OLBGrk;OLBHeb;
For this is the covenant that I will make: for, showeth it should not be such a covenant-form as was given on Mount Sinai, it being wholly different, and that denied before, being carnal and ceremonious, full of types and shadows, and through their sin ineffectual to them. This is the firm administration of the covenant which I will strike. To which three words answer is in this scripture, I will perfect, make, and dispose; which last is the root from whence the notion of a covenant in the Greek is derived, diayhsomai. With the house of Israel: Israel is the comprehensive name of all the twelve tribes, as Hebrews 8:8; compare Exodus 16:31, Exodus 40:38; and is so used by the Lord himself Matthew 10:6, and by Peter, Acts 2:36. After those days; in the prophet it is, after those days of their delivery from Babylon, Jeremiah 31:1,8,11,16,21, but especially when those days of the first administration of the covenant are accomplished, when the fulness of time for the Messiah's revelation is come, Galatians 4:4. To this God again puts his seal, he saith it. I will put my laws into their mind; the great God, the Redeemer himself the infinitely wise, and good, and powerful Spirit, who only can reach the soul, will make impressions, and write clear characters of Divine truth on it, 2 Corinthians 3:3. None can alter, new mould, frame, and temper a spirit, but him, who hath a true original right of all the good he promiseth, which he will freely, graciously dispense from himself, 1 Thessalonians 4:10,14. All the doctrines of the gospel, which include in them the moral law, as now managed by Christ, all the will of God concerning our salvation, promises, and commands; and these in their spirit and power, which God not only ratified in, but conveyed to the world by, Jesus Christ, and especially into the mind. dianoian renders the Hebrew Mbrqb the inward parts, in the prophet's text. The mind or understanding being the innermost part of the soul, is capable of receiving impresses of Divine truth, and its characters are by it made legible to the soul; which as promised here, is so prayed for by the apostle, Ephesians 1:17,18. And write them in their hearts: epigraqw is a metaphor setting out a real, actual, powerful work of the Spirit of Christ, which leaveth the express characters of all God's saving mind and will upon the heart or soul as plain as writing upon paper, or engraving upon stones; such an operation of the Spirit of Christ on the souls of them, as whereby is conveyed into them a new light, life, power, so that they are made by it partakers of a Divine nature; and though they are not other faculties, yet they are quite other things than they were for qualities and operations, so as they are enabled to know, observe, and keep his laws, which are set up in authority and dominion in their souls, ruling and ordering all there, Ezekiel 11:19,20 Ezekiel 36:26,27 2 Corinthians 3:3,8,9,10,18. And I will be to them a God: as in the former word was the promise of conversion, regeneration, and renovation, so joined with it is the promise of adoption. In which God engageth in Christ to be to penitent believers, Romans 9:6,8, a God, i.e. the cause and author of all good, Genesis 15:1-21,17:1,7; what he is, hath, or can do for them of good, is all theirs, and himself terminating all the knowledge, faith, and worship of them. He will exercise all his wisdom, power, and goodness to deliver them from all evil, and to make them eternally happy and blessed in himself. And they shall be to me a people; and to him this true Israel shall be a true, spiritual, eternal, adopted seed and people, partakers of all that he hath promised to them or they can desire of him; so as their name is better than the name of sons or daughters, an everlasting one, not to be cut off, Isaiah 56:5. They, as his people, attend on, witness to, and contend for, him and his glory, are always at his beck, being purchased, made, and covenanted so for his use and service, that they are not their own, but wholly at his disposal, Jeremiah 23:7, Jeremiah 32:20 Ezekiel 11:20, Ezekiel 37:23,27 Zec 8:8 2 Corinthians 6:16.