Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 8:10
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:
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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)}.
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 fathers 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Heb 8:10-12
I will put My laws into their mind
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
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.
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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, .
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.
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 Messiahs 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. renders the Hebrew the inward parts, in the prophets 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: is a metaphor setting out a real, actual, powerful work of the Spirit of Christ, which leaveth the express characters of all Gods 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. make withGreek,“make unto.”
Israelcomprising thebefore disunited (Heb 8:8) tentribes’ kingdom, and that of Judah. They are united in the spiritualIsrael, the elect Church, now: they shall be so in the literalrestored kingdom of Israel to come.
I will putliterally,”(I) giving.” This is the first of the “betterpromises” (Heb 8:6).
mindtheir intelligentfaculty.
in, c.rather, “ON their hearts.” Noton tables of stone as the law (2Co3:3).
writeGreek,“inscribe.”
and I will be to them a God,&c.fulfilled first in the outward kingdom of God. Next, in theinward Gospel kingdom. Thirdly, in the kingdom at once outward andinward, the spiritual being manifested outwardly (Re21:3). Compare a similar progression as to the priesthood (1) Ex19:6 (2) 1Pe 2:5; (3)Isa 61:6; Rev 1:6.This progressive advance of the significance of the Old Testamentinstitutions, &c., says THOLUCK,shows the transparency and prophetic character which runsthroughout the whole.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
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, 2Co 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This (). The “new” one of verse 8.
That I will make ( ). Future middle of , “that I will covenant,” cognate accusative (), using the same root in the verb as in .
I will put (). “Giving,” present active participle of , to give.
Into their mind ( ). Their intellect, their moral understanding, all the intellect as in Aristotle (Col 1:21; Eph 4:18).
On their heart ( ). Either genitive singular or accusative plural. is the seat of man’s personal life (Westcott), the two terms covering the whole of man’s inward nature.
A god ( ). Note the Hebraistic use of in the predicate instead of the usual nominative as in “a people” ( ). This was the ideal of the old covenant (Ex 6:7), now at last to be a fact.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The covenant which I will make [ ] . The noun and the verb are cognate – the arrangement which I will arrange. A covenant [] is something arranged [] between two parties. See the same combination, Act 3:25.
I will put my laws [ ] . Lit. giving my laws : const. with I will make : “the covenant which I will make by giving my laws.” Mind [] . The moral understanding. See on Mr 12:30; Luk 1:51. Hearts, kardiav, see on Rom 1:21; Rom 10:10.
A God – a people [ – ] . Lit. unto a God, etc. A Hebraistic form of expression, eijv signifying the destination of the substantive verb. The sense is, I will be to them to serve as a God; or my being as related to them will amount to my being a God to them. Comp. Mt 19:5; 2Co 6:18; Heb 1:5.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Because this is the covenant that I will make,” (hoti aute he diatheke hen diathesomai) “Because this is (exists as) the covenant which I will covenant, make or establish of my own will or accord,” Heb 10:16-17; Jer 31:31-32.
2) “With the house of Israel after those days,” (to oiko Israel meta tas hemeras ekeinas) “To, toward, or with the household of Israel after those days,” Jer 31:1; Jer 31:33-34.
3) “Saith the Lord,” (legei kurios) “Says or certifies the Lord,” as follows: Hos 2:23.
4) “I will put my laws into their mind,” (didores nomous mou eis ten dianoian auton) “I will give or dole my laws into their minds,” into their inward parts, comprehension, Jer 4:2; Psa 37:30-31; Eze 36:26-29.
5) “And write them in their hearts,” (kai epi kardias auton epigrapso autous) “And I will inscribe them (my laws) upon their hearts(seat of affections or emotions),” 2Co 3:3; Psa 40:8.
6) “And I will be to them a God,” (kai esomai autois eis theon) “And I will be or exist of my own will or accord (a) true God unto them, instead of many gods, Zec 8:8.
7) “And they shall be to me a people,” (kai autoi esontai moi eis laon) “And they shall be, of their own will or accord, a people unto me,” Zec 13:9, a believing and obedient people, 1Pe 2:9-10; 2Co 6:16-18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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. (2Co 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. (134)
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. (Rom 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 (Psa 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.
(134) The Apostle adopts here the Septuagint version. The Hebrew is “I will put my law in their inmost part, and on their heart will I write (or engrave) it.” The word “law” and “heart”, are put here in the plural number, and the “inmost part” is rendered “mind.” These changes are according to the peculiar character of the two languages. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) I will make.Literally, I will covenantnot 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.
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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“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, and on their heart also will I write them, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And their sins will I remember no more.”
God’s new covenant is now quoted. It is made ‘with the house of Israel’, the people of God now combined in one, with all differences broken down and incorporating all who are His (note how Israel and Judah are here now seen as one under the name of Israel). Any idea that there can be a house of Israel separate from the people of God is clearly false. God’s love was set on all Abraham’s seed, and Abraham’s seed are such as have been incorporated into Israel by faith, whether Jew or Gentile (Galatians 3).
The basic premises of this new covenant are;
1) “I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them.” Instead of writing His laws on tables of stone as He did in the old covenant, God will write His laws in men’s minds and hearts by His Spirit (compare2Co 3:2-11) unconditionally. Thus they will never forget them and will obey them from an inner impulsion. For the principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will make them free from the law of sin and death — that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in those who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Rom 8:2-3).
The idea behind this verse includes that of the new creation in Christ Jesus (2Co 5:17); of those who have been born of the Spirit and made full-grown sons of God (Joh 3:5-6; Joh 1:12-13; Gal 4:4-6), having been made partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption of the world and of desires (2Pe 1:4). It speaks of a new God-wrought beginning, a miracle of transformation.
All who are truly His can recognise in these words something of their own experience when on trusting in Him life began anew. They began to love His word, their perspectives on life changed, their desire was now to please Him, they delighted to do His will.
That this is not, however, uniquely limited to the new age is clear from Psa 37:30-31, where it says, “The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of right judgment. The law of His God is in his heart.” So also in Psa 19:7-8 where we read, “The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul… the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” God’s word has ever worked so in those who were His. It is rather the extent of His working that is in mind, the establishing of a whole people of God rather than a remnant.
2) “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” As a consequence of the Spirit’s work within them God will restore them so that they will recognise Him for what He is. They will once more acknowledge His sovereignty over them. He will be their God. And the result will be that in response to their faith and hope He will once more act as their God. He will be their God in that sense too. He will be their Lawgiver, their Counsellor, their Protector, their Guide, their Trek Leader. He will supply all their needs, deliver from all dangers, and bring them to everlasting blessing. He will be faithful and longsuffering, bearing with their frailties, never leaving nor forsaking them (Heb 13:5). And those who respond to Him will once more prove themselves to be His true people. The past failures will be forgotten and God’s new people will own Him and be owned by Him.
3) “And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them.” His people will not have to be taught to know the Lord by anyone, for they will all know Him truly as a result of the work of the Spirit.
The idea here is in the contrast of a so-called ‘people of God’ of whom many were ignorant of God, so that each sought to teach the other somewhat inadequately and weakly, leaning on teachers who were broken reeds, with ‘a people of God’ of whom all know the Lord, from the very least to the very greatest. The writer is probably here thinking of Joe 2:28-29; Isa 44:1-5 and their fulfilment at Pentecost (Acts 2), and such teaching as 1Co 2:9-16; 1Jn 2:20 ; 1Jn 2:27.
In Old Testament days there was a constant looking to the priests and to the wise for help, while in general the people got on with their lives. That was actually their problem, that God became second hand. (There were, of course, always the exceptions, which included the prophets themselves). But this is in contrast with the openness of heart and mind in the New Testament days as the abundance of the Spirit illuminates the thoughts of even the most simple. Under the old covenant the priests stood between men and a knowledge of God, under the new the approach to God is direct and personal. The barriers are broken down. “They will be all taught of God” (Joh 6:45)
4) “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And their sins will I remember no more.” And this will be because He has been merciful to their ‘iniquities’, (that which comes from the evil heart within); and has blotted out their ‘sins’, (that which constitutes a coming short of His glory (Rom 3:23)), from His memory. There will not only be temporary forgiveness, there will be permanent and total forgiveness and reconciliation.
And it should be noted that this signifies a deeper measure of mercy and forgiveness than was available under the old covenant, where wilful sins were excluded, for now even wilful sins will be forgiven on repentance. For Paul declares, ‘And by him all who believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses’ (Act 13:39). The word ‘merciful, gracious’ is emphasised by being place first in the sentence after the conjunction. It includes an element of being propitiated. Compare Heb 2:17; Rom 3:24-25).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Heb 8:10. For this is the covenant, &c. “This new covenant shall be of a much better tenor than that: for this is the sum and substance of the covenant which I will make with all my spiritual Israel who perseveringly yield to myfree grace, under the gospel state, says the great Jehovah; I will enlighten and renew their understandings, that they may behold the spirituality, purity, and extent of the morallaw, by an inward operation upon their minds; and will give them a plain insight into the doctrine of salvation by the Messiah: and I will not only set these things with the clearest and strongest evidence before their minds; but will furthermore make a thorough change upon their wills, affections, and all the practical powers of their souls, by engraving my law and gospel, not (as I did the law of the ten commandments) by a miraculous impression upon tables of stone, but by a supernatural gracious operation of my Spirit, who shall write them in the fleshly tables of their hearts (2Co 3:3.) to guide and govern them in all their ways. And, according to this new and better covenant, I will be to them anall-sufficient God, in a way of protection, favour, and blessing; and will own them, and perform all things for them as their God: and they, if they perseveringly cleave to me, shall be inclined and enabled, by my grace, to answer their obligations to me, in faith and love, duty and obedience, owning me in a becoming profession of my name as my people.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Heb 8:10 . Justification of the , . . ., Heb 8:8-9 , by a definite indication of the nature of the covenant to be instituted.
. . .] for this (or the following) is the covenant which I will institute for the house of Israel , introduces with emphasis the material characterization following with . . .
] here embraces the whole nation, while in Heb 8:8 it denoted one of the two kingdoms into which it had been divided.
] after those days, i.e. after the days which must first have elapsed, before the mentioned, Heb 8:8 , in which the New Covenant is to come into existence, begin to dawn. Wrongly Oecumenius: ; , .
] LXX.: .
] So LXX. Cod. Alex. , while Cod. Vatic . and other MSS. of the LXX. have . In the Hebrew . does not stand for (Vatablus, Schlichting, Bengel, and others). Just as little have we to supplement it with (Heinrichs, Stengel, al.), or with or (Kuinoel, Bloomfield), or (Delitzsch). Nor have we to join it to the following (so Bhme, but undecidedly, and Paulus), in such wise that we must render before by “also.” It attaches itself grammatically to the preceding . In order to obviate any unevenness of construction, we may then place a colon after . The separation, however, of the from that which precedes is not actually necessary, since instances of a transition from the participle to the tempus finitum are elsewhere nothing strange. See Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 533.
] mind, i.e. soul, innermost part ( ). Accentuation of the character of innerness in the New Covenant, as opposed to the externalism of the Old. Comp. 2Co 3:3 .
] either accusative (Deu 4:13 ; Deu 5:22 , al.) or genitive (comp. Exo 34:28 ; Num 17:2-3 , al.). In favour of the latter pleads the singular in the Hebrew original; in favour of the former, the reading of the Cod. Alex.: . We cannot take into account, in favour of the accusative, the greater conformity to the character of the Greek language, according to which, on account of the plurality of persons ( ), one must also speak of , in the plural. For without regard to this distinction the singular has already been just placed, and in like manner the singular is placed, Heb 8:9 .
In place of , the Cod. Alex, of the LXX. has: , and the Cod. Vatic.: .
. . .] Comp. already Exo 6:7 ; Lev 26:12 , al.; also 2Co 6:16 .
The Hebraizing ( ) as Heb 1:5 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
10 .] For ( : ‘because’ is too strong: the only reason rendered is for the expression above: ‘ new, I say: for ’) this (predicate, explained in what follows) is the covenant which I will establish to the house (cf. Aristoph. Av. 438, ) of Israel (Israel here in its wider sense, comprehending both Israel proper and Judah: because then all Israel shall be again united), after those days (c. understands , : Thl. says, , , . , , . But the seems to point immediately to the time indicated by the aorist : and thus . . will be, after the end of that dispensation, when those days of disregard are over), saith ( LXX) the Lord; giving (the LXX- [41] [42] have : the Heb. . But A agrees with the text: and by the Writer repeating the same in ch. Heb 10:16 , it is probable that he had this reading in his copy of the LXX. The participle, as it stands, is best joined, as c., with , and taken as a fresh and independent clause. This is the first of the on which the new covenant is established) my laws into their mind ( , their inward parts, their spiritual man, as distinguished from the mere sensorium which receives impressions from without: Heb. ), and on their heart (LXX-A, . . . Either gen., dat. (as B), or accus. is suitable: if accus., the act of transference by inscription, rather than the fact of being inscribed, is in view: if gen. sing., which from the analogy of , and of Pro 7:3 [Alex.] Ald. [so Tromm.: not Holmes] ( ), our most likely is, then the fact of their superimposition and covering of the heart: if the dat., then that of their situation upon its tablet. See instances of the gen. and accus. in reff.) will I inscribe ( LXX-B) them (contrast to the inscription of the old law, which was on tables of stone: see 2Co 3:3 ): and I will be to them for ( , , as ch. Heb 1:5 , which see) a God, and they shall be to me for a people .
