace is indeed so free, so unbounded, to those who will go to God in Christ.
III. GODS ENGAGEMENTS RELATIVE TO THIS CONDITION. I will be merciful … I will remember no more. In these words God promises the removal of all kinds and degrees of sin.
1. Freely. I will be merciful. This is both the reason with God for blessing, and the method by which He works upon the souls of His people; winning them from their natural enmity and distrust of Himself, by the effectual revelation of His mercy to them.
2. Eternally. I will remember no more. Guilt makes the soul of the sinner fearful; he is ever recurring to the memory of his past sins, and he fears God does the same. He has had some momentary glimpses of mercy; but when the present sense of it is gone, conscience is afraid again; he is ready to suspect God of yet harbouring some latent feeling of resentment; fears the reconciliation has been partial, and that wrath, so deeply deserved, is ready to break out afresh on fresh provocation. But oh, blessed be God, this is indeed the way of men; but His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. Those whom He forgives freely, He forgives entirely, forgives eternally. (Francis Goode, M. A.)
Forgiving mercy
Many years ago in Russia a regiment of troops mutinied. They were at some distance from the capital, and were so furious that they murdered their officers, and resolved never to submit to discipline; but the emperor, who was an exceedingly wise and sagacious man, no sooner heard of it than, all alone and unattended, he went into the barracks where the men were drawn up, and addressing them sternly, he said to them, Soldiers! you have committed such offences against the law that every one of you deserves to be put to death. There is no hope of any mercy for one of you unless you lay down your arms immediately, and surrender at discretion to me, your emperor. They did so, there and then. The emperor said at once, Men, I pardon you; you will be the bravest troops I ever had. And so they were. Now, this is just what God does with the sinner. The sinner has dared to rebel against God, and God says, Now, sinner, you have done that which deserves My wrath. Ground you weapons of rebellion. I will not talk with you until you submit at discretion to My sovereign authority. And then He says, Believe in My Son; accept Him as your Saviour. This done, you are forgiven, and henceforth you will be the most loving subjects that My hands have made. (W. R. Bradlaugh.)
A glorious position
Mr. Lyford, a Puritan divine, a few days previous to his dissolution, being desired by his friends to give them some account of his hopes and comforts, he replied, I will let you know how it is with me, and on what ground I stand. Here is the grave, the wrath of God, and devouring flames, the great punishment of sin on the one hand; and here am I, a poor sinful creature, on the other; but this is my comfort, the covenant of grace, established upon so many sure promises, hath satisfied all. The act of oblivion passed in heaven is, I will forgive their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more, saith the Lord. This is the blessed privilege of all within the covenant, of whom I am one. For I find the Spirit which is promised, bestowed upon me, in the blessed effects of it upon my soul, as the pledge of Gods eternal love. By this I know my interest in Christ, who is the foundation of the covenant, and therefore my sins being laid on Him, shall never be charged on me. (K. Arvine.)
Justice and mercy
The Jews have a saying that Michael, the angel of Gods justice, has but one wing and he comes slowly; but Gabriel, the angel of Divine mercy, has two wings, and is made to fly swiftly. (H. R. Burton.)
Their sins … will I remember no more
The new covenant--its promises
It will be observed that the last-named promise is pardon. But though the last mentioned, it is the first bestowed, as indicated by the conjunction for, by which it is introduced. Pardon is not only promised, but is here represented as the reason for the preceding blessings. It is evident that the author, in his enumeration of these blessings of the better covenant, presents them in the inverse order of their realisation. In them he traces the Divine process of salvation, but starts at a point where that salvation has reached its highest fruition on its moral side, that grand moral achievement, the complete surrender of the soul to the Divine will, indicated by the writing of the law in the heart, and descends by the several steps of the process to the initiatory one, the pardoning of sins. It follows, then, that in order to understand duly these truths of overwhelming interest, we must deal with them according to their logical sequence.
I. THE PARDON.
1. Its source. This is indicated by the expression, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. The source, then, of the promised pardon is the mercifulness of God. We mean, of course, its moral source, for its legal source is the atonement of Jesus Christ.
2. We have also the fulness of this act of mercy indicated in the expression, their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. This oblivion of transgression is a feature of the Divine pardon much emphasised in the Scriptures, with a view, no doubt, of duly impressing men with the fact of its absolute entirety. Nothing can be more emphatic than the prophets declaration regarding Gods dealings with the sins of Israel--And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea (Mic_7:19). Absolute oblivion is the prominent idea of this graphic figure. That which is cast into the depths of the sea cannot be commemorated. An incident in connection with the laying of the Atlantic cable furnishes a striking illustration of the insuperable difficulty of marking spots in mid-ocean. When the first Atlantic cable was being laid it broke in mid-ocean, and the severed pieces dropped into the bottom, and the vessel was compelled to return to England to procure the means of recovering the broken end. Before, however, leaving the spot, means were adopted to mark the place, so that on their return the lost end might be found. So a suitable buoy was constructed, and every precaution taken to render its foundering or drifting impossible, as they supposed. But on the vessels return the buoy laid down with such care was found, but, as careful astronomical observations showed, it had drifted over five hundred miles away from the spot where it had been originally moored. The broken end of the cable was never recovered. Thus is strikingly illustrated the impossibility of erecting memorials in mid-sea. God, therefore, by representing Himself as casting our sins there, would tell us how completely He forgets them, and how certain it is that He will never charge us with them again.
II. THE INTUITIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ASSURED BY THE BETTER COVENANT. The knowledge of God forms a very important part in the Divine redemption. It is, so to speak, the Alpha of the whole process. Our Lord represents it so--And this is eternal life, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent (Joh_17:3). The knowledge, however, referred to here, is introductory to the blessings of salvation, whereas that of the text is the outcome of the blessing realised. We come to the blessing through the knowledge in the one case, but in the other we come to the knowledge through the blessing.
In the first instance the knowledge is our schoolmaster to the blessing; in the second the blessing becomes our schoolmaster to the knowledge. The knowledge of God obtained through experience of His pardon is the grandest of all knowledge of Him. It is also the only infallible knowledge. An eminent minister, recently addressing a number of young ministers starting for the mission-field, said, You will never lack a theme, for your mission is to tell of Him whom you know better than you know any one else besides. Never was uttered profounder thought or one more true. Those who know God know Him better than any one beside, better than they know their most intimate friends, better than husband knows his wife, or wife her husband, better than children know their parents, or parents their children. We may be deceived in our nearest and most intimate friends and relations, much as we may know respecting them. But God cannot deceive us. The nearest friend may fail us, but God cannot fail us.
III. THE DIVINE KINSHIP ASSURED BY THE NEW COVENANT. The relation to His people indicated by this expression I take to imply fatherhood. When God promises to be our. God, He promises to be our Father, and the pardoned soul apprehends Him in this light. In short, it is the pardoning act that reveals God to the soul first in this light. In this transaction he discovers God becoming his God as a father, for this act of pardon is, above all, a fatherly act. Our Lord has shown us this in that inimitable parable of the prodigal son. In nothing is God so intensely a father as when He forgives. And the child never understands his own father, never has the fatherly attribute so deeply revealed to his heart, as when he has had occasion to experience the joy of his fathers forgiveness. Again, this relationship is in itself a guarantee of the fullest and most devoted service on their behalf. If the statement, I will be to them a God, is equivalent to the statement, I will be a Father unto them, then we know what it must mean as regards undertaking and acting for them. Some light is thrown upon this by the words already quoted--God is not ashamed to be called their God. To this is added, for He has prepared a city for them. This preparing of a city for them is given as a proof that He is not ashamed to own Himself as their God. As if it should be said, He is not ashamed to avow Himself their God, for behold on how grand a scale He discharges the obligations of that relationship. We have no need to be told what the title father signified to the child: care, love, guidance, support, and all without stint.
IV. THE ASSURANCE WHICH THE BETTER COVENANT GIVES OF A LOVING, CHILDLIKE SUBJECTION TO THE DIVINE WILL. Parental government is by means of laws wrought in the heart; magisterial, by laws without. The parental relationship of God, fully and deeply realised by the believer, quickens the filial disposition, inducing such a humble, yet cordial, assimilation to the Divine will, comparable only to the putting of the Divine laws into the mind and writing them upon the heart. Let us try and get at the meaning of these peculiar expressions regarding the law, the putting it into the mind and the writing it in the heart. Now, the mind and the heart represents two sides of our nature, the intellectual and the emotional. Here, then, we have guaranteed to us the fact that the law, the sanctifying principle, shall take possession of these two ruling sides of our moral nature, exerting upon them an influence both subduing and formative. (A. J. Parry.)
The new covenant--the superiority of its promises
I. THE QUALITY OF THE BLESSINGS.
1. The greater excellence of the Christian pardon. The Jewish religion had its pardon, or something that passed for pardon; the superiority, however, of the pardon held forth by the gospel is indicated by the expression, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Contrast this statement with what is said respecting the method of dealing with sins under the old covenant--But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance of sins every year (Heb_10:3). In the one case we have the forgetting of sins, in the other the remembrance of them. The ancient pardon, then, was not really such, but only a kind of reprieve annually renewed, a kind of suspension of the sentence, not the removal or abrogation of it. It was in the nature of a ticket-of-leave transaction.
2. The greater excellence of the knowledge of God assured by the new covenant. The knowledge of God acquired under the old covenant was preceptive knowledge, and, like all such knowledge, it needed constant prompting, it needed that every man should say to his neighbour, and every man to his brother, Know the Lord, for they resembled boys learning a lesson, they continually forgot it. A prophet would arise, saying to the people, Know the Lord, and they would learn the lesson; but no sooner did the prophets voice cease than the people forgot the lesson, and wandered after false gods. Then another prophet would arise, and repeat the oft-taught lesson, Know the Lord. But the more excellent knowledge of the better promise needs no such prompting. In the ease of this knowledge, they shall not teach every man his neighbour, &c., it is a knowledge in the heart, not in the memory, for the memory may fail, but the heart never.
3. The greater excellence of the relationship between God and His people. It is better in this, that it is individual and spiritual, whereas the corresponding promise of the old covenant was national and temporal. The promise as it related to Israel is given very graphically in Deu_26:17-19. There is something inexpressibly grand in the abounding sweep of this promise. If we consider it in the light of the history of Gods dealings with the ancient people, we shall obtain some notion of its meaning. But rich and abounding as its meaning may be, it embraces only the nation, and that in relation to temporal things. The greater excellence of the corresponding promise of the new covenant is that it realises these blessings in a spiritual sense, and to every individual in the wide world that comes within the scope of its conditions.
4. Next, we notice the greater excellence of the formative principle of the new covenant. The superiority claimed here consists in this--that the laws are put into the mind and written in the heart. There is an implied contrast with the corresponding provision of the old covenant. The latter had its laws, but they were inscribed, not in hearts, but on tables of stone. The other consists of an inward principle or motive, the subject of it animated by love, yielding willing obedience from a heart glowing with loving, grateful enthusiasm. This difference in the spheres of their respective laws involves a wide difference in their respective effects upon the course of the lives affected by them. There is a great difference between the sailing vessel and the steam-boat. The one is propelled by influences external to itself, and is, therefore, dependent upon them for the progress it makes; the other is propelled by a principle working within, and is, therefore, independent of external influences, moves without them, and often against, yea, in spite of them. The latter illustrates the method adopted in the new covenant. Hence its greater excellence. It implants the principle of action, the motive power, within, so preventing its subject from becoming a creature of circumstances, and his obedience a mechanical routine, making it rather a thing of the heart and of the affections. The gospel, in this respect, works according to the analogy of nature. In nature, the formative law of everything is within it.
II. THE SUPERIOR CERTAINTY OF THE PROMISES OF THE NEW COVENANT. The utmost assurance that these promises will be fully realised in the experience of every one who accepts Christs salvation is given us in the fact that they are called by the term covenant. In verse 6 the promises and the covenant are referred to separately; in verse 10 there is but one word covenant. The term promise is merged in the term covenant. This substitution of covenant for promise indicates the element of certainty belonging to the latter. But it may be asked, were not the promises of the ancient religion established upon a covenant? Certainly, they were, but those of Christianity upon a better covenant. The promises of the ancient religion were ratified by the blood of goats and calves, but Christ ratified the better promises of the new covenant by the sacrifice of Himself. His own declaration on this point is, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, that is, the new covenant ratified by the shedding of My blood. In short, we have the promises of the gospel resting upon the atonement of Christ. (A. J. Parry.)
Gods non-remembrance of sin
I. THERE IS FORGIVENESS.
1. This appears, first, in the treatment of sinners by God, inasmuch as He spares their forfeited lives.
2. Why did God institute the ceremonial law if there were no ways of pardoning transgression? Does not a type imply the existence of that which is typified?
3. If there were no forgiveness of sin why has the Lord given to sinful men exhortations to repent?
4. If you will think of it you will see that there must be pardons in the hand of God, or why the institution of religious worship among us to this day?
5. Furthermore, why did Christ institute the Christian ministry, and send forth His servants to proclaim His gospel? For what is the gospel but a declaration that Christ is exalted on high to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins?
6. Now, you do not want any more arguments, but if you did I would venture to offer this. Why are we taught in that blessed model of prayer which our Saviour has left us, to say, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, or, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us? It is evident that God means us to give a real, true, and hearty absolution to all who have offended us. If, then, our forgiveness is real, so is His; if ours be sincere, so is His; if ours be complete, so is His; only much more so, inasmuch as the great God of all is so much more gracious than we poor, fallen creatures ever can be.
7. The best of all arguments is this: God has actually forgiven multitudes of sinners. We have read in Holy Scripture of men who walked with God and had this testimony, that they pleased God; but they could not have pleased God if their sins still provoked Him to wrath; therefore He must have put their sins away.
II. THIS FORGIVENESS IS TANTAMOUNT TO FORGETTING SIN. This is a wonder to me, a wonder of wonders, that God should say that He will do what in some sense He cannot do; and yet that it should be strictly true as He intends it. Gods pardon of sin is so complete that He Himself describes it as not remembering our iniquity and transgression. He wishes us to know that His pardon is so true and deep that it amounts to an absolute oblivion, a total forgetting of all the wrong-doing of the pardoned ones.
1. You know what we do when we exercise memory. To speak popularly, a man lays up a thing in his mind: but when sin is forgiven it is not laid up in Gods mind.
2. In remembering, men also consider and meditate on things; but the Lord will not think over the sins of His people. The record of our iniquity is taken away, and the judge has no judicial memory of it.
3. Sometimes you have almost forgotten a thing, and it is quite gone out of your mind; but an event happens which recalls it so vividly that it seems as if it were perpetrated but yesterday. God will not recall the sin of the pardoned. Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. No more! Let those words go echoing through the chambers of despair: No more! Is there not music in the two syllables? God will never have His memory refreshed. The transgressions of His people are dead and buried with Christ, and they shall never have a resurrection.
4. Furthermore, this not remembering, means that God will never seek any further atonement. The apostle saith: Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. The one sacrifice of Jesus has made an end of sin.
5. Again, when it is said that God forgets our sins it signifies that He will never punish us for them. How can He when He has forgotten them?
6. He will never upbraid us with them--He giveth liberally and upbraideth not. How can He upbraid us with what He has forgotten? He will not even lay them to our charge.
7. Once more, when the Lord says, I will not remember their sins, what does it mean but this--that He will not treat us any the less generously on account of our having been great sinners.
III. FORGIVENESS IS TO BE HAD.
1. Through the atoning blood. Why does God forget our sin? It is not on this wise?--He looks upon His Son Jesus bearing that sin.
2. Next remember that this forgetfulness of God is caused by overflowing mercy. God is love: His mercy endureth for ever; and He desired vent for His love.
3. How does God forget sin? Well, it is through His everlasting love. He loved His people before they fell; and He loved His people when they fell. I have loved thee, saith He, with an everlasting love; and when that great love of His had led Him to give His Son Jesus for His peoples ransom, it made him also forget His peoples sins.
