The Law Written On the Heart

I have always been per­plexed by the prophecy in Jere­miah con­cern­ing the New Covenant law writ­ten on the heart. Here is the prophecy in context.

“Behold, days are com­ing,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a hus­band to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My peo­ple. They will not teach again, each man his neigh­bor and each man his brother, say­ing, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the great­est of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will for­give their iniq­uity, and their sin I will remem­ber no more.” (Jer 31:31–34)

In the Law/Gospel cir­cles it is debated what the con­tent of the “law” is writ­ten on the New Covenant believer’s heart. Tra­di­tional reformed schol­ars say it is the Deca­logue, and oth­ers say it is the whole Tora. Well, the truth is that it is nei­ther! I was lib­er­ated when I read this in the newest edi­tion of the West­min­ster The­o­log­i­cal Jour­nal (empha­sis original).

“Also rel­e­vant at this point is the idea of the new covenant in Jer 31:33, where the new covenant is defined in terms of God writ­ing his law on the hearts of the peo­ple of Israel, which would cause escha­to­log­i­cal Israel not to break covenant with God again (Jer 31:32). Thus, God’s law in the heart is in effect an idiom for obe­di­ence (see Ps 40:8). The think­ing under­ly­ing the idiom seems to be that God’s law, which comes from the out­side through exter­nal rev­e­la­tion, needs to be inter­nal­ized within the heart, and as it becomes inter­nal­ized in the heart (Matt 15:19)–the per­son with God’s law in the heart acts in obe­di­ence to God.“1

That makes so much sense! Espe­cially against the back­drop that Israel had bro­ken the Mosaic Covenant, and God would ensure that it would not hap­pen again. Because finally “I will be their God, and they shall be My peo­ple” (Jer 31:33; cf. 1 Pet 2:9). There are other cross ref­er­ences that sup­port this interpretation.

“The law of his God is in his heart; His steps do not slip.” (Psa 37:31)

“I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.” (Psa 40:8)

“You are our let­ter, writ­ten in our hearts, known and read by all men; being man­i­fested that you are a let­ter of Christ, cared for by us, writ­ten not with ink but with the Spirit of the liv­ing God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Cor 3:2–3)

Praise our covenant God who has writ­ten the law on the hearts of dis­obe­di­ent sin­ners for His name and His glory!

  1. Cox­head, Steven R. “Deuteron­omy 30:11–14 as a Prophecy of the New Covenant in Christ.” WTJ 68 (2006): 309. [Back]