Jeremiah 31:33c – Sanctifying Syncopation
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts… Jeremiah 31:33c, New King James Version
My wife was wondering what was wrong. At the other end of the house from her, I was so caught up in the worship course I was listening to that I shouted with joy. I was, in the phrasing of Bethel Music's "Let the Redeemed," pouring out my thankfulness, letting it overflow. Or, in the sort of transformation Rend Collective pleads to God for in "Free As a Bird," ""Take us beyond our horizons, leading us into Your wildness." Rend Collective, "Free As a Bird" She hadn't known this to be my way.
Yet, even past midlife, it was evidence of Christ's faithfulness to impart new affections as He promises in the progression of Jeremiah 31:33. She was familiar with the incorporation of His Law into my thinking and could be mystified as I, ever analogizing, remembered scriptural applications for life's mundane moments. To have that Law capture my heart and set it aflame was something different. Tim Keller is right in God's Wisdom for Navigating Life. "All knowledge leads to a deepening sense of mystery."
This is a work of sanctifying syncopation, when He patiently teaches our hearts to beat after His. We behold His perfect righteousness in accord with every detail of the Law and at first, with Peter and Isaiah, we are undone. Away from us, we cry condemned. We are undone, unclean. We are now more aware of the detailed distance between us and holiness.
Yet, despite our stiff arm, God continues to work. As Jon Houser describes the phenomenon, "Awe of God strengthens my heart." God speaks from the mountain of the Law, and when we see we are not destroyed, we begin therein to perceive His progressively proven love. He cares for the details of our everyday dealings. He would have us as His image-bearers in what we previously thought mundane to the point of meaninglessness. He is so invested in that engagement with sinful humanity that He enriches it with our daily bread and, ever so much more so, the instruction of His own by His Spirit.
He works His righteous standard past our pessimistic objections and into our deepest desires. By that persevering work, something different begins to happen when we encounter fresh evidence of our failure. We run TO Him to heal our hurts, to clean up the damage we may have inflicted on His reputation, and to send us in again. We begin to experience this Heaven-sent mission to a world so far from heavenly as an experience of His Nature, a foretaste of what is to come. Excitement overruns pessimism. The heart is remade.
My wife was wondering what was wrong. At the other end of the house from her, I was so caught up in the worship course I was listening to that I shouted with joy. I was, in the phrasing of Bethel Music's "Let the Redeemed," pouring out my thankfulness, letting it overflow. Or, in the sort of transformation Rend Collective pleads to God for in "Free As a Bird," ""Take us beyond our horizons, leading us into Your wildness." Rend Collective, "Free As a Bird" She hadn't known this to be my way.
Yet, even past midlife, it was evidence of Christ's faithfulness to impart new affections as He promises in the progression of Jeremiah 31:33. She was familiar with the incorporation of His Law into my thinking and could be mystified as I, ever analogizing, remembered scriptural applications for life's mundane moments. To have that Law capture my heart and set it aflame was something different. Tim Keller is right in God's Wisdom for Navigating Life. "All knowledge leads to a deepening sense of mystery."
This is a work of sanctifying syncopation, when He patiently teaches our hearts to beat after His. We behold His perfect righteousness in accord with every detail of the Law and at first, with Peter and Isaiah, we are undone. Away from us, we cry condemned. We are undone, unclean. We are now more aware of the detailed distance between us and holiness.
Yet, despite our stiff arm, God continues to work. As Jon Houser describes the phenomenon, "Awe of God strengthens my heart." God speaks from the mountain of the Law, and when we see we are not destroyed, we begin therein to perceive His progressively proven love. He cares for the details of our everyday dealings. He would have us as His image-bearers in what we previously thought mundane to the point of meaninglessness. He is so invested in that engagement with sinful humanity that He enriches it with our daily bread and, ever so much more so, the instruction of His own by His Spirit.
He works His righteous standard past our pessimistic objections and into our deepest desires. By that persevering work, something different begins to happen when we encounter fresh evidence of our failure. We run TO Him to heal our hurts, to clean up the damage we may have inflicted on His reputation, and to send us in again. We begin to experience this Heaven-sent mission to a world so far from heavenly as an experience of His Nature, a foretaste of what is to come. Excitement overruns pessimism. The heart is remade.
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