Who is the new covenant with? We tend to think it is with the church but
the Lord says that this new covenant will be with the house of Israel. That refers us back to yesterday’s lesson
from Romans that we Gentiles are grafted into the covenant while the Jews are
the native stock into which we are grafted.
There will be a change in this new covenant, they will not be punished
for the sins of the fathers, the law will be put within, written on the
heart. The basis for the covenant will
be the forgiveness of sin. They will all
know Him, from the least to the greatest.
Remember a few days ago, the Lord brought a charge against the great
that they have a greater responsibility to make Him known because they have the
means and leisure to study and know. In the
new covenant, all will know because the Spirit will be given without regard to
greatness or smallness. What a wonderful
thing!
Apparently the sisters had been commiserating with one
another concerning Jesus as they both greet Him the same way, “Lord, if you had
been here, my brother would not have died.”
It is both high praise and a question, why hadn’t He come when they sent
word. There is faith all around, the
mourners appreciate Jesus’ weeping as a sign of love but also ask whether love
might not have impelled Him to come and heal Lazarus as He had healed the blind
man. Faith stops at the door of the
tomb, however. Martha isn’t prepared to
open it, her brother is beyond hope now, it has been four days. At His reminder that if they believed they
would see the glory of God, however, they were willing to believe and open the
tomb. Glory indeed!
I love the fact that Paul has done serious theological work
for eleven chapters in Romans, sorting out the mysteries of election and salvation. He has proven that faith is the key to
salvation and that it is all about the mercy of God or it is not
salvation. He has proven that all,
inside or outside the covenant, have sinned and are deserving of death, we are
all rebels and enemies of God. Here at
the end of that you can hear the man’s heart for the salvation of the Jews, the
very ones who have persecuted him and attempted to prevent the Gospel going to
the Gentiles. He wants to see them
believe in Jesus and be restored, the call and election are irrevocable, this
will happen and Paul wants to see it. As
he wraps it all up, all he can do is praise God, “Oh, the depth of the riches
and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how
inscrutable his ways!... For from him and through him and to him are all
things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Indeed!
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