4. Again, God forgets His peoples sins because of the complacency He has in them as renewed and sanctified creatures. When He hears their cries of repentance, when He hears their declarations of faith, when He sees the love which His Spirit has wrought in them, when He beholds them growing more and more like His dear Son, He delights in them. His joy is fulfilled in them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Divine forgiveness
I. EXPLAIN THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE FORGIVENESS.
1. The object of Divine forgiveness, denoted by the following terms--unrighteousness, sins, and iniquities.
2. Notice the manner in which the forgiveness of sins is here expressed, or the cause to which it is ascribed; and this is said to consist in the Lords being merciful to our unrighteousness. Even our best services and most spiritual dispositions, fall so short of the Divine requirements, that they need much mercy to cover their defects; how much more our unrighteousness, sins, and iniquities.
(1) The mercy of God is the origin of our forgiveness, and it is according to His abundant mercy that He saves us.
(2) Divine grace extends to sin of every description and degree, and to all unrighteousness.
(3) This mercy is exercised in a way perfectly consistent with the claims of justice, and the rights of moral government. There is a meritorious as well as an efficient cause of forgiveness: the former is the complete satisfaction made for sin by the death of the Redeemer, the latter the free grace of God through Him.
3. Divine forgiveness is farther expressed, by remembering our sins and iniquities no more. The pardon of sin is not only full and free, but final and irreversible.
(1) God does not remember our sins, so as to aggravate or mark them with severity; for if Thou, Lord, markest iniquity, who shall stand? On the contrary, if there be any extenuating circumstances, He kindly notices them. He knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust.
(2) He does not remember our sins, so as to suffer His wrath to kindle against them. Anger there may be and must be towards sin, but not against the penitent believer.
(3) He will not remember sin so as to punish for it, but will deal so mercifully with us, that it shall be as if He had utterly forgotten it. This is not a denial of His omniscience, but an expression of His unbounded goodness.
II. INQUIRE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE BLESSING OF FORGIVENESS,
1. Those and those only who have a sorrowful remembrance of sin themselves. The more sin grieves us, the less likely it is to ruin us; and that sorrow for sin which follows upon the discoveries of pardoning mercy, is the best evidence of a renewed state.
2. Those who so repent of sin as not to allow themselves in any known evil; and to whom the remembrance of sin is so bitter, that it becomes their first wish to be delivered from it. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
Divine pardon
God neither looks to anything in the creature to wish Him to show kindness, nor yet anything in the creature to debar Him; it is neither righteousness in man that persuades God to pardon sin, nor unrighteousness in man that hinders Him from giving this pardon, and acquitting men from their transgressions. It is only and simply for His own sake that He pardons. (Bp. Huntington.)
A happy memory
Of our Henry VI. it is storied that he was of that happy memory that he never forgot anything but injury. (J. Trapp.)
Complete forgiveness
God never pardons one sin but He pardons all; and we dishonour Him more by not trusting in Him for complete forgiveness than we did by sinning against Him. Christ took up all our sins and bore them in His own body on the cross; and God cannot punish twice, or demand a second satisfaction to His justice. Nothing can pacify an offended conscience but that which satisfied an offended God, says Henry; and well may that which satisfied an offended God pacify an offended conscience. (T. Adams.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson1891 · Public DomainOn vv10–1210. This is the covenant that, etc. This shall…
10. This is the covenant that, etc. This shall be a principle of the new covenant. I will put my laws in their mind. Under the new covenant the minds and hearts shall be given to the Lord and filled with his law. They shall “worship in spirit and in truth.” Write them in their hearts. Instead of upon tables of stone.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn vv10–12
Hebrews
THE ARTICLES OF THE NEW COVENANT: GOD’S WELTING ON THE HEART
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Heb 8:10
WE can scarcely estimate the shock to a primitive Hebrew Christian when he discovered that Judaism was to fade away. Such an earthquake might seem to leave nothing standing. Now, the great object of this Epistle is to insist on that truth, and to calm the early Hebrew Christians under it, by showing them that the disappearance of the older system left them no poorer but infinitely richer, inasmuch as all that was in it was more perfectly in Christ’s gospel. The writer has accordingly been giving his strength to showing that, all along the line, Christianity is the perfecting of Judaism, in its Founder, in its priesthood, in its ceremonies, in its Sabbath. Here he touches the great central thought of the covenant between God and man, and he fall back upon the strange words of one of the old prophets. Jeremiah had declared as emphatically as he, the writer, has been declaring, that the ancient system was to melt away and be absorbed in a new covenant between God and man. Is there any other instance of a religion which, on the one side, proclaims its own eternal duration - ‘the Word of the Lord endureth for ever’ - and on the other side declares that it is to be abrogated, antiquated, and done away? The writer of the Epistle had learned from sacreder lips than Jeremiah’s the same lesson, for the Master said at the most solemn hour of His career, ‘This is the blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’
These articles of the New Covenant go very deep into the essence of Christianity, and may well be thought. fully pondered by us all, if we wish to know what the specific differences between the ultimate revelation in Jesus Christ, and all other systems are. The words I have read for my text are the first of these articles.
I. Let us try to ascertain what exactly is the meaning of this great promise.
Now it seems to me that the two clauses which I have read for my text are not precisely parallel, but parallel with a difference. I take it, that ‘mind’ here means very much what we make it mean in our popular phraseology, a kind of synonym for the understanding, or the intellectual part of a man’s nature; and that ‘heart,’ on the other hand, means something a little wider than it does in our popular phraseology, and indicates not only the affections, but the centre of personality in the human will, as well as the seat of love. So these two clauses will mean, you see, if we carry that distinction with us, two things - the clear perception of the will of God, and the coincidence of that will with our inclinations and desires.’ In men’s natural consciences, there is the law written on their minds, but alas! we all know that there is an awful chasm between perception and inclination, and that it is one thing to know our duty, and quite another to wish to do it. So the heart of this great promise of my text is that these two things shall coincide in a Christian man, shall cover precisely the same ground; as two of Euclid’s triangles having the same angles will, if laid upon each other, coincide line for line and angle for angle. Thus, says this great promise, it is possible - and, if we observe the conditions, it will be actual in us - that knowledge and will shall cover absolutely and exactly the same ground. Inclination will be duty, and duty will be inclination and delight. Nothing short of such a thought lies here.
And how is that wonderful change upon men to be accomplished? ‘I will put, I will write.’ Only He can do it. We all know, by our own experience, the schism that gapes between the two things. Every man in the world knows a vast deal more of duty than any man in the world does. The worst of us has a standard that rebukes his evil, and the best of us has a standard that transcends his goodness, and, alas! often transcends his inclination.
But the gospel of our Lord and Saviour comes armed with sufficient power to make this miracle an actuality for us all.
For it comes, does it not, to substitute for all other motives to obedience, the one motive of love? They but half understand the gospel who dwell upon its sanctions of reward and punishment, and would seek to frighten men into goodness by brandishing the whip of law before them, and uncovering the lid that shuts in the smoke of a hell And they misinterpret it almost as much, if there be any such, who find the chief motive for Christian obedience in the glories of the heavenly state. These are subordinate and legitimate in their secondary place, but the gospel appeals to men, not merely nor chiefly on the ground of self-interest, but it comes to them with the one appeal, ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments.’ That is how the law is written on the heart. Wherever there is love, there is a supreme delight in divining and in satisfying the wish and will of the beloved. His lightest word is law to the loving heart; his looks are spells and commandments. And if it is so in regard of our poor, imperfect, human loves, how infinitely more so is it where the heart is touched by true affection for His own infinite love’s sake, of that ‘Jesus’ who is ‘most desired!’ The secret of Christian morality is that duty is changed into choice, because love is made the motive for obedience.
And, still further, let me remind you how this great promise is fulfilled in the Christian life, because to have Christ shrined in the heart is the heart of Christianity, and Christ Himself is our law. So, in another sense than that which I have been already touching, the law is written on the heart on which, by faith and self-surrender, the name of Christ is written. And when it becomes our whole duty to become like Him, then He being throned in our hearts, our law is within, and Himself to His ‘darlings’ shall be, as the poet has it about another matter, ‘both law and impulse.’ Write His name upon your hearts, and your law of life is thereby written there.
And, still further, let me remind you that this great promise is fulfilled, because the very specific gift of Christianity to men is the gift of a new nature which is ‘created in righteousness and holiness that flows from truth.’ The communication of a divine life kindred with, and percipient of, and submissive to, the divine will is the gift that Christianity - or, rather, let us put away the abstraction and say that Christ - offers . to us all, and gives to every man who will accept it.
And thus, and in other ways on which I cannot dwell now, this great article of the New Covenant lies at the very foundation of the Christian life, and gives its peculiar tinge and cast to all Christian morality, commandment, and obligation.
But let me remind you how this great truth has to be held with caution. The evidence of this letter itself shows that, whilst the writer regarded it as a distinctive characteristic of the gospel, that by it men’s wills were stamped with a delight in the law of God, and a transcript thereof, he still regarded these wills as unstable, as capable of losing the sharp lettering, of having the writing of God obliterated, and still regarded it as possible that there should be apostasy and departure.
So there is nothing in this promise which suspends the need for effort and for conflict. Still ‘the flesh lusteth against the spirit.’ Still there are parts of the nature on which that law is not written. It is the final triumph, that the whole man, body, soul, and spirit is, through and through, penetrated with, and joyfully obedient to, the commandments of the Lord. There is need, too, not only for continuous progress, effort, conflict, in order to keep our hearts open for His handwriting, but also for much caution, lest at any time we should mistake our own self-will for the utterance of the divine voice.
‘Love, and do what thou wilt,’ said a great Christian teacher. It is an unguarded statement, but profoundly true as in some respects it is, it is only absolutely true if we have made sure that the ‘thou’ which ‘wills’ is the heart on which God has written His law.
Only God can do this for us. The Israelites of old were bidden ‘these things which I command thee this day shall be on thy heart,’ and they were to write them on their hand, and on the frontlet between their eyes, and on their doorposts. The latter commands were obeyed, having been hardened into a form; and phylacteries on the arm, and scrolls on the lintel, were the miserable obedience which was given to them. But the complete writing on the heart was beyond the power of unaided man. A psalmist said, ‘I delight to do Thy will, and Thy law is within my heart.’ But a verse or two after, in the same psalm, he wailed, ‘Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore my heart faileth me.’ One Man has transcribed the divine will on His will, without blurring a letter, or omitting a clause. One Man has been able to say, in the presence of the most fearful temptations, ‘Not My will, but Thine, be done.’ One Man has so completely written, perceived, and obeyed the law of His Father, that, looking back on all His life, He was conscious of no defect or divergence, either in motive or in act, and could affirm on the Cross, ‘It is finished.’ He who thus perfectly kept that divine law will give to us, if we ask Him, His spirit, to write it upon our hearts, and ‘the law of the spirit of life which was in Christ Jesus shall make us free from the law of sin and death.’
II. Now, secondly, note the impassable gulf which this fulfilled promise makes between Christianity and all other systems.
It is a new covenant, undoubtedly-an altogether new thing in the world. For whatever other laws have been promulgated among men have had this in common, that they have stood over against the Will with a whip in one hand, and a box of sweets in the other, and have tried to influence desires and inclinations, first by the setting forth of duty, then by threatening, and then by promises to obedience. There is the inherent weakness of all which is merely law. You do not make men good by telling them in what goodness consists, nor yet by setting forth the bitter consequences that may result from wrong-doing. All that is surface work. But there is a power which says that it deals with the will as from within, and moves, and moulds, and revolutionises it. ‘You cannot make men sober by act of parliament,’ people say. Well! I do not believe the conclusion which is generally drawn from that statement, but it is perfectly true in itself. To tell a man what he ought to do is very, very little help towards his doing it. I do not under-estimate the value of a clear perception of duty, but I say that, apart from Christianity, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, that clear perception of duty is like a clear opening of a great gulf between a man and safety, which only makes him recoil in despair with the thought, ‘how can I ever leap across that?’ But the peculiarity of the gospel is that it gives both the knowledge of what we ought to be; and with and in the knowledge, the desire, and with and in the knowledge and the desire, the power to be what God would have us to be.
All other systems, whether the laws of a nation, or the principles of a scientific morality, or the solemn voice that speaks in our minds proclaiming some version of God’s law to every man- all these are comparatively impotent. They are like bill-stickers going about a rebellious province posting the king’s proclamation. Unless they have soldiers at their back, the proclamation is not worth the paper it is printed upon. But Christianity comes, and gives us that which it requires from us. So, in his epigrammatic way, St. Augustine penetrated to the very heart of this article when he prayed, ‘Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.’
III. Note the freedom and blessedness of this fulfilled promise.
Not to do wrong may be the mark of a slave’s timid obedience. Not to
wish to do wrong is the charter of a son’s free and blessed service. There is a higher possibility yet, reserved for heaven - not to be able to do wrong. Freedom does not consist in doing what I like - that turns out, in the long run, to be the most abject slavery, under the severest tyrants. But it consists in liking to do what I ought. When my wishes and God’s will are absolutely coincident, then and only then, am I free. That is no prison, out of which we do not wish to go. Not to be confined against our wills, but voluntarily to elect to move only within the sacred, charmed, sweet circle of the discerned will of God, is the service and liberty of the sons of God.
Alas! there are a great many Christians, so-called, who know very little about such blessedness. To many of us religion is a burden. It consists of a number of prohibitions and restrictions and commandments equally unwelcome. ‘Do not do this,’ and all the while I would like to do it. ‘Do that,’ and all the while I do not want to do it. ‘Pray, because it is your duty; go to chapel, because you think it is God’s will; give money that you would much rather keep in your pockets: abstain from certain things that you hunger for; do other things that you do not at all desire to do, nor find any pleasure in doing.’ That is the religion of hosts of people. They have need to ask themselves whether their religion is Christ’s religion. Ah! brethren! - ‘My yoke is easy and My burden light; not because the things that He bids and forbids are less or lighter than those which the world’s morality requires of its followers, but because, so to speak, the yoke is padded with the velvet of love, and inclination coincides, in the measure of our true religion, with the discerned will of God.
IV. Lastly, one word about the condition of the fulfilment of this promise to us.
As I have been saying, it is sadly far ahead of the experience of crowds of so-called Christians. There are still great numbers of professing Christians, and I doubt not that I speak to some such, on whose hearts only a very few of the syllables of God’s will are written, and these very faintly and blotted. But remember that the fundamental idea of this whole context is that of a covenant, and a covenant implies two parties, and duties and obligations on the part of each. If God is in covenant with you, you are in covenant with God. If He makes a promise, there is something for you to do in order that that promise may be fulfilled to you.
What is there to do? First, and last, and midst, keep close to Jesus Christ. In the measure in which we keep ourselves in continual touch with Him, will His law be written upon our hearts. If we are for ever twitching away the paper; if we are for ever flinging blots and mud upon it, how can we expect the transcript to be clear and legible? We must keep still that God may write. We must wait habitually in His presence. When the astronomer wishes to get the image of some far-off star, invisible to the eye of sense, he regulates the motion of his sensitive plate, so that for hours it shall continue right beneath the unseen Beam. So we have to still our hearts, and keep their plates - the fleshy tables of them - exposed to the heavens. Then the likeness of God will be stamped there.
Be faithful to what is written there, which is the Christian shape of the heathen commandment - ‘Do the duty that lies nearest thee; so shall the next become plainer.’ Be faithful to the line that is ‘written,’ and there will be more on the tablet to-morrow.
Now this is a promise for us all However blotted and blurred and defaced by crooked, scrawling letters, like a child’s copy-book, with its first pot- hooks and hangers, our hearts may be, there is no need for any of us to say despairingly, as we look on the smeared page, ‘What I have written I have written.’ He is able to blot it all out, to ‘take away the hand-writing’ - our own - ‘that is against us, nailing it to His Cross,’ and to give us, in our inmost spirits, a better knowledge of, and a glad obedience to, His discerned and holy will. So that each of us, if we choose, and will observe the conditions, may be able to say with all humility, ‘Lo! I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, yea! Thy law is within my heart.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn vv10–12Jehovah. Jer 31:33.
