11/4/07 - Reformation - Jer. 31:31-34

THE NEW COVENANT RENEWED
- It is central to our faith
- It is central to our daily lives

It used to be an unspoken rule that whenever a verbal agreement was sealed with a handshake, it was as good as done. It doesn’t happen that way anymore. We now have contracts that are signed by both parties. But the idea is still the same: there is an agreement, an oath, a promise from both sides that things will be done just the way they had been decided. If one side breaks the contract, the other side is no longer obligated to uphold their end of the bargain either. This is what a covenant is. We don’t normally use the word “covenant” in our every day language, so whenever you see the word “covenant” in the Bible, think of a binding agreement, a sealed promise, a signed contract between two groups. While on Mt. Sinai the Lord made one of these covenants with the people of Israel.
As Moses stood on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments the Lord said to him, “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you” (Exodus 34:10). This covenant sounds pretty good up to this point, but then the Lord continues with the Israelite’s side of the contract. They had to obey what he commanded, drive out the heathen nations, break down their altars, refuse any treaties with those nations; they were not make idols, celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles at the appointed times and in the appointed ways, bring the first offspring of every animal as a sacrifice, never show up to his temple empty-handed, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, and always bring the first fruits of their crops to the Lord. This was part of the Israelite’s side of the deal. And if they failed to carry out any one of their duties, the contract would be broken and the Lord would no longer do what he said he would do.
With a contract like this hanging over their heads, I’m sure that many of the Israelites must have lived in constant anxiety. Because as the years went by they must have realized that there was no way they could live up to this covenant. They had broken the contract in numerous ways and now the Lord had every right to shower down curses on them just as he had warned. That’s why all those sacrifices were required. Burnt offerings, grain offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, and fellowship offerings. They were constant reminders of the Israelite’s sins and the covenant they constantly broke.
Is it a wonder that passages such as our sermon text for this morning in Jeremiah 31 were such a great comfort and relief to those believers? Listen to what the Lord has to say: “‘The time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers… For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’” The Lord would make a new covenant with his people. But this covenant would be much different than the old one. There would be no demands this time. There would be no stipulations or conditions. This would be a one-sided covenant. This would be a contract of free and complete forgiveness. Accomplished fully by the Lord. Given to his people. No purchase necessary.
This new covenant, of course, officially came into effect when Jesus came to this earth and died on the cross. The cross is really where the Lord signed that contract in blood. The cross is why he forgives our wickedness. The cross is why he will remember our sins no more. Because the cross is where Jesus paid for those sins. And the new covenant based on that cross is what those Old Testament believers waited for and hoped for and in that which they put their faith. It was and still is the only covenant of its kind - unequaled in love and grace and glory. And if there was anyone who appreciated the full meaning and the importance of the free forgiveness that the new covenant offered, it would be the Old Testament Israelites. I’m sure they longed for the new covenant time to come so that they could be done with all those constant sacrifices and finally live securely knowing that their sins would never be brought up again. When Jesus did come, the believers at the time rejoiced. And while Jesus was hear those believers celebrated the fact that the new covenant had finally and officially come.
Sadly, this joy and focus on the new covenant forgiveness began to fade away over time. As the church grew after the time of Christ it also grew farther and farther away from the truth. For 1500 years the center of faith slowly shifted from free forgiveness to who had authority in the church. Bishops arose in Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome who vied for power and gained their own followers. What the church and its leaders said started to take precedence over forgiveness and Scripture. And soon customs, traditions, and church decrees took center stage as free forgiveness was thrown “under the bench” (Luther). For a millennium and a half the church was in a downward spiral until the Lord decided to do something about it. We celebrated what the Lord did four days ago.
