Monday Evening, May 6, 1974 — Richmond, Virginia
Ministry given through Father Stephen Thong
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet to the nations—to break down, to destroy, and to pull in pieces. But he was also called to build and to plant.
As you read his prophecies, you find a great number of prophecies that call for judgment. Because the children of Israel refused to turn back to God, judgment finally came upon that nation.
And yet, before the judgment came—though it was coming and was inevitable—God, through the prophet Jeremiah, spoke of a distant future. To these people who were going to enter into judgment, God gave a most precious promise. That is what we find in this passage of Jeremiah.
God said, “The days come, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.”
At one point in time, God made a covenant with the nation of Israel. He brought them out of Egypt and took them to Mount Sinai.
You remember, in Exodus 19, God spoke to the people through Moses, saying:
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.
Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine:
And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
When this word was spoken to the children of Israel, how did they respond? They said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.”
God called Moses, and God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, the precepts, and the ordinances. Moses gathered all the people, read to them from the book the law, the commandments, and the precepts. Once again the people said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.”
So an altar was built, and Moses called young men of the children of Israel—for this was before the Levitical priesthood was established—to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings unto the Lord.
Half of the blood was put upon the altar. He took the other half of the blood in basins, sprinkled the book with the blood, and sprinkled the people with the blood.
In other words, a covenant was established between God and His people. A covenant was sealed with blood. It could not be broken.
This was the covenant God made with the nation of Israel when He first took them out of Egypt. But when you come to the time of Jeremiah, a thousand years had passed.
Within those thousand years, did the nation of Israel keep the covenant of God? A thousand years is a long period. Yet during that long period, how patient God was with His people! They broke the covenant of God repeatedly, continuously, persistently.
After a thousand years, God said, “That should be enough.” Because they did not keep the covenant, He disregarded it altogether.
In other words, it was a covenant with conditions. Because the nation of Israel did not fulfill the conditions—and it was proven beyond doubt throughout a thousand years that they would not fulfill them—they broke their side of the covenant.
So God said, “I will make a new covenant.”
In this old covenant, God said, “I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt.” God was like a husband to them.
Let us try to picture it. God took the hand of the nation of Israel. He was like a father to the children. God said, “I am like a father to you. I help you. I lead you. I am like a husband to you. I love you. I provide for you. I do everything for you.”
Is there anything on earth that God could do much more than He had already done for this nation of Israel? Of all the relationships on earth, there is no relationship more intimate than that between parents and children, or between husband and wife.
These are the closest relationships that you could ever have on earth. God did all these things for them. He was like a father to them. He was like a husband to them.
But in spite of all that God had done, we must remember that there were two personalities: God and the nation of Israel.
Just as a father may take the hand of a child and try to lead him, the child has his own will. Even though the father is stronger and able to pull him to one side, there is always that little will trying to go the other way.
However real and close a relationship may be, it is still external. You still have two wills instead of one—two personalities.
A husband and wife are to be joined together into one flesh. There is nothing closer than that relationship, yet you still find two personalities. The husband is not in the wife, and the wife is not in the husband. The father is not in the child, and the child is not in the father.
The closest of all relationships, and yet it is still external. That is the nature of the old covenant. That is the nature of the covenant of law.
That is all that God could do under that covenant. It was a covenant with conditions. God said, “If you will keep the covenant, if you will hearken to My voice, then I will make you My people, and I will be your God.”
In other words, the responsibility was upon the people. “You first fulfill all these conditions, and then I will be your God. Do and do not; then I will be your God.”
The result was that they broke the covenant.
But God said, “I will make a new covenant with you.” This new covenant is not like the old; it is a better covenant.
Can there be anything better than the old covenant? Can there be any relationship closer or more effective than the relationship of father and children, husband and wife? Humanly speaking, no. But divinely speaking, yes.
God is able to do something that ears have never heard, eyes have never seen, and which has never entered into the human heart.
The nature of the new covenant is altogether different. It is not only an unconditional covenant; in other words, it does not depend upon us. It all depends upon God. God takes upon Himself the full responsibility of all things, and we are the recipients of His grace—pure grace.
But the relationship, or the nature, of the new covenant is such that it is a relationship even closer than that of father and child, or husband and wife. It is not an external relationship; it becomes an inward union—a oneness, an inwardness.