Lord
Jehovah. Jer 31:33.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv10–11General Information:
General Information:
This is a quotation from the prophet Jeremiah.
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the house of Israel
The people of Israel are spoken of as if they were a house. AT: "the people of Israel" (See: Metaphor)
after those days
"after that time"
I will put my laws into their minds
God's requirements are spoken of as if they were objects that could be placed somewhere. People's ability to think is spoken of as if it were a place. AT: "I will enable them to understand my laws" (See: Metaphor)
I will also write them on their hearts
Here "hearts" is a metonym for a person's inner being. The phrase "write them on their hearts" is a metaphor for enabling people to obey the law. AT: "I will also put them in their hearts" or "I will enable them to obey my law" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv10–128:10 Under the old covenant, the people were commanded…
8:10 Under the old covenant, the people were commanded to take the words of the law to heart (Deut 32:46), and the kings of Israel and Judah were judged on whether or not they followed the law of God wholeheartedly (2 Kgs 10:31; 2 Chr 31:21). A difference in the new covenant is that God’s laws would be in people’s minds and on their hearts. People would have renewed hearts and minds, with God’s law as an intrinsic, internal motivation.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv10–11 10 For this is the covenant that I will…
10 For this is the covenant that I will make, etc. There are two main parts in this covenant; the first regards the gratuitous remission of sins; and the other, the inward renovation of the heart; there is a third which depends on the second, and that is the illumination of the mind as to the knowledge of God. There are here many things most deserving of notice.
The first is, that God calls us to himself without effect as long as he speaks to us in no other way than by the voice of man. He indeed teaches us and commands what is right but he speaks to the deaf; for when we seem to hear anything, our ears are only struck by an empty sound; and the heart, full of depravity and perverseness, rejects every wholesome doctrine. In short, the word of God never penetrates into our hearts, for they are iron and stone until they are softened by him; nay, they have engraven on them a contrary law, for perverse passions rule within, which lead us to rebellion. In vain then does God proclaim his Law by the voice of man, unless he writes it by his Spirit on our hearts, that is, unless he forms and prepares us for obedience. It hence appears of what avail is freewill and the uprightness of nature before God regenerates us. We will indeed and choose freely; but our will is carried away by a sort of insane impulse to resist God. Thus it comes that the Law is ruinous and fatal to us as long as it remains written only on tables of stone, as Paul also teaches us. (2 Corinthians 3:3.) In short, we then only obediently embrace what God commands, when by his Spirit he changes and corrects the natural pravity of our hearts; otherwise he finds nothing in us but corrupt affections and a heart wholly given up to evil. The declaration indeed is clear, that a new covenant is made according to which God engraves his laws on our hearts, for otherwise it would be in vain and of no effect.
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The second particular refers to the gratuitous pardon of sins. Though they have sinned, saith the Lord, yet I will pardon them. This part is also most necessary; for God never so forms us for obedience to his righteousness, but that many corrupt affections of the flesh still remain; nay, it is only in part that the viciousness of our nature is corrected; so that evil lusts break out now and then. And hence is that contest of which Paul complains, when the godly do not obey God as they ought, but in various ways offend. (Romans 7:13.) Whatever desire then there may be in us to live righteously, we are still guilty of eternal death before God, because our life is ever very far from the perfection which the Law requires. There would then be no stability in the covenant, except God gratuitously forgave our sins. But it is the peculiar privilege of the faithful who have once embraced the covenant offered to them in Christ, that they feel assured that God is propitious to them; nor is the sin to which they are liable, a hindrance to them, for they have the promise of pardon.
And it must be observed that this pardon is promised to them, not for one day only, but to the very end of life, so that they have a daily reconciliation with God. For this favor is extended to the whole of Christ’s kingdom, as Paul abundantly proves in the fifth chapter of his second Epistle to the Corinthians. And doubtless this is the only true asylum of our faith, to which if we flee not, constant despair must be our lot. For we are all of us guilty; nor can we be otherwise released then by fleeing to God’s mercy, which alone can pardon us.
And they shall be to me, etc. It is the fruit of the covenant, that God chooses us for his people, and assures us that he will be the guardian of our salvation. This is indeed the meaning of these words, And I will be to them a God; for he is not the God of the dead, nor does he take us under his protection, but that he may make us partakers of righteousness and of life, so that David justly exclaims, “Blessed are the people to whom the Lord is God (Psalm 144:15.) There is further no doubt but that this truth belongs also to us; for though the Israelites had the first place, and are the proper and legitimate heirs of the covenant, yet their prerogative does not hinder us from having also a title to it. In short, however far and wide the kingdom of Christ extends, this covenant of salvation is of the same extent.
But it may be asked, whether there was under the Law a sure and certain promise of salvation, whether the fathers had the gift of the Spirit, whether they enjoyed God’s paternal favor through the remission of sins? Yes, it is evident that they worshipped God with a sincere heart and a pure conscience, and that they walked in his commandments, and this could not have been the case except they had been inwardly taught by the Spirit; and it is also evident, that whenever they thought of their sins, they were raised up by the assurance of a gratuitous pardon. And yet the Apostle, by referring the prophecy of Jeremiah to the coming of Christ, seems to rob them of these blessings. To this I reply, that he does not expressly deny that God formerly wrote his Law on their hearts and pardoned their sins, but he makes a comparison between the less and the greater. As then the Father has put forth more fully the power of his Spirit under the kingdom of Christ, and has poured forth more abundantly his mercy on mankind, this exuberance renders insignificant the small portion of grace which he had been pleased to bestow on the fathers. We also see that the promises were then obscure and intricate, so that they shone only like the moon and stars in comparison with the clear light of the Gospel which shines brightly on us.
If it be objected and said, that the faith and obedience of Abraham so excelled, that hardly any such an example can at this day be found in the whole world; my answer is this, that the question here is not about persons, but that reference is made to the economical condition of the Church. Besides, whatever spiritual gifts the fathers obtained, they were accidental as it were to their age; for it was necessary for them to direct their eyes to Christ in order to become possessed of them. Hence it was not without reason that the Apostle, in comparing the Gospel with the Law, took away from the latter what is peculiar to the former. There is yet no reason why God should not have extended the grace of the new covenant to the fathers. This is the true solution of the question.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–12 10 For this is the covenant that I will…
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Ver. 10. I will put my laws, &c.] God’s covenant is to write his laws and promises "in his people’s minds," so that they shall have the knowledge of them; "and in their hearts," so that they shall have the comfort, feeling, and fruition of them.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv10–12 For this is the covenant that I will make:…
For this is the covenant that I will make: for, showeth it should not be such a covenant-form as was given on Mount Sinai, it being wholly different, and that denied before, being carnal and ceremonious, full of types and shadows, and through their sin ineffectual to them. This is the firm administration of the covenant which I will strike. To which three words answer is in this scripture, I will perfect, make, and dispose; which last is the root from whence the notion of a covenant in the Greek is derived, διαθησομαι.
With the house of Israel: Israel is the comprehensive name of all the twelve tribes, as Heb 8:8; compare Exo 16:31; 40:38; and is so used by the Lord himself Mat 10:6, and by Peter, Act 2:36.
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After those days; in the prophet it is, after those days of their delivery from Babylon, Jer 31:1,8,11,16,21, but especially when those days of the first administration of the covenant are accomplished, when the fulness of time for the Messiah’s revelation is come, Gal 4:4. To this God again puts his seal, he saith it.
I will put my laws into their mind; the great God, the Redeemer himself the infinitely wise, and good, and powerful Spirit, who only can reach the soul, will make impressions, and write clear characters of Divine truth on it, 2Co 3:3. None can alter, new mould, frame, and temper a spirit, but him, who hath a true original right of all the good he promiseth, which he will freely, graciously dispense from himself, Joh 4:10,14. All the doctrines of the gospel, which include in them the moral law, as now managed by Christ, all the will of God concerning our salvation, promises, and commands; and these in their spirit and power, which God not only ratified in, but conveyed to the world by, Jesus Christ, and especially into the mind. διανοιαν renders the Hebrew בקרבם the inward parts, in the prophet’s text. The mind or understanding being the innermost part of the soul, is capable of receiving impresses of Divine truth, and its characters are by it made legible to the soul; which as promised here, is so prayed for by the apostle, Eph 1:17,18.
And write them in their hearts: επιγραψω is a metaphor setting out a real, actual, powerful work of the Spirit of Christ, which leaveth the express characters of all God’s saving mind and will upon the heart or soul as plain as writing upon paper, or engraving upon stones; such an operation of the Spirit of Christ on the souls of them, as whereby is conveyed into them a new light, life, power, so that they are made by it partakers of a Divine nature; and though they are not other faculties, yet they are quite other things than they were for qualities and operations, so as they are enabled to know, observe, and keep his laws, which are set up in authority and dominion in their souls, ruling and ordering all there, Eze 11:19,20; 36:26,27; 2Co 3:3,8,9,10,18.
And I will be to them a God: as in the former word was the promise of conversion, regeneration, and renovation, so joined with it is the promise of adoption. In which God engageth in Christ to be to penitent believers, Rom 9:6,8, a God, i.e. the cause and author of all good, Gen 15:1-21; 17:1,7; what he is, hath, or can do for them of good, is all theirs, and himself terminating all the knowledge, faith, and worship of them. He will exercise all his wisdom, power, and goodness to deliver them from all evil, and to make them eternally happy and blessed in himself.
And they shall be to me a people; and to him this true Israel shall be a true, spiritual, eternal, adopted seed and people, partakers of all that he hath promised to them or they can desire of him; so as their name is better than the name of sons or daughters, an everlasting one, not to be cut off, Isa 56:5. They, as his people, attend on, witness to, and contend for, him and his glory, are always at his beck, being purchased, made, and covenanted so for his use and service, that they are not their own, but wholly at his disposal, Jer 23:7; 32:20; Eze 11:20; 37:23,2;7 Zec 8:8; 2Co 6:16.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Observe here, 1. The persons with whom this covenant…
Observe here, 1. The persons with whom this covenant is made, the house of Israel, and the house of Judah; not made with them as a political body, because their policy was to be dissolved, but as a part of the universal church.
Observe, 2. The author of this covenant, and that is God himself, I will make it, saith the Lord.
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Note, That the abolishing of the old covenant, and establishing the new, is an act of sovereign wisdom, grace, and authority in God: I will make a new covenant.
Observe, 3. What is the great and comprehensive promise of the new covenant: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; that is:
1. I will make a clear and perspicuous revelation of my mind and will unto them, and give them a thorough knowledge and understanding of my laws, so that their own consciences shall condemn them when they do transgress them.
2. By my holy Spirit I will make a deep and efficacious impression of them upon their hearts and spirits.
Where note, That the precepts of the old covenant are all of them turned into promises under the new; ther preceptive and commanding power remaineth; but grace is promised for the performance of them.
Note farther, That the work of grace, in the new covenant, passeth on the whole soul, in all its powers and faculties, to their change and renovation: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts.
And, consequently, to deny the necessity and efficacy of the sanctifying and renewing grace of God in the habits and acts of it, is plainly to overthrow the evangelical covenant.
Observe, 4. What is the relation which is here said to ensue between God and his people; I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
Here note, 1. God’s relation to us ; I will be to them a God, I who am all-sufficient in myself, will be your all-sufficient preserver, and your all-sufficient rewarder. As nothing less than God’s becoming our God can relieve and help us; so nothing more can be required thereunto.
Note, 2. Our relation to God, they shall be to me a people; that is, a special and peculiar people, owning dependency upon him, and professing all subjection and obedience to him.
And observe, God undertakes for this, they shall be to me a people.
Learn thence, That God doth as well undertake for our being his people, as he doth for his being our God: He that assumes them into that relation freely will preserve them in it powerfully: I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–12 For this is the covenant that I will make…
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel,.... That is, this is the sum and substance of the covenant, which God promised to make with, or to make manifest and known to his chosen people, the true Israelites, under the Gospel dispensation; or the following are the several articles of that covenant, he proposed to consummate or finish, as before:
after those days, saith the Lord; after the times of the Old Testament, when the Messiah shall be come, and the Gospel day shall take place. So the Jews (i) apply these days, when they represent the Israelites saying to Moses, O that he (God) would reveal (himself or will) to us a second time! O that he would kiss us with the kisses of his mouth, and that the doctrine of the law was fixed in our hearts; when he (Moses) said to them, this is not to be done now, but , in the time to come, (i.e. in the times of the Messiah,) as it is said, Jer 31:33.
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I will put my law, &c. and so (k) they are elsewhere applied to the same times. And the first article in it is,
I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; by the laws of God are meant not the precepts of the ceremonial law, which were now abrogated, but either the moral law, and its commands; which is a transcript of the divine nature, was inscribed on Adam's heart in innocence, and some remains of it are even in the Gentiles, but greatly obliterated through the sin of man; and there is in men naturally a contrary disposition to it; in regeneration it is reinscribed by the Spirit of God; and great respect is had to it by regenerate persons, in which lies one part of their conformity to Christ: or else, since the word "law" signifies sometimes no other than a doctrine, an instruction, the doctrines of grace, of repentance towards God, of faith in Christ, and love to him, and every other doctrine may be intended; and the tables where, according to the tenor of this covenant, these are put and written, are two tables, as before, the "mind" and "heart"; but not two tables of stone, on which the law of Moses was written, partly that it might not be lost, through defect of memory, and partly to denote the firmness and stability of it, as also to point at the hardness of man's heart; but the fleshly tables of the heart; not that part of our flesh that is called the heart; but the souls of men, such hearts as are regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of God, and such minds as are renewed by him: and the "putting" of them into the mind, designs the knowledge of them, which God gives; as of the moral law, of its spirituality and perfection, showing that there is no life and righteousness by it, that it is fulfilled by Christ, and is a rule of conversation to the saints; and of all other laws, ordinances, and doctrines of Christ: and the "writing" them in, or on the heart, intends a filling the soul with love and affection to them, so that it regards them singly and heartily; and a powerful inclination of the heart to be subject to them, through the efficacious grace of God; and which is done not with the ink of nature's power, but with the Spirit of the living God, Co2 3:3.
And I will be to them a God; not in such sense as he is the God of all mankind, or as he was the God of Israel in a distinguishing manner, but as he is the God of Christ, and of all the elect in him; and he is their God, not merely as the God of nature and providence, but as the God of all grace; he is so in a covenant way, and as in Christ, and by virtue of electing grace, and which is made manifest in the effectual calling; and as such, he has set his heart on them, and set them apart for himself; he saves them by his Son, adopts and regenerates them, justifies and sanctifies them, provides for them, protects and preserves them; and happy are they that are interested in this blessing of the covenant, which is preferable to everything else; they have everything, and can want no good thing; they need fear no enemy; all things work together for their good; and God continues to be their God in life and in death; so that they may depend on his love, be secure of his power, expect every needful supply of grace, and to be carried through every duty and trial, and to share in the first resurrection, and to enjoy eternal happiness:
and they shall be to me a people; not in such sense as all mankind are, or the Jews were in a more peculiar respect, but as all God's elect are, whether Jews or Gentiles; and who are such whom God has loved with a special love, has chose in Christ, and given to him, and with whom he has made a covenant in him; whom Christ saves from their sins by his blood, and calls them by his grace and Spirit, and who give up themselves to him; these are a distinct and peculiar people, a people near unto the Lord, and who are all righteous in Christ, and are made willing in the day of his power on their souls.
(i) Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 3. 2. (k) Midrash Kohelet, fol. 64. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv10–12 This is the covenant I will make after those…
This is the covenant I will make after those days - After the Mosaic dispensation is abolished. I will put my laws in their minds - I will open their eyes, and enlighten their understanding, to see the true, full, spiritual meaning thereof. And write them on their hearts - So that they shall inwardly experience whatever I have commanded. And I will be to them a God - Their all- sufficient portion, and exceeding great reward. And they shall be to me a people - My treasure, my beloved, loving, and obedient children.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Verse 10. This is the covenant] This is the…
Verse 10. This is the covenant] This is the nature of that glorious system of religion which I shall publish among them after those days, i.e., in the times of the Gospel.
