This is the covenant that I will make with them

Hebrews 10 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? ³ But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. ⁴ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵ Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

“Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But a body You have prepared for Me; ⁶ In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. ⁷ “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) To do Your will, O God.’”

⁸ After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), ⁹ then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹ Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; ¹² but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. ¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. ¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,

¹⁶ “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,”

He then says,

¹⁷ “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

God, through the Holy Spirit says: “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,” …  “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”   That God says He will no longer remember sins and lawless deeds does not mean that He has changed His mind about sin and lawlessness. God says He will put His laws upon our hearts and write them in our minds. So that every person knows, by the witness of the Holy Spirit to their spirit, what is evil and what is good; what is darkness and what is light. The text says:  He, (Jesus) having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.  In Matthew 26:28, on the night that He was betrayed, when Jesus shared the cup with His disciples, He said:  “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”  It is the blood of Christ that enacts the covenant promise of God to no longer remember our sins. It is only in Christ that we are sanctified and qualified to enter into the covenant of forgiveness and redemption. Those who reject the sacrifice of Christ, disqualify themselves from the benefits of the covenant. God then will not forget their sins, but rather to them, what God says in Isaiah 5:20: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”, still applies. 

In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus says:  “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”   To be least in the kingdom of heaven is still better than to be great on earth. But, consider also what Jesus says in Matthew 7:13-14; 21-23:  “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it… Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”  It may be that those who are believers but go along with the worlds relaxed views about sin, may still enter the kingdom, even if it is as least. For those though who call Jesus Lord, yet embrace and practice the lawlessness of our culture, Jesus says depart from Me. Galatians 5:19-21 says:  The deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Much of the church, in its effort to be appealing to our culture is in danger of losing its inheritance, by relaxing God’s commandments and embracing and practicing lawlessness. That something is made legal by politicians, does not make it right. For believers to embrace what is evil because it is legal is a dangerous position to take. The results of this election indicate that many are in that dangerous position. Surely if the majority of our country embraces immorality and darkness, we are no longer a nation under God. If we are no longer under His commandments, then we are no longer under His covenant promises.  

Having removed ourselves from His covenant, we are now subject to the will of man. In 2 Samuel 24:14, when David was given the choice for the consequences of His sin, he said:  “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” 

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, I pray that those in authority in this nation would have the same understanding as David. I pray that they would turn to You and not from You. I pray that they would turn from lawlessness and fall into Your loving and merciful hands. I pray Lord, that if our nation continues on its path toward destruction, that You would reveal Your covenant to each individual, that they would turn to You and that they would be sanctified in Christ. That they would know You and be known by You. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.