Written in Our Minds and on Our Hearts

This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

Hebrews 8:10 NIV

God brought Israel out of Egypt and established a covenant with them at Mt. Sinai. This covenant was conditional on the people keeping the terms of the covenant. If they did, they would be God’s treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Ex. 19:5-6). God wrote the terms of this covenant on stone tablets and had them placed into the ark of the covenant law (Ex. 25:16).

But Israel failed to keep the terms of that covenant. Despite the repeated warnings and calls to repentance sent by God through the prophets, the people persisted in their disobedience to the covenant. And God eventually turned away from them (Heb. 8:9).

But he did not abandon his people. Instead, he established a new covenant. One foretold by Jeremiah (Jer. 31:31-34) and inaugurated through the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross (Matt. 26:28). A covenant between God and all those who will come to him through faith in Jesus, regardless of ethnicity, gender, color, and any other dividing issue.

The terms of this covenant are, unlike the earlier covenant, written on our hearts and in our minds. It does what the old covenant never could, making us a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) with a renewed heart and mind.

And as his people of the new covenant, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, we can come before God’s throne of grace with confidence (Heb. 4:16). And we can love and serve him in the new way of the Spirit rather than the old way of a written code (Rom. 7:6).

Related Posts

• Is the Whole Bible About Jesus?
• Salvation Under the Old Covenant – Hebrews 11:39-40
• Hebrews: A New Covenant (8:7-13)
• A Brief Review of the Major Biblical Covenants
• A Covenant with Better Promises – Hebrews 8:6