Looking Through New Covenant Glasses: “I Will Be Your God”

Devotional, Doctrine, Feature, Martin Carey

MARTIN CAREY | Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Life Assurance Ministries Board Member |

“And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.”—Jeremiah 32:38-39

During the first 13 years of my life, there was one constant: we were always moving. Wherever we landed, we were newcomers and often felt we didn’t really belong. One hopeful constant was knowing from the Bible that we could belong to a God who never changes. Unfortunately, we did not know the certainty of God’s sovereign grace in the New Covenant. As an Adventist I would read verses like Jeremiah 32 and feel a little hope, but hope with a little twinge of worry. It was nice to know that I could belong to God. But then I thought, those nice promises are coupled with commands to obey, which I was sure made His promises conditioned on me keeping my faith and commitment strong. 

The promises of God were exciting, but not very comforting to me, for they reminded me of my wavering faith. Ellen White reminded me I was on probation, so the commands always seemed to cancel out the promises. I pictured God standing there holding out a beautiful gift with his right hand, and a whip in his left. How could I remain good enough to stay strong, as one of His people? 

God’s Promises Can’t Be Cancelled

Good theology gives us hope and makes difficult questions clear, while bad theology is like a filthy pair of glasses with the wrong prescription. It just keep us guessing and groping. So let’s look at that passage in Jeremiah 32 again. Put down the cloudy theology, and put on New Covenant glasses. These are powerful promises that cannot be cancelled. In fact, these promises are so bright, they illuminate everything else we hear from God: 

“And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” —Jeremiah 32:38-41

Jeremiah had already told the Israelites why God had exiled them to Babylon, and now in this chapter he gives them hope by giving them new covenant promises. This new covenant is not like the old one where Israel failed (see Jeremiah 31:31-34), and were banished. The new covenant cannot be broken or fail, because God Himself guarantees it will remain as steady and dependable as the stars. Notice the language here in Jeremiah 32. God says “I will,” what He will do, seven times. As we trust in Jesus, we are under this new covenant, in His blood (Luke 22:20). What does He do in this covenant and how can we be sure that, once entering in, we cannot fail? There are four promises:

  1. “I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear Me forever.” This is having a heart for God, loving Him and others, without turning some other way into idolatry, forever. This is a promise of our perseverance, that if we trust in Jesus and obey Him today, we will be faithful and loving 10 years from now, and to the end of the world.
  2. He will not turn away from doing good for us. His everlasting, eternal covenant is His eternal commitment to keep us close to Him. That squashes the theology that says God is waiting for last-day demonstration people to vindicate His law and reputation. Jeremiah 32’s promises refute the god of the great controversy who withholds his full commitment to claim us as his own until after we vindicate his law. 
  3. He will put the fear of Him in our hearts, so that we will not turn away from Him. Our love, fear, and devotion of Him will replace our idolatrous, wayward, unloving hearts, so that we will never turn away from Him. In this covenant we learn to love Jesus, who keeps us in His hand (John 10:27-30) and never casts us out (John 6:37). 
  4. He will rejoice in doing us good, with all His heart and soul. This last statement is the most weighty, binding all the other promises together with His mighty declaration, “They shall be my people, and I will be their God.” This covenant is not a tentative agreement where God has inserted a tricky escape clause, expecting we might crash and burn. This is not a command, warning, or a threat. This is from a God who rejoices in doing us good. This is an unconditional promise where God is 100% committed, with all His heart and soul. Can you imagine anything in the universe more intense and powerful than God’s passionate fullness invested in carrying us through to eternal life? 

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32

He has taken the initiative in giving over His Son for us. Can He not assume full responsibility, with all His heart, for saving His people to the uttermost?

After seeing the full intensity of these promises in this passage, we can begin to understand what God means by “I will be your God.” All of God’s attributes, all of love, faithfulness, and sovereign power come to an intense focus in His commitment to save and keep us to the end. We can see the intense passion at the bloody cross. But maybe you are looking at your life, your failures, and questioning your commitment to Him. When you fail, you might be tempted to question God’s commitment to you, if you actually belong to Him. Remember, if you trust in Jesus and know your sins are forgiven, you are His adopted child, and you belong. There is no stronger commitment in all of creation than God’s adoption of sinners for Christ’s sake. As Caleb Davis writes,

“Underneath many of our struggles is a failure to remember that our identity as Christians flows from belonging, not from imitation.”

We will remain faithful as Christians by His sovereign power and passion to keep us faithful and persevering to the end. There are no rejects among God’s adopted children; He knows us all by name. We belong.

“And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”—ßJohn 6:39

Martin Carey
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