“The Promised New Covenant”
given by Pastor Don Meyer
Text: Hebrews 8:6-13
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In case you didn’t know, we’re doing a “round-robin” for our midweek Advent services this year. Actually, Pastor Ohlendorf gets the credit for this series because prior to his death, he organized our main theme which is: Three Advent Prophecies. Under that heading I was assigned the topic: The Promised New Covenant. And that’s what we’ll be looking at tonight. Really, it's a fascinating element of our Advent and Christmas celebrations that we often overlook. You see, the coming of the Christ Child was the fulfillment of a promise that God made to our fallen world. In fact, it started in eternity long before the world was created. But the Lord revealed His plans to save us immediately after Adam and Eve fell for Satan’s temptation in the Garden of Eden, thus infecting the human race with sin which condemned us to eternal death. In Genesis 3:15 He made a promise—or better yet let’s call it a “covenant”—to send a Savior to free us from sin, death, and the devil.
Now, before we go any further, we need to spend some time defining what a covenant is. I suspect that if I did a poll of everyone here tonight, nearly all of you would describe it as being similar to a contract. Like when 2 people go into business together. Party A and Party B agree to each do such-and-such and the benefits or income from this venture will be divided according to the percentages laid out in the contract. If one of the parties fails to fulfill their end of the bargain then the contract is broken and ended. The assets are divvied up and both parties go their separate ways.
That may be true of a contract, but not of a Biblical covenant. In a covenant, the promises made are permanent and the consequences for breaking it are far more severe. A dramatic example of this can be seen when God confirms His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. The Lord had promised He would bless Abraham with numerous offspring, one of which would be the promised Savior. But Abraham had waited several years and still didn’t have a child. He needed reassurance. So, God told him to slaughter 5 different animals, cutting them in half. He then arranged the pieces in 2 rows opposite each other. Abraham was quite familiar with this method of confirming a covenant in his day. What happened next is that the 2 parties walked between the slaughtered animals. The message was simple yet powerful. If either party broke the terms of the covenant, they agreed to suffer the same fate as those animals. Pretty serious stuff, not to be taken lightly. In fact, the Hebrew word for “covenant” means “to cut” and that’s mainly because of this bloody ritual.
Well, when God sealed the covenant with Abraham, He sent a smoking fire pot to symbolize His presence moving between the animal halves. God was letting Abraham know that His promises in this covenant were 100% guaranteed and unbreakable. Even though God cannot die, He staked His existence and reputation on it. The interesting thing is that Abraham never walked between the slaughtered animals. That’s because God’s covenant with him was pretty much one-sided. God made all the promises. All Abraham had to do was believe those promises and live accordingly.
Fast forward then to the covenant that God made with Abraham’s descendants on Mount Sinai. It was contingent on the original one. But as you may recall, this covenant involved the 10 Commandments that the Israelites were to obey and live by. It may not seem like it but this covenant was still very much one-sided. God was not saying, “If you obey my commands, you will become my chosen people and receive the blessings.” No, His message was the opposite: “Since you are my chosen people, here’s how you’re supposed to act. Added blessings will follow if you do.” You see, God wasn’t changing or reneging on the original covenant. This was just an extension of it. His love and promises didn’t change. Unfortunately, we all know how the rebellious people of Israel violated this covenant. They broke all the terms of the agreement which brought severe consequences on them. And yet God remained faithful to His original covenant of love.
All of that leads us to the Old Testament reading for tonight. Through the prophet Jeremiah the Lord announces that He will make a new covenant with His chosen people. From our human perspective it sounds like He gave up on the old one since Israel broke it every which way you could think of. But that would be wrong. God didn’t do away with the covenant, He improved it. You see, He knew that His people would fail to keep the covenant by their disobedience to His commands. They violated it every time they sinned against the Lord. But He had built into the covenant a way in which they could remove the guilt of their sin. That’s what all the animal sacrifices were about. The problem is that the blood of those animals could never pay the price for their sins. It only removed their guilt. The neat thing is that these sacrifices pointed them forward to the covenant promise of a Savior who would shed His blood to pay the debt of their sins once and for all. His blood would satisfy God’s righteous judgment against us sinners. His sacrifice would supply what mankind had desperately needed all along: forgiveness of sins.
Under this new covenant, Jeremiah tells us that the Law of God would be written on the hearts of His people. At Mt. Sinai the law was written on tablets of stone. The people were supposed to take them to heart and live by them. Unfortunately, God’s Law became just an external restriction to their sinfulness. Thankfully, Jeremiah says that when the promised Savior fulfills the covenant all that will change. Through the forgiveness He provides, believers now possess the desire to obey God in every way. That’s what we commonly call “sanctification.” It’s the working of the Holy Spirit within us which makes us want to live according to God’s will.
Did you notice that the writer to the Hebrews quotes this prophecy of Jeremiah? And just in case anyone missed it, he connects the dots by explaining that the old covenant’s promised Savior is Christ Himself. Jesus didn’t come into our world to replace the old covenant but rather, to fulfill it. He explains this very poignantly in Matthew 5:17 when He says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” So you see, by fulfilling all God’s promises and requirements of the old covenant, He makes it “new.” And like with Abraham, this new covenant is still very one-sided. God makes all the promises and our only obligation is to believe them, trust in Him, and reap the spiritual benefits of that covenant.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, when you were Baptized you became part of that covenant. In those precious waters, God applied all those promises to you. First, He gave you a new heart by washing away your sins and filling you with the faith to believe. The Holy Spirit took up residence within you. Now He gives you the desire to live according to God’s will and commands. Daily He renews that covenant as He leads you to confess your sins and receive the forgiveness that Christ bought for you by His sacrificial death on the cross. And with that comes the promise of eternal life in heaven.
All of this is the reason why we celebrate the coming of the Christ Child. The arrival of Jesus in Bethlehem was the beginning of the glorious fulfillment of God’s ancient covenant which could not be broken. It culminated in His death and resurrection 33 years later. This is what Zechariah was rejoicing over in our Gospel lesson. I strongly urge you to read his song of praise over and over again. And as you do I encourage you to make it your own because God has indeed shown mercy to us and remembered His holy covenant that He made with Abraham. Not only did He remember, He also fulfilled it by sending His holy Son into our world to redeem and forgive us. And now, as recipients of that wondrous covenant, we can “serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.” Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!
