What do you want for Christmas more than anything else in the world? This isn't a Jesus-juke question where I’ll turn whatever you answer into a reason for you to feel guilty if your answer isn't "God's glory." That said, we know enough to say that there is one gift that if you don't have it, everything else is virtually futile. But if you do have it, all are yours.

I'm thinking about the gift of a new heart. This is only something God can give; you can't purchase it or transfer yours to someone else or make it happen by human hands. Without a new heart, a man will walk through life, including years of holiday events and parties, not able to feel anywhere near the fulness of blessing or peace. Those with new hearts never have enough time to count all their blessings.

The gift of new hearts was promised by God the Father, purchased by the Son, and has begun to be applied on earth by the Spirit. This will continue until all the chosen are given second birth unto eternal life.

This advent we're spiking the joy-punch (so to speak) with three unconditional covenants revealed by God to His people, including covenant promises that gave hope to generations of waiters. God delights to wrap things in prophecy that have a “DO NOT OPEN TILL A LATER DATE“ label.

The Lord is showing off His faithfulness, which is right for Him. Take His word as gospel truth; I mean, He’s why we even can say that. Build your house on the foundation of the Bible. And along with His reliability, He's showing off His generosity. God is the great Giver, the Father from whom every good and perfect give comes down (James 1:17).

We've considered the Lord’s call of Abram unto blessing and being the channel of blessing to all the families of the earth. We know now that Jesus is the ultimate seed of blessing through Abraham. We considered the Lord’s anointing of David unto a house and throne and kingdom ruling over the nations forever. We now know that Jesus is the ultimate son of David, the King of kings. These are unconditional covenants, and Christmas gets us thinking about the identity of the Christ and what He came to fulfill.

There is one more unconditional covenant from the Lord, a promise to a group not just for a group, a covenant that would be better than, and even supersede, a conditional covenant. This covenant guaranteed new hearts with God’s law written on them. Jesus was born to give men second birth, and it required His blood.

The new covenant is so named in Jeremiah 31. The details are easy to read.

“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.” (Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV)

To Whom the covenant is made: the house of Israel and the house of Judah. These are the names of the Kingdom divided after David that would be restored. Together these are part of the "great nation" promised to Abraham, through Isaac and then Jacob. These people had been in various stages of drifting, disobedience, and dull hearts. In fact, Israel had already been taken captive by Assyria, and Judah was being overwhelmed by Babylon.

What is new is in comparison to the "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." The new doesn't replace the Abrahamic or Davidic, it replaces the Mosaic Covenant. The Mosaic was conditional: obey and be blessed, disobey and be cursed. It was also external, laws that defined God's standard. The law was clear, but not itself able to cause anyone to want the good. And Israel broke this covenant. The new covenant promises to overcome this defect.

What the new covenant promised was the want. It promised new hearts, hearts of flesh that were alive. It promised new hearts that had the law working from the inside out, not stapled onto the outside.

All this is quoted in Hebrews 8:8-12, and again in Hebrews 10:15-18, which are important passages that connect the New Covenant with Jesus.

The spiritual blessings of forgiveness, of a new heart, of the indwelling Spirit, as good as they are, are not the whole of the covenant. What the new covenant also promised was corporate restoration so that all Israel/Judah would enjoy the promised land and that their cities would be rebuilt and the other nations would see and praise the Lord. See Jeremiah 31:38-40, and the parallel in Ezekiel 36:22-36. The Lord initiated giving these gifts.

And the promise of new hearts and more is as sure as the fixed order, Jeremiah 31:35-37. Jeremiah prophesied these things around 590 BC, which meant these were things anticipated for 585 years before Jesus was even born, let alone how many years until all the things will take place.

The New Covenant is like the Abrahamic and Davidic in that it is unconditional. The New is unlike the other two in that it deals with sin.

A covenant that would deal with sin requires blood. The author of Hebrews makes it clear: the blood is that of the mediator, Jesus Christ.

he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:12–14 ESV)

He had to be made like His brothers, to partake in flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:14), and so the incarnation of the eternal Word into the body of a baby meant salvation was possible. His name, "Jesus," means Savior (Matthew 1:21). The angels told the shepherds, “unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior" (Luke 2:11).

There will be peace on earth among men and nations when Jesus returns to sit on the throne of David, but He also made peace between men and God directly (Romans 5:1). He forgives and reconciles fellowship. He needed to be born a man so that we could be reborn. He effaces Adam's likeness, that is the fallen nature sin parts, and stamps His own image in its place.

While the incarnation by itself still looked toward Easter, the cross and burial and resurrection on the third day, the story on earth begins with the baby.

Paul wrote in Romans, "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins" (Romans 11:27, a quote of Isaiah 59:20-21). This means that the sin was expected, and the promise promises to deal with the sin. The sin can't break this covenant, the point of the covenant is to break the power of sin. Paul wanted the Gentiles to know that God would fulfill His word to the Jews.

And note that this sin-dealing covenant doesn't replace the Abrahamic, it adds some specificity to the blessings, but doesn't change it or redefine it. So with the Davidic, it just turns out that the throne will be won by the King that conquers sin and death, not just enemies and rebels.

By faith in Jesus we (Gentiles) are grafted into covenant blessings to Abraham, as those among “all the nations” (Genesis 22:18). By faith in Jesus we are promised a share in the King's reign over the nations. But we Gentiles aren't the “great nation” (Genesis 12:2), and we won't live in the land of Israel in the coming kingdom.

Just so, while the work of giving new hears has commenced after Pentecost, and while the gospel is still the power of God to salvation for the Jew first and then the Greek (Romans 1:16), the new hearts among “the families of the earth” don't cancel the original parties of the New Covenant. There is yet fulfillment for the house of Israel and the house of Judah, along with David's house.

The Jews were promised a Messiah. They were promised a land. They were promised new hearts. Their reception of Jesus will be MORE BLESSING for the world (Romans 11:12).

By faith we partake in the benefits of Christ's blood. We celebrate the New Covenant in His blood not because that was promised directly to us, but because in God's purposes He has extended the gifts of new hearts to many. In fact, His blessings to us in the fruitfulness is part of His plan to make Israel jealous and return to their Shepherd.

This new covenant is certain. The Christmas season is a season of salvation because God saves sinners. Every new heart given witnesses to God's intent to bless. "Let every heart prepare Him room" is a great exhortation, and it depends entirely on His gift of new hearts. So:

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel

Christian, what a gift is your new heart! Jesus humbled Himself to become a man, to become a servant, and then to become a sacrifice of blood so that He could gift you with a living heart.

Do you have this new heart? If yes, then family, feasting, and even frustrations should all be put in context. Don't quench the good wants for righteousness that God has given, but be zealous for good and generosity and wonder.

The Son will advent/come and extend blessing and rule and dwell with us again.

Mild He lays His glory by,

Hold onto your hope. Jesus—the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the Son of God—is your hope. He came, He sacrificed, He conquered. He is the great shepherd of the sheep, He is your shepherd. So whether you eat or drink, give or receive, do all to the glory of God in Jesus' name.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23–25 ESV)