Back to Jeremiah, I’d be remiss if I skipped the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31. The problem is, I don’t know much about this text. I think I’ve heard one sermon on it, about which I remember nothing. So let’s see what God says to us. We’ll learn together!

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD:

• I will put my law within them, and
• I will write it on their hearts. And
• I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And
• no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For
• I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31.31 – 34, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

Are we there yet? “I will put my law within them…and write it on their hearts.” Jesus promised:

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16.13 – 15, ESV)

John wrote:

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth…Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father…But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. (1 John 2.20, 21, 24, 27, ESV)

John is saying that we know the truth and don’t need a teacher. Jeremiah said, “No longer will each man teach his neighbor…” But John is teaching! Jeremiah reports that the LORD declares, “I will put my law within them…” I’m leading some men through Every Man a Warrior, and we’re working very hard to get God’s Word into our memories!

So maybe this one of those “already and not yet” passages.

Yes, “I will be their God and they shall be my people.”

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2.19 – 22, ESV)

Yes, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. (Ephesians 1.7, NKJV)

But we still need teachers:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Titus 2.1 – 5, NIV)

But there will be a day when ALL of the New Covenant will be fulfilled:

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22.3 – 5, ESV)