Pastor Tom Johnson, October 27, 2013
“This is the covenant I will make with [my people], says 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. I will write my Law—my prophetic Word—upon their hearts.” That is the profound assurance that God wants us to have with this promise. It goes to the very center of what we remember today on Reformation Sunday.
We remember that God’s people at various times lost their way from this intimate relationship with God. Our Hebrew Scripture from the prophet Jeremiah reminds us that they wandered away almost as soon as God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Their hearts were overcome by fear of Pharaoh’s army. And who can blame them? The Egyptian army was a formidable adversary with the war technology of a superpower—and Israel was a poorly armed band of freed slaves. They cried out that it would have been better to die in Egypt with a proper burial than to be decimated in the wilderness. They questioned God’s wisdom, his power, and faithfulness. We remember that, in Jesus’ day, religion was more about outward rituals and ceremonial practices than personal faith. People lived under the fear of God’s judgment and anger. The Mosaic Law became a burden that everyone had to bear with its stringent rules and unforgiving narrowness. And we remember, in Martin Luther’s day—that nonconformist German monk—that the Church was selling forgiveness for silver and gold. Luther said he hated God because of all the rules and perfect righteousness that were demanded of him. He lived in fear of punishment both in this life and the life thereafter. And there seemed to be no comfort in the Gospel—what is ironically called the Good News.
We humans seem to want to measure ourselves and one another by our outward appearances and behavior—the color our skin, the habits we have, the words we say, and the lifestyles we live. This is not to say that these things are irrelevant. The Law—God’s Word—calls us to love God with our whole being in thought, word, and deed and to love one another as Christ loved us. God’s calls us to life-transformation—real change in real peoples’ lives. Where we can get confused is the way in which our lives are changed. We can’t stop being afraid of the things that terrify us any more than the Israelites could just wish Pharaoh’s army away. We can’t obey all the demands of the Law all the time—none of us can. We will fail to hit the mark either in deliberate sin or in laziness or apathy. We cannot perfectly fulfill who God calls us to be. And we certainly cannot purchase forgiveness or salvation from God. We do not get brownie points for going to church, praying, or reading our Bibles—although those are very good things to do! Where we get off track is thinking that we can do what it takes to get God’s attention, acceptance, and love. We can’t. It is impossible.
“This is my promise, eternal decree, my planned course of action,” God says in our text, “I will infuse my Word into their very being. I will inscribe it into the very core of their souls. People will know me with a visceral knowledge.” God takes the initiative. He freely takes the first step toward us. He freely gives us forgiveness, life, and salvation. It is good news because it is God’s idea to pursue us through his Son, Jesus Christ. And he does so from the inside out. And to make sure it has staying power, he etches his love into the very tissue of our internal organs.
The word for heart in the Hebrew is really the word for what we would call the guts. It has the same spectrum of meaning as the word “guts” does in English: our gut knows something isn’t right before we know it in our head. A person who is strong and courageous “has guts” or “good, intestinal fortitude.” A person who responds to life’s challenges intuitively and decisively has a “gut reaction.” It is a kind of wisdom that transcends language and cognitive understanding. It is the kind of wisdom that is thoroughly human but since God is the author, it is also divine. Neurologists have found that the mind is not limited to the cranium area or the brain cavity itself. The mind is a neural network that is significant in areas like the gut. Our Scripture reminds us that God knows our frame—he engineered us—our bodies, our minds, our souls.
This Word of encouragement from God today—and the wonderful reminder and blessing of Reformation—is that our heavenly Father inscribes his gracious Word into our hearts. Faith is a gift. Faith is not mere cognition. It is trust. It is something we know in our guts and feel with a visceral knowledge. This relational bond between us and our Father Creator goes to the very core of our being. He is the one who holds the stylus in his hand. He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. And we have the assurance that we are his beloved children—even to the very core of our being. God creates and strengthens us by that same grace—freely and generously as he continues to write the good story of his love for us into the vital organs of our lives. Words may fail us as we try to explain to others how we know, trust, and love the true and living God. Thanks be to God that the joy we experience also transcends human understanding as we give thanks, share with others, worship, and celebrate God’s free gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus Christ—from not only our minds but also our hearts!
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