[41] The CODEX VATICANUS, No. 1209 in the Vatican Library at Rome; and proved, by the old catalogues, to have been there from the foundation of the library in the 16th century. It was apparently, from internal evidence, copied in Egypt. It is on vellum, and contains the Old and New Testaments. In the latter, it is deficient from Heb 9:14 to the end of the Epistle; it does not contain the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; nor the Apocalypse. An edition of this celebrated codex, undertaken as long ago as 1828 by Cardinal Angelo Mai, has since his death been published at Rome. The defects of this edition are such, that it can hardly be ranked higher in usefulness than a tolerably complete collation, entirely untrustworthy in those places where it differs from former collations in representing the MS. as agreeing with the received text. An 8vo edition of the N.T. portion, newly revised by Vercellone, was published at Rome in 1859 (referred to as ‘Verc’): and of course superseded the English reprint of the 1st edition. Even in this 2nd edition there were imperfections which rendered it necessary to have recourse to the MS. itself, and to the partial collations made in former times. These are (1) that of Bartolocci (under the name of Giulio de St. Anastasia), once librarian at the Vatican, made in 1669, and preserved in manuscript in the Imperial Library (MSS. Gr. Suppl. 53) at Paris (referred to as ‘Blc’); (2) that of Birch (‘Bch’), published in various readings to the Acts and Epistles, Copenhagen, 1798, Apocalypse, 1800, Gospels, 1801; (3) that made for the great Bentley (‘Btly’), by the Abbate Mico, published in Ford’s Appendix to Woide’s edition of the Codex Alexandrinus, 1799 (it was made on the margin of a copy of Cephalus’ Greek Testament, Argentorati, 1524, still amongst Bentley’s books in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge); (4) notes of alterations by the original scribe and other correctors. These notes were procured for Bentley by the Abb de Stosch, and were till lately supposed to be lost. They were made by the Abbate Rulotta (‘Rl’), and are preserved amongst Bentley’s papers in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (B. 17. 20) 1 . The Codex has been occasionally consulted for the verification of certain readings by Tregelles, Tischendorf, and others. A list of readings examined at Rome by the present editor (Feb. 1861), and by the Rev. E. C. Cure, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford (April 1862), will be found at the end of these prolegomena. A description, with an engraving from a photograph of a portion of a page, is given in Burgon’s “Letters from Rome,” London 1861. This most important MS. was probably written in the fourth century (Hug, Tischendorf, al.).
[42] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century . The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are: A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr 1 ; B (cited as 2 ), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; C a (cited as 3a ) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1 , it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that C a altered it to that which is found in our text; C b (cited as 3b ) lived about the same time as C a , i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here 6 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Heb 8:10 . “For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.” The justifies the differentiation of this covenant from the Sinaitic, and the ascription to it of the term “new”. It also introduces the positive aspect of the newness of the covenant. This consists in three particulars. It is inward or spiritual; it is individual and therefore universal; it is gracious and provides forgiveness. , i.e. , after the days, spoken of Heb 8:8 , have arrived. f1 The LXX (vat.) has , but this writer omits in Heb 10:16 as well as here. The participle cannot be attached either to or to without intolerable harshness. We must, therefore, suppose that the writer was simply quoting from the Alexandrian text which omits (so also Q = Codex Marchalianus), and does not concern himself about the elegance or even correct grammar of the words. See Buttmann, p. 291. . “The plural occurs again in the same quotation, Heb 10:16 , but not elsewhere in the N.T.; nor does the plural appear to be found in any other place of the LXX as a translation of ” Westcott. . “In Aristotle includes all intellect, theoretical and practical, intuitive and discursive” (Burnet’s Nic. Eth. , p. 276). Plato defines it in Soph . 263 [33] thus: . In N.T. it is sometimes used for the “mind,” as in Eph 4:18 , 1Pe 1:13 , 2Pe 3:1 ; sometimes for the thoughts produced in the mind, Eph 2:3 ; sometimes for the inner man generally, as in Luk 1:51 , Col 1:21 . And in this sense here. “and on their heart”. may be either genitive singular, or accusative plural, both constructions being found after . The meaning is that God’s law, instead of being written on tables of stone, should under the new covenant be written on the spirit and desires of man. “Unde significavit eos non forinsecus habere, sed ipsam legis justitiam dilecturos” (Atto). This “better promise” involves a new spirit, effecting that man’s own will shall concur with the divine. Cf. 2Co 3:3 . “and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people”. For the distinction between the Hebraistic construction and the legitimate Greek or see Buttmann, p. 150. This of course was the aim of the old covenant as well, and is expressed in the original promise, Exo 6:7 : “I will take you to myself as my people, and I shall be to you a God”. See also Jer 7:23 ; Jer 11:4 . This is the ultimate statement of the end or aim of all religion.
[33] Codex Sangermanensis (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., now at St. Petersburg, formerly belonging to the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prs. Its text is largely dependent upon that of D.
Heb 8:11 . . “And they shall not teach, each man his fellow-citizen and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me from small to great among them”. This second “better” promise follows on the first as its natural consequence. The inward acceptance of God’s will involves the knowledge of God. In the new covenant all were to be “taught of God” (Isa 54:13 , Joh 6:45 ) and independent of the instruction of a privileged class. Under the old covenant, none but the educated scribe could understand the minuti of the law with which religion was identified. The elaborate ritual made it impossible for the private individual to know whether a ram or a pigeon was the appropriate sacrifice for his sin, or whether his sin was mortal or venial. A priest had to be consulted. Under the new covenant intermediates were to be abolished. The knowledge of God was to lie in the heart alongside of the love of parent or friend, and would demand for its expression no more external instruction than those primal, instinctive and home-grown affections. , “The intensive (of that which in no wise will or shall happen) is sometimes indeed most commonly joined with the conjunctive aorist, sometimes with the conjunctive present, sometimes also with the indicative future”. Winer, p. 634, who also discusses Hermann’s canon and Dawes’ regarding this form. , for this form of the future Veitch (p. 216) quotes Homer, Theognis, Herodotus, Isocrates. , an expression commonly used in LXX to denote universality, Gen 19:11 , where possibly it is equivalent to of Heb 8:4 ; 1Sa 30:19 , where it is used of spoils of war. Gesenius (117, 2) understands the adjectives as superlatives.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Hebrews
THE ARTICLES OF THE NEW COVENANT: GOD’S WELTING ON THE HEART
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.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
make. Greek. diatithemi. See Act 3:25.
I will put. Literally “giving”. Same Greek. word in 2Co 8:16; &c.
write. Greek. epigrapho. See Mar 15:26.
in = upon. Greek. epi. App-104.
a = for (Greek. eis).
God. App-98.
people. See Act 2:47.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
10.] For (: because is too strong: the only reason rendered is for the expression above: new, I say: for ) this (predicate, explained in what follows) is the covenant which I will establish to the house (cf. Aristoph. Av. 438, ) of Israel (Israel here in its wider sense, comprehending both Israel proper and Judah: because then all Israel shall be again united), after those days (c. understands , : Thl. says, , , . , , . But the seems to point immediately to the time indicated by the aorist : and thus . . will be, after the end of that dispensation, when those days of disregard are over), saith ( LXX) the Lord; giving (the LXX-[41] [42] have : the Heb. . But A agrees with the text: and by the Writer repeating the same in ch. Heb 10:16, it is probable that he had this reading in his copy of the LXX. The participle, as it stands, is best joined, as c., with , and taken as a fresh and independent clause. This is the first of the on which the new covenant is established) my laws into their mind (, their inward parts, their spiritual man, as distinguished from the mere sensorium which receives impressions from without: Heb. ), and on their heart (LXX-A, . . . Either gen., dat. (as B), or accus. is suitable: if accus., the act of transference by inscription, rather than the fact of being inscribed, is in view: if gen. sing., which from the analogy of , and of Pro 7:3 [Alex.] Ald. [so Tromm.: not Holmes] ( ), our most likely is, then the fact of their superimposition and covering of the heart: if the dat., then that of their situation upon its tablet. See instances of the gen. and accus. in reff.) will I inscribe ( LXX-B) them (contrast to the inscription of the old law, which was on tables of stone: see 2Co 3:3): and I will be to them for ( , , as ch. Heb 1:5, which see) a God, and they shall be to me for a people.
[41] The CODEX VATICANUS, No. 1209 in the Vatican Library at Rome; and proved, by the old catalogues, to have been there from the foundation of the library in the 16th century. It was apparently, from internal evidence, copied in Egypt. It is on vellum, and contains the Old and New Testaments. In the latter, it is deficient from Heb 9:14 to the end of the Epistle;-it does not contain the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon;-nor the Apocalypse. An edition of this celebrated codex, undertaken as long ago as 1828 by Cardinal Angelo Mai, has since his death been published at Rome. The defects of this edition are such, that it can hardly be ranked higher in usefulness than a tolerably complete collation, entirely untrustworthy in those places where it differs from former collations in representing the MS. as agreeing with the received text. An 8vo edition of the N.T. portion, newly revised by Vercellone, was published at Rome in 1859 (referred to as Verc): and of course superseded the English reprint of the 1st edition. Even in this 2nd edition there were imperfections which rendered it necessary to have recourse to the MS. itself, and to the partial collations made in former times. These are-(1) that of Bartolocci (under the name of Giulio de St. Anastasia), once librarian at the Vatican, made in 1669, and preserved in manuscript in the Imperial Library (MSS. Gr. Suppl. 53) at Paris (referred to as Blc); (2) that of Birch (Bch), published in various readings to the Acts and Epistles, Copenhagen, 1798,-Apocalypse, 1800,-Gospels, 1801; (3) that made for the great Bentley (Btly), by the Abbate Mico,-published in Fords Appendix to Woides edition of the Codex Alexandrinus, 1799 (it was made on the margin of a copy of Cephalus Greek Testament, Argentorati, 1524, still amongst Bentleys books in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge); (4) notes of alterations by the original scribe and other correctors. These notes were procured for Bentley by the Abb de Stosch, and were till lately supposed to be lost. They were made by the Abbate Rulotta (Rl), and are preserved amongst Bentleys papers in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (B. 17. 20)1. The Codex has been occasionally consulted for the verification of certain readings by Tregelles, Tischendorf, and others. A list of readings examined at Rome by the present editor (Feb. 1861), and by the Rev. E. C. Cure, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford (April 1862), will be found at the end of these prolegomena. A description, with an engraving from a photograph of a portion of a page, is given in Burgons Letters from Rome, London 1861. This most important MS. was probably written in the fourth century (Hug, Tischendorf, al.).
[42] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century. The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are:-A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr1; B (cited as 2), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; Ca (cited as 3a) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1, it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that Ca altered it to that which is found in our text; Cb (cited as 3b) lived about the same time as Ca, i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here6.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Heb 8:10. ) , LXX.-, Israel) Here Judah is to be understood. A new union together of the people. There were two houses in the Old Testament, Heb 8:8 : they become one house in the New.-) The participle for the verb; 2Pe 1:17 : , LXX. So , Isa 40:29. There are four sentences arranged by Chiasmus. The first, I will give (put); the second, and I will be; the third, and not; the fourth, because (for) all. The second explains the first; the fourth, the third.- ) Heb. , my law. We have the sum of these laws presently, I will be to them a GOD, and they shall he to Me a people.- ) , into the midst of them, that they may obey willingly (from the heart).- ) Genitive, ch. Heb 10:16.- ) LXX., , .
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
, , , , , , , , , [9]
[9] VARIOUS READING. has been rejected, and substituted as the proper reading, by Griesbach, Scholz, Lachmann, and Tischendorf. All the uncial MSS., with most of the versions, vindicate the propriety of the change. ED.
The design of the apostle, or what is the general argument which he is in pursuit of, must still be borne in mind throughout the consideration of the testimonies he produceth in the confirmation of it. And this is, to prove that the Lord Christ is the mediator and surety of a better covenant than that wherein the service of God was managed by the high priests according unto the law. For hence it follows that his priesthood is greater and far more excellent than theirs. To this end he doth not only prove that God promised to make such a covenant, but also declares the nature and properties of it, in the words of the prophet. And so, by comparing it with the former covenant, he manifests its excellency above it. In particular, in this testimony the imperfection of that covenant is demonstrated from its issue. For it did not effectually continue peace and mutual love between God and the people; but being broken by them, they were thereon rejected of God. This rendered all the other benefits and advantages of it useless. Wherefore the apostle insists from the prophet on those properties of this other covenant which infallibly prevent the like issue, securing the peoples obedience for ever, and so the love and relation of God unto them as their God.
Wherefore these three verses give us a description of that covenant whereof the Lord Christ is the mediator and surety, not absolutely and entirely, but as unto those properties and effects of it wherein it differs from the former, so as infallibly to secure the covenant relation between God and the people. That covenant was broken, but this shall never be so, because provision is made in the covenant itself against any such event.
And we may consider in the words,
1. The particle of introduction, , answering the Hebrew .
2. The subject spoken of, which is ; with the way of making it, , which I will make.
3. The author of it, the Lord Jehovah; I will …… saith the Lord.
4. Those with whom it was to be made, the house of Israel.
5. The time of making it, after those days.
6. The properties, privileges, and benefits of this covenant, which are of two sorts:
(1.) Of sanctifying, inherent grace; described by a double consequent:
[1.] Of Gods relation unto them, and theirs to him; I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people, Heb 10:10.
[2.] Of their advantage thereby, without the use of such other aids as formerly they stood in need of, Heb 10:11.
(2.) Of relative grace, in the pardon of their sins, Heb 10:12. And sundry things of great. weight will fall into consideration under these several heads.
Heb 8:10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will give my laws into their mind, and write them upon their hearts: and I will be unto them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
1. The introduction of the declaration of the new covenant is by the particle . The Hebrew , which is rendered by it, is variously used, and is sometimes redundant. In the prophet, some translate it by an exceptive, sed; some by an illative, quoniam. And in this place , is rendered by some quamobrem, wherefore; and by others nam, or enim, as we do it by for. And it doth intimate a reason of what was spoken before, namely, that the covenant which God would now make should not be according unto that, like unto it, which was before made and broken.
2. The thing promised is a covenant: in the prophet , here . And the way of making it, in the prophet ; which is the usual word whereby the making of a covenant is expressed. For signifying to cut, to strike, to divide, respect is had in it unto the sacrifices wherewith covenants were confirmed. Thence also were foedus percutere, and foedus ferire. See Gen 15:9-10; Gen 15:18. , or , that is, cure, which is joined in construction with it, Gen 15:18, Deu 5:2. The apostle renders it by , and that with a dative case without a preposition, , I will make or confirm unto. He had used before to the same purpose.