You remember our Lord Jesus on the night of His betrayal. He gathered His disciples with Him, and after the Passover feast, the Lord took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying:
Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me.
Afterwards, He took the cup, blessed it, passed the cup to the disciples, and said:
Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins.
Jeremiah prophesied about the new covenant. For six hundred years, nothing was heard about this new covenant.
After Jeremiah prophesied of the new covenant, the nation of Israel went into captivity. Even after they returned from captivity—a remnant—and rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, nothing was heard about this new covenant.
Then, for four hundred years, God was altogether quiet—silent. God did not even speak to these people until suddenly the voice of John the Baptist came, preaching repentance to the nation of Israel. Then Christ came to preach the same message: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
Nothing was heard of this new covenant until that night when the Lord Jesus took the cup, delivered it to His own disciples—those who believed in Him—and said, “This is the cup of the new covenant.”
With the nation of Israel, the new covenant is still in the future. “The days come.” The days for Israel are still in the future. You have to wait until the coming of the Lord, until the return of Christ to earth. When He restores the nation of Israel to God, then this new covenant will be with the nation of Israel. It will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom.
But thank God, there is a true Israel of God today. There is the church today. Here you find Christ, on the last night—the night of His betrayal—delivering the cup to the disciples, those who are redeemed and believe in Him, and saying, “This is the new covenant.”
What is the new covenant? What is the nature of this new covenant?
After He had taken the last supper with His disciples, in John 14 through 16 the Lord began to explain the nature of this new covenant to His disciples. How did He explain it? He said:
In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
In other words, the nature of the new covenant is a new relationship. It is not just like a father taking the hand of his child and trying to lead him. It is not like a husband trying to provide and help in every way he can. It is more than that. It is an inwardness.
Because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, because Christ is glorified, the Holy Spirit has come, and God is able to dwell within us. Christ is to be our very life.
It is no longer an external relationship, however close it may be. It is an inward relationship. He is in us, and we are in Him.
Therefore, in John 15, the Lord said:
I am the true vine, and ye are the branches.
Abide in Me, and I in you.
He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the nature of the new covenant. Christianity is not an external relationship with God. Christianity is an inward relationship with God. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
This is something divine, because there is no such inward relationship possible on earth. It is beyond human ability. But thank God, He has done it.
By the mercy of God, we are now the people of the new covenant. God has established a new covenant with us, and this new covenant is sealed by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus. It cannot be broken.
Today, we live under the new covenant. We do not live under the old covenant. But unfortunately, many Christians today are still living under the old covenant.
Even though God has not covenanted with you according to the old covenant, how often we put ourselves under the law as if we belonged to the old covenant. We are still trying to do everything, hoping that we may do it, even though we know it is hopeless.
We do not realize that God, in His mercy, has covenanted with us in a new covenant. Today, we should learn to live in the new covenant and not to live under the old covenant.
In order to live in the new covenant, in order to know what God’s covenant with us is today, you have to know what God has provided in that covenant: the promises of God. What has God done? What has God done for us? What are our privileges? What can we expect of God?
Our whole dealing with God today is according to the new covenant. That gives us ground. It is not wishful thinking. It is not just hope. It gives us solid ground on which we stand, and by which we can have our dealings with God and God’s dealings with us.
They are all based upon this new covenant. So, dear brothers and sisters, it is very, very essential that we know what the new covenant is.
First of all, we know that the nature of the new covenant is that inward relationship: He is in us, and we are in Him. But now we would like to see what we find in this new covenant.
Here in Jeremiah 31:33–34, we find:
I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Not once do you find in this new covenant that God lays down certain conditions for us to fulfill first before He will do His part. Not even once.
All through the new covenant, it is “I”—God Himself. He promises that He will do this and He will do that. He promises what He is going to do with us, and it does not depend upon us. It is unconditional, because it is grace.
It is the fulfillment and realization of God’s covenant with Abraham. God’s covenant with Abraham is a covenant of promise. Because it is a covenant of promise, it is by grace. It cannot be annulled by the covenant of law, which came in four hundred and thirty years later.
The law was given to give us the knowledge of sin. The law was to lead us up to Christ. But this new covenant is the continuation and fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham—the promises of God to Abraham. It is purely of grace.
What do we find in the covenant? Three things.
For the sake of better understanding, we have to start from the end and go upward. Why? Because in God’s order, it is first, “I will put My law in their inward parts”; and the last is, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.”
