Jeremiah 31:31+33b-34

“The time is coming, “ declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
With the house of Israel
And with the house of Judah.”

“I will put my law in their minds
And write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
And they will be my people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
Or a man his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
Because they will all know me,
From the least of them to the greatest,”
Declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
And will remember their sins no more.”

This constitutes the new covenant, when God promises that we will no longer be required to live by a set of regulated restrictions and rules, but that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit. What an amazing promise it is that God would become a man, die a substitutionary death for our sins, tear the curtain of God’s presence from top to bottom, rise again, and give us the Holy Spirit as our guide. He is God within us, giving us access to Him through prayer and revealing His message in scripture for us.

The phrase ‘from the least to the greatest’ means there is no longer any hierarchy among believers. This is where the Catholics have been misled. There should not be a level of authority over the universal church. Within our local churches we recognize that there is no Senior Pastor besides Jesus Christ. We acknowledge church leadership where it is selected and voted upon by local church members, but there should be no hierarchy among elders – every elder’s vote is to hold the same weight, whether lead pastor or any other elder.

Lastly we see the eternal implications of Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus was the perfect and spotless Lamb of God, the one and only able to take away the sins of the world. It was God’s act of grace and promise, forever forgiving us our wickedness and remembering our sins “no more”. What a God; what a promise.