I will put my laws into their mind] I will influence them with the principles of law, truth, holiness, c. and their understandings shall he fully enlightened to comprehend them.
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And write them in their hearts] All their affections, passions, and appetites, shall be purified and filled with holiness and love to God and man; so that they shall willingly obey, and feel that love is the fulfilling of the law: instead of being written on tables of stone, they shall be written on the fleshly tables of their hearts.
I will be to them a God] These are the two grand conditions by which the parties in this covenant or agreement are bound:
1. I will be your God.
2. Ye shall be my people.
As the object of religious adoration to any man is that Being from whom he expects light, direction, defence, support, and happiness: so God, promising to be their God, promises in effect to give them all these great and good things. To be God's people implies that they should give God their whole hearts, serve him with all their light and strength, and have no other object of worship or dependence but himself. Any of these conditions broken, the covenant is rendered null and void, and the other party absolved from his engagement.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv10–11 Heb 8:10. For this is the covenant that I…
Heb 8:10. For this is the covenant that I will make after those days — In the times of the Messiah; I will put my laws into their mind — I will open the eyes of their understanding, and give them light to discern the true, full, spiritual meaning thereof; and write them in their hearts — So that they shall love them, and shall experience inwardly, and practise outwardly, whatsoever I command. They shall have that love to me and all mankind shed abroad in their hearts, which shall be a never-failing spring of piety and virtue within them, and which, of my mercy and grace, I will accept as the fulfilling of the law. The words are an allusion to the writing of the law on the two tables of stone. And I will be to them a God — Their all- sufficient portion, preserver, and rewarder; and they shall be to me a people — My beloved, loving, and obedient children. Or the former clause may signify, They shall know, fear, love, and serve me willingly and acceptably as their God, and I will protect, guide, govern, bless, and save them as my people.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv10–12 For this is the covenant - This is the…
For this is the covenant - This is the arrangement, or the dispensation which shall succeed the old one. “With the house of Israel.” With the true Israel; that is, with all those whom he will regard and treat as his friends.
After those days - This may either mean, “after those days I will put my laws in their hearts,” or, “I will make this covenant with them after those days.” This difference is merely in the punctuation, and the sense is not materially affected. It seems, to me, however, that the meaning of the Hebrew in Jeremiah is, “in those after days” (compare notes on Isa 2:1)}.
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I will put my laws into their mind - that is, in that subsequent period, called in Scripture “the after times,” “the last days,” “the ages to come,” meaning the last dispensation of the world. Thus interpreted, the sense is, that this would be done in the times of the Messiah. “I will put my laws into their mind.” Margin, “Give.” The word “give” in Hebrew is often used in the sense of “put.” The meaning here is, that they would not be mere external observances, but would affect the conscience and the heart. The laws of the Hebrews pertained mainly to external rites and ceremonies; the laws of the new dispensation would relate particularly to the inner man, and be designed to control the heart. The grand uniqueness of the Christian system is, that it regulates the conscience and the principles of the soul rather than external matters. It prescribes few external rites, and those are exceedingly simple, and are merely the proper expressions of the pious feelings supposed to be in the heart; and all attempts either to increase the number of these rites, or to make them imposing by their gorgeousness, have done just so much to mar the simplicity of the gospel, and to corrupt religion.
And write them in their hearts - Margin, “Upon.” Not on fables of stone or brass, but on the soul itself. That is, the obedience rendered will not be external. The law of the new system will have living power, and bind the faculties of the soul to obedience. The commandment there will be written in more lasting characters than if engraved on fables of stone.
And I will be to them a God - This is quoted literally from the Hebrew. The meaning is, that he would sustain to them the appropriate relation of a God; or, if the expression may be allowed, he would be to them what a God should be, or what it is desirable that people should find in a God. We speak of a father’s acting in a manner appropriate to the character of a father; and the meaning here is, that he would be to his people all that is properly implied in the name of God. He would be their Lawgiver, their counsellor, their protector, their Redeemer, their guide. He would provide for their wants, defend them in danger, pardon their sins, comfort them in trials, and save their souls. He would be a faithful friend, and would never leave them nor forsake them. It is one of the inestimable privileges of his people that Jehovah is their God. The living and ever-blessed Being who made the heavens sustains to them the relation of a Protector and a Friend, and they may look up to heaven feeling that he is all which they could desire in the character of a God.
And they shall be to me a people - This is not merely stated as a “fact,” but as a “privilege.” It is an inestimable blessing to be regarded as one of the people of God, and to feel that we belong to him - that we are associated with those whom he loves, and whom he treats as his friends.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv10–11 For this is the testament which I will make…
For this is the testament which I will make with the house of Israel, and with all nations, as I promised to Abraham, I will give (literally, by giving) my laws into their mind, and I will write this new law, not as the former, in tables of stone, but in their hearts, and to them I will be a merciful God, and they shall be my elect people. (Witham) --- The Jews were like slaves, and God ruled them as a master; Christians are his children, and God rules them as a father: and so great is the efficacy of this divine teacher, that by means of a short and easy catechism, children are now taught to know God more perfectly than the first sages of antiquity by their abstruse and erudite disquisitions. We moreover observe under the new law the grace and spirit of love, engrafted in the hearts of the faithful by the Holy Ghost working in the sacraments and sacrifice of the new law to that effect....This covenant was made at the last supper, and ratified the next day by the death of the Testator on the cross, when he exclaimed, "consummatum est," all is consummated. [John xix. 30.]
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv10–12 make with--Greek, "make unto."
make with--Greek, "make unto."
Israel--comprising the before disunited (Heb 8:8) ten tribes' kingdom, and that of Judah. They are united in the spiritual Israel, the elect Church, now: they shall be so in the literal restored kingdom of Israel to come.
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I will put--literally, "(I) giving." This is the first of the "better promises" (Heb 8:6).
mind--their intelligent faculty.
in, &c.--rather, " ON their hearts." Not on tables of stone as the law (Co2 3:3).
write--Greek, "inscribe."
and I will be to them a God, &c.--fulfilled first in the outward kingdom of God. Next, in the inward Gospel kingdom. Thirdly, in the kingdom at once outward and inward, the spiritual being manifested outwardly (Rev 21:3). Compare a similar progression as to the priesthood (1) Exo 19:6; (2) Pe1 2:5; (3) Isa 61:6; Rev 1:6. This progressive advance of the significance of the Old Testament institutions, &c., says THOLUCK, shows the transparency and prophetic character which runs throughout the whole.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv10–12 10. With the house of Israel—The new covenant was…
10. With the house of Israel—The new covenant was truly made by Christ with (or rather to, as the Greek word signifies) the literal house of Israel, as the Hebrew readers of this epistle knew, and had accepted it. Yet only a remnant for the time, and until this time, accepted, and were by it saved. The Gentiles accepted, and are gathered in within the limits of this house of Israel; and it is within the limits of this covenant that the literal Israel shall be gathered into the fold of Christ. Here St. Paul’s statement in Rom_11:1-32 should be most deliberately read. It will then be seen that Israel’s restoration is not a national return to Palestine, but a universal, yet individual, restoration to the covenant under Christ.
After those days—The days or period of the Mosaic covenant, covering several centuries. The student of prophecy should here carefully note the comprehensive use of the word days, to signify great periods and dispensations of time. So in the words, Heb_8:8. And it should be also noted, that these days of centuries positively contradict the notion that Christ’s second advent was expected by the inspired writers to take place in the apostolic age. On the contrary, these centurial days measured out a new probational dispensation—a new aeon, or age. In that age are we; and the complete fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecy is yet in prospect before the second advent; that is, the second advent is not pre-but post-millennial.
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Write them in their hearts—They shall no more be recorded on the insensate stone, to be observed with a mechanical obedience. There shall be a quickened conscience, a clearer knowledge, and a bounding readiness of heart to obey the holy law.
To them a God—With no false god intervening.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–12 10. and write them in their hearts] The gift…
10. and write them in their hearts] The gift of an inner law, not written on granite slabs, but on the fleshen tablets of the heart, is the first promise of the New Covenant. It involves the difference between the Voice of the Spirit of the God in the Conscience and a rigid external law; the difference, that is, between spirituality and legalism. This is brought out in Eze_36:26-29.
I will be to them a God] For similar prophecies see Zec_8:8; Hos_2:23; and for their fulfilment 1Pe_2:9-10; 2Co_6:16-18.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–12 (10) I will make.—Literally, I will covenant—not the same…
(10) I will make.—Literally, I will covenant—not the same word as in Heb_8:8.
Israel.—Formerly (Heb_8:8), Israel and Judah. When the reunion of the nation had once been signified, “Israel” could stand alone as the name of the one people.
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I will put.—Better, putting my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. In the former clause the Hebrew has, “I will put my law in their inward parts;” the law shall be within them, not an external code. In the latter, the “fleshy tablets of the heart” are contrasted with “the tables of the Law.” This is the first of the “better promises.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv10–11 Law and love in the new covenant.
Law and love in the new covenant.
"For this is the covenant that I will make," etc. The paragraph from which our text is taken is a quotation from Jer_31:31-34. It is said that the Lord "will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;" but this is spoken, not of Israel according to the flesh, but of the spiritual Israel the spiritual seed of Abraham. (cf. Rom_2:28, 29 9:6-8 Gal_3:7-9) Notice
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I THE REVELATION OF LAW IN THE NEW COVENANT. One of the great distinctions between the two covenants arises from the materiality of the old one and the spirituality of the new one. In nothing is this more manifest than in the matter of Law. Law is present in both of them. But in the old it was engraved upon tables of stone; in the new it is written upon the hearts of men. Under the old the people were led "by the hand," guided by visible symbols; under the new they are led by the heart, guided by spiritual influences. Our text sets forth certain aspects of Law in the new covenant.
1. Law present in the mind. "I will put my laws into their mind." It, the former dispensation Law was spoken to the outward ear, it was made visible to the bodily eye; and so given, it was often soon neglected and forgotten. But in the present dispensation, to those who have by faith entered into covenant relation with God, Law is given as a possession of their spiritual nature. It is not external to them, but is present within their minds as a rule of action and as a theme for meditation.
2. Law treasured in the heart. "And on their heart also will I write them." When a thing is highly esteemed by us, or when a cause has awakened our deep interest, we say with propriety that it lies near our heart. With greater emphasis and deeper significance do we say the same of one whom we love. So in the new covenant Law holds a high place; it is prized and loved. It is loved as being good in itself. "The Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good." It is loved, also, as being the expression of our Father"s will. There were instances under the old covenant in which the Law was loved and delighted in, but they were rare exceptions to the general rule. Under the new covenant the Law of the Lord will be increasingly prized and loved and obeyed.
3. Law embodied in the life. "Out of the heart are the issues of life." Writing the Law upon the heart is a pictorial way of expressing the inspiration of a disposition to obey Law. God will give his people courage to profess his laws, "and power to put them in practice; the whole habit and frame of their souls shall be a table and transcript of the Law of God." The Law which they love in their heart they will express in their lives. This is the highest revelation of Law. It is most effective in relation to the individual; it is most clear in relation to others, and most influential also. This revelation is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is he who illumines the mind, inspires the heart, etc.
II THE EXPRESSION OF LOVE IN THE NEW COVENANT. "And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." We do not mean to imply that the giving of the Law unto the minds and hearts of God"s people was not an expression of his love; for such in truth it was. But here is a brighter manifestation of his love. Notice:
1. God"s relation to the Christian. "I will be to them a God." He will be to them all that they could desire and expect to find in their God. He gives himself as the chief blessing of the new covenant. He will be to his people "as great, as wise, as powerful, as good as he is in himself." We have all things in him. (1Co_3:21-23) We have his wisdom for our direction, his power for our protection, his love for our spiritual satisfaction and joy, his Spirit for our instruction, consolation, and sanctification, his heaven for our abiding and blessed home. A whole library dealing with these words could not fully express the number and preciousness of the blessings which are comprehended in them I will be to them a God.
2. The Christian"s relation to God. "And they shall be to me a people," This is set forth as our privilege; and a great one it is. But the privilege has its obligations. If by faith in Jesus Christ we have entered into this covenant relation with God, we have the right to expect its blessings from him, and we axe solemnly bound to fulfill its duties to him. Our duty to which the covenant binds us includes
1. supreme affection to God;
2. reverent worship of him;
3. hearty consecration to his service;
4. cheerful compliance with his will
May we be enabled both to perform the duties and to enjoy the privileges of this gracious covenant. W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v10 I will put My laws into their mind
Heb_8:10-12
I will put My laws into their mind
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Gods covenant with the New Testament Church
I.
WHAT IS IMPORTED GENERALLY IN THE WORDS.
1. That a covenant shall be made, and a covenant-relation shall subsist, between God and every member of the New Testament Church.
2. That both parties, so related to one another, shall behave in a due and becoming manner, agreeable to the relation in which they stand.
3. That the relation itself and the due behaviour of the relatives on both sides shall be wholly the work of God.
II. WHAT IS MORE PARTICULARLY IMPORTED IN GODS PROMISING TO BE OUR GOD.
1. That God will graciously bring us to have a real and saving interest in Him as our God. Now, in order to our having such an interest in God, two things are necessary; both which are secured by this promise and both are accomplished in behalf of every one who is brought within the bond of this covenant.
(1) That God make a gracious grant and offer of Himself to us declaring us welcome to claim an interest in Him, and to look for the rest and happiness of our souls in the enjoyment of Him. Without such an offer it would be impossible that ever we should be interested in Him as our God. Such a happiness is incapable of being purchased by any creature.
(2) It is likewise necessary that He enable us to accept this gracious offer, and really to choose Him as our God and Portion. There can be no covenant without the consent of both parties.
2. This part of the promise imports that God will do all that for us that any people has reason to expect or usually does expect from their God. He would be ashamed to be called our God, if He were not to act up to the character. And His allowing us to claim Him in that character may be viewed as an engagement that He will do for us whatever corresponds unto it.
(1) Be will set you free from all spiritual bondage, oppression, and misery of every kind, and put you in ample possession of the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
(2) He will guide and conduct you through this weary wilderness in every step of your journey towards the land of promise.
(3) He will lead you forth against all your enemies, and make you completely victorious over them in due time.
(4) In a word, He will bring you home in the event to the possession of a plentiful and pleasant inheritance.
III. WHAT IS IMPORTED IN OUR BEING TO GOD FOR A PEOPLE.
1. That God would gather into one all the members of the New Testament Church; so that in whatever place of the world they should have their residence, from whatever nation they should spring, whatever should be their kindred, tongue, or language, they should all be closely united one to another and constituted one body mystical.
2. That this dignified people, and every particular person among them, shall, in due tree, be enabled to dedicate themselves unto God, and cheerfully to acknowledge themselves to be His property.
3. That having made such a dedication of themselves to God, the Church and her members shall be preserved from ever attempting to alienate what they have devoted.
4. That God will graciously accept the dedication that we make of ourselves to Him and all those evangelical services which we perform in consequence thereof.
Lessons:
1. From what has been said, we may see one very remarkable difference between the covenant of grace as it is exhibited in the gospel and actually made with every Christian in the day of believing, a difference, I say, between this and all other covenants. In all covenants there are mutual engagements entered into by both parties respectively; and something which they become bound to perform one to another on both sides. So far this covenant agrees with all others. But the amazing difference between this and every other covenant lies in this, that here one party binds Himself for the performance of the engagements of both.
2. We may see that all true Christians are really covenanters with God, however little relish some of them may have for the name.
3. From hence we may see that neither faith, nor repentance, nor sincere obedience, nor anything else wrought in us or done by us, can be the condition of the covenant of grace.