But so far as our experience goes, it begins with forgiveness. From forgiveness, we enter into the inward knowledge of God. From the inward knowledge of God, we enter into the experience of Him as the law of the Spirit of life.
God said, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.”
We all have committed sins. We all have our iniquities. We have all missed the mark. We have all trespassed the boundary that God has set for us.
Is there forgiveness? How can a just God forgive our sins? That is an age-long question. How can a just God ever forgive our sins? How can He be just and justify the sinner? These two things seem to oppose each other. There is no way of solving it—but God has a way.
Not by sacrificing His justice, but by sending His Son to this world to die in our stead upon the cross. That is why you find the first word that our Lord spoke from the cross:
Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
How can the heavenly Father forgive the sins of the world? How can the just God pardon our iniquity? It is based upon the cross of Christ. Christ offered Himself as the offering for the sins of the world, and God has accepted Him. Therefore, God is able to forgive our iniquity.
Brothers and sisters, as we look back, when we were under that heavy load of sin, there was no way out. Yet God opened our eyes to see that Christ has already borne in His body our sins and iniquities.
Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
When you experience God’s forgiveness, brothers and sisters, how can you forget that? He forgives all our sins. God not only forgives; He says, “I will remember them no more.” He forgets too.
You may say, “Well, I should remember. Why should I forget it?” Well, God forgets too. What is covered by the precious blood, what He has already forgiven, God will never dig out and remember anymore. It is gone forever. Brothers and sisters, what grace that is!
But God does not say, “I will forgive and forget your sins before you believe in Christ. Now that you have believed in Christ, you should not sin; and if ever you sin, I will not forgive nor ever forget.” It does not say so.
He says, “I will forgive and I will forget.” Nevertheless, brothers and sisters, there is often a misunderstanding. We think that all the sins committed before we believed in the Lord Jesus are forgiven and forgotten when we repent and believe in Him; but after we become children of God, He will remember everything and will not forget.
This is not true. God said, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.” It does not matter whether you are a sinner or a saint. If you repent and come to the Lord, He forgives and He forgets.
This is not to encourage us to sin. On the contrary, it is to encourage us not to sin, knowing that Christ had to pay such a price for us.
When Christ died on the cross, He bore in His body all our sins. Were you born at that time? Had you committed one single sin yet? No. Yet Christ had already borne in His body all ours. That includes everything.
He forgives. Thank God for that. Do not allow the enemy of God to come in and say, “Now look here: God does forgive all your sins of the past, but God cannot forgive and forget the sins you commit after you believe.”
You should not sin. But if you do, then what will happen? We find in 1 John 1:9:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Remember, this word is written to believers. First John is written to believers, not to the world.
There is no merit in confession. It is not because you confess that God forgives you. When you go to court and confess that you are guilty, you will be sentenced. There is no merit in confession, not at all.
Why then does the Word of God not say, “If you believe”? It says, “If you confess.” Why? Because you have already believed that Christ died on the cross for your sins once for all. Therefore, you do not need to believe that again; you have already believed.
All you need to do is, based upon your faith in the perfect work of Christ, confess your sin. Tell the Lord that you are sorry for it. Really repent. Do not hide it in your heart. That is confession.
As you confess and repent before the Lord, the Bible says God is righteous and faithful. It does not say God is merciful and gracious.
We may think that for our sins to be forgiven, God has to be merciful and gracious. It is true: it was the mercy and grace of God to send His Son into this world to become a substitute for us. That is grace; that is mercy.
But after Christ has died on the cross, it is no longer a matter of mercy and grace. Mercy and grace have already been given. It is now a matter of righteousness and faithfulness.
If anyone comes to the Lord as a sinner, repents, and believes in the Lord; if anyone comes to the Lord as a believer and confesses his sin before the Lord, God is righteous according to the new covenant.
A new covenant has been accomplished, and according to the new covenant God said, “I will forgive, and I will forget.” When we come to the Lord and confess, God is righteous and faithful to His covenant. Because of that, God forgives and forgets.
If God does not forgive and forget, what does it mean? It means God is not righteous and He is not faithful. But God cannot be unrighteous. He cannot be unfaithful. He is righteous, and He is faithful to His covenant.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, when we come to the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, thank God, there is nothing that can stand in between. All the barriers will go.
Do you believe that? Not quite, not quite.