We render the words and in this place by a covenant, though afterward the same word is translated by a testament. A covenant properly is a compact or agreement on certain terms mutually stipulated by two or more parties. As promises are the foundation and rise of it, as it is between God and man, so it compriseth also precepts, or laws of obedience, which are prescribed unto man on his part to be observed. But in the description of the covenant here annexed, there is no mention of any condition on the part of man, of any terms of obedience prescribed unto him, but the whole consists in free, gratuitous promises, as we shall see in the explication of it. Some hence conclude that it is only one part of the covenant that is here described. Others observe from hence that the whole covenant of grace as a covenant is absolute, without any conditions on our part; which sense Estius on this place contends for. But these things must be further inquired into:
(1.) The word , used by the prophet, doth not only signify a covenant or compact properly so called, but a free, gratuitous promise also. Yea, sometimes it is used for such a free purpose of God with respect unto other things, which in their own nature are incapable of being obliged by any moral condition. Such is Gods covenant with day and night, Jer 33:20; Jer 33:25. And so he says that he made his covenant, not to destroy the world by water any more, with every living creature, Gen 9:10-11. Nothing, therefore, can be argued for the necessity of conditions to belong unto this covenant from the name or term whereby it is expressed in the prophet. A covenant properly is , but there is no word in the whole Hebrew language of that precise signification.
The making of this covenant is declared by . But yet neither doth this require a mutual stipulation, upon terms and conditions prescribed, unto an entrance into covenant. For it refers unto the sacrifices wherewith covenants were confirmed; and it is applied unto a mere gratuitous promise, Gen 15:18, In that day did the LORD make a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land.
As unto the word , it signifies a covenant improperly; properly it is a testamentary disposition. And this may be without any conditions on the part of them unto whom any thing is bequeathed.
(2.) The whole of the covenant intended is expressed in the ensuing description of it. For if it were otherwise, it could not be proved from thence that this covenant was more excellent than the former, especially as to security that the covenant relation between God and the people should not be broken or disannulled. For this is the principal thing which the apostle designs to prove in this place; and the want of an observation thereof hath led many out of the way in their exposition of it. If, therefore, this be not an entire description of the covenant, there might yet be something reserved essentially belonging thereunto which might frustrate this end. For some such conditions might yet be required in it as we are not able to observe, or could have no security that we should abide in the observation of them: and thereon this covenant might be frustrated of its end, as well as the former; which is directly contrary unto Gods declaration of his design in it.
(3.) It is evident that there can be no condition previously required, unto our entering into or participation of the benefits of this covenant, antecedent unto the making of it with us. For none think there are any such with respect unto its original constitution; nor can there be so in respect of its making with us, or our entering into it. For,
[1.] This would render the covenant inferior in a way of grace unto that which God made with the people at Horeb. For he declares that there was not any thing in them that moved him either to make that covenant, or to take them into it with himself. Everywhere he asserts this to be an act of his mere grace and favor. Yea, he frequently declares, that he took them into covenant, not only without respect unto any thing of good in them, but although they were evil and stubborn. See Deu 7:7-8; Deu 9:4-5.
[2.] It is contrary unto the nature, ends, and express properties of this covenant. For there is nothing that can be thought or supposed to be such a condition, but it is comprehended in the promise of the covenant itself; for all that God requireth in us is proposed as that which himself will effect by virtue of this covenant.
(4.) It is certain, that in the outward dispensation of the covenant, wherein the grace, mercy, and terms of it are proposed unto us, many things are required of us in order unto a participation of the benefits of it; for God hath ordained, that all the mercy and grace that is prepared in it shall be communicated unto us ordinarily in the use of outward means, wherewith a compliance is required of us in a way of duty. To this end hath he appointed all the ordinances of the gospel, the word and sacraments, with all those duties, public and private, which are needful to render them effectual unto us. For he will take us ordinarily into this covenant in and by the rational faculties of our natures, that he may be glorified in them and by them. Wherefore these things are required of us in order unto the participation of the benefits of this covenant. And if, therefore, any one will call our attendance unto such duties the condition of the covenant, it is not to be contended about, though properly it is not so. For,
[1.] God doth work the grace of the covenant, and communicate the mercy of it, antecedently unto all ability for the performance of any such duty; as it is with elect infants.
[2.] Amongst those who are equally diligent in the performance of the duties intended he makes a discrimination, preferring one before another. Many are called, but few are chosen; and what hath any one that he hath not received?
[3.] He actually takes some into the grace of the covenant whilst they are engaged in an opposition unto the outward dispensation of it. An example of this grace he gave in Paul.
(5.) It is evident that the first grace of the covenant, or Gods putting his law in our hearts, can depend on no condition on our part. For whatever is antecedent thereunto, being only a work or act of corrupted nature, can be no condition whereon the dispensation of spiritual grace is superadded. And this is the great ground of them who absolutely deny the covenant of grace to be conditional; namely, that the first grace is absolutely promised, whereon and its exercise the whole of it doth depend.
(6.) Unto a full and complete interest in all the promises of the covenant, faith on our part, from which evangelical repentance is inseparable, is required. But whereas these also are wrought in us by virtue of that promise and grace of the covenant which are absolute, it is a mere strife about words to contend whether they may be called conditions or no. Let it be granted on the one hand, that we cannot have an actual participation of the relative grace of this covenant in adoption and justification, without faith or believing; and on the other, that this faith is wrought in us, given unto us, bestowed upon us, by that grace of the covenant which depends on no condition in us as unto its discriminating administration, and I shall not concern myself what men will call it.
(7.) Though there are no conditions properly so called of the whole grace of the covenant, yet there are conditions in the covenant, taking that term, in a large sense, for that which by the order of divine constitution precedeth some other things, and hath an influence into their existence; for God requireth many things of them whom he actually takes into covenant, and makes partakers of the promises and benefits of it. Of this nature is that whole obedience which is prescribed unto us in the gospel, in our walking before God in uprightness; and there being an order in the things that belong hereunto, some acts, duties, and parts of our gracious obedience, being appointed to be means of the further additional supplies of the grace and mercies of the covenant, they may be called conditions required of us in the covenant, as well as duties prescribed unto us.
(8.) The benefits of the covenant are of two sorts:
[1.] The grace and mercy which it doth collate.
[2] The future reward of glory which it doth promise.
Those of the former sort are all of them means appointed of God, which we are to use and improve unto the obtaining of the latter, and so may be called conditions required on our part. They are only collated on us, but conditions as used and improved by us.
(9.) Although , the word here used, may signify and be rightly rendered a covenant, in the same manner as doth, yet that which is intended is properly a testament, or a testamentary disposition of good things. It is the will of God in and by Jesus Christ, his death and bloodshedding, to give freely unto us the whole inheritance of grace and glory. And under this notion the covenant hath no condition, nor are any such either expressed or intimated in this place.
Obs. 1. The covenant of grace, as reduced into the form of a testament, confirmed by the blood of Christ, doth not depend on any condition or qualification in our persons, but on a free grant and donation of God; and so do all the good things prepared in it.
Obs. 2. The precepts of the old covenant are turned all of them into promises under the new. Their preceptive, commanding power is not taken away, but grace is promised for the performance of them. So the apostle having declared that the people brake the old covenant, adds that grace shall be supplied in the new for all the duties of obedience that are required of us.
Obs. 3. All things in the new covenant being proposed unto us by the way of promise, it is faith alone whereby we may attain a participation of them. For faith only is the grace we ought to exercise, the duty we ought to perform, to render the promises of God effectual to us, Heb 4:1-2.
Obs. 4. Sense of the loss of an interest in and participation of the benefits of the old covenant, is the best preparation for receiving the mercies of the new.
3. The author of this covenant is God himself: I will make it, saith the LORD . This is the third time that this expression, Saith the Lord, is repeated in this testimony. The work expressed, in both the parts of it, the disannulling of the old covenant and the establishment of the new, is such as calls for this solemn interposition of the authority, veracity, and grace of God. I will do it, saith the Lord. And the mention hereof is thus frequently inculcated, to beget a reverence in us of the work which he so emphatically assumes unto himself. And it teacheth us that,
Obs. 5. God himself, in and by his own sovereign wisdom, grace, goodness, all-sufficiency, and power, is to be considered as the only cause and author of the new covenant; or, the abolishing of the old covenant, with the introduction and establishment of the new, is an act of the mere sovereign wisdom, grace, and authority of God. It is his gracious disposal of us, and of his own grace; that whereof we had no contrivance, nor indeed the least desire.
4. It is declared whom this new covenant is made withal: With the house of Israel. Heb 8:8, they are called distinctly the house of Israel, and the house of Judah. The distribution of the posterity of Abraham into Israel and Judah ensued upon the division that fell out among the people in the days of Rehoboam. Before, they were called Israel only. And as in Heb 8:8 they were mentioned distinctly, to testify that none of the seed of Abraham should be absolutely excluded from the grace of the covenant, however they were divided among themselves; so here they are all jointly expressed by their ancient name of Israel, to manifest that all distinctions on the account of precedent privileges should be now taken away, that all Israel might be saved. But we have showed before, that the whole Israel of God, or the church of the elect, are principally intended hereby.
5. The time of the accomplishment of this promise, or making of this covenant, is expressed, After those days. There are various conjectures about the sense of these words, or the determination of the time limited in them.
Some suppose respect is had unto the time of giving the law on mount Sinai. Then was the old covenant made with the fathers; but after those days another should be made. But whereas that time, those days, were so long past before this prophecy was given out by Jeremiah, namely, about eight hundred years, it was impossible but that the new covenant, which was not yet given, must be after those days; wherefore it was to no purpose so to express it that it should be after those days, seeing it was impossible that otherwise it should be.
Some think that respect is had unto the captivity of Babylon and the return of the people from thence; for God then showed them great kindness, to win them unto obedience. But neither can this time be intended; for God then made no new covenant with the people, but strictly obliged them unto the terms of the old, Mal 4:4-6. But when this new covenant was to be made, the old was to be abolished and removed, as the apostle expressly affirmeth, Heb 8:13. The promise is not of new obligation, or new assistance unto the observance of the old covenant, but of making a new one quite of another nature, which then was not done.
Some judge that these words, after those days, refer unto what went immediately before, And I regarded them not: which words include the total rejection of the Jews. After those days wherein both the house of Judah and the house of Israel shall be rejected, I will make a new covenant with the whole Israel of God.But neither will this hold the trial; for,
(1.) Supposing that expression, And I regarded them not, to intend the rejection of the Jews, yet it is manifest that their excision and cutting off absolutely was not in nor for their non-continuance in the old covenant, or not being faithful therein, but for the rejection of the new when proposed unto them. Then they fell by unbelief, as the apostle fully manifests, Hebrews 3 of this epistle, and Romans 11. Wherefore the making of the new covenant cannot be said to be after their rejection, seeing they were rejected for their refusal and contempt of it.
(2.) By this interpretation the whole house of Israel, or all the natural posterity of Abraham, would be utterly excluded from any interest in this promise. But this cannot be allowed: for it was not so de facto, a remnant being taken into covenant; which though but a remnant in comparison of the whole, yet in themselves so great a multitude, as that in them the promises made unto the fathers were confirmed. Nor on this supposition would this prediction of a new covenant have been any promise unto them, or any of them, but rather a severe denunciation of judgment. But it is said expressly, that God would make this covenant with them, as he did the former with their fathers; which is a promise of grace and mercy.
Wherefore after those days, is as much as in those days, an indeterminate season for a certain. So, in that day, is frequently used in the prophets, Isa 24:21-22; Zec 12:11. A time, therefore, certainly future, but not determined, is all that is intended in this expression, after those days. And herewith most expositors are satisfied. Yet is there, as I judge, more in the words.
Those days, seem to me to comprise the whole time allotted unto the economy of the old testament, or dispensation of the old covenant. Such a time there was appointed unto it; in the counsel of God. During this season things fell out as described, verse 9. The certain period fixed unto these days is called by our apostle the time of reformation, Heb 9:10. After those days, that is, in or at their expiration, when they were coming unto their end, whereby the first covenant waxed old and decayed, God would make this covenant with them. And although much was done towards it before those days came absolutely unto an end and did actually expire, yet is the making of it said to be after those days, because being made in the wane and declension of them, it did by its making put a full and final end unto them.
This in general was the time here designed for the making and establishing of the new covenant. But we must yet further inquire into the precise time of the accomplishment of this promise. And I say, the whole of it cannot be limited unto any one season absolutely, as though all that was intended in Gods making of this covenant did consist in any one individual act. The making of the old covenant with the fathers is said to be in the day wherein God took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. During the season intended there were many things that were preparatory to the making of that covenant, or to the solemn establishment of it. So was it also in the making of the new covenant. It was gradually made and established, and that by sundry acts preparatory for it or confirmatory of it. And there are six degrees observable in it,
(1.) The first peculiar entrance into it was made by the ministry of John the Baptist. Him had God raised to send under the name and in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare the way of the Lord, Malachi 4. Hence is his ministry called the beginning of the gospel, Mar 1:1-2. Until his coming, the people were bound absolutely and universally unto the covenant in Horeb, without alteration or addition in any ordinance of worship. But his ministry was designed to prepare them, and to cause them to look out after the accomplishment of this promise of making the new covenant, Mal 4:4-6. And these by whom his ministry was despised, did reject the counsel of God against themselves, that is, unto their ruin; and made themselves liable to that utter excision with the threatening whereof the writings of the Old Testament are closed, Mal 4:6. He therefore called the people off from resting in or trusting unto the privileges of the first covenant, Mat 3:8-10; preached unto them a doctrine of repentance; and instituted a new ordinance of worship, whereby they might be initiated into a new state or condition, a new relation unto God. And in his whole ministry he pointed at, and directed and gave testimony unto Him who was then to come to establish this new covenant. This was the beginning of the accomplishment of this promise.
(2.) The coming in the flesh and personal ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, was an eminent advance and degree therein. The dispensation of the old covenant did yet continue; for he himself, as made of a woman, was made under the law, yielding obedience unto it, observing all its precepts and institutions. But his coming in the flesh laid an axe unto the root of that whole dispensation; for therein the main end that God designed thereby towards that people was accomplished. The interposition of the law was now to be taken away, and the promise to become all unto the church. Hence upon his nativity this covenant was proclaimed from heaven, as that which was immediately to take place, Luk 2:13-14. But it was more fully and evidently carried on in and by his personal ministry. The whole doctrine thereof was preparatory unto the immediate introduction of this covenant. But especially there was therein and thereby, by the truth which he taught, by the manner of his teaching, by the miracles which he wrought, in conjunction with an open accomplishment of the prophecies concerning him, evidence given that he was the Messiah, the mediator of the new covenant. Herein was a declaration made of the person in and by whom it was to be established: and therefore he told them, that unless they believed it was he who was so promised, they should die in their sins.
