In My Heart

Deuteronomy 29:29. Hebrews 10:16

Do you like debating about the things of God? I do. It’s not so much that I like debates; I often lose them – especially with my husband and daughter. But I love talking about God. I love focusing on Him with my whole mind and trying to understand Him and His ways. The negative side of debating is that not all Christians understand the scriptures the same way. There are the historic debates about things like predestination and eternal security and some of the old ones have surfaced with new clothes. That’s okay unless the debating gets ugly. The thing is, we can’t possibly understand God fully. We’re finite and He’s infinite.

God hasn’t told us everything. 

Thankfully, we’re not responsible for what He hasn’t told us. But we are responsible for what He has told us.

In this verse from Deuteronomy Moses has just reviewed the Covenant between God and Israel. This is the Mosaic Covenant - the law. He’s reminding the people of Israel that they are responsible for keeping the law.

But I’m in the New Covenant; it’s a covenant of grace. So I don’t have to keep the law, right? 

Wrong. I’m still responsible for keeping the Covenant. In the New Covenant God has written His laws in my heart and on my mind. I don’t have to post them on my wall so I’ll remember them or work hard at keeping them. The Holy Spirit is at work in me to do that.

When God gave the law to Israel, the people tried to keep it (some of the time) with warnings of curses if they disobeyed. Even when they sincerely tried, they didn’t succeed. That’s why there are 613 laws in the Old Testament. They were given by God to help the people keep the Covenant. They had an impossible task.

The New Covenant is different. During the last supper, Jesus told the disciples that His blood was the new covenant, poured out as a sacrifice for us. The New Covenant is based on the grace of God.

Now God puts His law in the hearts of His people and we are able to keep it because Jesus died for us. He does all the work.

So there are things I don’t know about God, but what I do know is that Jesus has made me able to be responsible for the things God has told me.