On the night he was betrayed, Jesus gathered secretly with his disciples to celebrate the Passover. The scene is recorded in Luke chapter 22: “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” Clearly, this was a moment of dreadful anticipation. Jesus believed that the arrival of God’s kingdom was imminent. But he also knew that the kingdom could only be brought to birth through his own suffering and death. Jesus first breaks the bread, and dedicates it as a symbol of his broken body. Luke then writes, “In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.'”
Hopefully, you already have a very clear idea of what Jesus meant by “the new covenant.” In the last blog, we looked closely at Deuteronomy chapters 28 through 31. These crucial chapters serve as a summary of the covenant God made with Israel. God promises blessing upon Israel’s covenant faithfulness (28:1-14), but also warns of curse if Israel fails to uphold the covenant requirements (28:15-68). Disturbingly, Moses recognized the stubborn and rebellious nature of the people of Israel. He foresees that they will abandon the covenant and bring down upon their heads the awful covenant curses. (29:22-28) God himself foresees that “these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them.” (31:16) Yet not all is lost. Moses also prophesies a time of covenant renewal, a time when “you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all you soul according to everything I command you today.” Moses envisions a time when God’s people will turn away from worthless idols and offer wholehearted worship and obedience to the one true God. This time of covenant renewal is exactly what Jesus had in mind when he spoke of “the new covenant.”
Israel’s prophets often peered beyond her present hardships and spoke about this great time of covenant renewal. In particular, there is one famous “new covenant” passage from the book of Jeremiah that I wish to focus upon. Jeremiah lived during the last fateful and tumultuous years of the southern kingdom of Judah. Over a century before, the northern kingdom of Israel had been devastated by the Assyrians. Now God had given Jeremiah the severe task of confronting Judah one last time with her sins. Jeremiah was faithful to his work, but his message brought upon him the scorn and derision of his fellow Jews. He was often in danger from his own people. Yet God vindicated Jeremiah; his words became reality. Jerusalem was besieged and captured by the Babylonian armies. The city of David was burned to the ground, including the temple and the royal palace. Only a small band of Jews survived in exile.
Much of the book of Jeremiah reflects the dark and difficult times in which he lived. However, like Moses and other prophets, Jeremiah trusted that God would honor his promises. After all, God had irrevocably promised Abraham that blessing would come upon the whole world through Israel. So Jeremiah knew that God would eventually renew the covenant and restore his people. “The time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD. ‘This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.‘” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
This well known passage of the Bible is quite important for our study of “faith and works.” Jeremiah here picks up on the theme of covenant renewal from Deuteronomy chapter 30. When Jesus speaks of “the new covenant in my blood,” he has this same vital theme firmly in mind. So if we want to fully comprehend what Jesus thought his suffering would accomplish, we should look closely at the words of Jeremiah.
So what can we say about the new covenant? How will it be different from the old covenant? Well, Jeremiah says, “[The new covenant] will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant.” Obviously, God wasn’t the problem with the old covenant. He held up his end of the agreement; he was like a faithful husband to his people Israel. Nor was the problem the expectations of the covenant itself. The covenant called for Israel to love and serve God. By offering God the worship he deserves and by living in obedience to his commands, Israel would bring blessing upon themselves and the whole world.
This is an important point, because many Christians would not agree with this assessment. They would say, “No! The old covenant is itself the problem! Human beings are not capable of obedience to God’s commands.” However, that is not what the text says. According to Jeremiah, the problem wasn’t the expectations of covenant behavior, but the people of Israel who broke the covenant. Also, note carefully how Jeremiah describes the new covenant: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” This powerful imagery depicts the Torah – the holy law of God – being inscribed on human hearts and minds. Here is a beautiful portrait of human beings who fully commit their deepest desires, thoughts, and actions to the worship and obedience of the living God. Jeremiah envisions a time when God’s people will no longer violate his covenant. Crucially, he does not suggest that humans are hopelessly sinful and simply require forgiveness. He does believe that God is able to give his people the power to faithfully keep the covenant law. There is no other reasonable interpretation: when Jeremiah writes about the law being placed into their minds and written on their hearts, this can only mean that Israel will be empowered to faithfully obey the law. This is the message of Jeremiah – and Jesus too.
