<\/p>\n
\u201cFor this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people\u201d (Jeremiah 31:33).<\/p>\n
ALL OF THE PROPHETS EMPHASIZED HOPE. We tend to view them as doomsayers (especially Jeremiah), but the word of God\u2019s judgment upon sin was always accompanied by a message of great hope for those who would come back to Him. In our examination of the \u201cnew covenant\u201d in Jeremiah 31, let\u2019s look today at what was said about the \u201chearts\u201d of those living within this new covenant.<\/p>\n
I will put my law within them.<\/em> God has always wanted people to internalize His teaching and not let it go \u201cin one ear and out the other\u201d (as my mother used to say). In the new covenant, God\u2019s law would be \u201cwithin them\u201d \u2014 not just heard but truly appropriated.<\/p>\n I will write it on their hearts.<\/em> To say that it would be within them, is to say God\u2019s law would be written \u201con their hearts.\u201d They would possess the character<\/em> that God was looking for, rather than just going through the outward observances required by God.<\/p>\n I will be their God, and they shall be my people.<\/em> There is a sense, obviously, in which physical Israel was God\u2019s special people (Romans 9:4,5), but Jeremiah foresaw a day when God would have an even greater people. To be one of God\u2019s people, then and now, entails both blessings and responsibilities. To respond rightly to God requires as much reverence<\/em> as it does gratitude.<\/em><\/p>\n As we know, Adam and Eve went astray \u2014 and all the rest of us have done the same thing (Romans 5:12). So God is seeking people who will return<\/em> to Him. When He made mankind, He was wanting beings who would reflect His glory and reciprocate His love. Sin broke that picture, but even before that tragedy, God had a plan to build a new people. In Jesus Christ, that plan is now complete, and all individuals are invited to take part in this work of \u201cre-creation.\u201d Obeying the gospel, we can be forgiven and begin to have our hearts remade in God\u2019s image (2 Peter 1:3,4). We can be \u201ca people for his own possession\u201d (1 Peter 2:9) \u2014 those for whom God\u2019s torah<\/em> (His teaching) is \u201cwritten on their hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[God\u2019s] stringent requirements of a faithful life on the part of mankind are aimed at making a \u2018people\u2019 who would (a) seek after and find Him, (b) worship and recognize dependence upon Him, and (c) reciprocate His love \u2014 in a word, glorify<\/em> God\u201d (Robert F. Turner).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n