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.

The Christmas Priesthood Of Believers

We continue our meditation upon the Scriptures that speak about the birth and early life of our Lord Jesus.

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." - Luke 2:22-24 ESV

According to Jewish law, the firstborn male child belonged to God (Exod 13:2-18), and the parents had to "buy him back" on the 40th day after his birth by offering a sacrifice of "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" (Luke 2:24) in the temple (thus the "presentation" of the child).

Luke refers to the story of the Exodus when the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. During the tenth plague the LORD passed over the Israelites when he killed all the firstborn of the Egyptians. From that time onward all the firstborn were to be set aside for the LORD. 

The verb to pass over is also a commentary on the pagan practice of child sacrifice. Pagans of the ancient Near East would take a child and pass him over or through the fire as a child sacrifice. The LORD forbad such barbarism. 

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer - Deut 18:10 ESV (cf. 2 Kings 16:3)

Rather than child sacrifice the LORD wanted the firstborn to be set apart and devoted to His service as the priests of God. The Israelites were not to pass over their first offspring in the fire to death, but they were to pass them over to God to life. As the LORD passed over the Israelites during the plague, so now they were to pass their first offspring over to Him as priests who would teach, judge and offer sacrifices on behalf of all of Israel. In fact, the LORD wanted all of Israel to be a kingdom of priests. He declared: 

You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel." - Exod 19:4-6 ESV

However, Israel forfeited her priesthood when the people were unfaithful to the covenant and fell into idolatry by worshipping the golden calf (Exod 32:1-6).  Because of this great sin, they broke covenant with the LORD and lost the privilege of being His firstborn priesthood. They failed to reflect the LORD's holy character. So instead He chose the Levites who rose up on that day to stand on the LORD's side.

. . . then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, "Who is on the LORD's side? Come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.'" And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day." - Exod 32:26-29 ESV

From that day forward the tribe of Levi served as the priests. The law about the firstborn remained, however, as a reminder of the LORD's intention that the whole nation was to be set aside for the LORD's service. As noted above, parents could "buy the firstborn back" on the 40th day after his birth with a pair of turtledoves or young pigeons.

The New Testament picks this up, pointing out that Jesus Christ is the pre-eminent firstborn. 

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. - Col 1:13-18 ESV

We who are reborn into Christ, we who are the members of His body, are now the restored priesthood. We are set aside (the meaning of the word holy) for the LORD. We are priests who serve in a living temple whose cornerstone is Christ. So the Apostle Peter writes:

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. - 1Pet 2:4-10 ESV

This then is how we celebrate Christmas and every day of the year. Set aside, made holy in Christ, our entire lives are devoted to Him. We are the priesthood of believers.