"Yahweh Replaced His Old Broken Covenant with a New Restored Covenant"
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. [Amen.]
"The dying Lord our ransom paid, One final full self-off'ring made,
Complete in ev'ry part.
His finished sacrifice for sins The covenant of grace begins,
The law within the heart."
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
530:2)
Old Testament Reading........................ Jeremiah 31:31-34 (Esp. 31-32)
31"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32not like the
covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the
hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke,
though I was their husband, declares the Lord."
Prologue: We live in an ever-increasing throw-away society. During my
childhood I watched my father repair broken and damaged items and my mother
repair various articles of clothing. But times have drastically changed.
Not only do people less frequently repair broken and damaged items as well
as various articles of clothing, it's often simply more economical to
replace them than it is to repair them.
That results in a familiar scene that happens in many households
today. Clothing that's old, tattered, and torn is thrown away and replaced
with new items. Televisions, refrigerators, dishwashers, and other
appliances break down, are then discarded, and replaced with new items.
Used cars, trucks, vans, and SUVs that need significant repairs are sold or
traded in and replaced with new models that have the latest technological
gadgets available. Military men and women alike who are committed to
defending and extending peace and freedom locally and globally are injured
and killed . and replaced by fresh new soldiers ready and willing to
continue the seemingly never-ending battles.
Not so in the life of God's chosen Old Testament people . the
Israelites! You see, the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, who is often
referred to as the weeping prophet, proclaimed God's message to the
Israelites some 100 years after Isaiah . 600 years before our Savior's
incarnation. His message was the unpleasant reality of doom and despair
that he declared to the unrepentant sinfully rebellious people and kings of
Judah. It starkly contradicted the message of peace and prosperity that the
false prophets were telling them.
But Jeremiah's message also contained comfort, reassurance, and
hope all of which flowed forth from the compassionate and caring Yahweh, who
had promised to love His people and never leave them nor forsake them. So,
instead of discarding and replacing His sin-broken people who rebelled
against Him by not keeping their promise of faithful obedience, .
"Yahweh Replaced His Old Broken Covenant with a New Restored Covenant."
What God communicated to them through Jeremiah was, quite simply,
Law . and Gospel. That twofold message pronounced righteous judgment upon
them for their sinful rebellion against the Lord and, at the same time,
promised His merciful and gracious rescue, redemption, and reconciliation.
His old covenant that they broke was God's Law that He had given
them at Mount Sinai . the Ten Commandments that we reviewed in our worship
services two weekends ago. That was none other than "the moral law, which
tells people their duty toward God and other people" and "was written into
the human heart." (Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation. Copyright ©
1986/2008 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page 55.) It "teaches
us what we are to do and not to do; . shows us our sin and the wrath of God;
[and] . must be proclaimed to all people, but especially to impenitent
sinners." (Ibid. Page 101.)
Another of God's many servants, Joshua, told the Israelites (and
us), "Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses
the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to
walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to
serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. Therefore, be very
strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of
Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left . ."
(Josh 22:5 & 23:6 ESV)
God's Law is, quite frankly, bitter and distasteful, hard and
heavy, difficult and discouraging. It commands obedience and requires
perfection. It leaves us frustrated, broken, destitute, and despairing.
Yahweh demanded through His servant Moses, "You shall be holy, for I the
Lord your God am holy." (Lev 19:2 ESV) His New Testament servant James
informed us, "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has
become accountable for all of it." (James 2:10 ESV) The cards seemed to be
stacked against the Israelites then . and against us today as well. Even as
they did then, so also we today fail miserably, break God's Law frequently,
and deserve only to be discarded to the devil's den of everlasting death.
Ah, but here's where the Israelites' and our situations take a
turn for the better. Instead of discarding His people then and us today, .
I. God's New Covenant Is A Gospel-Laden Promise of Permanent
Possession. (33)
But 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.
"Gospel" is a key word in Holy Scripture. Saint Paul declared,
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for
salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it
is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" (Rom 1:16-17 ESV) It
appears a whopping 76 times in the New Testament beginning with Saint
Matthew informing us that Jesus "went throughout all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every
disease and every affliction among the people." (Matt 4:23 ESV) and ending
with Saint John stating in the Book of Revelation, "Then I saw another angel
flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who
dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people." (Rev
14:6 ESV)
A good explanation of it is that "God offers the forgiveness of
sins only in the Gospel, the good news that we are freed from the guilt, the
punishment, and the power of sin, and are saved eternally because of Christ's
keeping the Law and His suffering and death for us. ... the Gospel teaches
what God has done, and still does, for our salvation. ... the Gospel shows
us our Savior and the grace of God. ... the Gospel must be proclaimed to
sinners who are troubled in their minds because of their sins." (Luther's
Small Catechism with Explanation. Pages 100f.) It's "the glad tidings of
salvation through Christ; the proclamation of the grace of God manifested
and pledged in Christ." (Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Electronic Database.
Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc.), whose very own holy life,
innocent suffering, crucifixion death, and majestic resurrection from the
dead atoned for all sins of all mankind of all time. God's Gospel is tasty
and sweet . refreshing and light . invigorating and rejuvenating. It leaves
us calm, comforted, repaired, and spiritually sound. In addition, God
communicates it to us in a variety of items: His Holy Word, the Blessed
Sacrament of Holy Baptism, the declaration of Holy Absolution, and the
Blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion.
It's the joyful fact that God promised to possess us as His own
dear children through faith in His holy Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's
what happened to us in our Baptism when God wrapped His ever-loving arms
around us and began giving us a divine hug that will continue throughout
time and eternity. It's the transformation that the Holy Spirit performed
in us who "were by nature children of wrath" (Eph 2:3 ESV), that is,
children of the devil. He adopted us as His own dear children and gave us
the new identity of "Christian" . "little Christ" . "Children of the
heavenly Father." (Lutheran Service Book. 725:1) Saint Paul declared that
"The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of
God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,
provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with
him." (Rom 8:16-17 ESV) And, let's never forget that God's possession of
us as His own dear children is a permanent possession as Saint Paul
revealed, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom 8:38-39 ESV)
Of course, what makes that permanent possession relationship
possible is that .
II. God's New Covenant Is A Gospel-Laden Promise of Forgetful
Forgiveness. (34)
And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother,
saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them
to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and
I will remember their sin no more."
Skeptics are constantly trying to discover or produce a chink in
God's armor of holiness. Well, let me help them succeed . sort of. God is
forgetful. That's right . He's forgetful. Now I know that some of us,
present company included, sometimes practice selective hearing . and
remembering. That is, we hear what we want to hear and are deaf to what we
don't want to hear. And, we remember what we want to remember and forget
what we don't want to remember. Sound familiar?
Pastor Marks told us last weekend that we don't own our sins any
longer. They now belong to Jesus, who bought them "with His holy, precious
blood and with His innocent suffering and death . ." (Luther's Small
Catechism with Explanation. Pages 16 & 119.) What we do own now is His
righteousness. For in the great divine exchange God "made him to be sin who
knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2
Cor 5:21 ESV) That is, "the blood of Jesus [God's] Son cleanses us from all
sin." (1 John 1:7 ESV) Since Jesus "was delivered up for our trespasses and
raised for our justification . we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ." (Rom 4:25-5:1 ESV) The wonderful result is that "as far as the
east is from the west, so far does [Yahweh] remove our transgressions from
us." (Ps 103:12 ESV) Today's Epistle Reading summarized it very nicely when
it said that Jesus "became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey
him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek."
(Heb 5:9-10 ESV)
Pay close attention to the words of forgiveness that Pastor Marks
and I declare "As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His
authority" (Lutheran Service Book. Pages 151, 167, 203) or "in the stead
and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ" (Ibid. Pages 185 & 214.) in the
Confession and Absolution at the beginning of each Divine Service and in
Individual Confession and Absolution. Realize that God's forgiveness
includes divine forgetfulness whereby He will never remember our sins. That
forgetful forgiveness gives us freedom to follow the example of Jesus, who
told His disciples in today's Gospel Reading, "But whoever would be great
among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be
slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:43b-45 ESV)
In conclusion, therefore, "The new covenant proclaims a salvation
complete, finished, and, above all, free for the asking. It is a salvation
won in and through Christ. There is no question how God saves. To see
Christ is to know God's salvation. The promise is that through the
proclamation about Christ those who hear and believe will know for
themselves the salvation of God. This new covenant is sealed to us at our
baptism. For in and through baptism God makes this new covenant with each
of us. Through baptism he seals and gives to us his very Spirit and the
forgiveness of our sins and the faith to believe it. In our baptism we hear
God's continuing promise to each of us: 'I will forgive their wickedness and
will remember their sins no more." (David M. Gosdeck in People's Bible
Commentary: Jeremiah/Lamentations. Copyright © 1995 Concordia Publishing
House, St. Louis, MO. Page 207.) All that very simply means that .
"Yahweh Replaced His Old Broken Covenant with a New Restored Covenant."
Along with the writer of today's Introit we can joyfully respond,
"I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Then I called on the name of the Lord: 'O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!'
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from
stumbling." (Ps 116:1, 4, 8 ESV) We can do so with joyful thanksgiving
that .
I. God's New Covenant Is A Gospel-Laden Promise of Permanent
Possession. (33)
That prompts us to pray as we did in today's Collect, "Almighty
God, by Your great goodness mercifully look upon Your people that we may be
governed and preserved evermore in body and soul . ." At the same time, it
also causes us to, in the words of today's Gradual, "[. fix our eyes on]
Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the
right hand of the throne of God." (Heb 12:2 ESV) We do so realizing and
rejoicing throughout this Lenten season and always that .
II. God's New Covenant Is A Gospel-Laden Promise of Forgetful
Forgiveness. (34)
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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