4. We may see from this subject that real Christians are the only happy person- in the world. All the things that men value or esteem, and in which they look for happiness, riches, honours, power, pleasure, they possess in a supereminent degree. They arc the only persons who deserve to be called rich, having an interest in God Himself, an infinite and inexhaustible good as their portion and inheritance. (John Young, D. D.)
The religious relations of the intellect
That there is mind, and that it is superior to matter, I assume, and I have a right so to do: for assumption is not illogical where the demonstration of the thing assumed can be instantaneous and popular--that is, within the range of ordinary understandings. That our bodies are but the organs of our minds, and therefore inferior to them, and totally distinct from them, is seen in this: that the one can be destroyed, while the other remains intact. The surgeon can cut both legs of a man off near the trunk, and then he can cut both arms off at the shoulder, until a full half of his body as represented by bulk has been destroyed, and still the energies of the mans mind are in no way affected. The symmetry of the body is gone, but the symmetry of the undestroyed and the indestructible mind remains. The mind and the saw have not touched it; they cannot. Now, holding that mind is immortal, I would point out to you some of its religious relations, to the end that we may all apprehend how natural to the mind itself are those states, moods, and natures which the Bible enjoins. For religion is only nature corrected--nature perfected. When man stands in his natural powers, with all hisadjustments correct, with all his instincts just, and with all his aspirations holy, he has in him the same mind that was in Christ; for in Him all religion existed organically. Reverence, obedience, affection, humility, truthfulness, and whatever other element piety includes, lived incarnate in Him. He embodied them. Hence, imitation of Him is piety in its highest phase. Hence, His life is the light of men, morally. Hence, Christian studentship is a studentship of His character.
1. Well, the first characteristic of the mind, religiously considered, is activity. Mind is motion, mind is impulse, mind is vibration, mind is only Gods thought; and His thought keeps for ever thinking. Mind, therefore, in its religious connections, must be for ever active. Be not afraid, therefore, to think, young men. Let your minds go forth continually in search of facts. Knock at the door of every phenomenon; press against the door until the fastenings of it yield to your pressure, and, passing in, you stand eye to eye in presence of its long-pent mystery. Wherever there is darkness, creep into it; and when you have entered within its gloom, kindle the torch of investigation and look around you, to discover the hidden wonder. Explorations, spiritually, are for ever in order. The proof of God is found, beyond all else, in your thinking; and the thinkers of the world are the perpetual evidences of the truth of the Bible when it declares that God made man in His own image. The human intellect is the offspring of the Supreme Intelligence. No less cause than this can be assigned as able to produce such a result. There was but one orb that could throw out such a beam. The primal relation of the human mind to the Deity was filial. Of this there can be no doubt. Nature alone is sufficient evidence. And what, pray, is the peculiar characteristic of filial connection? What is the initial attitude of the childs mind into which it grows continually as it advances in years?
2. There is but one answer: the attitude is that of reverence. Well, what shall we say, then, touching the proper attitude of the human mind to its Creator, if not this, that its attitude should be reverential? This conclusion we reach, you observe, not by following the line of any dogma, but by following the line of nature. Nature alone constitutes a perfect bible from which to read the commandment of duty. Your minds are the offspring of that Supreme Intelligence which they resemble. And if your minds are not in a reverential attitude toward God, they are in a state of transgression; not as touching any verbal statute, but as touching the great ineradicable principle of natural relationship. This reverence on the part of the human mind touching God refers not only to Him as to His nature, but to Him equally as to His creations and surroundings. The mind that rightly apprehends its relationship to the Divine Being reverences not only Him, but all that He has made. It apprehends Him in His divergence, in His distributiveness, in the varieties of His expression. Like the Hebrew, it apprehends Him in the beauty of the firmament. Like the Egyptian, it sees Him in the patience, the usefulness, and the cunning of animal life. Like the Greek, it admires the divinity as seen in the symmetry of outline and the loveliness of the human figure. Like the historian, it beholds Him in the progress of events and in the succession of forces, as they have been evolved from the various attempts at government. Nor does such a mind fail to see the evidence of its Masters presence in little things. In grasses, in flowers: in shrubs, in trees, in whatever there is of growth round about, the mind which is properly constituted reverentially apprehends Deity.
3. The third characteristic of mind that has a special religious relation is humility, and the exceeding excellence of this trait will be more clearly apprehended when it is set in contrast with its opposite, arrogance. This arrogance of intellect is as old as studentship, and as offensive as human pride. Its results are beyond expression deplorable. Its tendency is to make men self-opinionated, domineering, and insulting. It has been the mother of oppression. It has dictated persecutions beyond number. It has driven the sword of war even to its hilt into the white bosom of peace, and often made the Church, which is by nature a dispenser of the mercies of God, an engine of the devil. Its culmination is seen in the assertion of infallibility. He who lays claim to such powers of judgment advertises himself as the colossal arrogance of the world. The worst phase met with to-day is the arrogance of what is known as Radicalism. There is a class of men whose whole philosophy is that of negation. Their wisdom consists in denial. They deny the existence of God, they deny the exaltation of Christ, they deny the truth of the gospel, they deny the intelligence of piety, they deny everything that faith credits or the converted soul believes. Their sole object seems to be to undermine and pull down every structure which Christian faith and hope have builded. A more self-conceited and arrogant set of men never lived. They fulminate their scepticism as if they spoke with the authority of a god. A scientific supposition is made to subserve the purpose of a fact. Their speculations arc announced as if they were demonstrations. They are all kindred in the fashion of their behaviour. Their utterances are monotonous. He who has heard one of them lecture has heard all. He who has read one volume has mastered their entire system, if such vagaries of thought can be called a system. Bring them all together, strip them of their various names and their personality, lump them in one embodiment, and they represent a solid mass of self-conceit. That such men can have any lasting influence on the thought and morals of the race is preposterous. They are simply an accident of the times. They simply represent human eccentricity. I have now discussed the relations which mental activity, the quality of reverence, and the quality of humility hold to religious development. If you desire religious growth, you must keep your bodily organs thoroughly healthy, your mind active, reverential, and humble. One more thing alone remains to be said.
4. And this one thing which we need, we need beyond everything else: it is the love of the truth. Truth is the soul of form. It is the spirit which lurks in all substance. It is the genius which lives in law. It is the inspiration of love. It is the crown and glory of mans noblest effort. In seeking it men have passed their lives. To behold the brightness of its /ace, men have walked bravely into the darkness of death. In order to know truth you must first desire it--desire it with your whole heart, desire it for its own sweet sake. In order to find it you must free your mind from all prejudice, from all vanity, from all pride. You will look for it on a throne, and you will find it in a manger. You will look for it in honour, and you will find it in shame. You will look for it among the wise, and you will find it among the ignorant. You will look for it under the royalty of a crown, and you will find it on a cross. You will search the letter, and you will find that the letter does not include it. You will search for it in creeds, and after forty years of belief, you will discover that your creed does not contain it. You cannot stamp it on the pages of a pamphlet any more than you can tie the wind to the tree tops, But he who searches for it actively, reverently, humbly, and because his soul loveth it, will, somewhere, sometime, find it; not all at once, nor in the way he expected, but little by little, and in the way of surprise. As he finds it, so shall he find delight. It will be sweet to his soul. Peace, too, shall come with it--the peace which passeth understanding--the peace that makes man a marvel unto himself. (W. H. H. Murray.)
The highest literature of Christianity
I. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST LEGIBLE. Those who know not the alphabet-children and heathens--can read characters. These life-commentaries on the Bible we want.
II. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST INCORRUPTIBLE. Man may write his interpolations in connection with Gods truth on paper or parchment, but not on souls.
III. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST CONVINCING. The arguments of Butler, Paley, &c., are powerless compared with the argument of a true life.
IV. TRUTH THUS WRITTEN IS MOST LASTING. Paper, marble, and brass will decay, but not souls. (Homilist.)
Divine renewal
I. THE PROPER CHARACTER OF SANCTIFICATION. This, as it is an act of God upon the human soul, consists in the establishment in it of a divine principle of holiness, expressed, here, as the putting Gods laws into the mind and writing them in the heart. This is begun in regeneration. The law of God, the principle of true holiness, is re-established in the inward parts; the man is brought into habitual conformity to it, in all its spirituality, as the one governing principle of his life. This is the proper character of sanctification, as it is a grace of the true Christian.
II. THE SEAT OF SANCTIFICATION. This is, in general, the soul of man: the mind and heart. In both these this blessed principle has its throne, and exerts its paramount, though not undisputed, dominion over the whole man. The body of the believer, itself, experiences the benefit of the sanctification (Rom_6:13; Rom_12:1). Divine grace, in the renewed mind, is a pervading principle, that, like leaven, to which it is compared, never ceases its operation, till it have assimilated to itself all with which it comes in contact. It attacks not one vice, and spares another; corrects not one evil habit, and tolerates the rest. The law of the new creation is nothing less than Gods law; and whatever in thought, word, or deed, whatever in tempers, habits, and dispositions, consists not with perfect love to God and man (which is the fulfilling of the law), that the renewed man instantly detects, by a kind of spiritual instinct before unknown; an antipathy of nature, as true to itself, as uniform in its actings, as that of water to fire, or of darkness to light. The two cannot exist together in peace. The man now hates sin; strives against it in all its shapes--against corrupt reason and passion both. Satan and his allies in man--the lusts of the flesh and of the mind--are driven into corners; they cannot tyrannise as before; but they yield not easily. The words of the promise lead us to distinguish two parts in this great work, the sanctification of the human soul.
1. The enlightening of the understanding, expressed by putting Gods laws into the mind.
2. The engagement of the affections, expressed by writing them in the heart. Both these go together when the man is born again of the Spirit. The soul is sweetly but powerfully drawn to choose what the judgment has been taught to approve. There is given, not the rule only of obedience, but the spirit of obedience; there is a taking away the stony heart out of the flesh, and giving a heart of flesh.
III. THE AUTHOR OF SANCTIFICATION. I will put … I will write. God, then, is Himself the agent in the establishment of His law in the hearts and minds of His people. None beneath Himself is equal to this great work. The outward means which He uses as preparatory and auxiliary to this great work, are endlessly diversified.
1. The mercy which distinguishes one man from another is not the result of holiness foreseen in the subjects of it. The terms of the covenant of grace run directly counter to such a notion. Sanctification is promised in it to sinners, as a free gift.
2. Holiness is connected with mercy, as the effect with its cause. The revelation of mercy to unrighteousness is Gods great means for winning the sinner from his enmity, to love and delight in Him. I will sanctify, saith He, for I will be merciful. These two can never be disjoined.
3. Sanctification is never perfect while the believer is in the body. The conflict between the flesh and the spirit continues to the end, with various success; but, upon the whole, the actings of corruption get weaker, and the habit of grace strengthens in the soul. Still, the spark of evil is not extinguished. Satan lives, and, if permitted, can easily re-kindle it into a flame.
4. The law of the Ten Commandments is still the rule of life to the believer. From the law, as a covenant, we are eternally delivered, through Christ. As a means, therefore, of meriting life, we have nothing whatever to do with the terms of it. Eternal life is given us in Christ (1Jn_5:11). But we are therefore delivered from the law, that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit Rom_8:2; Rom_8:4, compare Rom_7:6). The law of Christ is indeed a law of love; but still this new commandment is the old commandment which ye had from the beginning (1 John if. 7).
5. The security of the believer in Jesus. God has put His hand to the work, and who shall let it? (Francis Goode, M. A.)
Gods law written in the heart
I. THE THINGS TO BE WRITTEN ARE THE LAWS OF GOD. But what laws these are may be doubted. For some will have them to be the Decalogue. Yet these are said to be written in the heart of the very heathens (Rom_2:5). Yet suppose they be already in their hearts, yet the writing of them there is very imperfect; for both the knowledge of them and the power to keep them are very imperfect, so that the love of God and our neighbour may be imprinted there more perfectly. Yet the word termed Laws signifies in the Hebrew, Doctrines. And these are the doctrines of the gospel concerning Christs person, nature, offices, and the work of redemption; the doctrines of repentance, faith, justification, and eternal life; and these either presuppose or include the moral law. Further, they are doctrines concerning Christ, glorified, reigning, and officiating in heaven.
II. THE BOOK OR TABLES WHEREIN THEY MUST RE WRITTEN ARE THE MIND AND HEART OF MAN. There is the spring and original of all rational and moral operations, of all thoughts, affections, and inward motions. There is the directive counsel and imperial commanding power. There is the prime mover of all humane actions as such. This is the subject fit to receive not only natural but supernatural truths, and doctrines, and all laws. There divine characters may be imprinted, and made legible to the soul itself. This is the most noble and excellent book that any can write in.
III. THE SCRIBE OR PEN-MAN IS GOD; FOR IT IS SAID, I WILL GIVE OR PUT, I WILL WRITE. He that said so was the Lord. And it must be He, because the work is so curious and excellent that it is far above the sphere of created activity. He alone can immediately work upon the immortal soul to inform it, move it, alter it, and mould it anew.
IV. THE ACT AND WORK OF THIS PENMAN IS TO WRITE, AND WRITE THESE LAWS AND WRITE THEM IN THE HEART. HOW He cloth it we know not. That He doth it is clear enough. His preparations, illuminations, impulsions, inspirations, are strange and wonderful, of great and mighty force. For in this work He doth not only represent divine objects in a clearer light, and propose high motives to incline and turn the heart, but also gives a divine perceptive and appetitive power, whereby the soul more easily and clearly apprehends, and more effectually affects heavenly things. The effect of this writing is a divine knowledge of Gods laws, and a ready and willing heart to obey them, and conform unto them, a power to know and do the word of God. This is that work of the Spirit which is called vocation, renovation, regeneration, conversion actively taken, without which man cannot repent, believe, obey, and turn to God.
1. The laws. The laws of God are written in the heart, not the inventions, fancies of men, nor natural, nor mathematical, nor moral philosophy; much less the errors and blasphemies of seducers and false prophets.
2. The heart of man is by nature a very untoward and indisposed subject, and not capable of these heavenly doctrines. It is blind and perverse, and there is an antipathy between it and these laws. As it hath no true notions of the greatest good, so it hath no mind to use the means, which conduce to the attaining thereof. This defacement of so noble a substance is the work of the devil and sin.
3. Concerning Gods writing His laws in the heart of man, you must know
(1) That they are not written there by nature. If they were, what need God write that which is already written?
(2) He writes nothing in this heart but His laws and His saving truths. Therefore that which is not written without in the Scripture He doth not promise to write within the heart, and whosoever shall fancy any doctrine received in his heart to be written by the hand of Heaven, and yet cannot find it in the gospel, is deceived and deluded.
(3) Before these divine doctrines can be written in the heart, all errors, lusts, false opinions, must be raised and rooted out of the soul, and it must be made like blank paper.
(4) God doth not write His laws in our hearts by enthusiasm, rapture, and inspiration, as He wrote His word in the hearts of the prophets and apostles; but He makes use of the word, and the ministers of the gospel, and the instructions of man, as also of the outward senses, as of the eye and ear, and also of the inward, and of reason, and of all the powers He bath given man to do anything in this work. And whosoever will not use these means and exercise this power by reading, hearing, meditation, conference, prayer, let him never expect or think that God will write these things in his heart.
(5) The effect of this writing of God is not only knowledge, but also a love of the truth, light, and integrity, power and dominion over sin, and the powerful sanctifications and consolations of the Spirit. And whosoever doth not find these in his heart, let him not think that God hath written His laws in his heart. For He writes with power, and leaves a permanent tincture of holiness, and a constant habitual inclination to that which is good, just, and right.
(6) God doth not write these laws perfectly and fully in mans heart whilst he is in the flesh; for He proceeds in this work by degrees. Therefore seeing God hath ordained means, and commanded them to be used, no man must neglect them whilst this mortal life continues, for these truths are not written in any of our hearts further than we use these means, which were given not only for the first inscription of these laws, but for the increase and perfection of our Divine knowledge. (G. Lawson)
The law in the heart
It was a choice tribute that was lately rendered to a noble Christian woman, that her natural life was so completely Christian, that her Christian life became completely natural. (Sarah F. Smiley.)