Jeremiah does indeed go on to speak of the forgiveness of sins, but this forgiveness must not be seen independently from obedience. In fact, the passage suggests that a change in behavior, a new obedience, will be the predicate for the forgiveness of sins. This is exactly the sequence we encounter in the book of Acts, when the people respond to Peter’s sermon by asking, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replies, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of sins.”
When we celebrate the Lord’s supper, what do we think about? What comes to mind when we hear Jesus’ words: “this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Certainly when Christians ponder Jesus’ death on the cross, they should reflect upon the forgiveness we have received because of his sacrifice. But do we also consider that we’ve now received new power to live in obedience to God? Do we think about our behavior? Most evangelical Christians do not. They have pulled these two things apart. They insist that our “works” or our actions are completely unrelated to our forgiveness. Our actions are demoted to the realm of “thankful response.”
The really important parts – our forgiveness and our salvation – are kept far away from our behavior. But Jeremiah’s prophesy of the new covenant brings them together, and I’m certain that Jesus did too.
The apostle Paul made the same connection. In Romans chapter 2, Paul is writing about the final judgement. He declares that those who will be declared “righteous” before God are those who “obey the law.” (2:13) Now for many Christians this certainly doesn’t sound like something Paul would say. It sure sounds like “works” based righteousness. And it is true that Paul goes on in Romans 3:20 to conclude “Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.” What’s going on here? Has Paul just contradicted himself? Most evangelical interpreters would say that when Paul talks about people being declared righteous by obeying the law, he is creating a theoretical category. Paul is saying that if someone could “obey the law”, then they would be declared righteous. Such interpreters would note however, that since in reality no one can truly obey the law, this route to righteousness becomes a dead-end. I wish to challenge this interpretation by making two observations.
First, let’s look at Romans 2:14-15, which comes immediately after Paul’s statement that “it’s those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” Paul goes on to say, “For the Gentiles don’t possess the law as their birthright; but whenever they do what the law says, they are a law for themselves, despite not possessing the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts.” Verse 14 begins with a Greek word which means “for” or “because.” In other words, Paul is explaining what he just stated in verse 13. But he’s not saying, “Yes, if you could keep the law you’d be in good standing with God. But since we know that keeping the law is impossible, you’re out of luck.” Instead, he’s actually describing a class of people who do, in fact, “keep the law.” And astonishingly, these people are Gentiles, who by their nature as non-Jews don’t even have the law. What can he possibly mean?
The vital clue here is found in the key phrase from Jeremiah we’ve been studying. Paul is here talking about the time of covenant renewal, when the work of the law is written upon people’s hearts. He’s describing Gentile Christians who, even though they don’t have the Jewish Torah, are somehow behaving in the way that God desires. Paul won’t fully explain what he means until later in the book of Romans. But for now, just remember that Paul really does think it’s possible for human beings to in some sense “keep the law,” even though such law-keeping might not look like something Saul of Tarsus would have expected.
The second observation is hidden in Romans 3:20, where Paul writes, “Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.” This translation seems quite straightforward, and appears to slam the door shut on the idea that anyone can truly obey the law. But if we look at the original Greek, this verse takes on a subtle but crucially different meaning. What Paul actually wrote is “no flesh will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.” Many readers might think this change makes no difference. But students of Paul know that the word “flesh” is a key technical term. When Paul talks about flesh, he’s referring not to people in general, but specifically to sinful humanity, in rebellion against God. Later in the book of Romans (and elsewhere), Paul will explain that people who are controlled by the Holy Spirit are no longer “in the flesh.” Most notably, in Romans 8:9 he proclaims, “But you’re not people of flesh; you’re people of the spirit!”
The main take home point here is that Paul is not categorically claiming it’s impossible for human beings to behave in way which is honoring to God. He is claiming that the ability to please God involves a radical, transformative change. This change involves becoming a person who is empowered by the Holy Spirit, rather than our sinful inclinations. And the change is so radical, it can only come about by dying and coming to life again. To this subject, we’ll turn in the next “faith & works” blog.