(3.) The way for the introduction of this covenant being thus prepared, it was solemnly enacted and confirmed in and by his death; for herein he offered that sacrifice to God whereby it was established. And hereby the promise properly became , a testament, as our apostle proves at large, Heb 9:14-16. And he declares in the same place, that it answered those sacrifices whose blood was sprinkled on the people and the book of the law, in the confirmation of the first covenant; which things must be treated of afterwards. This was the center wherein all the promises of grace did meet, and from whence they derived their efficacy. From henceforward the old covenant, and all its administrations, having received their full accomplishment, did abide only in the patience of God, to be taken down and removed out of the way in his own time and manner; for really and in themselves their force and authority did then cease, and was taken away. See Eph 2:14-16; Col 2:14-15. But our obligation unto obedience and the observance of commands, though formally and ultimately it be resolved into the will of God, yet immediately it respects the revelation of it, by which we are directly obliged. Wherefore, although the causes of the removal of the old covenant had already been applied thereunto, yet the law and its institutions were still continued not only lawful but useful unto the worshippers, until the will of God concerning their abrogation was fully declared.
(4.) This new covenant had the complement of its making and establishment in the resurrection of Christ. For in order hereunto the old was to have its perfect end. God did not make the first covenant, and therein revive, represent, and confirm the covenant of works, with the promise annexed unto it, merely that it should continue for such a season, and then die of itself, and be arbitrarily removed; but that whole dispensation had an end which was to be accomplished, and without which it was not consistent with the wisdom or righteousness of God to remove it or take it away. Yea, nothing of it could be removed, until all was fulfilled. It was easier to remove heaven and earth than to remove the law, as unto its right and title to rule the souls and consciences of men, before all was fulfilled. And this end had two parts:
[1.] The perfect fulfilling of the righteousness which it required. This was done in the obedience of Christ, the surety of the new covenant, in the stead of them with whom the covenant was made.
[2.] That the curse of it should be undergone. Until this was done, the law could not quit its claim unto power over sinners. And as this curse was undergone in the suffering, so it was absolutely discharged in the resurrection of Christ. For the pains of death being loosed, and he delivered from the state of the dead, the sanction of the law was declared to be void, and its curse answered. Hereby did the old covenant so expire, as that the worship which belonged unto it was only for a while continued, in the patience and forbearance of God towards that people.
(5.) The first solemn promulgation of this new covenant, so made, ratified, and established, was on the day of Pentecost, seven weeks after the resurrection of Christ. And it answered the promulgation of the law on mount Sinai, the same space of time after the delivery of the people out of Egypt. From this day forward the ordinances of worship, and all the institutions of the new covenant, became obligatory unto all believers. Then was the whole church absolved from any duty with respect unto the old covenant, and the worship of it, though it was not manifest as yet in their consciences.
(6.) The question being stated about the continuance of the obligatory force of the old covenant, the contrary was solemnly promulged by the apostles, under the infallible conduct of the Holy Ghost, Acts 15.
These were the articles, or the degrees of the time intended in that expression, after those days; all of them answering the several degrees whereby the old vanished and disappeared.
The circumstances of the making of this covenant being thus cleared, the nature of it in its promises is next proposed unto us. And in the exposition of the words we must do these two things:
1. Inquire into the general nature of these promises.
2. Particularly and distinctly explain them:
FIRST, The general nature both of the covenant and of the promises whereby it is here expressed must briefly be inquired into, because there are various apprehensions about them. For some suppose that there is an especial efficacy towards the things mentioned intended in these promises, and no more; some judge that the things themselves, the event and end, are so promised.
In the first way Schlichtingius expresseth himself on this place:
Non ut olim curabo leges meas in lapideis tantum tabulis inscribi, sed tale foedus cum illis feriam ut meae leges ipsis eorum mentibus et cordibus insculpantur: apparet haec verba intra vim et efficaciam accipienda esse, non veto ad ipsum inscriptionis effectum necessario porrigenda, qui semper in libera hominis potestate positus est; quod ipsum docent et sequentia Dei verba, Heb 8:12. Quibus ipse Deus causam seu modum ac rationem hujus rei aperit, quae ingenti illius gratia ac misericordia populo exhibenda continetur. Hac futurum dicit ut populus tanto ardore sibi serviat, suasque leges observet. Sensus ergo est, tale percutiam foedus quod maximas et suficientissimas vires habebit populum meum in officio continendi.
And another:
I will, instead of these external, carnal ordinances and observations, give them spiritual commands for the regulating of their affections, precepts most agreeable unto all men, [made] by the exceeding greatness of that grace and mercy. In this and many other particulars I shall incline their affections willingly to receive my law.
The sense of both is, that all which is here promised consisteth in the nature of the means, and their efficacy from thence, to incline, dispose, and engage men unto the things here spoken of, but not to effect them certainly and infallibly in them to whom the promise is given. And it is supposed that the efficacy granted ariseth from the nature of the precepts of the gospel, which are rational, and suited unto the principles of our intellectual natures. For these precepts, enlivened by the promises made unto the observance of them, with the other mercies wherewith they are accompanied in Gods dealing with us, are meet to prevail on our minds and wills unto obedience; but yet, when all is done, the whole issue depends on our own wills, and their determination of themselves one way or other.
But these things are not only liable unto many just exceptions, but do indeed overthrow the whole nature of the new covenant, and the text is not expounded but corrupted by them; wherefore they must be removed out of the way. And,
1. The exposition given can no way be accommodated unto the words, so as to grant a truth in their plain literal sense. For whereas God says, He will put his laws in their mind, and write them in their heart, and they shall all know him, which declares what he will effectually do; the sense of their exposition is, that indeed he will not do so, only he will do that which shall move them and persuade them to do that themselves which he hath promised to do himself, and that whether they ever do so or no! But if any one concerning whom God says that he will write his law in his heart, have it not so written, be it on what account it will, suppose it be that the man will not have it so written, how can the promise be true, that God will write his law in his heart? It is a sorry apology, to say that God in making that promise did not foresee the obstruction that would arise, or could not remove it when it did so.
2. It is the event, or the effect itself, that is directly promised, and not any such efficacy of means as might be frustrated. For the weakness and imperfection of the first covenant was evidenced hereby, that those with whom it was made continued not in it. Hereon God neglected them, and the covenant became unprofitable, or at least unsuccessful as unto the general end of continuing the relation between God and them, of his being their God, and they being his people. To redress this evil, and prevent the like for the future, that is, effectually to provide that God and his people may always abide in that blessed covenant relation, he promiseth the things themselves whereby it might be secured. That which the first covenant could not effect, God promised to work in and by the new.
3. It is nowhere said nor intimated in the Scripture, that the efficacy of the new covenant, and the accomplishment of the promises of it, should depend on and arise from the suitableness of its precepts unto our reason, or natural principles; but it is universally and constantly ascribed unto the efficacy of the Spirit and grace of God, not only enabling us unto obedience, but enduing us with a spiritual, supernatural, vital principle, from which it may proceed.
4. It is true, that our own wills, or the free actings of them, are required in our faith and obedience; whence it is promised that we shall be willing in the day of his power. But that our wills are left absolutely herein unto our own liberty and power, without being inclined and determined by the grace of God, is that Pelagianism which hath long attempted the church, but which shall never absolutely prevail.
5. The putting the laws of God in our minds, and the writing of them in our hearts, that we may know him, and fear him always, is promised in the same way and manner as is the forgiveness of sin, verse 12; and it is hard to affix such a sense unto that promise, as that God will use such and such means that our sins may be pardoned, which yet may all of them fail.
6. As this exposition is no way suited unto the words of the text, nor of the context, or scope of the place, so indeed it overthrows the nature of the new covenant, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which comes thereby. For,
(1.) If the effect itself, or the things mentioned are not promised, but only the use of means, left unto the liberty of mens wills whether they will comply with them or no, then the very being of the covenant, whether it ever shall have any existence or no, depends absolutely on the wills of men, and so may not be. For it is not the proposal of the terms of the covenant, and the means whereby we may enter into it, that is called the making of this covenant with us; but our real participation of the grace and mercy promised in it. This alone gives a real existence unto the covenant itself, without which it is not a covenant; nor without it is it properly made with any.
(2.) The Lord Christ would be made hereby the mediator of an uncertain covenant. For if it depend absolutely on the wills of men whether they will accept of the terms of it and comply with it or no, it is uncertain what will be the event, and whether ever any one will do so or no; for the will being not determined by grace, what its actings will be is altogether uncertain.
(3.) The covenant can hereon in no sense be a testament; which our apostle afterwards proves that it is, and that irrevocably ratified by the death of the testator. For there can, on this supposition, be no certain heir unto whom Christ did bequeath his goods, and the inheritance of mercy, grace, and glory. This would make this testament inferior to that of a wise man, who determines in particular unto whom his goods shall come.
(4.) It takes away that difference between this and the former covenant which it is the main scope of the apostle to prove; at least it leaves the difference to consist only in the gradual efficacy of outboard means; which is most remote from his purpose. For there were by the old covenant means supplied to induce the people unto constant obedience, and those in their kind powerful. This is pleaded by Moses, in the whole book almost of Deuteronomy. For the scope of all his exhortations unto obedience is to show that God had so instructed them in the knowledge of his will by giving of the law, and had accompanied his teachings with so many signal mercies, such effects of his mighty power, goodness, and grace; that the covenant was accompanied with such promises and threatenings, that therein life and death temporal and eternal were set before them; all which made their obedience so reasonable and necessary, that nothing but profligacy in wickedness could turn them from it. To this purpose are discourses multiplied in that book. And yet notwithstanding all this, it is added, that God had not circumcised their hearts to fear him and obey him always, as it is here promised. The communication of grace effectual, producing infallibly the good things proposed and promised in the minds and hearts of men, belonged not unto that covenant. If, therefore, there be no more in the making of the new covenant but only the adding of more forcible outward means and motives, more suitable unto our reasons, and meet to work on our affections, it differs only in some unassignable degrees from the former. But this is directly contrary unto the promise in the prophet, that it shall not be according unto it, or of the same kind; no more than Christ, the high priest of it, should be a priest after the order of Aaron.
(5.) It would on this supposition follow, that God might fulfill his promise of putting his laws in the minds of men, and writing them in their hearts, and yet none have the laws put into their minds, nor written in their hearts; which things are not reconcilable by any distinction unto the ordinary reason of mankind.
Wherefore we must grant that it is the effect, the event in the communication of the things promised, that is ascribed unto this covenant, and not only the use and application of means unto their production. And this will yet further appear in the particular exposition of the several parts of it. But yet, before we enter thereon, two objections must be removed, which may in general be laid against our interpretation.
First, This covenant is promised as that which is future, to be brought in at a certain time, after those days, as hath been declared. But it is certain that the things here mentioned, the grace and mercy expressed, were really communicated unto many both before and after the giving of the law, long ere this covenant was made; for all who truly believed and feared God had these things effected in them by grace: wherefore their effectual communication cannot be esteemed a property of this covenant which was to be made afterwards.
Ans. This objection was sufficiently prevented in what we have already discoursed concerning the efficacy of the grace of this covenant before itself was solemnly consummated. For all things of this nature that belong unto it do arise and spring from the mediation of Christ, or his interposition on the behalf of sinners. Wherefore this took place from the giving of the first promise; the administration of the grace of this covenant did therein and then take its date. Howbeit the Lord Christ had not yet done that whereby it was solemnly to be confirmed, and that whereon all the virtue of it did depend. Wherefore this covenant is promised now to be made, not in opposition unto what grace and mercy was derived from it both before and under the law, nor as unto the first administration of grace from the mediator of it; but in opposition unto the covenant of Sinai, and with respect unto its outward solemn confirmation.
Secondly, If the things themselves are promised in the covenant, then all those with whom this covenant is made must be really and effectually made partakers of them. But this is not so; they are not all actually sanctified, pardoned, and saved, which are the things here promised.
Ans. The making of this covenant may be considered two ways:
1. As unto the preparation and proposition of its terms and conditions.
2. As unto the internal stipulation between God and the souls of men.
In this sense alone God is properly said to make this covenant with any. The preparation and proposition of laws are not the making of the covenant. And therefore all with whom this covenant is made are effectually sanctified, justified, and saved.
SECONDLY, These things being premised, as it was necessary they should be, unto the right understanding of the mind of the Holy Ghost, I shall proceed unto the particular parts of the covenant as here expressed, namely, in the blessed properties and effects of it, whereby it is distinguished from the former.
The first two expressions are of the same nature and tendency, I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their hearts. In general it is the reparation of our nature by the restoration of the image of God in us, that is, our sanctification, which is promised in these words. And there are two things in the words both doubly expressed:
1. The subject wrought upon; which is the mind and the heart.
2. The manner of producing the effect mentioned in them; and that is by putting and writing. And,
3. The things by these means so communicated; which are the laws of God.
1. The subject spoken of is the mind and heart. When the apostle treats of the depravation and corruption of our nature, he placeth them and , Eph 4:18; that is, the mind and the heart. These are, in the Scripture, the seat of natural corruption, the residence of the principle of alienation from the life of God which is in us. Wherefore the renovation of our natures consists in the rectifying and curing of them, in the furnishing them with contrary principles of faith, love, and adherence unto God. And we may observe, that,
Obs. 6. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the new covenant, in its being and existence, in its healing, repairing efficacy, is as large and extensive as sin is in its residence and power to deprave our natures. This is the difference about the extent of the new covenant, and the grace of it: Some would have it to extend unto all persons, in its tender and conditional proposition; but not unto all things, as unto its efficacy in the reparation of our natures. Others assert it to extend unto all the effects of sin, in the removal of them, and the cure of our natures thereby; but as unto persons, it is really extended unto none but those in whom these effects are produced, whatever be its outward administration, which was also always limited: unto whom I do subscribe.
