Christ, High Priest in the True Sanctuary, superseding the Levitical Priesthood—The
New renders Obsolete the Old Covenant. (79) Heb. 8: 10-13.
“I will put My laws into their minds and write them in their hearts.” That this is not an experience peculiar to Christians or restored Christians is clear from Ps. 37:30, 31, “… The law of His God is in his heart.” In Psalm 19:7, 8, we read, “The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul … the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” But that the major portion of Israel, were regenerated, at any period in the lengthy history of that nation, there is nothing whatever to show: instead, there is very much to the contrary. This experience is enjoyed by none save God’s elect, and in every age they have been but a “little flock.” “I will put My laws into their minds. Deut. 30:6, Jer. 31:33; 32:40, Eze. 11:19; 36:26, 2, 2Cor. 3:3, 7, 8, Jas. 1:18, 21, 1Pet. 1:23” These words have reference to the effectual operations of the Spirit in His supernatural and saving illumination of our understandings, whereby they are made habitually conformable unto the whole law of God, which is our rule of obedience in the new covenant. The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be Rom. 8:7. But when we are renewed by the Spirit, He works in us a submission to the authority and revealed will of God. As the Lord opened the heart of Lydia “that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” Acts 16:14, so in the miracle of the new birth, the Christian is given an ear to heed and a mind to perceive the holiness, justice, and goodness of God’s law. Yea, that law is effectually applied to him, so that it becomes the subject of his meditation, and the regulator of his ways. Phil. 2:13. The preacher may announce the law of God to the outward ear, but only the Spirit can engrave it on the mind. “And write them in their hearts.” The “heart” as distinguished from the “mind” comprises the affections and the will. First, the understanding is informed, and then the heart is reformed. An active principle of obedience is imparted, and this is nothing else than a love for God Himself. Where there is a real love for God, there is a genuine desire and determination to please Him. The heart of the natural man is “alienated” from God and opposed to His authority. That is why, at Sinai, God wrote the commandments upon stones—not so much to secure the outward letter of them, as to represent the hardness of the hearts of the people unto whom they were given. But at regeneration God takes away the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh Ezek. 36:26—pliable, living, responsive. Pink Arthur W.
“And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people. Gen. 17:7, 8, Jer. 24:7; 31:1, 33; 32:38, Eze. 11:20; 36:28; 37:27; 39:22, Hos. 1:10; 2:23, Zec. 8:8; 13:9, Mat. 22:32. The wicked are living in this world “without God, and without hope” (Eph. 2:12), but unto the righteous He says, “I am thy Shield, thy exceeding great Reward” (Gen. 15:1). “Happy is that people, that is in such a case, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord” (Ps. 144:15). When He says “I will be to them a God” it means that He will act toward His people according to all that is implied in the name of God. He will be their Lawgiver, their Counselor, their Protector, their Guide. He will supply all their needs, deliver from all dangers, and bring them unto everlasting felicity. He will be faithful and longsuffering, bearing with their frailties, never leaving nor forsaking them. “And they shall be My people” expresses both dignity and a duty. Their dignity is set forth in Ex. 19:5, 6, Rom. 9:25, 26, Tit. 2:14, 1Pet. 2:9; their duty in the verses which follow. “And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest” Is. 2:3; 54:13, Jer. 31:34, Jn. 6:45, 1Jn. 2:27 Know the 2Kg. 17:27, 28. 1Chr. 28:9, 2Chr. 30:22, Ezr. 7:25 for all Is. 54:13, Jer. 24:7, Eze. 34:30, Hab. 2:14, 1Jn. 5:20 from the Jer. 6:13; 42:1, 8; 44:12, Act. 8:10. There shall be a striking contrast to the ignorance which characterized the great body of those who were under the Old Covenant; that the revelation of the Divine will shall be far more extensive and clearer under the new; and that there shall be a correspondingly enlarged communication of the enlightened influences of the Holy Spirit. They suggest the idea, that that kind of knowledge which is the peculiar glory of the New Covenant is a kind of knowledge which cannot be communicated by brother teaching brother, but comes directly from Him—the great Teacher, whose grand characteristic is this, that whom He teaches, He makes apt to learn” (John Brown).