What do we do? “Oh, possibly today I have not done too well. Because of that, I do not dare to come to God. I try to keep myself away from Him for a while, shame myself, and brood over my failure. I try to inflict some punishment on myself, do some penance, and after I have done enough, I say, ‘Now God should have mercy upon me.’ Then I go to Him with trembling.”
Is that what we do? Do you think by doing that you are honoring God, that you are being very godly and very pious? Not at all.
All the time God is waiting there and saying, “Where is My child? I want fellowship. Why should he keep himself away from Me? I have made provision for him to come back. The longer he keeps himself away from Me, the longer he suffers and the longer I suffer. Why should it be? I have a new covenant with him. Why does he not come to Me according to the new covenant?”
Oh, brothers and sisters, where is your faith? Faith is based upon the new covenant. The quicker you come back, the better—not in any sense being light about sin, oh no. But if you only see what God has done for us in Christ Jesus, it makes all the difference.
This is the first thing. Remember, this is your covenant right. This is the way that you come to God. The way is always open. There is always pardon. There is always forgiving and forgetting.
Oftentimes God forgives, but we cannot forgive ourselves. God forgets, but we cannot forget it. If you do that, it hinders all progress in spiritual life, because you keep yourself away from God instead of maintaining close fellowship with God on the basis of the precious blood of our Lord Jesus.
Number two: in our new covenant relationship, God has not only promised that He will forgive and forget. God says, “You do not need to teach your neighbor or your brother, ‘Know the Lord,’ because everyone will know Me himself, from the least to the greatest.”
Think of the children of Israel. How could they know God? They had to be taught. They had to be instructed. That is why they needed priests and Levites who were set apart to study the law.
You remember when they assembled together, especially during the Feast of Tabernacles, all the children of Israel were gathered in the open space—the men, the women, and the children who could understand. The priests and Levites read from the book of the law and explained the law so that the people might understand.
In other words, if there was no one to teach them, how could they know God? The only way of knowing God was to be taught, to receive instruction. Their knowledge of God had to come from outside, by gathering information. After you gathered enough information, then you had sufficient knowledge about God.
That was the way under the old covenant.
At one time, even the book of the law was lost. Nobody knew where the book was. When that happened, nobody knew God anymore.
Do you remember, in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, when they repaired the temple, they found the book of the law? Oh, what a time it was! They began to read the book. They were greatly afflicted before the Lord, and they made a covenant to serve God.
Under the old covenant, everything depended upon outward instruction. There was no other way of knowing God. The Ten Commandments had to be written upon stones. The Ten Commandments had to be inscribed in books. If you could not read, then you did not know; you had to have it read to you. That was normal.
But with the new covenant, God says, “No longer in that way. You do not need to teach your neighbor. You do not need to teach your brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord.’ You do not need to do that.” Why? “Because every one of you knows Me himself, from the least among you to the greatest among you.”
In other words, the moment a person is born into the family of God, not only are his sins forgiven, but from that day onward he knows God.
Of course, here you find two different kinds of knowledge. In Old Testament times, you taught your neighbor, saying, “Know the Lord.” That knowledge was external knowledge, gathered by information. It was objective.
But when God says, “They shall all know Me,” the word know means an inward knowledge, an intuitive knowledge, an inborn knowledge, a direct knowledge. It is not something that comes from our senses. It is not something that is reduced or deduced by logic and reasoning. It is direct knowledge from God, without human help.
Brothers and sisters, when we come to the Lord Jesus, we have not only our sins forgiven. Thank God for that. Oh, I know the day the Lord met me. I can still remember, so many years ago. I came as a person weighed down with a load of sin, and suddenly He rolled it away. I was set free. Oh, the joy, the peace—we know that.
But, brothers and sisters, God has done something much more. Our spirit, which was dead in sins and transgressions, could not find God no matter how much we searched. There was no contact. There was no communication. All we knew was accumulated from outside—external knowledge. We knew about Him, but we never knew Him. We knew He was there somewhere.
But, dear brothers and sisters, when we come to the Lord and believe in Him, something happens.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The Holy Spirit not only convicts us of our sins; He regenerates our spirit. A spirit that was dead in sins and transgressions is brought into new life—a new spirit.
It is with our spirit that we have communion with God. It is with our spirit that we know God intuitively and directly.
Therefore, the moment you are saved, the Bible says the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. You cry out, “Abba, Father.” You know. You know. You do not need anyone to tell you. You know your Father. You know God is your Father.