The first thing mentioned is the mind. the apostle renders by , the inward part. The mind is the most secret, inward part or power of the soul. And the prophet expresseth it by the inward part, because it is the only safe and useful repository of the laws of God. When they are there laid up, we shall not lose them; neither men nor devils can take them from us. And he also declares wherein the excellency of covenant obedience doth consist. It is not in the conformity of our outward actions unto the law, although that be required therein also; but it principally lieth in the inward parts, where God searcheth for and regardeth truth in sincerity, Psa 51:6. Wherefore is the mind and understanding, whose natural depravation is the spring and principle of all disobedience; the cure whereof is here promised in the first place. In the outward administration of the means of grace, the affections, or, if I may so speak, the more outward part of the soul, are usually first affected and wrought upon: but the first real effect of the internal promised grace of the covenant is on the mind, the most spiritual and inward part of the soul. This in the New Testament is expressed by the renovation of the mind, Rom 12:2, Eph 4:23; and the opening of the eyes of our understandings, Eph 1:17-18; God shining into our hearts, to give us the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ, 2Co 4:6. Hereby the enmity against God, the vanity, darkness, and alienation from the life of God, which the mind naturally is possessed and filled withal, are taken away and removed, of the nature of which work I have treated at large elsewhere; [10] for the law of God in the mind, is the saving knowledge of the mind and will of God, whereof the law is the revelation, communicated unto it and implanted in it.
[10] See his treatise on the Holy Spirit, vol. 3 of his miscellaneous works. ED.
2. The way whereby God in the covenant of grace thus works on the mind is expressed by : so the apostle tenders , I will give. , giving, may by an enallage be put for , I will give. So is it expressed in the next clause, , in the future tense, I will write. The word in the prophet is, I will give; we render it, I will put. But there are two things intimated in the word:
(1.) The freedom of the grace promised; it is a mere grant, gift, or donation of grace.
(2.) The efficacy of it. That which is given of God unto any is received by them, otherwise it is no gift. And this latter is well expressed by the word used by us, I will put; which expresseth an actual communication, and not a fruitless tender. This the apostle renders emphatically, ; that is, , This is that which I do, am doing in this covenant; namely, freely giving that grace whereby my laws shall be implanted on the minds of men.
3. To show in general, before we proceed to the nature of this work, so far as is necessary unto the exposition of the words, we may here consider what was observed in the third place, namely, what it is that is thus promised to be communicated, and so carry it on with us unto the other clause of this promise.
That which is to be put into this spiritual receptacle is in these words, , My laws; in the plural number. Expositors inquire what laws are here intended, whether the moral law only, or others also. But there is no need of such inquiry. There is a metonymy of the subject and effect in the words. It is that knowledge of the mind and will of God which is revealed in the law, and taught by it, which is promised. The laws of God, therefore, are here taken largely, for the whole revelation of the mind and will of God. So doth originally signify doctrine or instruction. By what way or revelation soever God makes known himself and his will unto us, requiring our obedience therein, it is all comprised in that expression of his laws.
From these things we may easily discern the nature of that grace which is contained in this first branch of the first promise of the covenant. And this is, the effectual operation of his Spirit in the renovation and saving illumination of our minds, whereby they are habitually made conformable unto the whole law of God, that is, the rule and the law of our obedience in the new covenant, and enabled unto all acts and duties that are required of us. And this is the first grace promised and communicated unto us by virtue of this covenant, as it was necessary that so it should be. For,
1. The mind is the principal seat of all spiritual obedience.
2. The proper and peculiar actings of the mind, in discerning, knowing, judging, must go before the actings of the will and affections, much more all outward practices.
3. The depravation of the mind is such, by blindness, darkness, vanity, and enmity, that nothing can inflame our souls, or make an entrance towards the reparation of our natures, but an internal, spiritual, saving operation of grace upon the mind.
4. Faith itself is principally ingenerated by an infusion of saving light into the mind, 2Co 4:4; 2Co 4:6. So,
Obs. 7. All the beginnings and entrances into the saving knowledge of God, and thereon of obedience unto him, are effects of the grace of the covenant.
The second part of this first promise of the covenant is expressed in these words, And will write them upon their hearts; which is that which renders the former part actually effectual.
Expositors generally observe, that respect is had herein unto the giving of the law on mount Sinai, that is, in the first covenant; for then the law (that is, the ten words) was written in tables of stone. And although the original tables were broken by Moses, when the people had broken the covenant, yet would not God alter that dispensation, nor write his laws any other way, but commanded new tables of stone to be made, and wrote them therein. And this was done, not so much to secure the outward letter of them, as to represent the hardness of the hearts of the people unto whom they were given. God did not, God would not by virtue of that covenant otherwise dispose of his law. And the event that ensued hereon was, that they brake these laws, and abode not in obedience. This event God promiseth to obviate and prevent under the new covenant, and that by writing these laws now in our hearts, which he wrote before only in tables of stone; that is, he will effectually work that obedience in us which the law doth require, for he worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. The heart, as distinguished from the mind, compriseth the will and the affections; and they are compared unto the tables wherein the letter of the law was engraven. For as by that writing and engraving, the tables received the impression of the letters and words wherein the law was contained, which they did firmly retain and represent, so as that although they were stones still in their nature, yet were they nothing but the law in their use; so by the grace of the new covenant there is a durable impression of the law of God on the wills and affections of men, whereby they answer it, represent it, comply with it, and have a living principle of it abiding in them. Wherefore, as this work must necessarily consist of two parts, namely, the removal out of the heart of whatever is contrary unto the law of God, and the implanting of principles of obedience thereinto; so it comes under a double description or denomination in the Scripture. For sometimes it is called a taking away of the heart of stone, or circumcising of the heart; and sometimes the giving of an heart of flesh, the writing of the law in our hearts; which is the renovation of our natures into the image of God in righteousness and the holiness of truth. Wherefore in this promise the whole of our sanctification, in its beginning and progress, in its work upon our whole souls and all their faculties, is comprised. And we may observe,
Obs. 8. The work of grace in the new covenant passeth on the whole soul, in all its faculties, powers, and affections, unto their change and renovation. The whole was corrupted, and the whole must be renewed. The image of God was originally in and upon the whole, and on the loss of it the whole was depraved. See 1Th 5:23.
Obs. 9. To take away the necessity and efficacy of renewing, changing, sanctifying grace, consisting in an internal, efficacious operation of the principles, habits, and acts of internal grace and obedience, is plainly to overthrow and reject the new covenant.
Obs. 10. We bring nothing to the new covenant but our hearts, as tables to be written in, with the sense of the insufficiency of the precepts and promises of the law, with respect unto our own ability to comply with them.
The last thing in the words, is the relation that ensues hereon between God and his people: I will be unto them a God, and they shall be to me a people. This is indeed a distinct promise by itself, summarily comprising all the blessings and privileges of the covenant. And it is placed in the center of the account given of the whole, as that from whence all the grace of it doth spring, wherein all the blessings of it do consist, and whereby they are secured. Howbeit in this place it is peculiarly mentioned, as that which hath its foundation in the foregoing promise. For this relation, which implies mutual acquiescency in each other, could not be, nor ever had been, if the minds and hearts of them who are to be taken into it were not changed and renewed. For neither could God approve of and rest in his love towards them, whilst they were enemies unto him in the depravation of their natures; nor could they find rest or satisfaction in God, whom they neither knew, nor liked, nor loved.
This is the general expression of any covenant relation between God and men, He will be unto them a God, and they shall be to him a people. And it is frequently made use of with respect unto the first covenant, which yet was disannulled. God owned the people therein for his peculiar portion, and they avouched him to be their God alone.
Nor can this be spoken of God and any people, but on the ground of an especial covenant. It is true, God is the God of all the world, and all people are his; yea, he is a God unto them all. For as he made them, so he sustains, rules, and governeth them in all things, by his power and providence. But with respect hereunto God doth not freely promise that he will be a God unto any, nor can so do; for his power over all, and his rule of all things, is essential and natural unto him, so as it cannot otherwise be. Wherefore, as thus declared, it is a peculiar expression of an especial covenant relation. And the nature of it is to be expounded by the nature and properties of that covenant which it doth respect.
Two things we must therefore consider, to discover the nature of this relation:
1. The foundation of it.
2. The mutual actings in it by virtue of this relation.
1. Unto the manifestation of the foundation of it, some things must be premised:
(1.) Upon the entrance of sin there continued no such covenant relation between God and man, as that by virtue thereof he should be their God, and they should be his people. God continued still in the full enjoyment of his sovereignty over men; which no sin, nor rebellion, nor apostasy of man could in the least impeach. And man continued under an obligation unto dependence on God and subjection unto his will in all things. For these cannot be separated from his nature and being until final judgment be executed; after which God rules over them only by power, without any respect unto their wills or obedience. But that especial relation of mutual interest by virtue of the first covenant ceased between them.
(2.) God would not enter into any other covenant with sinful, fallen man, to be a God unto them, and to take them to be a peculiar people unto him, immediately in their own persons. Nor was it consistent with his wisdom and goodness so to do; for if man was not steadfast in Gods covenant, but brake and disannulled it when he was sinless and upright, only created with a possibility of defection, what expectations could there be that now he was fallen, and his nature wholly depraved, any new covenant should be of use unto the glory of God or advantage of man? To enter into a new covenant that must necessarily be broken, unto the aggravation of the misery of man, became not the wisdom and goodness of God. If it be said, God might have so made a new covenant immediately with men as to secure their future obedience, and to have made it firm and stable,I answer, It would not have become the divine wisdom and goodness to have dealt better with men after their rebellion and apostasy than before, namely, on their own account. He did in our first creation communicate unto our nature all that grace and all those privileges which in his wisdom he thought meet to endow it withal, and all that was necessary to make them who were partakers of it everlastingly blessed. To suppose that, on his own account alone, he would immediately collate more grace upon it, is to suppose him singularly well pleased with our sin and rebellion. This, then, God would not do. Wherefore,
(3.) God provided in the first place that there should be a mediator, a sponsor, an undertaker, with whom alone he would treat about a new covenant, and so establish it. For there were, in the contrivance of his grace and wisdom concerning it, many things necessary unto it that could no otherwise be enacted and accomplished. Nay, there was not any one thing in all the good which he designed unto mankind in this covenant, in a way of love, grace, and mercy, that could be communicated unto them, so as that his honor and glory might be advanced thereby, without the consideration of this mediator, and what he undertook to do. Nor could mankind have yielded any of that obedience unto God which he would require of them, without the interposition of this mediator on their behalf. It was therefore with him that God firstly made this covenant.
How it was needful that this mediator should be God and man in one person; how he became so to undertake for us, and in our stead; what was the especial covenant between God and him as unto the work which he undertook personally to perform; have, according unto our poor weak measure and dark apprehension of these heavenly things, been declared at large in our Exercitations on this epistle, and yet more fully in our discourse of the mystery and glory of the person of Christ.[11] Wherefore, as unto this new covenant, it was firstly made with Jesus Christ, the surety of it and undertaker in it. For,
[11] See Exerc. xxv.-xxxiv.; and vol. 1 of the authors miscellaneous works.
(1.) God neither would nor, salva justitia, sapientia, et honore, could, treat immediately with sinful, rebellious men on terms of grace for the future, until satisfaction was undertaken to be made for sins past, or such as should afterwards fall out. This was done by Christ alone; who was therefore the of this covenant and all the grace of it. 2Co 5:19-20; Gal 3:13-14; Rom 3:25.
(2.) No restipulation of obedience unto God could be made by man, that might be a ground of entering into a covenant intended to be firm and stable. For whereas we had broken our first covenant engagement with God in our best condition, we were not likely of ourselves to make good a new engagement of a higher nature than the former. Who will take the word or the security of a bankrupt for thousands, who is known not to be worth one farthing; especially if he have wasted a former estate in luxury and riot, continuing an open slave to the same lusts? Wherefore it was absolutely necessary that in this covenant there should be a surety, to undertake for our answering and firm standing unto the terms of it. Without this, the event of this new covenant, which God would make as a singular effect of his wisdom and grace, would neither have been glory to him nor advantage unto us.
(3.) That grace which was to be the spring of all the blessings of this covenant, unto the glory of God and salvation of the church, was to be deposited in some safe hand, for the accomplishment of these ends. In the first covenant, God at once committed unto man that whole stock of grace which was necessary to enable him unto the obedience of it. And the grace of reward which he was to receive upon the performance of it, God reserved absolutely in his own hand; yea, so as that perhaps man did not fully understand what it was. But all was lost at once that was committed unto our keeping, so as that nothing at all was left to give us the least relief as unto any new endeavors. Wherefore God will now secure all the good things of this covenant, both as to grace and glory, in a third hand, in the hand of a mediator. Hereon the promises are made unto him, and the fullness of grace is laid up in him, Joh 1:14; Col 1:19; Col 2:3; Eph 3:8; 2Co 1:20.
(4.) As he was the mediator of this covenant, God became his God, and he became the servant of God in a peculiar manner. For he stood before God in this covenant as a public representative of all the elect. See our comment on Heb 1:5; Heb 1:8-9; Heb 2:13. God is a God unto him in all the promises he received on the behalf of his mystical body; and he was his servant in the accomplishment of them, as the pleasure of the Lord was to prosper in his hand.
(5.) God being in this covenant a God and Father unto Christ, he came by virtue thereof to be our God and Father, Joh 20:17; Heb 2:12-13. And we became heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ; and his people, to yield him all sincere obedience.
And these things may suffice briefly to declare the foundation of that covenant relation which is here expressed. Wherefore,
Obs. 11. The Lord Christ, God and man, undertaking to be the mediator between God and man, and a surety on our behalf, is the spring and head of the new covenant, which is made and established with us in him.
2. The nature of this covenant relation is expressed on the one side and the other: I will be unto them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
(1.) On the part of God it is, I will be unto them a God; or, as it is elsewhere expressed, I will be their God.
And we must make a little inquiry into this unspeakable privilege, which eternity only will fully unfold:
[1.] The person speaking is included in the verb, , I will be;
I, Jehovah, who make this promise.And herein God proposeth unto our faith all the glorious properties of his nature: I, who am that I am, Jehovah, goodness and being itself, and the cause of all being and goodness to others; infinitely wise, powerful, righteous, etc. I, that am all this, and in all that I am will be so.Here lies the eternal spring of the infinite treasures of the supplies of the church, here and for ever. Whatever God is in himself, whatever these properties of his nature extend to, in it all God hath promised to be our God: Gen 17:1, I am God Almighty; walk before me. Hence, to give establishment and security to our faith, he hath in his word revealed himself by so many names, titles, properties, and that so frequently; it is that we may know him who is our God, what he is, and what he will be unto us. And the knowledge of him, as so revealing himself, is that which secures our confidence, faith, hope, fear, and trust. The LORD will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble; and they that know thy name will put their trust in thee, Psa 9:9-10.