The miracle of miracles
The miracle of miracles is this--A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. To put the law in the inward parts, and to write it on the heart, is more than to fill the firmament with stars. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Commandments, not burdensome
Cicero questions whether that can properly be called a burden which one carries with delight and pleasure. ° If a man carries a bag of money given him, it is heavy; but the delight takes oft the burden. When God gives inward joy, that makes the commandments delightful. Joy is like oil to the wheels, which makes a Christian run in the way of Gods commandments, so that it is not burdensome. (T. Watson.)
Obedience from love
The son of a poor man, that hath not a penny to give or leave him, yields his father obedience as cheerfully as the son of a rich man that looks for a great inheritance. It is, indeed, love to the father, not wages from the father, that is the ground of a good childs obedience. If there were no heaven, Gods children would obey Him; and though there was no hell, yet would they do their duty; so powerfully doth the love of the Father constrain them. (J. Spencer.)
Two conversions needed
We all need two conversions. First of all, we need to be converted from the natural man to the spiritual man, and in the second place, we need to be converted from the spiritual man to the natural man, until the spiritual man becomes a natural life, and the burden is opportunity and the bondage is delight. (Theodore Monod.)
Inner-devotion
If those who are in the employ of others do but meet the outward and visible engagements into which they have entered with their masters, the latter are satisfied. Let but the proper hours be kept and the day fully and diligently filled up, let but the books be accurately posted, and the articles of merchandise which are being manufactured be put together in a workmanlike way; and the wages are cheerfully and promptly paid. The majority of masters do not concern themselves with the motives of their men. The latter might profess to like other masters better than they do their own, yet if they but fulfil their tasks their employers are content. The preferences and motives of their servants most masters regard as being no concern of theirs. In this respect there exists a striking contrast between the claims of God and those of men. The Almighty will accept of no service which is not a service of love. The heart must first be given before the service is accepted. The connection subsisting between God and those employed by Him resembles rather the services rendered to each other by the members of a loving and united household. (T. Thompson, M. A.)
The law in the heart
Just as each plant in its growth spontaneously obeys the law put into its inmost parts by God, so the believer who accepts the new covenant promise in its fulness, walks in the power of that inner law. The spirit within frees from the law without. (Andrew Murray.)
Attraction
Just as the water naturally follows the channels which are constructed to conduct it from the mountains to the sea, so the holy heart follows the channels of Divine law, marked out by Divine law, not through compulsion, but through the power of attraction.
The grand morality
A noted secular paper once prophesied concerning Moody and Sankey that Professor Tyndall would do more to purify London than these men! Professor Tyndall may help us to purify the atmosphere of our houses and streets, but what word has he ever dropped that would purify a human heart! He may discourse eloquently of duty, but Plato could have done that; Aristotle did that. But who has not found out before he has had many years experience in dealing with men, that what is needed is not so much to show men their duty as to get them to do it? To show men their duty yon want light, to get them to do it you want power, and the only adequate power is love. Gods clearest light, Gods mightiest power is in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! (C. Clemance, D. D.)
I will be to them a God
Divine relationship
I. A MUTUAL RELATION OF GOD AND MEN. I will be to them a God. In other words, Whatever I am in Myself, that I will be to them; of that they shall have the free use and blessed experience: all My perfections will I exert for their present and everlasting welfare. How greatly do we need the increase of faith, to receive this amazing promise I to embrace it, to the comfort and joy of our souls. We shrink from appropriating it; we try to live on something less for happiness. But He who knows the souls that He has made, knows that nothing beneath Himself can ever fill their boundless desires. No gifts of nature, no, nor even the largest gifts of grace itself, can supply the place of Him who is the Author of them all. God, then, makes Himself a God to His people, communicates Himself to them by indwelling. I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God. Two things are necessary for your enjoyment of this promise.
1. Realize God as your God. Claim the relation of a child; live as if you were one; and God will so own the relation that you can hesitate no longer.
2. Live on God as a God to you--and this in two ways.
(1) Live on Him for all your need.
(2) Live on Him for all your happiness.
Under this twofold aspect God revealed Himself to Abraham (Gen_12:1) for the encouragement of His faith, in the long-continued trial of it. (Francis Goode, M. A.)
They shall be to Me a people
Divine relationship
I. This relation of redeemed sinners to their GOD. They shall be to Me a people.
1. His people owning God as theirs.
(1) They yield themselves to His authority.
(2) They separate themselves from an evil world.
(3) They devote themselves to His services.
(4) They live on Him for protection and happiness.
2. God owning them as His people. Consider the terms of endearment under which He speaks of them. He calls them His children; the sheep of His pasture, for whom the Shepherd bled. Such is the preciousness of His purchased people in His eyes.
(1) How infatuated are the enemies of Gods people! How great is the folly (to say nothing of the wickedness) of hating those whom God loves!
(2) How glorious is the character, how exalted the privileges, of the saints!
II. Gods own engagement to establish this RELATION BETWEEN US AND HIM. They shall be to Me a people. These words clearly express a resolve of God in this matter. He Has so ordered the covenant of grace, that it is a sure covenant to all who have once embraced it. They shall be to Me a people. His word is passed for the effectual accomplishment of His grace; and, therefore, His own Divine character and glory are involved in it. If God be able to do what He has resolved to do, this relation cannot fail to be made good between Him and them. This doctrine is a precious cordial for the fainting soldier in the day of battle. It strengthens his weak hands; confirms his feeble knees; animates him under all the terribleness of conflict. (Francis Goode, M. A.)
All shall know Me
Divine knowledge
I. A knowledge of God covenanted under the GOSPEL. They shall know Me. This is a knowledge little thought of, or valued, by men in general; and, which is stranger still, it is that of which all men in Christian countries think they are in possession. But to know God indeed, according to the true sense of the term, is to have such an apprehension of His infinite majesty and holiness as shall lay us low before Him, and to bow with deepest submission to His will. It is to have such a knowledge of His glorious goodness as shall fill us with holy delight in Him, intense desire after communion with Him, and enjoyment of His favour. Further, it is so to behold His glory, as to be ourselves transformed into the same image of holiness and goodness; to be ourselves partakers of the Divine nature 2Pe_1:4). This knowledge of God, which is matter of promise to His covenant people, we may consider under two heads. It consists in saving acquaintance with God
(1) As He is in Himself, in His revealed nature and character.
(2) As He is to us, in His purposes towards us, and the interest which we have in Him.
II. The universality of this knowledge of God BY HIS COVENANT PEOPLE. All shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. There is not one true child of God under the gospel but has his measure of it. He discerns the perfections of God, as they are displayed in the work of redemption; that mystery which, in other ages, was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His apostles and prophets (and by them to the Church) through the Spirit. The least of Gods covenant people, as well as the greatest, has now a satisfying, soul-quieting acquaintance with God; such an understanding of the method of peace with God, through Christ, as even prophets, and righteous men of old, the most spiritual of their day, desired in vain. Yea, often the poor and ignorant and weak in intellect of this world are, in the sovereignty of Divine grace, pre-eminently rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him.
III. A SUPER-HUMAN SOURCE OF THIS KNOWLEDGE. They shall not teach, &c. This is certainly not said to disparage Gods appointed ordinance of public preaching, or mutual exhortation. It was under this very gospel covenant that He first gave the command, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. But the believer does not so learn of man as that He receives the truth in that uncertainty, or sense of possible error, which attaches to every mere word of man. There is a revelation of God to His children, a knowledge of Himself by His Spirit, that is, like light, its own witness. The man who has it is sure that he has it, and that it is of God. Lessons:
1. Do we possess such superior light and knowledge of God to any which the saints of old enjoyed? O, then, let the superior effects of this knowledge be clearly discernible in our conduct. To see God indeed is to be like God.
2. Be satisfied with no knowledge of God to which you have yet attained. Though, like Paul, you had been caught up into the third heaven, yet should your prayer be, with Paul, That I may know Him; yet should your language be, as his was, Not as though I had already attained. Still have you reason to say, Now I know in part.
3. Learn to live on God in the use of ordinances. This is a very different thing from that pernicious conceit of living above ordinances. That is the privilege of heaven alone. God can indeed supply the place of means, and, in particular cases, He does so; acts independent of them; to teach us to trust in Him, in the dearth of them. But, ordinarily, it is otherwise.
4. This promise of the covenant, like the preceding, has its complete fulfilment only in an eternal world. The knowledge of God which the believer now has is real and delightful; all the things that can be desired are not to be compared unto it. But the sweetest part of its enjoyment is, that it is an earnest of what shall be. (Francis Goode, M. A.)
The knowledge of God
I. In the first place, WHAT IS INTENDED IN THE TEXT BY THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. All shall know Me. It cannot be a mere knowledge of the existence of God, for the devils believe that God is. It cannot be a mere partial acquaintance with the character of God; because we cannot for a moment doubt that the Jews were partially acquainted with Gods character, and yet our Lord said to them, Ye neither know Me nor My Father. Neither can it be a dry, uninfluential, notional knowledge of God, however accurate (2Pe_2:20-21). To know God includes far more than this. It implies a real, personal, experimental, sanctifying acquaintance with God.
1. It especially regards Him as a reconciled God in Christ.
2. But more than this; the knowledge of God implies a knowledge of Him as our God in covenant; a God who has pledged His very perfections to bring His people safe to glory; who will not have them to judge Him by their feelings, nor by their providences. Who can unfold the knowledge of God which springs from the consideration of Him as a pitying Father? He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. To know God implies a knowledge of Him as a God all-sufficient; My brethren, how long you and I have been learning this lesson, and how little we know of it after all!
II. Observe, in the second place, here is a positive word of certainty THAT ALL GODS PEOPLE SHALL KNOW HIM, from the least to the greatest. This was no small part of the work of our adorable Immanuel. It is sweet and pleasant to look at Him as bearing the very name of the Word of God, because He is the revealer of God. He does indeed tell us the secrets of Gods heart; He brings to light those perfections in Deity which we could never conceive to have existed but for His work. The work of Jesus is glorious throughout, and there is no part of His work which ought more to endear Him to our hearts than this, inasmuch as He disclosed more of the Father, and brings us into more intimate acquaintance with the character of God, than could have been devised by any other means. But it is not this that secures the infallible teaching of all Gods Israel; it was the covenant ordered in all things and sure. But there is a point connected with this that I would not overlook, and that is, the way by which the Holy Spirit (for it is His especial work), brings the knowledge of God into the soul. I will give them a heart that they may know Me, saith the Lord. It is not, I will give them knowledge, but I will give them a heart. Now this was communicated in regeneration. Oh the wonders of redeeming love, flowing out from the heart of God by Christ Jesus! Oh what a beam of light is that which the Holy Spirit brings into the conscience, developing God our Saviour in Christ Jesus!
III. But observe, WHAT ARE THE BLESSINGS OF THIS KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. I hardly know where to begin or where to end. It is true wisdom: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of Him is understanding. Here lies also the secret of peace, They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee. Whence is it that the careworn brow marks thy countenance? If thou weft only conversant with the great secret, Casting thy care upon Him that careth for thee, thou wouldst find out the blessed lesson, of living above the region of disappointment, and finding peace in believing, Acquaint thyself with Him, and be at peace. In a word, this true knowledge of God has in it the material of all holiness. Whatever there is of love, whatever there is of hope, whatever there is of obedience, whatever there is of careful walking, whatever there is of watchfulness unto prayer, whatever there is of making a conscience of ones deeds, whatever there is of walking secretly with God as in the sight of God--it is all involved in one truth, a true, real, personal, experimental knowledge of God in Christ.
1. Be thankful, then, for the least measure you have of the true knowledge of God.
2. Covet earnestly the most. The true secret for a heavenly walk with God is a real acquaintance with Him.
3. Do not quarrel with the way by which God makes Himself known to thee. I remember the expression of a child of God who, feeling her heart too much attached to some earthly object, prayed that God would take away the idol, whatever the idol might be. In the course of a week He took away her husband. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
The universal diffusion of Scriptural knowledge
These words, quoted Jer_31:34, are here applied to New Testament times. They plainly teach, that these times shall be greatly superior to all that preceded them, in the general diffusion of that knowledge which is essentially necessary to the everlasting salvation of the soul. This blessing, which is of infinite importance, belongs to a new economy, different from the ancient covenant which God made with Israel, the peculiar privileges of which were of an earthly character, were shadowy or emblematical, and were chiefly confined to one nation. But the privileges of the new economy were to be of a spiritual character, and were to extend to men of all ranks, and of all nations, on the face of the earth.
I. THE CHARACTER OF THAT KNOWLEDGE WHICH SHALL EMINENTLY DISTINGUISH THIS PERIOD.
1. It is the knowledge of God, of things divine, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
2. This knowledge is communicated to the ignorant as the fulfilment of a gracious promise by the agency of the Divine Spirit (Isa_54:13).
3. This knowledge of the Lord, by which the period referred to in the text shall be eminently distinguished, shall be very generally diffused among all ranks and descriptions of men.
II. THE MEANS WHICH OUGHT TO BE USED BY US FOR HASTENING THIS PERIOD. It is said in the text, that when this happy era is come, they shall not teach, or, as it is expressed in the prophecy, they shall teach no more, every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; which seems plainly to intimate, that certain means, which are now very properly used for advancing this period, shall then become unnecessary. (Wm. Schaw.)
Coming of the millenium
The world is preparing day by day for the millenium, but you do not see it. Every season forms itself a year in advance. The coming summer lays out her work during the autumn, and buds and roots are forespoken. Ten million roots are pumping in the streets; do you hear them? Ten million buds are forming in the axils of the leaves; do you hear the sound of the saw or the hammer? All next summer is at work in the world; but it is unseen by us. And so the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. (H. W. Beecher.)
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
Mercy to unrighteousness
I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS GRACE IS COVENANTED. IS it I, will each of us inquire, whom God means to include in a promise so cheering, so all-sufficient?
II. THE CONDITION IN WHICH IT SUPPOSES THEM TO BE. Throughout this covenant no mention is made of anything in man but guilt and ruin. The promise in my text obviously assumes such to be his condition. Man is in himself all unrighteousness, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one (Rom_3:10). Sorely there is nothing more suited to respire hope in the breast of an awakened sinner than the consideration of this truth. My sins, such an one may say, are exceeding great; but, thanks be to God, He who best knows them speaks to me of mercy I But it is long, in general, before an awakened sinner, though again and again God discover to him the vanity of all attempts to bring any deservings of his own, can be persuaded to go quite without hope or plea of any kind but this--Lord, I am a sinner, and Thou art a free Saviour. We dare not believe that grace is indeed so free, so unbounded, to those who will go to God in Christ.
III. GODS ENGAGEMENTS RELATIVE TO THIS CONDITION. I will be merciful … I will remember no more. In these words God promises the removal of all kinds and degrees of sin.
1. Freely. I will be merciful. This is both the reason with God for blessing, and the method by which He works upon the souls of His people; winning them from their natural enmity and distrust of Himself, by the effectual revelation of His mercy to them.
2. Eternally. I will remember no more. Guilt makes the soul of the sinner fearful; he is ever recurring to the memory of his past sins, and he fears God does the same. He has had some momentary glimpses of mercy; but when the present sense of it is gone, conscience is afraid again; he is ready to suspect God of yet harbouring some latent feeling of resentment; fears the reconciliation has been partial, and that wrath, so deeply deserved, is ready to break out afresh on fresh provocation. But oh, blessed be God, this is indeed the way of men; but His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. Those whom He forgives freely, He forgives entirely, forgives eternally. (Francis Goode, M. A.)
