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The sermon contrasts the covenant of works, which depends on human merit and is rendered ineffective by sin, with the covenant of grace, fulfilled through Christ and founded wholly on God’s gracious initiative. Spurgeon emphasizes election, justification, and adoption as dimensions of God’s special relationship with His children. The central blessing is not merely what God gives but God Himself: “I will be their God.” Believers are therefore urged to display holy character, seek God’s guidance and help in prayer, and cultivate continual joy and delight in the Lord.
Theological center: The covenant of grace is grounded in God’s sovereign, unmerited saving purpose fulfilled through Christ, by which He becomes the God and inheritance of His elect people.
Applications: Live as God’s children · Use the mercy seat frequently · Delight in the Lord continually · Consider God as your portion
Primary texts: Jeremiah 31:33 · Jeremiah 32:38 · Philippians 4:4
“I will be their God.” Jeremiah 31:33 WHAT a glorious covenant the second covenant is! Well might it be called a “better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Heb 8:6). It is so glorious that the very thought of it is enough to overwhelm the soul, when it discerns the amazing condescension and infinite love of God, in having framed a covenant for such unworthy creatures, for such glorious purposes, with such unselfish motives. It is better than the other covenant, the covenant of works, which was made with Adam. Or that covenant which is said to have been made with Israel, on the day when they came out of Egypt. It is better, for it is founded upon a better principle. The old covenant was founded on the principle of merit. It was, “Serve God and you shall be rewarded for it. If you walk perfectly in the fear of the Lord, God will walk well towards you, and all the blessings of Mount Gerizim shall come upon you, and you shall be exceedingly blessed in this world, and the world which is to come.” But that covenant fell to the ground, because although it was just that man should be rewarded for his good works, or punished for his evil ones, yet man being sure to sin, and since the fall infallibly tending towards iniquity, the covenant was not suitable for his happiness, nor could it promote his eternal welfare. But the new covenant is not founded on works at all. It is a covenant of pure unmingled grace. You may read it from its first word to its last, and there is not a solitary syllable as to anything to be done by us. The whole covenant is a covenant, not so much between man and his Maker, as between JEHOVAH and man’s representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. The human side of the covenant has been already fulfilled by Jesus, and there remains nothing now but the covenant of giving, not the covenant of requirements. The whole covenant with regard to us, the people of God, now stands thus, “I will give this, I will bestow that. I will fulfill this promise. I will grant that favor.” But there is nothing for us to do. He will work all our works in us. And the very graces that are sometimes represented as being stipulations of the covenant, are promised to us. He gives us faith. He promises to give us the law in our inward parts and to write it on our hearts. It is a glorious covenant, I say, because it is founded on simple mercy and unmixed grace, quite irrespective of creature-doings, or anything that is to be performed by man, and hence this covenant surpasses the other in stability. Where there is anything of man, there is always a degree…