As always you can click the image above to catch up or revisit all of Daniel’s and my posts on Hebrews. Also, per usual, all passages are from The Second Testament unless otherwise noted.
One of my favorite passages lives in Hebrews chapter 8 (and is also repeated in chapter 10). In verses 8-12, we find a reference to the prophet Jeremiah (found in Jeremiah 31:31-34). The part that really sticks out to me is in the end of verse 10 through verse 12.
Giving my Code into their minds,
and on their hearts I will inscribe them,
and I will be God for them,
and they will be people for me,
Each [of them] will never teach his citizen, and each his sibling, saying, “Know the Lord,”
because all will have known me,
from smallest to their greatest,
because I will be merciful on their wrongdoings
and their sins I will never ever remember.
I think this is beautiful.
We have no need of the rigidity and complexity of the old Law given to Moses and the Israelites, for God has placed His Word right in our hearts. And not only His Word, but also His Spirit, claiming us as His own - “I will be God for them.” Paul also talks about His Spirit in our hearts in other letters.
The one who firms us up with you in Christos
and christened us,
is God,
who also is the one who sealed us
and the one who gave us the Spirit-pledge in our hearts.2 Corinthians 1:21-22
Or, as the NLT says, “he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts.” Again, He made us His, and Him ours, by placing the Spirit within us.
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children, And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father,” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.
Galatians 4:4-7, NLT
He made us His, and sent His Spirit, the Spirit of His Son (who is the Word) into our hearts. He placed His law in our minds, and His Word in our hearts. In Romans 2:14-15, Paul tells of even the Gentiles instinctively obeying God’s law, even though they didn’t have it written in stone, as the Israelites did. He says they “show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts…”(NLT).
On into our core text today, God says no one will need to teach their neighbors to “Know the Lord,” because all will know Him. You know how I think that all will come to know Him?
From us.
Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 3:2-3
You are our letter, having been written in our hearts, having been known and read by all humans, manifesting that you are Christos’s letter, served by us, having been written not with black ink but with God’s living Spirit, not on stone tablets, but on fleshy, heart tablets.
We are Christ’s letter to the world. He dwells in us, and others should see Him in us, and come to know Him through us. The Word He has given is written on our hearts, for all to see and learn, written by the very Spirit of God. We are to show them who He is, and that through and because of His sacrifice, as our reading says, our sins He will remember no more. In verse 6 of 2 Corinthians chapter 3, we learn that we are servants, or ministers, of this new covenant that is of the Spirit. We are to share it with all. This Word, this Spirit in our hearts, that shows us that we are His and He is ours.