He is no longer a God far off and distant away, but He is here with you. Oh, He is even in you, and you are in Him. We know.
Our spirit is brought into life, and one of the functions of the spirit is intuition. You just know directly. Whenever God wants you to know something, His Spirit touches the intuitive faculty of your spirit, and you know.
This is not something only for advanced Christians. We may say, “Well, probably it is for advanced Christians, certainly not for us beginners.” But when you read 1 John, John speaks of three different kinds of people in the church: little children, young men, and fathers.
In 1 John 2, John is talking to little children. He is not talking to fathers, nor merely to young men. He says, “Little children, do you not know there is an anointing within you? Do you not know that the anointing within you will teach you concerning all things? Do you not know that you do not need anyone to teach you, because the anointing within you will teach you all things, and whatever He teaches is true?”
If you listen to the teaching of the anointing, you abide in Christ. You do not live a defeated life.
From the least to the greatest, it is true. As you grow in the Lord, your intuitive power should be sharpened, increased, and more exercised. But from the very first day you believe in the Lord Jesus, the Lord blesses you with the intuitive power in your new spirit to know Him directly. That is the way God wants us to know Him.
Very often, when a Christian is born again, he just knows. There is no reasoning. He has not yet read the whole Bible. We often say, “If you want to know, you have to read the Bible.” That is true. We see what the Bible says by the Word of God.
But he may not have read the Bible yet. He is just beginning. With a Bible in his hand, he may not even be able to find a place. He may not even know how to use a concordance yet. But he knows. He knows.
How sad it is that we leave our Teacher within and go around asking teachers without. Then we are confused. One teacher tells you one thing, and another teacher tells you another thing. Now whom will you listen to?
Thank God for teachers, although I am afraid there are too many teachers. But the anointing—the Holy Spirit—is moving in our spirit. When we are quiet enough and are in communion with God, we know. We just touch it, and we know.
You may not be able to explain it, but you just know. This knowing is real knowing.
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
If you know the truth only mentally, it does not set you free. But when you know intuitively, it sets you free. You just know.
Brothers and sisters, oftentimes in the Christian life, you just walk with the Lord. You do not need to be troubled too much. The only thing is: commune with the Lord, live with the Lord, and walk with the Lord.
As you walk with the Lord, when you are about to go somewhere or do certain things, somehow the anointing is working within you. Sometimes it is a restraining; sometimes it is a constraining. You know Someone is trying to teach you.
If only you can stop and listen. But oftentimes, not knowing, we neglect it. We go around trying to inquire, and we are lost.
Knowing God is an inward thing. It is knowing God intuitively.
Of course, this knowledge is progressive. In the beginning you may know some little things; later you may know something deeper, and then still deeper. Your intuitive knowing is progressive; that is true. Yet you have to know Him intuitively.
We need to be very careful. If you really know God, do not try to be too quick to be other people’s teacher. Direct them to seek the Lord themselves.
Some people say, “Jeremiah says you do not need to teach anyone anymore, so we do not need any teachers.” But God gave some teachers to the church. What are they for?
These teachers and prophets are not to direct our lives. They are there to help confirm or correct, not to direct. We may be mistaken because we are new in this inward way of life.
Therefore, God raises teachers to confirm what He has already spoken to us, or sometimes to correct us. So be humble enough. Quench not the Spirit; despise not prophesyings. But maintain a right balance before God.
This is our covenant right. Remember that.
People say, “I do not know the will of God. This is the hardest thing in the whole world.” This is not true, brothers and sisters. To know the will of God is the easiest thing in the world. It gets harder and harder, that is true; but in the beginning it is very easy.
The reason is that in the beginning, when we are just a child, the moment we turn to the Lord, He speaks. He does not wait. He tells us in black and white, in a clear voice.
But as you go on with the Lord, sometimes He will wait awhile to test us. Sometimes, even when He speaks, it is not that clear. You know why? Sometimes He does not speak at all. He says, “You guess.”
Not just a wild guess, of course. In other words, God says, “You ought to know Me now. You do not need Me to tell you. You ought to know. You should know My nature. What do I like? What do I not like? You should know. You are no longer a child who has to be told. You have grown up. You should understand.”
Therefore, with young Christians, to know the will of God is the easiest thing in the world. Oftentimes young people say, “God tells me this; God tells me that.” It is true.