[2.] What he promiseth is, that he will be a God unto us. Now, although this compriseth absolutely every thing that is good, yet may the notion of being a God unto any be referred unto two general heads:
1st. An all-sufficient preserver; and,
2dly. An all-sufficient rewarder: so himself declares the meaning of this expression, Gen 17:1; Gen 15:1. I will be all this unto them that I am a God unto in the way of preservation and recompence, Heb 11:6.
[3.] The declared rule and measure of Gods actings towards us as our God, are the promises of the covenant, both of mercy, grace, pardon, holiness, perseverance, protection, success, and spiritual victory in this world, and of eternal glory in the world to come. In and by all these things will he, in all that he is in himself, be a God unto those whom he takes into this covenant.
[4.] It is included in this part of the promise, that they that take him to be their God, they shall say, Thou art my God, Hos 2:23; and carry it towards him according unto what infinite goodness, grace, mercy, power, and faithfulness, do require.
And we may observe,
Obs. 12. As nothing less than God becoming our God could relieve, help, and save us, so nothing more can be required thereunto.
Obs. 13. The efficacy, security, and glory of this covenant, depend originally on the nature of God, immediately and actually on the mediation of Christ. It is the covenant that God makes with us in him as the surety thereof.
Obs. 14. It is from the engagement of the properties of the divine nature that this covenant is ordered in all things and sure. Infinite wisdom hath provided it, and infinite power will make it effectual.
Obs. 15. As the grace of this covenant is inexpressible, so are the obligations it puts upon us unto obedience.
(2.) The relation of man unto God is expressed in these words, And they shall be unto. me a people; or, They shall be my people. And two things are contained herein:
[1.] Gods owning of them to be his in a peculiar manner, according to the tenor and promise of this covenant, and dealing with them accordingly. , Tit 2:14, A peculiar people. Let others take heed how they meddle with them, lest they intrench on Gods propriety, Jer 2:3.
[2.] There is included in it that which is essentially required unto their being his people, namely, the profession of all subjection or obedience unto him, and all dependence upon him. Wherefore this also belongs unto it, namely, their avouching this God to be their God, and their free engagement unto all that obedience which in the covenant he requireth. For although this expression, And they shall be unto me a people, seems only to denote an act of Gods grace, assuming of them into that relation unto himself, yet it includes their avouching him to be their God, and their voluntary engagement Of obedience unto him as their God. When he says, Ye are my people; they also say, Thou art my God, Hos 2:23.Yet is it to be observed,
Obs. 16. That God doth as well undertake for our being his people as he doth for his being our God. And the promises contained in this verse do principally aim at that end, namely, the making of us to be a people unto him.
Obs. 17. Those whom God makes a covenant withal, are his in a peculiar manner. And the profession hereof is that which the world principally maligneth in them, and ever did so from the beginning.
Heb 8:11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
The second general promise, declaring the nature of the new covenant, is expressed in this verse. And the matter of it is set down,
1. Negatively, in opposition unto what was in use and necessary under the first covenant.
2. Positively, in what should take place in the room of it, and be enjoyed under this new covenant, and by virtue of it.
First, In the former part we may observe,
1. The vehemency of the negation, in the redoubling of the negative particle, : They shall by no means do so; that shall not be the way and manner with them whom God makes this covenant withal.And this is designed to fix our minds on the consideration of the privilege which is enjoyed under the new covenant, and the greatness of it.
2. The thing thus denied is teaching, not absolutely, but as unto a certain way and manner of it. The negation is not universal as unto teaching, but restrained unto a certain kind of it, which was in use and necessary under the old covenant. And this necessity was either from Gods institution, or from practice taken up among themselves, which must be inquired into.
3. The subject-matter of this teaching, or the matter to be taught, was the knowledge of God, Know the Lord. The whole knowledge of God prescribed in the law is here intended. And this may be reduced unto two heads:
(1.) The knowing of him, and the taking him thereon to be God, to be God alone; which is the first command.
(2.) Of his mind and will, as unto the obedience which the law required in all the institutions and precepts thereof; all the things which God revealed for their good: Deu 29:29,
Revealed things belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
4. The manner of the teaching whose continuation is denied, is exemplified in a distribution into teachers and them that are taught: Every man his neighbor, and every man his brother. And herein,
(1.) The universality of the duty, every one, is expressed; and therefore it was reciprocal. Every one was to teach, and every one was to be taught; wherein yet respect was to be had unto their several capacities.
(2.) The opportunity for the discharging of the duty is also declared, from the mutual relation of the teachers and them that are taught: Every one his neighbor and his brother. Secondly, The positive part of the promise consists of two parts:
1. The thing promised, which is the knowledge of God: They shall all know me. And this is placed in opposition unto what is denied: They shall not teach one another, saying, Know the Lord. But this opposition is not as unto the act or duty of teaching, but as unto the effect, or saving knowledge itself. The principal efficient cause of our learning the knowledge of God under the new covenant is included in this part of the promise. This is expressed in another prophet and promise, They shall be all taught of God. And the observation hereof will be of use unto us in the exposition of this text.
2. There is added the universality of the promise with respect unto them with whom this covenant is made: All of them, from the least unto the greatest; a proverbial speech, signifying the generality intended without exception: Jer 8:10,
Every one, from the least even unto the greatest, is given unto covetousness.
This text hath been looked on as attended with great difficulty and much obscurity; which expositors generally rather conceal than remove. For from the vehement denial of the use of that sort or kind of teaching which was in use under the old testament, some have apprehended and contended that all outward stated ways of instruction under the new testament are useless and forbidden. Hereon by some all the ordinances of the church, the whole ministry and .guidance of it, hath been rejected; which is, in sum, that there is no such thing as a professing church in the world. But yet those who are thus minded are no way able to advance their opinion, but by a direct contradiction unto this promise in their own sense of it. For they endeavor in what they do to teach others their opinion, and that not in the way of a public ordinance, but every one his neighbor; which, if any thing, is here denied in an especial manner. And the truth is, that if all outward teaching be absolutely and universally forbidden, as it would quickly fill the world with darkness and brutish ignorance, so, if any one should come to the knowledge of the sense of this or any other text of Scripture, it would be absolutely unlawful for him to communicate it unto others; for to say,
Know the Lord, or the mind of God in this text,either to neighbor or brother, would be forbidden. And of all kinds of teaching, that by a public ministry, in the administration of the ordinances of the church, which alone is contended against from these words, seems least to be intended; for it is private, neighborly, brotherly instruction only, that is expressed. Wherefore, if, on a supposition of the prohibition of such outward instruction, any one shall go about to teach another that the public ordinances of the church are not to be allowed as a means of teaching under the new testament, he directly falls under the prohibition here given in his own sense, and is guilty of the violation of it. Wherefore these words must necessarily have another sense, as we shall see they have in the exposition of them, and that plain and obvious.
Howbeit some learned men have been so moved with this objection, as to affirm that the accomplishment of this promise of the covenant belongs unto heaven, and the state of glory; for therein alone, they say, we shall have no more need of teaching in any kind. But as this exposition is directly contrary unto the design of the apostle, as respecting the teaching of the new covenant and the testator thereof; when he intends only that of the old, and exalts the new above it; so there is no such difficulty in the words as to force us to carry the interpretation of them into another world. Unto the right understanding of them sundry things are to be observed:
1. That sundry things seem in the Scripture ofttimes to be denied absolutely as unto their nature and being, when indeed they are so only comparatively with respect unto somewhat else which is preferred before them. Many instances might be given hereof. I shall direct only unto one that is liable to no exception: Jer 7:22-23,
I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt- offerings or sacrifices: but this thing commanded I them, swing, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
The Jews of that time preferred the ceremonial worship by burnt-offerings and sacrifices above all moral obedience, above the great duties of faith, love, righteousness, and holiness. And not only so, but in a pretended diligent observation thereof, they countenanced themselves in an open neglect and contempt of moral obedience, placing all their confidence for acceptance with God in these other duties. To take them off from this vain, ruining presumption, as God by sundry other prophets declared the utter insufficiency of these sacrifices and burnt-offerings by themselves to render them acceptable unto him, and then prefers moral obedience above them; so here he affirms that he commanded them not. And the instance is given in that time wherein it is known that all the ordinances of worship by burnt- offerings and sacrifices were solemnly instituted. But a comparison is made between ceremonial worship and spiritual obedience; in respect whereof God says he commanded not the former, namely, so as to stand in competition with the latter, or to be trusted unto in the neglect of it, wherein the evils and miscarriages reproved did consist. So our blessed Savior expounds this and the like passages in the prophets, in a comparison between the lowest instances of the ceremonial law, such as tithing of mint and cummin, and the great duties of love and righteousness. These things, saith he, speaking of the latter, ye ought to have done; that is, principally and in the first place have attended unto, as those which the law chiefly designed. But what then shall become of the former? Why, saith he, Them also ye ought not to leave undone in their proper place obedience was to be yielded unto God in them also. So is it in this present case. There was an outward teaching of every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, enjoined under the old testament. This the people trusted unto and rested in, without any regard unto Gods teaching by the inward circumcision of the heart. But in the new covenant, there being an express promise of an internal, effectual teaching by the Spirit of God, by writing his law in our hearts, without which all outward teaching is useless and ineffectual, it is here denied to be of any use; that is, it is not so absolutely, but in comparison of and in competition with this other effectual way of teaching and instruction. Even at this day we have not a few who set these teachings in opposition unto one another, whereas in Gods institution they are subordinate. And hereon, rejecting the internal, efficacious teaching of the Spirit of God, they betake themselves only unto their own endeavors in the outward means of teaching; wherein for the most part there are none more negligent than themselves. But so it is, that the ways of Gods grace are not suited, but always lie contrary unto the corrupt reasonings of men. Hence some reject all the outward means of teaching by the ordinances of the gospel, under a pretense that the inward teaching of the Spirit of God is all that is needful or useful in this kind. Others, on the other hand, adhere only unto the outward means of instruction, despising what is affirmed concerning the inward teaching of the Spirit of God, as a mere imagination. And both sorts run into these pernicious mistakes, by opposing those things which God hath made subordinate.
2. The teaching intended, whose continuance is here denied, is that which was then in use in the church; or rather, was to be so when the new covenant state was solemnly to be introduced. And this was twofold:
(1.) That which was instituted by God himself; and,
(2.) That which the people had superadded in the way of practice:
(1.) The first of these is, as in other places, so particularly expressed, Deu 6:6-9, And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house, and on thy gate. Add hereunto the institution of fringes for a memorial of the commandments; which was one way of saying, Know the Lord, Num 15:38-39.
Two things may be considered in these institutions:
[1.] What is natural and moral, included in the common mutual duties of men one towards another; for of this nature is that of seeking the good of others by instructing them in the knowledge of God, wherein their chiefest happiness doth consist.
[2.] That which is ceremonial, as to the manner of this duty, is described in sundry instances, as those of frontlets and fringes, writing on posts and doors. The first of these is to abide for ever. No promise of the gospel doth evacuate any precept of the law of nature; such as that is of seeking the good of others, and that their chiefest good, by means and ways proper thereunto. But as unto the latter, which the Jews did principally attend unto and rely upon, it is by this promise, or the new covenant, quite taken away.
(2.) As unto the practice of the church of the Jews in these institutions, it is not to be expressed what extremities they ran into. It is probable that about the time spoken of in this promise, which is that of the Babylonian captivity, they began that intricate, perplexed way of teaching which afterwards they were wholly addicted unto. For all of them who pretended to be serious, gave up themselves unto the teaching and learning of the law. But herewithal they mixed so many vain curiosities and traditions of their own, that the whole of their endeavor was disapproved of God. Hence, in the very entrance of their practice of this way of teaching, he threatens to destroy all them that attended unto it: Mal 2:12, The LORD will cut off the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob. It is true, we have not any monuments or records of their teaching all that time, neither what they taught, nor how; but we may reasonably suppose it was of the same kind with what flourished afterwards in their famous schools derived from these first inventors. And of such reputation were those schools among them, that none was esteemed a wise man, or to have any understanding of the law, who was not brought up in them. The first record we have of the manner of their teaching, or what course they took therein, is in the Mishna. This is their interpretation of the law, or their saying one to another, Know the LORD. And he that shall seriously consider but one section or chapter in that whole book, will quickly discern of what kind and nature their teaching was; for such an operose, laborious, curious, fruitless work, there is not another instance to be given of in the whole world. There is not any one head, doctrine, or precept of the law, suppose it be of the Sabbath, of sacrifices, or offerings, but they have filled it with so many needless, foolish, curious, superstitious questions and determinations, as that it is almost impossible that any man in the whole course of his life should understand them, or guide his course according unto them. These were the burdens that the Pharisees bound on the shoulders of their disciples, until they were utterly weary and fainted under them. And this kind of teaching had possessed the whole church then, when the new covenant was solemnly to be introduced, no other being in use. And this is absolutely intended in this promise, as that which was utterly to cease. For God would take away the law, which in itself was a burden, as the apostle speaks, which neither their fathers nor they were able to bear. And the weight of that burden was unspeakably increased by the expositions and additions whereof this teaching consisted. Wherefore the removal of it is here proposed in the way of a promise, evidencing it to be a matter of grace and kindness unto the church. But the removal of teaching in general is always mentioned as a threatening and punishment.
Wherefore the denial of the continuation of this teaching may be considered two ways:
(1.) As it was external, in opposition unto and comparison of the effectual internal teaching by the grace of the new covenant; so it is laid aside, not absolutely, but comparatively, and as it was solitary. (2.) It may be considered in the manner of it, with especial respect unto the ceremonial law, as it consisted in the observance of sundry rites and ceremonies. And in this sense it was utterly to cease; above all, with respect unto the additions which men had made unto the ceremonial institutions wherein it did consist. Such was their teaching by writing parts of the law on their fringes, frontiers, and doors of their houses; especially as these things were enlarged, and precepts concerning them multiplied in the practice of the Jewish church. It is promised concerning these things, that they shall be absolutely removed, as useless, burdensome, and inconsistent with the spiritual teaching of the new covenant. But as unto that kind of instruction, whether by public, stated preaching of the word, or that which is more private and occasional, which is subservient unto the promised teaching of the Spirit of God, and which he will and doth make use of in and for the communication of the knowledge itself here promised, there is nothing intimated that is derogatory unto its use, continuance, or necessity. A supposition thereof would overthrow the whole ministry of Jesus Christ himself and of his apostles, as well as the ordinary ministry of the church.