Forgiving mercy
Many years ago in Russia a regiment of troops mutinied. They were at some distance from the capital, and were so furious that they murdered their officers, and resolved never to submit to discipline; but the emperor, who was an exceedingly wise and sagacious man, no sooner heard of it than, all alone and unattended, he went into the barracks where the men were drawn up, and addressing them sternly, he said to them, Soldiers! you have committed such offences against the law that every one of you deserves to be put to death. There is no hope of any mercy for one of you unless you lay down your arms immediately, and surrender at discretion to me, your emperor. They did so, there and then. The emperor said at once, Men, I pardon you; you will be the bravest troops I ever had. And so they were. Now, this is just what God does with the sinner. The sinner has dared to rebel against God, and God says, Now, sinner, you have done that which deserves My wrath. Ground you weapons of rebellion. I will not talk with you until you submit at discretion to My sovereign authority. And then He says, Believe in My Son; accept Him as your Saviour. This done, you are forgiven, and henceforth you will be the most loving subjects that My hands have made. (W. R. Bradlaugh.)
A glorious position
Mr. Lyford, a Puritan divine, a few days previous to his dissolution, being desired by his friends to give them some account of his hopes and comforts, he replied, I will let you know how it is with me, and on what ground I stand. Here is the grave, the wrath of God, and devouring flames, the great punishment of sin on the one hand; and here am I, a poor sinful creature, on the other; but this is my comfort, the covenant of grace, established upon so many sure promises, hath satisfied all. The act of oblivion passed in heaven is, I will forgive their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more, saith the Lord. This is the blessed privilege of all within the covenant, of whom I am one. For I find the Spirit which is promised, bestowed upon me, in the blessed effects of it upon my soul, as the pledge of Gods eternal love. By this I know my interest in Christ, who is the foundation of the covenant, and therefore my sins being laid on Him, shall never be charged on me. (K. Arvine.)
Justice and mercy
The Jews have a saying that Michael, the angel of Gods justice, has but one wing and he comes slowly; but Gabriel, the angel of Divine mercy, has two wings, and is made to fly swiftly. (H. R. Burton.)
Their sins … will I remember no more
The new covenant--its promises
It will be observed that the last-named promise is pardon. But though the last mentioned, it is the first bestowed, as indicated by the conjunction for, by which it is introduced. Pardon is not only promised, but is here represented as the reason for the preceding blessings. It is evident that the author, in his enumeration of these blessings of the better covenant, presents them in the inverse order of their realisation. In them he traces the Divine process of salvation, but starts at a point where that salvation has reached its highest fruition on its moral side, that grand moral achievement, the complete surrender of the soul to the Divine will, indicated by the writing of the law in the heart, and descends by the several steps of the process to the initiatory one, the pardoning of sins. It follows, then, that in order to understand duly these truths of overwhelming interest, we must deal with them according to their logical sequence.
I. THE PARDON.
1. Its source. This is indicated by the expression, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. The source, then, of the promised pardon is the mercifulness of God. We mean, of course, its moral source, for its legal source is the atonement of Jesus Christ.
2. We have also the fulness of this act of mercy indicated in the expression, their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. This oblivion of transgression is a feature of the Divine pardon much emphasised in the Scriptures, with a view, no doubt, of duly impressing men with the fact of its absolute entirety. Nothing can be more emphatic than the prophets declaration regarding Gods dealings with the sins of Israel--And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea (Mic_7:19). Absolute oblivion is the prominent idea of this graphic figure. That which is cast into the depths of the sea cannot be commemorated. An incident in connection with the laying of the Atlantic cable furnishes a striking illustration of the insuperable difficulty of marking spots in mid-ocean. When the first Atlantic cable was being laid it broke in mid-ocean, and the severed pieces dropped into the bottom, and the vessel was compelled to return to England to procure the means of recovering the broken end. Before, however, leaving the spot, means were adopted to mark the place, so that on their return the lost end might be found. So a suitable buoy was constructed, and every precaution taken to render its foundering or drifting impossible, as they supposed. But on the vessels return the buoy laid down with such care was found, but, as careful astronomical observations showed, it had drifted over five hundred miles away from the spot where it had been originally moored. The broken end of the cable was never recovered. Thus is strikingly illustrated the impossibility of erecting memorials in mid-sea. God, therefore, by representing Himself as casting our sins there, would tell us how completely He forgets them, and how certain it is that He will never charge us with them again.
II. THE INTUITIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ASSURED BY THE BETTER COVENANT. The knowledge of God forms a very important part in the Divine redemption. It is, so to speak, the Alpha of the whole process. Our Lord represents it so--And this is eternal life, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent (Joh_17:3). The knowledge, however, referred to here, is introductory to the blessings of salvation, whereas that of the text is the outcome of the blessing realised. We come to the blessing through the knowledge in the one case, but in the other we come to the knowledge through the blessing.
In the first instance the knowledge is our schoolmaster to the blessing; in the second the blessing becomes our schoolmaster to the knowledge. The knowledge of God obtained through experience of His pardon is the grandest of all knowledge of Him. It is also the only infallible knowledge. An eminent minister, recently addressing a number of young ministers starting for the mission-field, said, You will never lack a theme, for your mission is to tell of Him whom you know better than you know any one else besides. Never was uttered profounder thought or one more true. Those who know God know Him better than any one beside, better than they know their most intimate friends, better than husband knows his wife, or wife her husband, better than children know their parents, or parents their children. We may be deceived in our nearest and most intimate friends and relations, much as we may know respecting them. But God cannot deceive us. The nearest friend may fail us, but God cannot fail us.
III. THE DIVINE KINSHIP ASSURED BY THE NEW COVENANT. The relation to His people indicated by this expression I take to imply fatherhood. When God promises to be our. God, He promises to be our Father, and the pardoned soul apprehends Him in this light. In short, it is the pardoning act that reveals God to the soul first in this light. In this transaction he discovers God becoming his God as a father, for this act of pardon is, above all, a fatherly act. Our Lord has shown us this in that inimitable parable of the prodigal son. In nothing is God so intensely a father as when He forgives. And the child never understands his own father, never has the fatherly attribute so deeply revealed to his heart, as when he has had occasion to experience the joy of his fathers forgiveness. Again, this relationship is in itself a guarantee of the fullest and most devoted service on their behalf. If the statement, I will be to them a God, is equivalent to the statement, I will be a Father unto them, then we know what it must mean as regards undertaking and acting for them. Some light is thrown upon this by the words already quoted--God is not ashamed to be called their God. To this is added, for He has prepared a city for them. This preparing of a city for them is given as a proof that He is not ashamed to own Himself as their God. As if it should be said, He is not ashamed to avow Himself their God, for behold on how grand a scale He discharges the obligations of that relationship. We have no need to be told what the title father signified to the child: care, love, guidance, support, and all without stint.
IV. THE ASSURANCE WHICH THE BETTER COVENANT GIVES OF A LOVING, CHILDLIKE SUBJECTION TO THE DIVINE WILL. Parental government is by means of laws wrought in the heart; magisterial, by laws without. The parental relationship of God, fully and deeply realised by the believer, quickens the filial disposition, inducing such a humble, yet cordial, assimilation to the Divine will, comparable only to the putting of the Divine laws into the mind and writing them upon the heart. Let us try and get at the meaning of these peculiar expressions regarding the law, the putting it into the mind and the writing it in the heart. Now, the mind and the heart represents two sides of our nature, the intellectual and the emotional. Here, then, we have guaranteed to us the fact that the law, the sanctifying principle, shall take possession of these two ruling sides of our moral nature, exerting upon them an influence both subduing and formative. (A. J. Parry.)
The new covenant--the superiority of its promises
I. THE QUALITY OF THE BLESSINGS.
1. The greater excellence of the Christian pardon. The Jewish religion had its pardon, or something that passed for pardon; the superiority, however, of the pardon held forth by the gospel is indicated by the expression, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Contrast this statement with what is said respecting the method of dealing with sins under the old covenant--But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance of sins every year (Heb_10:3). In the one case we have the forgetting of sins, in the other the remembrance of them. The ancient pardon, then, was not really such, but only a kind of reprieve annually renewed, a kind of suspension of the sentence, not the removal or abrogation of it. It was in the nature of a ticket-of-leave transaction.
2. The greater excellence of the knowledge of God assured by the new covenant. The knowledge of God acquired under the old covenant was preceptive knowledge, and, like all such knowledge, it needed constant prompting, it needed that every man should say to his neighbour, and every man to his brother, Know the Lord, for they resembled boys learning a lesson, they continually forgot it. A prophet would arise, saying to the people, Know the Lord, and they would learn the lesson; but no sooner did the prophets voice cease than the people forgot the lesson, and wandered after false gods. Then another prophet would arise, and repeat the oft-taught lesson, Know the Lord. But the more excellent knowledge of the better promise needs no such prompting. In the ease of this knowledge, they shall not teach every man his neighbour, &c., it is a knowledge in the heart, not in the memory, for the memory may fail, but the heart never.
3. The greater excellence of the relationship between God and His people. It is better in this, that it is individual and spiritual, whereas the corresponding promise of the old covenant was national and temporal. The promise as it related to Israel is given very graphically in Deu_26:17-19. There is something inexpressibly grand in the abounding sweep of this promise. If we consider it in the light of the history of Gods dealings with the ancient people, we shall obtain some notion of its meaning. But rich and abounding as its meaning may be, it embraces only the nation, and that in relation to temporal things. The greater excellence of the corresponding promise of the new covenant is that it realises these blessings in a spiritual sense, and to every individual in the wide world that comes within the scope of its conditions.
4. Next, we notice the greater excellence of the formative principle of the new covenant. The superiority claimed here consists in this--that the laws are put into the mind and written in the heart. There is an implied contrast with the corresponding provision of the old covenant. The latter had its laws, but they were inscribed, not in hearts, but on tables of stone. The other consists of an inward principle or motive, the subject of it animated by love, yielding willing obedience from a heart glowing with loving, grateful enthusiasm. This difference in the spheres of their respective laws involves a wide difference in their respective effects upon the course of the lives affected by them. There is a great difference between the sailing vessel and the steam-boat. The one is propelled by influences external to itself, and is, therefore, dependent upon them for the progress it makes; the other is propelled by a principle working within, and is, therefore, independent of external influences, moves without them, and often against, yea, in spite of them. The latter illustrates the method adopted in the new covenant. Hence its greater excellence. It implants the principle of action, the motive power, within, so preventing its subject from becoming a creature of circumstances, and his obedience a mechanical routine, making it rather a thing of the heart and of the affections. The gospel, in this respect, works according to the analogy of nature. In nature, the formative law of everything is within it.
II. THE SUPERIOR CERTAINTY OF THE PROMISES OF THE NEW COVENANT. The utmost assurance that these promises will be fully realised in the experience of every one who accepts Christs salvation is given us in the fact that they are called by the term covenant. In verse 6 the promises and the covenant are referred to separately; in verse 10 there is but one word covenant. The term promise is merged in the term covenant. This substitution of covenant for promise indicates the element of certainty belonging to the latter. But it may be asked, were not the promises of the ancient religion established upon a covenant? Certainly, they were, but those of Christianity upon a better covenant. The promises of the ancient religion were ratified by the blood of goats and calves, but Christ ratified the better promises of the new covenant by the sacrifice of Himself. His own declaration on this point is, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, that is, the new covenant ratified by the shedding of My blood. In short, we have the promises of the gospel resting upon the atonement of Christ. (A. J. Parry.)
Gods non-remembrance of sin
I. THERE IS FORGIVENESS.
1. This appears, first, in the treatment of sinners by God, inasmuch as He spares their forfeited lives.
2. Why did God institute the ceremonial law if there were no ways of pardoning transgression? Does not a type imply the existence of that which is typified?
3. If there were no forgiveness of sin why has the Lord given to sinful men exhortations to repent?
4. If you will think of it you will see that there must be pardons in the hand of God, or why the institution of religious worship among us to this day?
5. Furthermore, why did Christ institute the Christian ministry, and send forth His servants to proclaim His gospel? For what is the gospel but a declaration that Christ is exalted on high to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins?
6. Now, you do not want any more arguments, but if you did I would venture to offer this. Why are we taught in that blessed model of prayer which our Saviour has left us, to say, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, or, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us? It is evident that God means us to give a real, true, and hearty absolution to all who have offended us. If, then, our forgiveness is real, so is His; if ours be sincere, so is His; if ours be complete, so is His; only much more so, inasmuch as the great God of all is so much more gracious than we poor, fallen creatures ever can be.
7. The best of all arguments is this: God has actually forgiven multitudes of sinners. We have read in Holy Scripture of men who walked with God and had this testimony, that they pleased God; but they could not have pleased God if their sins still provoked Him to wrath; therefore He must have put their sins away.
II. THIS FORGIVENESS IS TANTAMOUNT TO FORGETTING SIN. This is a wonder to me, a wonder of wonders, that God should say that He will do what in some sense He cannot do; and yet that it should be strictly true as He intends it. Gods pardon of sin is so complete that He Himself describes it as not remembering our iniquity and transgression. He wishes us to know that His pardon is so true and deep that it amounts to an absolute oblivion, a total forgetting of all the wrong-doing of the pardoned ones.
1. You know what we do when we exercise memory. To speak popularly, a man lays up a thing in his mind: but when sin is forgiven it is not laid up in Gods mind.
2. In remembering, men also consider and meditate on things; but the Lord will not think over the sins of His people. The record of our iniquity is taken away, and the judge has no judicial memory of it.
3. Sometimes you have almost forgotten a thing, and it is quite gone out of your mind; but an event happens which recalls it so vividly that it seems as if it were perpetrated but yesterday. God will not recall the sin of the pardoned. Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. No more! Let those words go echoing through the chambers of despair: No more! Is there not music in the two syllables? God will never have His memory refreshed. The transgressions of His people are dead and buried with Christ, and they shall never have a resurrection.
4. Furthermore, this not remembering, means that God will never seek any further atonement. The apostle saith: Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. The one sacrifice of Jesus has made an end of sin.
5. Again, when it is said that God forgets our sins it signifies that He will never punish us for them. How can He when He has forgotten them?
6. He will never upbraid us with them--He giveth liberally and upbraideth not. How can He upbraid us with what He has forgotten? He will not even lay them to our charge.
7. Once more, when the Lord says, I will not remember their sins, what does it mean but this--that He will not treat us any the less generously on account of our having been great sinners.
III. FORGIVENESS IS TO BE HAD.
1. Through the atoning blood. Why does God forget our sin? It is not on this wise?--He looks upon His Son Jesus bearing that sin.
2. Next remember that this forgetfulness of God is caused by overflowing mercy. God is love: His mercy endureth for ever; and He desired vent for His love.
3. How does God forget sin? Well, it is through His everlasting love. He loved His people before they fell; and He loved His people when they fell. I have loved thee, saith He, with an everlasting love; and when that great love of His had led Him to give His Son Jesus for His peoples ransom, it made him also forget His peoples sins.
4. Again, God forgets His peoples sins because of the complacency He has in them as renewed and sanctified creatures. When He hears their cries of repentance, when He hears their declarations of faith, when He sees the love which His Spirit has wrought in them, when He beholds them growing more and more like His dear Son, He delights in them. His joy is fulfilled in them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Divine forgiveness
I. EXPLAIN THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE FORGIVENESS.
1. The object of Divine forgiveness, denoted by the following terms--unrighteousness, sins, and iniquities.
2. Notice the manner in which the forgiveness of sins is here expressed, or the cause to which it is ascribed; and this is said to consist in the Lords being merciful to our unrighteousness. Even our best services and most spiritual dispositions, fall so short of the Divine requirements, that they need much mercy to cover their defects; how much more our unrighteousness, sins, and iniquities.
(1) The mercy of God is the origin of our forgiveness, and it is according to His abundant mercy that He saves us.
(2) Divine grace extends to sin of every description and degree, and to all unrighteousness.
(3) This mercy is exercised in a way perfectly consistent with the claims of justice, and the rights of moral government. There is a meritorious as well as an efficient cause of forgiveness: the former is the complete satisfaction made for sin by the death of the Redeemer, the latter the free grace of God through Him.
3. Divine forgiveness is farther expressed, by remembering our sins and iniquities no more. The pardon of sin is not only full and free, but final and irreversible.
