This Sunday, we have the joy of experiencing our Children’s Christmas Program as our kids remind us of our deep need for the new heart that only Jesus can give us. That new heart was promised long ago in a number of places in the Old Testament, but there are two central texts that speak of the hope of the New Covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31–34
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Ezekiel 36:24–28
“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
Jesus came to give us this new heart as promised in the New Covenant. Through His atoning life, death, resurrection, and ascension on our behalf, Jesus forgave us our sins and reconciled us to the Father so that we might be indwelt by the Spirit and have a new heart forevermore. This is the greatest gift we could ever receive. And Christmas is where that gift began.
Let’s listen in as our kids remind us that we are loved, more than we know!