And these things are spoken in exposition of this place, taken from the meaning and intention of the word teaching, or the duty itself, whose continuance and further use is denied. But yet, it may be, more clear light into the mind of the Holy Spirit may be attained, from a due consideration of what it is that is so to be taught. And this is, Know the Lord. Concerning which two things may be observed:
1. That there was a knowledge of God under the old testament, so revealed as that it was hidden under types, wrapped up in veils, expressed only in parables and dark sayings. For it was the mind of God, that as unto the clear perception and revelation of it, it should lie hid until the Son came from his bosom to declare him, to make his name known, and to bring life and immortality to light; yea, some things belonging hereunto, though virtually revealed, yet were so compassed with darkness in the manner of their revelation, as that the angels themselves could not clearly and distinctly look into them. But that there were some such great and excellent things concerning God and his will laid up in the revelation of Moses and the prophets, with their institutions of worship, they did understand. But the best and wisest of them knew also, that notwithstanding their best and utmost inquiry, they could not comprehend the time, nature, and state of the things so revealed; for it was revealed unto them, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister in their revelation of those things, 1Pe 1:12. And as our apostle informs us, Moses in his ministry and institutions gave testimony unto the things which were to be spoken (that is, clearly) afterwards, Heb 3:5. This secret, hidden knowledge of God, principally concerned the incarnation of Christ, his mediation and suffering for sin, with the call of the Gentiles thereon. These, and such like mysteries of the gospel, they could never attain the comprehension of. But yet they stirred up each other diligently to inquire into them, as to what they were capable of attaining, saying one to another, Know the Lord. But it was little that they could attain unto, God having provided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. And when that church ceased to make this the principal part of their religion, namely, a diligent inquiry into the hidden knowledge of God, in and by the promised seed, with a believing desire and expectation of its full manifestation, contenting themselves with the letter of the word, looking on types and shadows as things present and substances, they not only lost the glory of their profession, but were hardened into an unbelief of the things signified unto them in their real exhibition. Now this kind of teaching, by mutual encouragement to look into the veiled things of the mystery of God in Christ, is now to cease, at the solemn introduction of the new covenant, as being rendered useless by the full, clear revelation and manifestation of them made in the gospel. They shall no more, that is, they shall need no more, to teach, so to teach this knowledge of God; for it shall be made plain to the understanding of all believers. And this is that which I judge to be principally intended by the Holy Ghost in this part of the promise, as that which the positive part of it doth so directly answer unto.
2. The knowledge of the LORD may be here taken, not objectively and doctrinally, but subjectively, for the renovation of the mind in the saving knowledge of God. And this neither is nor can be communicated unto any by external teaching alone, in respect whereunto it may be said comparatively to be laid aside, as was intimated before. We have, I hope, sufficiently freed the words from the difficulties that seem to attend them, so as that we shall not need to refer the accomplishment of this promise unto heaven, with many ancient and modern expositors; nor yet, with others, to restrain it unto the first converts to Christianity, who were miraculously illuminated; much less so to interpret them as to exclude the ministry of the church in teaching, or any other effectual way thereof. Somewhat may be observed of the particular expressions used in them:
1. There is in the original promise the word , amplius, no more. This is omitted by the apostle, yet so as that it is plainly included in what he expresseth. For the word denotes the time and season which was limited unto that kind of teaching which was to cease. This season being to expire at the publication of the gospel, the apostle affirms absolutely then, They shall not teach, what the prophet before declared with the limited season now expired, They shall do so no more.
2. The prophet expresseth the subject spoken of indefinitely, , A man his neighbor, a man his brother; that is, any man: the apostle by the universal , every man; which is also reducible unto any one, every one that is or may be called to this work, or hath occasion or opportunity for it. For of this teaching, the rule is ability and opportunity; he that can do it, and hath an opportunity for it.
3. That which they taught or intended in that expression, Know the Lord, is the same with what is promised in the latter part of the verse, where it must be spoken unto.
Some things, according to our method and design, may be observed from the exposition of these words.
Obs. 18. The instructive ministry of the old testament, as it was such only, and with respect unto the carnal rites thereof, was a ministry of the letter, and not of the Spirit, which did not really effect in the hearts of men the things which it taught. The spiritual benefit which was obtained under it proceeded from the promise, and not from the efficacy of the law, or the covenant made at Sinai. For as such, as it was legal and carnal, and had respect only unto outward things, it is here laid aside.
Obs. 19. There is a duty incumbent on every man to instruct others, according to his ability and opportunity, in the knowledge of God; the law whereof, being natural and eternal, is always obligatory on all sorts of persons. This is not here either prohibited or superseded; but only it is foretold, that as unto a certain manner of the performance of it, it should cease. That it generally ceaseth now in the world, is no effect of the promise of God, but a cursed fruit of the unbelief and wickedness of men. The highest degree in religion which men now aim at, is but to attend unto and learn by the public teaching of the ministry. And, alas, how few are there who do it conscientiously, unto the glory of God and the spiritual benefit of their own souls! The whole business of teaching and learning the knowledge of God is generally turned into a formal spending, if not misspense of so much time. But as for the teaching of others according unto ability and opportunity, to endeavor for abilities, or to seek for opportunities thereof, it is not only for the most part neglected, but despised. How few are there who take any care to instruct their own children and servants! but to carry this duty farther, according unto opportunities of instructing others, is a thing that would be looked on almost as madness, in the days wherein we live. We have far more that mutually teach one another sin, folly, yea, villany of all sorts, than the knowledge of God and the duty we owe unto him. This is not what God here promiseth in a way of grace, but what he hath given up careless, unbelieving professors of the gospel unto, in a way of vengeance.
Obs. 20. It is the Spirit of grace alone, as promised in the new covenant, which frees the church from a laborious but ineffectual way of teaching. Such was that in use among the Jews of old; and it is well if somewhat not much unlike it do not prevail among many at this day. Whoever he be who, in all his teaching, doth not take his encouragement from the internal, effectual teaching of God under the covenant of grace, and bends not all his endeavors to be subservient thereunto, hath but an old testament ministry, which ceaseth as unto any divine approbation.
Obs. 21. There was a hidden treasure of divine wisdom, of the knowledge of God, laid up in the mystical revelations and institutions of the old testament, which the people were not then able to look into, nor to comprehend. The confirmation and explanation of this truth is the principal design of the apostle in this whole epistle. This knowledge, those among them that feared God and believed the promises stirred up themselves and one another to look after and to inquire into, saying unto one another, Know the Lord;howbeit their attainments were but small, in comparison of what is contained in the ensuing promise.
Obs. 22. The whole knowledge of God in Christ is both plainly revealed and savingly communicated, by virtue of the new covenant, unto them who do believe, as the next words declare.
The positive part of the promise remaineth unto consideration. And two things must be inquired into:
1. Unto whom it is made.
2. What is the subject-matter of it:
1. Those unto whom it is made are so expressed in the prophet, . The expression of them absolutely, and then by a distribution, is emphatical. The former the apostle renders in the plural number, as the words are in the original, : but the terms of the distribution he rendereth in the singular number, which increaseth the emphasis, .
The proposition is universal, as to the modification of the subject, all; but in the word , of them, it is restrained unto those alone with whom this covenant is made.
The distribution of them is made in a proverbial speech, From the least to the greatest, used in a peculiar manner by this prophet, Isa 6:13; Isa 8:10; Isa 42:1; Isa 44:12. It is only once more used in the Old Testament, and not elsewhere, Jon 3:5. And it may denote either the universality or the generality of them that are spoken of, so as none be particularly excluded or excepted, though all absolutely be not intended. Besides, several sorts and degrees of persons are intended. So there ever were, and ever will be, naturally, politically, and spiritually, in the church of God. None of them, upon the account of their difference from others on the one hand or the other, be they the least or the greatest, are excepted or excluded from the grace of this promise. And this may be the sense of the words, if only the external administration of the grace of the new covenant be intended: None are excluded from the tender of it, or from the outward means of the communication of it, in the full, plain revelation of the knowledge of God.
But whereas it is the internal, effectual grace of the covenant, and not only the means, but the infallible event thereon, not only that they shall be all taught to know, but that they shall all actually know the Lord, all individuals are intended; that is, that whole church all whose children are to be taught of God, and so to learn as to come unto him by saving faith in Christ. So doth this part of the promise hold proportion with the other, of writing the law in the hearts of the covenanters. As unto all these, it is promised absolutely that they shall know the Lord.
But yet among them there are many distinctions and degrees of persons, as they are variously differenced by internal and external circumstances. There are some that are greatest, and some that are least, and various intermediate degrees between them. So it hath been, and so it ever must be, whilst the natural, acquired, and spiritual abilities of men have great variety of degrees among them; and whilst mens outward advantages and opportunities do also differ. Whereas, therefore, it is promised that they shall all of them know the Lord, it is not implied that they shall all do so equally, or have the same degree of spiritual wisdom and understanding. There is a measure of saving knowledge due unto, and provided for all in the covenant of grace, such as is necessary unto the participation of all other blessings and privileges of it; but in the degrees hereof some may and do very much excel others, And we may observe,
Obs. 23. There are, and ever were, different degrees of persons in the church, as unto the saving knowledge of God. Hence is that distribution of them into fathers, young men, and children, 1Jn 2:13-14. All have not one measure, all arrive not to the same stature: but yet as to the ends of the covenant, and the duties required of them in their walk before God, they that have most have nothing over, nothing to spare; and they that have least shall have no lack. Every ones duty it is to be content with what he receives, and to improve it unto the uttermost.
Obs. 24. Where there is not some degree of saving knowledge, there no interest in the new covenant can be pretended.
2. The thing promised, is the knowledge of God: They shall all know me. No duty is more frequently commanded than this is, nor any grace more frequently promised. See Deu 29:6; Jer 24:7; Eze 11:10; Eze 36:23; Eze 36:26-27 : for it is the foundation of all other duties of obedience, and of all communion with God in them. All graces as unto their exercise, as faith, love, and hope, are founded therein. And the woful want of it which is visible in the world is an evidence how little there is of true evangelical obedience among the generality of them that are called Christians. And two things may be considered in this promise:
(1.) The object, or what is to be known.
(2.) The knowledge itself, of what kind and nature it is:
(1.) The first is God himself: They shall all know me, saith the LORD. And it is so not absolutely, but as unto some especial revelation of himself. For there is a knowledge of God, as God, by the light of nature.
This is not here intended, nor is it the subject of any gracious promise, but is common unto all men. There was, moreover, a knowledge of God by revelation under the old covenant, but attended with great obscurity in sundry things of the highest importance. Wherefore there is something further intended, as is evident from the antithesis between the two states herein declared. In brief, it is the knowledge of him as revealed in Jesus Christ under the new testament. To show what is contained herein doctrinally, were to go over the principal articles of our faith, as declared in the gospel. The sum is, To know the Lord, is to know God as he is in Christ personally, as he will be unto us in Christ graciously, and what he requires of us and accepts in us through the Beloved. In all these things, notwithstanding all their teaching and diligence therein, the church was greatly in the dark under the old testament; but they are all of them more clearly revealed in the gospel.
(2.) The knowledge of these things is that which is promised. For notwithstanding the clear revelation of them, we abide in ourselves unable to discern them and receive them. For such a spiritual knowledge is intended as whereby the mind is renewed, being accompanied with faith and love in the heart. This is that knowledge which is promised in the new covenant, and which shall be wrought in all them who are interested therein. And we may observe,
Obs. 25. The full and clear declaration of God, as he is to be known of us in this life, is a privilege reserved for and belonging unto the days of the new testament. Before, it was not made; and more than is now made is not to be expected in this world. And the reason hereof is, because it was made by Christ. See the exposition on Heb 1:1-2.
Obs. 26. To know God as he is revealed in Christ, is the highest privilege whereof in this life we can be made partakers; for this is life eternal, that we may know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, Joh 17:3.
Obs. 27. Persons destitute of this saving knowledge are utter strangers unto the covenant of grace; for this is a principal promise and effect of it, wherever it doth take place.
Heb 8:12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
This is the great fundamental promise and grace of the new covenant; for though it be last expressed, yet in order of nature it precedeth the other mercies and privileges mentioned, and is the foundation of the collation or communication of them unto us. This the causal whereby the apostle rendereth in the prophet, doth demonstrate. What I have spoken, saith the Lord, shall be accomplished, for I wilt be merciful,etc.; without which there could be no participation of the other things mentioned. Wherefore, not only an addition of new grace and mercy is expressed in these words, but a reason also is rendered why, or on what grounds he would bestow on them those other mercies.
The house of Israel and the house of Judah, with whom this covenant was made in the first place, and who are spoken of as representatives of all others who are taken into it, and who thereon become the Israel of God, were such as had broken and disannulled Gods former covenant by their disobedience; Which my covenant they brake. Nor is there any mention of any other qualification whereby they should be prepared for or disposed unto an entrance into this new covenant. Wherefore the first thing in order of nature that is to be done unto this end; is the free pardon of sin. Without a supposition hereof, no other mercy can they be made partakers of; for whilst they continue under the guilt of sin, they are also under the curse. Wherefore a reason is here rendered, and that the only reason, why God will give unto them the other blessings mentioned: For I will be merciful.
Obs. 28. Free and sovereign, undeserved grace in the pardon of sin, is the original spring and foundation of all covenant mercies and blessings. Hereby, and hereby alone, is the glory of God and the safety of the church provided for. And those who like not Gods covenant on these terms (as none do by nature) will eternally fall short of the grace of it. Hereby all glorying and all boasting in ourselves is excluded; which was that which God aimed at in the contrivance and establishment of this covenant, Rom 3:27; 1Co 1:29-31. For this could not be, if the fundamental grace of it did depend on any condition or qualification in ourselves. If we let go the free pardon of sin, without respect unto any thing in those that receive it, we renounce the gospel. Pardon of sin is not merited by antecedent duties, but is the strongest obligation unto future duties. He that will not receive pardon unless he can one way or other deserve it, or make himself meet for it; or pretends to have received it, and finds not himself obliged unto universal obedience by it, neither is nor shall be partaker of it.