But the older you grow, you cannot say that anymore. You say, “Well, I think this is what God wants.” That is not going backward; it is going forward. All the time, it is that inward knowing of God.
Brothers and sisters, remember: this is our covenant relationship with God. It is already here. It is already given. It is already provided. Why do we not go this way and use it?
Then number three: God said, “I will put My law in their inward parts, and I will write it upon their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
“I will put My law in their inward parts.” Now, what are the inward parts?
Here you find Hebrew parallelism. The way the Hebrews do it is to repeat something in different ways. So when He says, “I will put My law in their inward parts, and will write it in their heart,” the inward parts and the heart are parallel.
Now, what is the heart? The heart is the key to our whole being. Of course, this is not speaking of the physical, cardiac heart. It is speaking in a moral and spiritual sense. Just as our physical heart is essential to our whole being, so this moral and spiritual heart is essential to our spiritual being.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
What is the heart? The Bible tells us the heart is the inward part. We have this outward body, and within this outward body are the inward parts. Within the inward parts there is a hidden part.
The hidden part, which David wrote of in the Psalms, refers to the spirit. But the inward parts refer to the heart.
The heart includes several aspects. First, conscience.
In Hebrews 10, we read:
Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.
Here you find that conscience is part of the heart. To have our conscience sprinkled means that our heart is clear before God.
That is what you find in 1 John 3: “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart.” The heart there means conscience—the conscience that condemns. That is part of your heart.
Second, the inward part includes our emotions. In John 14:1, the Lord said, “Let not your heart be troubled.” In Luke 24, the two disciples said, “Was not our heart burning within us?” In other words, in our heart there is emotion.
Third, in our heart there is our thought—our mind. In Matthew 13, you find that they understand with their heart. Mary pondered in her heart.
Fourth, our will. In Hebrews 4:12, we read:
For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The will is an intent of the heart. “Harden not your hearts.” So you find that our heart is the inward part of our being. That is the real “I.”
It includes part of our spirit—the conscience—and it includes the other parts of our soul. It represents me in a very real way. Therefore the heart is very important. It is the key to spiritual life.
God said, “I will put My law in their heart,” in that inward part. The law here is singular in number—only one law.
But when you come to Hebrews 8, in the quotation, it becomes “laws.” In other words, so far as the law itself is concerned, there is only one law; but when it operates, it becomes many laws.
What is that one law that God has put in our inward parts—in our conscience, in our soul, in our mind, in our will, in our emotions? You find in Romans 8 that it is the law of the Spirit of life.
God does not give us a hundred or a thousand and one laws. No. God puts one law in our heart: the law of the Spirit of life.
His life is the law. The Spirit is in the law. As we live by His life and His Spirit operates in us, we not only know what God wants, but we have the power to do it.
A law is the nature of a thing. But a law is not only the nature of a thing; a law is also the power of that thing.
So we not only know God intuitively, but the life of Christ in us is our law. The Spirit of life is our law. As we are led by the Spirit, we are sons of God.
We cannot do it, but the law of the Spirit of life is God’s power. The law of the Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin and of death. It is His life. It is His Spirit. It is His law.
God said, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” In putting His law in our heart, in giving us the law of the Spirit of life, God is to be our God.
In other words, God is our power. God is the power of our life. He Himself in us is that power. There is nothing He cannot do.
Did you follow? The law of the Spirit of life means that you not only know what is right, but you do what is right, because He is doing it.
God said, “I will be your God.” Because I am your God, you are My people. He undertakes it all.
That is what Paul means:
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
It is not I, but Christ who is my life, the power of my life.
Dear brothers and sisters, here you find three precious things in the new covenant:
Do you need anything more? God has provided all for us. Now let us live in that new covenant.
Do not go back to the old covenant, struggling, condemning, and penalizing yourself. Let us rest in the Lord, believe in Him, and trust in His power and resurrection. This is the way that God has covenanted with us.
Our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee. Thou hast made a new covenant with us, a better covenant. Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that it is already established, sealed by the blood of our Lord Jesus.
Lord, teach us how to take the covenant and live accordingly, for Thou hast made every provision. Lord, teach us how to use our privileges and our rights, that we may be unto the praise of Thy glory.
As Thy Word says, Thou hast given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Everything has been given. Work it out, O Lord, in each of our lives and in our lives together as Thy people.
We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.