Whenever you purchase something brand new, it might be a watch, a microwave, or an automobile, the ‘newness’ of it not only relates to its recent construction in the factory, but also to its new features.  It is these advanced capabilities that make it both better and newer than the old item that you have replaced.

For the last few weeks we have been carefully examining the ‘features’ of what the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah called “the new covenant,” and what the prophet Ezekiel has also identified as “the covenant of peace.”  This brand new covenantal plan, unilateral and unconditional in nature, finds its grand fulfillment in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Shepherd-King, who has redeemed (and is even now redeeming) His lost sheep by means of His bloody cross and empty tomb.

In Ezekiel 36:24-28, the new and superior ‘features’ of this covenant are laid out in a beautiful catalog of God’s sovereign mercy and grace:

One: He will regather scattered and captive Israel and bring her back home.

Two: He will cleanse away the deep stains of Israel’s many transgressions.

Three: He will grant the regathered and cleansed people a new heart and spirit.

Four: He will place His very own Holy Spirit within each of them.

Five: He will prompt and empower their glad obedience to His will.

This coming Sunday, we will look carefully at that fourth amazing feature of the “new covenant,” and its corresponding result, which is made clear in the fifth new element. We find these set out for us in verse 27:

What an unthinkable promise, that the Spirit of the holy, transcendent, and all-glorious eternal God would reside in each of us!  Such thought is too wonderful indeed!