In the promise itself we may consider,
1. Whom it is made unto;
2. What it is that is promised:
1. The first is expressed in the pronoun , their, three times repeated. All those absolutely, and only those with whom God makes this covenant, are intended. Those whose sins are not pardoned do in no sense partake of this covenant; it is not made with them. For this is the covenant that God makes with them, that he will be merciful unto their sins; that is, unto them in the pardon of them. Some speak of a universal conditional covenant, made with all mankind. If there be any such thing, it is not that here intended; for they are all actually pardoned with whom this covenant is made. And the indefinite declaration of the nature and terms of the covenant, is not the making of a covenant with any. And what should be the condition of this grace here promised of the pardon of sin? It is,say they,that men repent, and believe, and turn to God, and yield obedience unto the gospel.If so, then men must do all these things before they receive the remission of sins? Yes.Then must they do them whilst they are under the law, and the curse of it, for so are all men whose sins are not pardoned. This is to make obedience unto the law, and that to be performed by men whilst under the curse of it, to be the condition of gospel-mercy; which is to overthrow both the law and the gospel. But then, on the other hand it will follow,they say, that men are pardoned before they do believe; which is expressly contrary unto the Scripture.
Ans.
(1.) The communication and donation of faith unto us is an effect of the same grace whereby our sins are pardoned; and they are both bestowed on us by virtue of the same covenant.
(2.) The application of pardoning mercy unto our souls is in order of nature consequent unto believing, but in time they go together.
(3.) Faith is not required unto the procuring of the pardon of our sins, but unto the receiving of it: Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins, Act 10:43.
But that which we shall observe from hence is, that
Obs. 29. The new covenant is made with them alone who effectually and eventually are made partakers of the grace of it. This is the covenant that I will make with them,….. I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness, etc. Those with whom the old covenant was made were all of them actual partakers of the benefits of it; and if they are not so with whom the new is made, it comes short of the old in efficacy, and may be utterly frustrated. Neither doth the indefinite proposal of the terms of the covenant prove that the covenant is made with them, or any of them, who enjoy not the benefits of it. Indeed this is the excellency of this covenant, and so it is here declared, that it doth effectually communicate all the grace and mercy contained in it unto all and every one with whom it is made; whomsoever it is made withal, his sins are pardoned.
2. The subject-matter of this promise, is the pardon of sin. And that which we have to consider for the exposition of the words, is.
(1.) What is meant by sins.
(2.) What by the pardon of them.
(3.) What is the reason of the peculiar expression in this place:
(1.) Sin is spoken of with respect unto its guilt especially; so is it the object of mercy and grace. Guilt is the desert of punishment, or the obligation of the sinner unto punishment, by and according unto the sentence of the law. Pardon is the dissolution of that obligation.
Sin is here expressed by three terms, , , , unrighteousness, sin, and transgression, as we render the words. In the prophet there is only and is wanting. But they are elsewhere all three used, where mention is made of the pardon of sin, or the causes of it; as,
[1.] In the declaration of the name of God with respect thereunto, Exo 34:7, , pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin.
[2.] In the confession of sin, for the removal of it by the expiatory, sacrifice, Lev 16:21 : Aaron shall confess over him , all their iniquities, all their transgressions, in all their sins.
[3.] In the expression of the forgiveness of sin in justification, Psa 32:1-2. Wherefore the apostle might justly make up the expression and general enumeration of sins, here defective in the prophet, seeing it is elsewhere so constantly used to the same purpose, and on the like occasion.
Nor are those terms needlessly multiplied, but sundry things we are taught thereby; as,
[1.] That those whom God graciously takes into covenant are many of them antecedently obnoxious unto all sorts of sins.
[2.] That in the grace of the covenant there is mercy provided for the pardon of them all, even of them from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses, Act 13:39. And that,
[3.] Therefore none should be discouraged from resting on the faithfulness of God in this covenant, who are invited unto a compliance therewith.
But there is yet more intended in the use of these words. For they do distinctly express all those respects of sin in general by which the conscience of a sinner is affected, burdened, and terrified; as also whereon the equity of the curse and punishment for sin doth depend.
The first is , unrighteousness. This is usually taken for sins against the second table, or the transgression of that rule of righteousness amongst men which is given by the moral law. But here, as in many other places, it expresseth a general affection of sin with respect unto God. A thing unequal and unrighteous it is, that man should sin against God, his sovereign ruler and benefactor. As God is the supreme lord and governor of all, as he is our only benefactor and rewarder, as all his laws and ways towards us are just and equal, the first notion of righteousness in us is the rendering unto God what is due unto him; that is, universal obedience unto all his commands. Righteousness towards man is but a branch springing from this root; and where this is not, there is no righteousness amongst men, whatever is pretended. If we give not unto God the things that are Gods, it will not avail us to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, nor unto other men what is their own. And this is the first consideration of sin, that renders the sinner obnoxious unto punishment, and manifests the equity of the sanction of the law; it is an unrighteous thing. Herewith the conscience of the sinner is affected, if he be convinced of sin in a due manner. The original perfection of his nature consisted in this righteousness towards God, by rendering his due unto him in a way of obedience. This is overthrown by sin; which is therefore both shameful and ruinous: which distresseth the conscience, when awakened by conviction.
The second is . This is properly a missing of, an erring from that end and scope which it is our duty to aim at. There is a certain end for which we were made, and a certain rule proper unto us whereby we may attain it. And this end being our only blessedness, it is our interest, as it was in the principles of our natures, to be always in a tendency towards it. This is the glory of God, and our eternal salvation in the enjoyment of him. Thereunto the law of God is a perfect guide. To sin, therefore, is to forsake that rule, and to forego therein our aim at that end. It is to place self and the world as our end, in the place of God and his glory, and to take the imaginations of our hearts for our rule. Wherefore the perverse folly that is in sin, in wandering away from the chiefest good as our end, and the best guide as our rule, embracing the greatest evils in their stead, is , rendering punishment righteous, and filling the sinner with shame and fear.
There is, thirdly, . We have no one word in our language properly to express the sense hereof; nor is there so in the Latin. We render it transgression of the law. is a lawless person; whom the Hebrews call a son of Belial, one who owns no yoke nor rule; and is a voluntary unconformity unto the law. Herein the formal nature of sin consists, as the apostle tells us, 1Jn 3:4. And this is that which in the first place passeth on the conscience of a sinner.
Wherefore, as all sorts of particular sins are included in these multiplied names of sin; so the general nature of sin, in all its causes and respects, terrifying the sinner, and manifesting the righteousness of the curse of the law, is declared and represented by them. And we may learn,
Obs. 30. That the aggravations of sin are great and many, which the consciences of convinced sinners ought to have regard unto.
Obs. 31. There are grace and mercy in the new covenant provided for all sorts of sins, and all aggravations of them, if they be received in a due manner.
Obs. 32. Aggravations of sin do glorify grace in pardon. Therefore doth God here so express them, that he may declare the glory of his grace in their remission.
Obs. 33. We cannot understand aright the glory and excellency of pardoning mercy, unless we are convinced of the greatness and vileness of our sins in all their aggravations.
(2.) That which is promised with respect unto these sins is two ways expressed:
First, , I will be merciful.
Secondly, I will remember no more.
It is pardon of sin that is intended in both these expressions; the one respecting the cause of it, the other its perfection and assurance. And two things are considerable in the pardon of sin:
[1.] A respect unto the mediator of the covenant, and the propitiation for sin made by him. Without this there can be no remission, nor is any promised.
[2.] The dissolution of the obligation of the law binding over the guilty sinner unto punishment. These are the essential parts of evangelical pardon, and respect is had in these words unto them both:
1st , which we translate merciful, is propitious, gracious through a propitiation. But the Lord Christ is the only or propitiation under the new testament, Rom 3:25; 1Jn 2:2. And he died , to propitiate God for sin; to render him propitious unto sinners, Heb 2:17. In him alone God is , merciful unto our sins.
2dly. The law, with the sanction of it, was the means appointed of God to bring sin unto a judicial remembrance and trial. Wherefore the dissolution of the obligation of the law unto punishment, which is an act of God, the supreme rector and judge of all, belongeth unto the pardon of sin. This is variously expressed in the Scripture; here by remembering sin no more. The assertion whereof is fortified by a double negative. Sin shall never be called legally to remembrance. But the whole doctrine of the pardon of sin I have so largely handled, in the exposition of Psalms 130, that I must not here again resume the same argument. [12]
[12] See vol. 6 of the authors miscellaneous words. ED.
Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews
Lord
Jehovah. Jer 31:33.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
this is: Heb 10:16, Heb 10:17
I will put: Gr. I will give, Exo 24:4, Exo 24:7, Exo 34:1, Exo 34:27, Deu 30:6, Jer 31:33, Jer 32:40, Eze 11:19, Eze 36:26, Eze 36:27, 2Co 3:3, 2Co 3:7, 2Co 3:8, Jam 1:18, Jam 1:21, 1Pe 1:23
in: or, upon
I will be: Heb 11:16, Gen 17:7, Gen 17:8, Son 2:16, Jer 24:7, Jer 31:1, Jer 31:33, Jer 32:38, Eze 11:20, Eze 36:28, Eze 37:27, Eze 39:22, Hos 1:10, Hos 2:23, Zec 8:8, Zec 13:9, Mat 22:32, 1Co 6:16
they shall: Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6, Rom 9:25, Rom 9:26, Tit 2:14, 1Pe 2:9
Reciprocal: Exo 32:16 – General Deu 9:10 – written with Deu 17:2 – in transgressing 1Ch 17:24 – a God Ezr 7:27 – put such Psa 37:31 – law Psa 74:20 – Have Psa 119:29 – grant me Psa 119:77 – for thy Son 6:3 – my beloved’s Isa 42:21 – he will Isa 51:16 – Thou art Isa 52:6 – my people Isa 54:13 – all Jer 11:4 – ye be Jer 30:22 – General Jer 34:13 – I made Jer 50:20 – the iniquity Eze 14:11 – that they Eze 16:60 – I will establish Mat 13:23 – good Mar 14:62 – the Son Luk 6:45 – treasure Luk 10:27 – Thou Joh 6:45 – And they Joh 20:17 – your God Rom 5:5 – because Rom 6:14 – sin Rom 7:22 – I delight Rom 8:7 – for it 1Co 9:21 – not 2Co 6:16 – I will be Col 2:13 – having 1Th 4:9 – ye need Heb 7:11 – perfection Heb 8:6 – upon 1Jo 2:14 – the word 1Jo 2:27 – and ye 1Jo 5:3 – and Rev 21:3 – they shall Rev 21:7 – and I
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Heb 8:10 : This verse states one of the main differences between the old and the, new covenant. When a male child was eight clays old he was cir-cumcized. and that made him a full member of the covenant, notwithstanding he had no mind to receive anything: the law was put in the flesh instead of the mind. The new covenant laws were to be put in the mind (or heart) instead of the flesh.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Heb 8:10. The new differs also from the old in this, that(a) God will write His law upon their hearts; (b) they shall be permanently His people, and He will be their God (Heb 8:11); (c) the true knowledge of God, moreover, will become the common heritage of all the members of the polity He is about to establish (Heb 8:12); and fourthly, (d) a more excellent promise, itself the beginning and the very reason (for) of the rest; God will forgive (will be propitious to them, and to) their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawlessness will he remember no more. Sins of every kind He will forgiveat once and for ever. How completely this teaching agrees with Pauls need not be shown. In Christ all is forgiven when once men believe, and yet the doctrine is not the minister of sin, for the faith that justifies is ever the beginning of renewal, the germ of a holy life.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
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.
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.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
The Better Qualities of the New Covenant While continuing to refer to the quotation from Jeremiah, the author shows the better qualities of the new covenant. For instance, the law of Moses was written on tables of stone ( Exo 34:1 ; Exo 34:23 ), but this new covenant would be implanted in the mind of man and written on his heart. In 2Co 3:1-18 , the writer explains the advantages of this. No longer will man be just obeying the written letter of the law. Now man will be obeying the spirit of the law which he will know from within himself. Man would no longer need some physical image to worship. Under the new covenant man would have a God, seen through the eye of faith ( Heb 8:10 ; Heb 11:1-6 ).
Under a physical covenant, each member of the kingdom had to be taught to know God. This is not true under the new spiritual covenant. To become a part of Christ’s kingdom one must already know God’s will and be taught of God ( Isa 54:13 ; Joh 6:44-45 ). Now, one must know God to be a part of the kingdom( Joh 14:1-6 ; Joh 14:15 ; Heb 11:6 ) and everyone is invited ( Mat 11:28-30 ; Rev 22:17 ). Sin could not be removed under the old covenant ( Heb 9:9 ; Heb 10:4 ), but under the new, God cannot remember our sins, as Jesus’ blood washes them all away ( Heb 8:11-12 ; Heb 9:9 ; Heb 10:4 ; 1Jn 1:7-9 ; 1Co 6:11 ; Eph 1:7 ; 1Pe 1:18-19 ; Rev 1:5 ).
As history, the Old Testament is still valuable and full of lessons concerning God’s dealings with man ( 1Co 10:12 ), but as a covenant its usefulness to man is past. Jesus took it out of the way as a religious institution ( Col 2:14 ) and, as Milligan would point out, it died as a civil institution at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Heb 9:1-5
The Earthly Sanctuary Under Moses’ Law
The first veil covered the doorway, while the second divided the Holy Place and Most Holy ( Exo 26:36-37 ; Exo 26:31-34 ). The Most Holy contained the golden censer ( Lev 16:12 ) and the ark of the covenant ( Exo 25:10-16 ). Inside the ark was a golden pot containing an omerful of manna ( Exo 16:31-34 ), Aaron’s rod that had budded ( Num 17:1-11 ), and the two tables of the covenant ( Exo 25:16 ; Deu 10:1-5 ). Only the tables of stone were left in the time of Solomon ( 1Ki 8:9 ). On the ark was a cover which was called the mercy seat ( Heb 9:3-5 ; Num 7:89 ). “The protective wings of the two cherubim provided the place where, symbolically speaking, God dwelled among his people ( Psa 80:1 ; Psa 99:1 )” (Lightfoot, p. 165).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
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.