When you are wronged, how do you respond? After the betrayal of a close friend or family member, many of us are tempted either to retaliate or retreat from the relationship. True forgiveness isn’t easy. As C.S. Lewis said: “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.” [1] But how does God respond when He is betrayed by His people? The prophet Jeremiah rebuked the people of Israel and Judah for their repeated failures to keep God’s covenant (Jeremiah 2:11–13; 5:26–29; 7:9–10). Yet instead of retreating or seeking revenge, God renewed His relationship with His people even when they sinned against Him. He established a New Covenant that would be written not on a scroll or tablets of stone, but on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). This covenant would ultimately be fulfilled through the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus, offering redemption and forgiveness to all who trust in him. Our response to those who have wronged us reveals a lot about our character. But what does the New Covenant tell us about God? Here, we’ll consider three aspects of God’s character revealed through the New Covenant: His faithfulness, mercy, and holiness.

1.     God’s Faithfulness

Firstly, we see God’s faithfulness to His people. Recently my home insurance company sent a renewal quote informing me that my insurance would cost more than double what I had paid the previous year. In that moment, I was very glad that I wasn’t tied into a life-long contract! My loyalty to the insurance company quickly evaporated: I cancelled the agreement and looked for a cheaper alternative. But in the ancient world, a covenant was a much more secure and permanent relationship than a modern-day contract [2]. God had established His covenant with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19–24. Not only had God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, but He also gave them the promise of His protection and a land to call their own (Exodus 23:22-31). The fundamental requirement for Israel in the covenant relationship was to obey God’s commands (Exodus 19:5). Yet Israel had repeatedly sinned against Yahweh through worshipping other gods (2 Kings 17:7-23), creating and worshipping idols (Exodus 32:1–35), and through the moral failure of its leaders (1 Samuel 15:11–26; 2 Samuel 11:1–27).      
         Despite Israel’s unfaithfulness, God remained faithful. Instead of retreating or retaliating, He renewed His commitment: “I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). Like a devoted husband who remains committed to a wayward spouse, God does not abandon His people even when they break His covenant (Jeremiah 31:32). Instead, He promises a new agreement: one that is not based on conforming externally to God’s law but on an internal transformation by the Spirit. Unlike me, God isn’t a fickle consumer on the lookout for the best deal which will benefit Him. Rather, He is the loving Father who faithfully and self-sacrificially provides for His people, even when they fail to keep His commandments.

2.     God’s Mercy

Secondly, the New Covenant displays God’s mercy. In a culture which often lacks mercy and grace, the public display of these qualities can be incredibly powerful. On 1 December 2005, Gee Walker left the courtroom where she had just listened to the horrific detail of how her son, Anthony, had been murdered. At that moment, somebody slipped her a note. It was from Paul Taylor, the man who had struck her son’s head with an ice axe and was about to face sentencing for murder. The letter said that he was sorry, but Gee had already forgiven him. In an interview with The Times, drawing upon her Christian faith, she said of her son’s murderer, “I cannot hate. I have to forgive him.” [3] This radical forgiveness offers us a tiny glimpse of the mercy that God extends towards anyone who confesses their sin against Him.
         In Jeremiah 31:34, God makes a staggering promise, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” God offers to forgive His people their sins not because they deserve it, but despite their persistent disobedience. Wonderfully, God’s mercy and forgiveness are similarly available to us today. Through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, the New Covenant was fulfilled, providing a perfect and final atonement for sin (Hebrews 7:22–25). God’s mercy is extended to all who turn to Him in repentance: His love and compassion are not limited by our failures.

3.     God’s Holiness

Thirdly, the holiness of God is supremely demonstrated in the New Covenant. When writing his letter to the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul critiques the false notion that a Christian should wilfully live in sin because God will forgive him anyway: “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1–2). In the same way, in the New Covenant, God’s holiness is not in any way compromised by His mercy towards sinners. After all, this is the same God of Isaiah’s temple vision: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). To speak of God’s mercy whilst ignoring His holiness would only undermine God’s goodness and grace.   
         In Jeremiah 31:33, God declares, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” In the Old Covenant, the law was given to the nation of Israel to instruct them in holiness. But their inability to fully obey the law highlighted their need for deeper transformation. God addressed this problem not by abolishing His law, but by sending the Holy Spirit to live in His people and to enable them to follow His laws (Ezekiel 36:26–27). In this way, God does for us what we could never do ourselves. As Philip Ryken rightly says, “Obedience to the Law is not a prior condition for entering the New Covenant. Rather, it is one of the promised blessings of the New Covenant” [4].     
         The New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34 tells us a great deal about God’s perfect character. When we turn to the New Testament, in Christ we see the fullness of God’s character made visible. In Jesus we have the faithful Son, who obeyed the will of the Father and experienced the unimaginable pain and shame not only of Roman crucifixion, but the fullness of God’s wrath (Matthew 27:46). We see the merciful Son, who forgave the repentant thief on the cross moments before he died (Luke 23:43). And we see the holy Son, whose sinless life enables us to experience forgiveness and reconciliation with God (2 Corinthians 5:21). May we continually praise God for His faithfulness, mercy, and holiness, clearly expressed in the New Covenant and made possible through the blood of Jesus poured out for us (Luke 22:20).

This article originally appeared in Insight Magazine (ABCI), August 2024

References

[1] C.S. Lewis. 1952. Mere Christianity, Harper Collins. p.115.

[2] Mark Jones. 25 April 2014. “What is a Covenant?” www.ligonier.org

[3] The Times Newspaper. 22 March 2006. “To forgive, divine.”

[4] Philip Ryken. 2001. Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope. Crossway, p.470.