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Commentary on Jeremiah 2 verses 20–28
In these verses the prophet goes on with his charge against this backsliding people. Observe here,
I. The sin itself that he charges them with - idolatry, that great provocation which they were so notoriously guilty of. 1. They frequented the places of idol-worship (Jer 2:20): "Upon every high hill and under every green tree, in the high places and the groves, such as the heathen had a foolish fondness and veneration for, thou wanderest, first to one and then to another, like one unsettled, and still uneasy and unsatisfied; but in all playing the harlot," worshipping false gods, which is spiritual whoredom, and was commonly accompanied with corporal whoredom too. Note, Those that leave God wander endlessly, and a vagrant lust is insatiable. 2. They made images for themselves, and gave divine honour to them (Jer 2:26, Jer 2:27); not only the common people, but even the kings and princes, who should have restrained the people from doing ill, and the priests and prophets, who should have taught them to do well, were themselves so wretchedly sottish and stupid, and under the power of such a strong delusion, as to say to a stock, "Thou art my father (that is, Thou art my god, the author of my being, to whom I owe duty and on whom I have a dependence)," and to a stone, to an idol made of stone, "Thou hast begotten me, or brought me forth; therefore protect me, provide for me, and bring me up." What greater affront could men put upon God, who is our Father that has made us? It was a downright disowning of their obligations to him. What greater affront could men put upon themselves and their own reason than to acknowledge that which is in itself absurd and impossible, and, by making stocks and stones their parents, to make themselves no better than stocks and stones? When these were first made the objects of worship they were supposed to be animated by some celestial power or spirit; but by degrees the thought of this was lost, and so vain did idolaters become in their imagination, even the princes and priests themselves, that the very idol, though made of wood and stone, was supposed to be their father, and adored accordingly. 3. They multiplied these dunghill deities endlessly (Jer 2:28): According to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah! When they had forsaken that God who is one, and all-sufficient for all, (1.) They were not satisfied with any gods they had, but still desired more, that idolatry being in this respect of the same nature with covetousness, which is spiritual idolatry (for the more men have the more they would have), which is a plain evidence that what men make an idol of they find to be insufficient and unsatisfying, and that it cannot make the comers thereunto perfect. (2.) They could not agree in the same god. Having left the centre of unity, they fell into endless discord; one city fancied one deity and another another, and each was anxious to have one of its own to be near them and to take special care of them. Thus did they in vain seek that in many gods which is to be found in one God only.
II. The proof of this. No witnesses need be called; it is proved by the notorious evidence of the facts. 1. They went about to deny it, and were ready to plead, Not guilty. They pretended that they would acquit themselves from this guilt, they washed themselves with nitre, and took much soap, offered many things in excuse and extenuation of it, Jer 2:22. They pretended that they did not worship these as gods, but as demons, and mediators between the immortal God and mortal men, or that it was not divine honour that they gave them, but civil respect; thus they sought to evade the convictions of God's word and to screen themselves from the dread of his wrath. Nay, some of them had the impudence to deny the thing itself; they said, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim, Jer 2:23. Because it was done secretly, and industriously concealed (Eze 8:12), they thought it could never be proved upon them, and they had impudence enough to deny it. In this, as in other things, their way was like that of the adulterous woman, that says, I have done no wickedness, Pro 30:20. 2. Notwithstanding all their evasions, they are convicted of it and found guilty: "How canst thou deny the fact, and say, I have not gone after Baalim? How canst thou deny the fault, and say, I am not polluted?" The prophet speaks with wonder at their impudence: "How canst thou put on a face to say so, when it is certain?" (1.) "God's omniscience is a witness against thee: Thy iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God; it is laid up and hidden, to be produced against thee in the day of judgment, sealed up among his treasures," Deu 32:34; Job 21:19; Hos 13:12. "It is imprinted deeply and stained before me;" so some read it. "Though thou endeavour to wash it out, as murderers to get the stain of the blood of the person slain out of their clothes, yet it will never be got out." God's eye is upon it, and we are sure that his judgment is according to truth. (2.) "Thy own conscience is a witness against thee. See thy way in the valley" (they had worshipped idols, not only on the high hills, but in the valleys, Isa 57:5, Isa 57:6), in the valley over-against Beth-peor (so some), where they worshipped Baal-peor (Deu 34:6, Num 25:3), as if the prophet looked as far back as the iniquity of Peor; but, if it mean any particular valley, surely it is the valley of the son of Hinnom, for that was the place where they sacrificed their children to Moloch and which therefore witnessed against them more than any other: "look into that valley, and thou canst not but know what thou hast done."
