The Will of God
December 4, 2022
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, 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.” Jer. 31.33
“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt. 11.30
Surely Jesus isn’t wrong, but what he says is strange. “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light”? And yet we often say the Sermon on the Mount is not a lightening of the Law, but is actually making it more difficult! “Give a certificate of divorce,” says the Law, but Jesus says, “don’t get divorced at all.” The Law is easier than the ways of Jesus, yet Jesus says “my burden is light!”
There’s another problem as well. I learn and learn about Jesus’ ways, but I still have a problem—sin. God forgives me time and again, but I still have a problem—I still sin. We rightly describe sin as a rupturing of relationship between us and God. It also ruptures relationships between people. I run around sinning against others, rupturing relationships, bringing chaos and corruption with my selfishness, impatience, greed, lack of consideration, bitterness.
I need forgiveness, yes, but mostly I just need to stop hurting people. God forgiving me doesn’t stop the pain I cause others; me actually stopping sinning against others stops the pain. My way of being in the world is the problem; sin is just the symptom.
How shall this problem be solved? Jeremiah points us back to the Law. In Deut. 4.4-9 says we are to love the LORD with all our heart, soul, and might, keeping the Law in our hearts. The Law was never supposed to be something external, but was supposed to be with us everywhere—as we walk and talk and sleep, as we go in or go out, as we raise our hand or shake our head. It was supposed to be the stuff of conversation and story, filling our being, so that it became a part of our very self. “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” When the Law became part of us, we would by nature fulfill it, living in ways that bring healing rather than destruction.
But we weren’t very good at that. Parents didn’t pass the Law down to children, or children didn’t honor their parents, or someone got busy or was forgetful or whatever. Stories became fairy tales, and God became irrelevant. We turned from God, but he didn’t turn from us. Jeremiah notices how bad we are at keeping the Law in our hearts, and looks toward a day when God would do it for us.
The language here is Spirit language. God writes the Law on our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit shaping our very desires, we become people who find the Law good and wonderful, easy and light.
—John Coffey
