The Gospel Is Written On Our Hearts

Last time we learned from the letter to the Hebrews of the LORD's plan to make a new covenant with the house of Israel. Here are the marks of that covenant as described originally by the prophet Jeremiah:

• The LORD will put His law within them and write it on their hearts
• He alone will be their God
• And they shall be His people

What does that imply? 

First, consider carefully about whom Hebrews speaks when it quotes Jeremiah's prophecy about the LORD. The powerful, undeniable affirmation in this letter and in the entire church is that Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Mary, is both the promised Messianic King, the Christ and the eternal Son of God with whom the Father is pleased. So we read again and again in the Gospels: 

• And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!" - Luk 9:35 ESV
• and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." - Mat 3:17 ESV
• All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. - Mat 11:27 ESV
• And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." - Mar 1:11 ESV
• For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." - Mar 8:38 ESV
• And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." - Mar 9:7 ESV

 And in the Epistles

• . . . if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. - Rom 10:9 ESV
• Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit. - 1Cr 12:3 ESV
• . . . yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. - 1Cr 8:6 ESV
• Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. - Phl 2:9-11 ESV

This same LORD promises to put His law within. The LAW about which Jeremiah writes is not merely a new set of laws like the Ten Commandments or the many ceremonial laws connected with the old covenant. It is not about keeping these commands so as to gain God's forgiveness and blessings. It is so much more than that. This Torah (Hebrew) is the entire teaching about God's promises, about the Messiah, the Suffering Servant who would bear the sins of all men. It is about God's grace and mercy. We Christians know it as the Gospel, the Good News, the Evangel. It is what this letter to the Hebrews has been all about up to this point. It is the story of Jesus and His sacrificial offering upon the cross for all men. 

This wondrous teaching is written on the hearts of believers by the promised Holy Spirit. It is to this that the great feast of Pentecost pointed as it emphasizes the ministry and work of the Holy Spirit on men's hearts. The prophet Joel taught the same thing as Jeremiah. Peter quoted Joel in his Pentecost sermon. 

"'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. - Act 2:17-18 ESV

Paul preached the same message. It was the essence of his teaching. For instance, he wrote to the believers in Corinth, affirming that he was indeed a true Apostle, sent by  the LORD Jesus.

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. - 2Cr 3:2-4 ESV

The Apostle John, in turn, writes about the internal testimony or witness of the Holy Spirit at work in men's hearts.

If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. - 1Jo 5:9-12 ESV

We who have this teaching written by the Spirit on our hearts know with joyous confidence that we are and ever shall be the children of God, the new Israel. So Paul wrote to the Galatians.

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. - Gal 6:14-16 ESV

 The Apostle Peter wrote about the new Israel in the same way.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. - 1Pe 2:2-10 ESV

 We who have this wonderful teaching written on our hearts know the LORD in our hearts, from the lowliest, the least to the greatest. Thus the old covenant is gone and the new has come to us in Jesus Christ. We will continue to rejoice in this as we follow the writer to the Hebrews further.