(1) God does not remember our sins, so as to aggravate or mark them with severity; for if Thou, Lord, markest iniquity, who shall stand? On the contrary, if there be any extenuating circumstances, He kindly notices them. He knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust.
(2) He does not remember our sins, so as to suffer His wrath to kindle against them. Anger there may be and must be towards sin, but not against the penitent believer.
(3) He will not remember sin so as to punish for it, but will deal so mercifully with us, that it shall be as if He had utterly forgotten it. This is not a denial of His omniscience, but an expression of His unbounded goodness.
II. INQUIRE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE BLESSING OF FORGIVENESS,
1. Those and those only who have a sorrowful remembrance of sin themselves. The more sin grieves us, the less likely it is to ruin us; and that sorrow for sin which follows upon the discoveries of pardoning mercy, is the best evidence of a renewed state.
2. Those who so repent of sin as not to allow themselves in any known evil; and to whom the remembrance of sin is so bitter, that it becomes their first wish to be delivered from it. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
Divine pardon
God neither looks to anything in the creature to wish Him to show kindness, nor yet anything in the creature to debar Him; it is neither righteousness in man that persuades God to pardon sin, nor unrighteousness in man that hinders Him from giving this pardon, and acquitting men from their transgressions. It is only and simply for His own sake that He pardons. (Bp. Huntington.)
A happy memory
Of our Henry VI. it is storied that he was of that happy memory that he never forgot anything but injury. (J. Trapp.)
Complete forgiveness
God never pardons one sin but He pardons all; and we dishonour Him more by not trusting in Him for complete forgiveness than we did by sinning against Him. Christ took up all our sins and bore them in His own body on the cross; and God cannot punish twice, or demand a second satisfaction to His justice. Nothing can pacify an offended conscience but that which satisfied an offended God, says Henry; and well may that which satisfied an offended God pacify an offended conscience. (T. Adams.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv10–12 10. This is the covenant that, etc. This shall…
10. This is the covenant that, etc. This shall be a principle of the new covenant. I will put my laws in their mind. Under the new covenant the minds and hearts shall be given to the Lord and filled with his law. They shall “worship in spirit and in truth.” Write them in their hearts. Instead of upon tables of stone.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv10–12
Hebrews
THE ARTICLES OF THE NEW COVENANT: GOD’S WELTING ON THE HEART
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Heb 8:10
WE can scarcely estimate the shock to a primitive Hebrew Christian when he discovered that Judaism was to fade away. Such an earthquake might seem to leave nothing standing. Now, the great object of this Epistle is to insist on that truth, and to calm the early Hebrew Christians under it, by showing them that the disappearance of the older system left them no poorer but infinitely richer, inasmuch as all that was in it was more perfectly in Christ’s gospel. The writer has accordingly been giving his strength to showing that, all along the line, Christianity is the perfecting of Judaism, in its Founder, in its priesthood, in its ceremonies, in its Sabbath. Here he touches the great central thought of the covenant between God and man, and he fall back upon the strange words of one of the old prophets. Jeremiah had declared as emphatically as he, the writer, has been declaring, that the ancient system was to melt away and be absorbed in a new covenant between God and man. Is there any other instance of a religion which, on the one side, proclaims its own eternal duration - ‘the Word of the Lord endureth for ever’ - and on the other side declares that it is to be abrogated, antiquated, and done away? The writer of the Epistle had learned from sacreder lips than Jeremiah’s the same lesson, for the Master said at the most solemn hour of His career, ‘This is the blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’
These articles of the New Covenant go very deep into the essence of Christianity, and may well be thought. fully pondered by us all, if we wish to know what the specific differences between the ultimate revelation in Jesus Christ, and all other systems are. The words I have read for my text are the first of these articles.
I. Let us try to ascertain what exactly is the meaning of this great promise.
Now it seems to me that the two clauses which I have read for my text are not precisely parallel, but parallel with a difference. I take it, that ‘mind’ here means very much what we make it mean in our popular phraseology, a kind of synonym for the understanding, or the intellectual part of a man’s nature; and that ‘heart,’ on the other hand, means something a little wider than it does in our popular phraseology, and indicates not only the affections, but the centre of personality in the human will, as well as the seat of love. So these two clauses will mean, you see, if we carry that distinction with us, two things - the clear perception of the will of God, and the coincidence of that will with our inclinations and desires.’ In men’s natural consciences, there is the law written on their minds, but alas! we all know that there is an awful chasm between perception and inclination, and that it is one thing to know our duty, and quite another to wish to do it. So the heart of this great promise of my text is that these two things shall coincide in a Christian man, shall cover precisely the same ground; as two of Euclid’s triangles having the same angles will, if laid upon each other, coincide line for line and angle for angle. Thus, says this great promise, it is possible - and, if we observe the conditions, it will be actual in us - that knowledge and will shall cover absolutely and exactly the same ground. Inclination will be duty, and duty will be inclination and delight. Nothing short of such a thought lies here.
And how is that wonderful change upon men to be accomplished? ‘I will put, I will write.’ Only He can do it. We all know, by our own experience, the schism that gapes between the two things. Every man in the world knows a vast deal more of duty than any man in the world does. The worst of us has a standard that rebukes his evil, and the best of us has a standard that transcends his goodness, and, alas! often transcends his inclination.
But the gospel of our Lord and Saviour comes armed with sufficient power to make this miracle an actuality for us all.
For it comes, does it not, to substitute for all other motives to obedience, the one motive of love? They but half understand the gospel who dwell upon its sanctions of reward and punishment, and would seek to frighten men into goodness by brandishing the whip of law before them, and uncovering the lid that shuts in the smoke of a hell And they misinterpret it almost as much, if there be any such, who find the chief motive for Christian obedience in the glories of the heavenly state. These are subordinate and legitimate in their secondary place, but the gospel appeals to men, not merely nor chiefly on the ground of self-interest, but it comes to them with the one appeal, ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments.’ That is how the law is written on the heart. Wherever there is love, there is a supreme delight in divining and in satisfying the wish and will of the beloved. His lightest word is law to the loving heart; his looks are spells and commandments. And if it is so in regard of our poor, imperfect, human loves, how infinitely more so is it where the heart is touched by true affection for His own infinite love’s sake, of that ‘Jesus’ who is ‘most desired!’ The secret of Christian morality is that duty is changed into choice, because love is made the motive for obedience.
And, still further, let me remind you how this great promise is fulfilled in the Christian life, because to have Christ shrined in the heart is the heart of Christianity, and Christ Himself is our law. So, in another sense than that which I have been already touching, the law is written on the heart on which, by faith and self-surrender, the name of Christ is written. And when it becomes our whole duty to become like Him, then He being throned in our hearts, our law is within, and Himself to His ‘darlings’ shall be, as the poet has it about another matter, ‘both law and impulse.’ Write His name upon your hearts, and your law of life is thereby written there.
And, still further, let me remind you that this great promise is fulfilled, because the very specific gift of Christianity to men is the gift of a new nature which is ‘created in righteousness and holiness that flows from truth.’ The communication of a divine life kindred with, and percipient of, and submissive to, the divine will is the gift that Christianity - or, rather, let us put away the abstraction and say that Christ - offers . to us all, and gives to every man who will accept it.
And thus, and in other ways on which I cannot dwell now, this great article of the New Covenant lies at the very foundation of the Christian life, and gives its peculiar tinge and cast to all Christian morality, commandment, and obligation.
But let me remind you how this great truth has to be held with caution. The evidence of this letter itself shows that, whilst the writer regarded it as a distinctive characteristic of the gospel, that by it men’s wills were stamped with a delight in the law of God, and a transcript thereof, he still regarded these wills as unstable, as capable of losing the sharp lettering, of having the writing of God obliterated, and still regarded it as possible that there should be apostasy and departure.
So there is nothing in this promise which suspends the need for effort and for conflict. Still ‘the flesh lusteth against the spirit.’ Still there are parts of the nature on which that law is not written. It is the final triumph, that the whole man, body, soul, and spirit is, through and through, penetrated with, and joyfully obedient to, the commandments of the Lord. There is need, too, not only for continuous progress, effort, conflict, in order to keep our hearts open for His handwriting, but also for much caution, lest at any time we should mistake our own self-will for the utterance of the divine voice.
‘Love, and do what thou wilt,’ said a great Christian teacher. It is an unguarded statement, but profoundly true as in some respects it is, it is only absolutely true if we have made sure that the ‘thou’ which ‘wills’ is the heart on which God has written His law.
Only God can do this for us. The Israelites of old were bidden ‘these things which I command thee this day shall be on thy heart,’ and they were to write them on their hand, and on the frontlet between their eyes, and on their doorposts. The latter commands were obeyed, having been hardened into a form; and phylacteries on the arm, and scrolls on the lintel, were the miserable obedience which was given to them. But the complete writing on the heart was beyond the power of unaided man. A psalmist said, ‘I delight to do Thy will, and Thy law is within my heart.’ But a verse or two after, in the same psalm, he wailed, ‘Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore my heart faileth me.’ One Man has transcribed the divine will on His will, without blurring a letter, or omitting a clause. One Man has been able to say, in the presence of the most fearful temptations, ‘Not My will, but Thine, be done.’ One Man has so completely written, perceived, and obeyed the law of His Father, that, looking back on all His life, He was conscious of no defect or divergence, either in motive or in act, and could affirm on the Cross, ‘It is finished.’ He who thus perfectly kept that divine law will give to us, if we ask Him, His spirit, to write it upon our hearts, and ‘the law of the spirit of life which was in Christ Jesus shall make us free from the law of sin and death.’
II. Now, secondly, note the impassable gulf which this fulfilled promise makes between Christianity and all other systems.
It is a new covenant, undoubtedly-an altogether new thing in the world. For whatever other laws have been promulgated among men have had this in common, that they have stood over against the Will with a whip in one hand, and a box of sweets in the other, and have tried to influence desires and inclinations, first by the setting forth of duty, then by threatening, and then by promises to obedience. There is the inherent weakness of all which is merely law. You do not make men good by telling them in what goodness consists, nor yet by setting forth the bitter consequences that may result from wrong-doing. All that is surface work. But there is a power which says that it deals with the will as from within, and moves, and moulds, and revolutionises it. ‘You cannot make men sober by act of parliament,’ people say. Well! I do not believe the conclusion which is generally drawn from that statement, but it is perfectly true in itself. To tell a man what he ought to do is very, very little help towards his doing it. I do not under-estimate the value of a clear perception of duty, but I say that, apart from Christianity, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, that clear perception of duty is like a clear opening of a great gulf between a man and safety, which only makes him recoil in despair with the thought, ‘how can I ever leap across that?’ But the peculiarity of the gospel is that it gives both the knowledge of what we ought to be; and with and in the knowledge, the desire, and with and in the knowledge and the desire, the power to be what God would have us to be.
All other systems, whether the laws of a nation, or the principles of a scientific morality, or the solemn voice that speaks in our minds proclaiming some version of God’s law to every man- all these are comparatively impotent. They are like bill-stickers going about a rebellious province posting the king’s proclamation. Unless they have soldiers at their back, the proclamation is not worth the paper it is printed upon. But Christianity comes, and gives us that which it requires from us. So, in his epigrammatic way, St. Augustine penetrated to the very heart of this article when he prayed, ‘Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.’
III. Note the freedom and blessedness of this fulfilled promise.
Not to do wrong may be the mark of a slave’s timid obedience. Not to
wish to do wrong is the charter of a son’s free and blessed service. There is a higher possibility yet, reserved for heaven - not to be able to do wrong. Freedom does not consist in doing what I like - that turns out, in the long run, to be the most abject slavery, under the severest tyrants. But it consists in liking to do what I ought. When my wishes and God’s will are absolutely coincident, then and only then, am I free. That is no prison, out of which we do not wish to go. Not to be confined against our wills, but voluntarily to elect to move only within the sacred, charmed, sweet circle of the discerned will of God, is the service and liberty of the sons of God.
Alas! there are a great many Christians, so-called, who know very little about such blessedness. To many of us religion is a burden. It consists of a number of prohibitions and restrictions and commandments equally unwelcome. ‘Do not do this,’ and all the while I would like to do it. ‘Do that,’ and all the while I do not want to do it. ‘Pray, because it is your duty; go to chapel, because you think it is God’s will; give money that you would much rather keep in your pockets: abstain from certain things that you hunger for; do other things that you do not at all desire to do, nor find any pleasure in doing.’ That is the religion of hosts of people. They have need to ask themselves whether their religion is Christ’s religion. Ah! brethren! - ‘My yoke is easy and My burden light; not because the things that He bids and forbids are less or lighter than those which the world’s morality requires of its followers, but because, so to speak, the yoke is padded with the velvet of love, and inclination coincides, in the measure of our true religion, with the discerned will of God.
IV. Lastly, one word about the condition of the fulfilment of this promise to us.
As I have been saying, it is sadly far ahead of the experience of crowds of so-called Christians. There are still great numbers of professing Christians, and I doubt not that I speak to some such, on whose hearts only a very few of the syllables of God’s will are written, and these very faintly and blotted. But remember that the fundamental idea of this whole context is that of a covenant, and a covenant implies two parties, and duties and obligations on the part of each. If God is in covenant with you, you are in covenant with God. If He makes a promise, there is something for you to do in order that that promise may be fulfilled to you.
What is there to do? First, and last, and midst, keep close to Jesus Christ. In the measure in which we keep ourselves in continual touch with Him, will His law be written upon our hearts. If we are for ever twitching away the paper; if we are for ever flinging blots and mud upon it, how can we expect the transcript to be clear and legible? We must keep still that God may write. We must wait habitually in His presence. When the astronomer wishes to get the image of some far-off star, invisible to the eye of sense, he regulates the motion of his sensitive plate, so that for hours it shall continue right beneath the unseen Beam. So we have to still our hearts, and keep their plates - the fleshy tables of them - exposed to the heavens. Then the likeness of God will be stamped there.
Be faithful to what is written there, which is the Christian shape of the heathen commandment - ‘Do the duty that lies nearest thee; so shall the next become plainer.’ Be faithful to the line that is ‘written,’ and there will be more on the tablet to-morrow.
Now this is a promise for us all However blotted and blurred and defaced by crooked, scrawling letters, like a child’s copy-book, with its first pot- hooks and hangers, our hearts may be, there is no need for any of us to say despairingly, as we look on the smeared page, ‘What I have written I have written.’ He is able to blot it all out, to ‘take away the hand-writing’ - our own - ‘that is against us, nailing it to His Cross,’ and to give us, in our inmost spirits, a better knowledge of, and a glad obedience to, His discerned and holy will. So that each of us, if we choose, and will observe the conditions, may be able to say with all humility, ‘Lo! I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, yea! Thy law is within my heart.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Jehovah. Jer 31:33.
Lord
Jehovah. Jer 31:33.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10–11 General Information:
General Information:
This is a quotation from the prophet Jeremiah.
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the house of Israel
The people of Israel are spoken of as if they were a house. AT: "the people of Israel" (See: Metaphor)
after those days
"after that time"
I will put my laws into their minds
God's requirements are spoken of as if they were objects that could be placed somewhere. People's ability to think is spoken of as if it were a place. AT: "I will enable them to understand my laws" (See: Metaphor)
I will also write them on their hearts
Here "hearts" is a metonym for a person's inner being. The phrase "write them on their hearts" is a metaphor for enabling people to obey the law. AT: "I will also put them in their hearts" or "I will enable them to obey my law" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
I will be their God
"I will be the God they worship"
they will be my people
"they will be the people for whom I care"
translationWords
covenant
house
Israel
day
lord
law, laws
heart
God
people of God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10–12 8:10 Under the old covenant, the people were commanded…
8:10 Under the old covenant, the people were commanded to take the words of the law to heart (Deut 32:46), and the kings of Israel and Judah were judged on whether or not they followed the law of God wholeheartedly (2 Kgs 10:31; 2 Chr 31:21). A difference in the new covenant is that God’s laws would be in people’s minds and on their hearts. People would have renewed hearts and minds, with God’s law as an intrinsic, internal motivation.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.