March 11, 2006 - John Milgate, A Community of Grace (Concord)

March 11, 2006

Jeremiah 31:31-34
John Milgate, A Community of Grace (Concord)

Father, Please reveal something of Yourself to me today as Your Spirit takes the things of Jesus and shows them to me.

Read the passage and respond to these questions:

1. How is this covenant like the covenant through Moses (see March 9 & 10) and how is it different from the earlier covenant? ¼br /> 2. What thoughts are connected by the words “but,” “and” and “for”?¼br /> God says He will write on our heart and fellowship with us, “for” He will do something. God’s explanatory “for” takes us to the heart of the new covenant. It’s in verse 34: “for their sins and iniquities I will remember no more!” God says that, in this “new covenant” in which we live, He doesn’t remember our sins. Jesus makes us pure! Are you still holding on to the memory of something God refuses to remember about you? You won’t enjoy the sweetness of God’s other provisions in the “new covenant” unless you embrace the pureness of your heart in Jesus. Pause right now and thank Him that you are a “saint.” Ask Him to cause you to forget your sins!
Because God no longer remembers our sins, we can commune with Him without fear (vs. 33 “and I will be their God, and they will be my people”). Think in terms of newlyweds; each partner enraptured in the other’s love and living out his or her own love for the other. Do you find pleasure in being His beloved? Talk with Him about it!
To such lovers, enjoying God as our own beloved and conscious of His love for us, confident of a heart made pure by Him, God reveals His personal desires (“I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts . . .”). Not the Law of Moses, but “My law.” This “law” is the mind of Christ in our day-to-day life. It is the fruit of the Spirit, the tangible expression of His life within. Not a law of letters, but the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, including His moment-by-moment leading, guidance, assurance, and enabling.
In the “old covenant,” God wrote commands to the people of Israel on tablets of stone to be read, learned, and obeyed. In the “new covenant” God first effects a transformation within, then communes heart to heart, and then continually impresses His own image on our innermost being.
prayer
Lord Jesus, in You I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Thank You!