Four days ago we celebrated Halloween, yes, but it is also the day every year on which we celebrate the beginning of the Reformation of the church. In 1517, October 31st was the day on which Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the church bulletin board, so to speak. This event began what came to be great public controversy and an ecclesiastical upheaval. But more importantly, it began a population-wide search of Scripture. And as the Bible was read and studied in those next decades, Christ and his cross started to come back into focus. The forgiveness that Jeremiah had prophesied about so long ago was rediscovered. The new covenant was renewed. And we celebrate the Reformation of the church every year not so that we can praise the reformers themselves, but so that we can glory in the Lord’s work through them. The Lord brought about that change. The Lord opened the hearts and minds of individuals and entire cities at the time to see the truth. The Lord renewed his own new covenant so that many more generations could take comfort in the forgiveness that he had won for them on the cross. We are here in this country in this church body with this truth of the gospel today because of what happened in Germany almost 500 years ago. It is good for us to remember those men and women and what the Lord did through them. It is, of course, even more important to remember the new covenant they stood for, the free forgiveness they preached, and the crucified Savior in whom they believed.
The devil attacks Christians in different ways in different times. In Jeremiah’s time he attacked Christians with feelings of guilt and despair over their failure to uphold the old covenant. In Jesus’ time he attacked Christians with the thought that free forgiveness was somehow a brand-new teaching of some left wing cult. In the time of the Reformation he attacked Christians from the top down, trying to convince them that human authority trumped the Bible. Today in this country Satan attacks us by not attacking us at all. He allows the Lord’s blessings to flow. He steps back and watches as we are filled and fattened with the pleasures of this life. He waits and lets our own sinful nature do its work as the new covenant of forgiveness gets pushed away by the blessings and pleasure of this life. Soon enough free forgiveness isn’t the central theme of our lives, it is at best a fringe benefit.
Have you noticed that in your own life? Has the new covenant gotten old? Has it lost its spot as the central focus of your every day life? Back in the time of Jeremiah, the entire life of a believer revolved around sacrifices and keeping the old covenant. And so that new covenant was always the center of their attention. When Jesus came to this earth to initiate the new covenant, he daily taught his followers the truths of free forgiveness that they had heard for the first time. The new covenant was always the center of their attention. During the time of the Reformation, common citizens, clerks, lawyers, doctors had to join together, they had to gather around the Word to find out exactly what it said because the church itself was trying to take away that free forgiveness. They had to fight for it. And so the new covenant was the center of their attention every day. And here we are, living in a country with the freedom of religion. We aren’t trying to keep an old covenant, we aren’t just learning for the first time the ins and outs of forgiveness - we’ve known it all our lives, we aren’t debating with the leaders of our church body about the truths of Scripture. And because we do not have to fight for it, because we do not have to struggle to keep it, because we are not forced to it by persecution from without, we begin to take it for granted. The new covenant has become the same old covenant. The one we’ve always known. The only one we’ve ever known.
They say that you don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. Do you think the devil is going to wait much longer before he yanks it away? Do you think the Lord is going to tolerate this much longer before he yanks it away? Jesus did not come down to this earth, use up ever fiber of energy to live perfectly, suffer an excruciating death, and experience the abandonment by his own Father so that you could treat his new covenant as if it were nothing special. The Lord does not appreciate that. The Lord is not happy when you come to church and leave without hearing a word. The Lord is not satisfied when you go through an entire day without his forgiveness even crossing your mind. It would almost be a blessing if we were persecuted, if we were attacked, if someone tried to take away this teaching of free forgiveness. At least then we would be forced to cling to that forgiveness as if it was the most precious thing in our lives - because it is.
Do you see how subtly Satan attacks? Do you see how subtly you’ve sinned? Do you see how thoroughly we have upset the Lord with our actions and our thoughts? If you do see your sins, then the last phrase of our text will actually mean something: “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Your sins are gone. The Lord completely forgets about them because they have been paid for. They will never cross his mind again. It is as if we had never sinned at all. That is what forgiveness is all about. That is what Jeremiah prophesied, Jesus fulfilled, and the Reformation embraced. This is the new covenant. The contract, the oath, the promise from God to us to forgive our sins completely and fully and freely. And this contract can never be broken no matter how unfaithful we are, because God is the only one who has signed it.
“Though great our sins, yet greater still is God’s abundant favor;
His hand of mercy never will abandon us, nor waver.
Our Shepherd good and true is he, who will at last his Israel free
From all their sin and sorrow.”
This 5th stanza of Martin Luther’s hymn “From Depths of Woe” isn’t included in our new hymnal, but it echoes the forgiveness of the new covenant. We praise the Lord that he raised up such Christians as Martin Luther and others like him to write and preach and hold fast to that free forgiveness. And I pray that he raises up more. I pray that he gives each one of us that same fervor for the gospel so that his new covenant will never become old again, but will be constantly renewed in each one of our lives every day.
Amen.

“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.” - Hebrews 13:20-21