III. The aggravations of this sin with which they are charged, which made it exceedingly sinful.
1.God had done great things for them, and yet they revolted from him and rebelled against him (Jer 2:20): Of old time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bonds; this refers to the bringing of them out of the land of Egypt and the house of bondage, which they would not remember (Jer 2:6), but God did; for, when he told them that they should have no other gods before him, he prefixed this as a reason: I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt! These bonds of theirs which God had loosed should have bound them for ever to him; but they had ungratefully broken the bonds of duty to that God who had broken the bonds of their slavery.
2.They had promised fair, but had not made good their promise: "Thou saidst, I will not transgress; then, when the mercy of thy deliverance was fresh, thou wast so sensible of it that thou wast willing to lay thyself under the most sacred ties to continue faithful to thy God and never to forsake him." Then they said, Nay, but we will serve the Lord, Jos 24:21. How often have we said that we would not transgress, we would not offend any more, and yet we have started aside, like a deceitful bow, and repeated and multiplied our transgressions!
3.They had wretchedly degenerated from what they were when God first formed them into a people (Jer 2:21). I had planted thee a noble vine. The constitution of their government both in church and state was excellent, their laws were righteous, and all the ordinances instructive and very significant; and a generation of good men there was among them when they first settled in Canaan. Israel served the Lord, and kept close to him all the days of Joshua, and the elders that out-lived Joshua, Jos 24:31. They were then wholly a right seed, likely to replenish the vineyard they were planted in with choice vines. But it proved otherwise; they very next generation knew not the Lord, nor the works which he had done (Jdg 2:10), and so they were worse and worse till they became the degenerate plants of a strange vine. They were now the reverse of what they were at first. Their constitution was quite broken, and there was nothing in them of that good which one might have expected from a people so happily formed, nothing of the purity and piety of their ancestors. Their vine is as the vine of Sodom, Deu 32:32. This may fitly be applied to the nature of man; it was planted by its great author a noble vine, a right seed (God made man upright); but it is so universally corrupt that it has become the degenerate plant of a strange vine, that bears gall and wormwood, and it is so to God, it is highly distasteful and offensive to him.
4.They were violent and eager in the pursuit of their idolatries, doted on their idols, and were fond of new ones, and they would not be restrained form them either by the word of God or by his providence, so strong was the impetus with which they were carried out after this sin. They are here compared to a swift dromedary traversing her ways, a female of that species of creatures hunting about for a male (Jer 2:23), and, to the same purport, a wild ass used to the wilderness (Jer 2:24), not tamed by labour, and therefore very wanton, snuffing up the wind at her pleasure when she comes near the he-ass, and on such an occasion who can turn her away? Who can hinder her from that which she lusts after? Those that seek her then will not weary themselves for her, for they know it is to no purpose; but will have a little patience till she is big with young, till that month comes which is the last of the months that she fulfils (Job 39:2), when she is heavy and unwieldy, and then they shall find her, and she cannot out-run them. Note, (1.) Eager lust is a brutish thing, and those that will not be turned away from the gratifying and indulging of it by reason, and conscience, and honour, are to be reckoned as brute-beasts and no better, such as were born, and still are, like the wild ass's colt; let them not be looked upon as rational creatures. (2.) Idolatry is strangely intoxicating, and those that are addicted to it will with great difficulty be cured of it. That lust is as headstrong as any. (3.) There are some so violently set upon the prosecution of their lusts that it is to no purpose to attempt to give check to them: those that do so weary themselves in vain. Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone. (4.) The time will come when the most fierce will be tamed and the most wanton will be manageable; when distress and anguish come upon them, then their ears will be open to discipline, that is the month in which you may find them, Psa 141:5, Psa 141:6.
5.They were obstinate in their sin, and, as they could not be restrained, so they would not be reformed, Jer 2:25. Here is, (1.) Fair warning given them of the ruin that this wicked course of life would certainly bring them to at last, with a caution therefore not to persist in it, but to break off from it. He would certainly bring them into a miserable captivity, when their feet should be unshod, and they should be forced to travel barefoot, and when they would be denied fair water by their oppressors, so that their throat should be dried with thirst; this will be in the end hereof. Those that affect strange gods, and strange ways of worship, will justly be made prisoners to a strange king in a strange land. "Take up in time therefore; thy running after thy idols will run the shoes off thy feet, and thy panting after them will bring thy throat to thirst; withhold therefore thy foot from these violent pursuits, and thy throat from these violent desires." One would think that it should effectually check us in the career of sin to consider what it will bring us to at last. (2.) Their rejecting this fair warning. They said to those that would have persuaded them to repent and reform, "There is no hope; no, never expect to work upon us, or prevail with us to cast away our idols, for we have loved strangers, and after them we will go; we are resolved we will, and therefore trouble not yourselves nor us any more with your admonitions; it is to no purpose. There is no hope that we should ever break the corrupt habit and disposition we have got, and therefore we may as well yield to it as go about to get the mastery of it." Note, Their case is very miserable who have brought themselves to such a pass that their corruptions triumph over their convictions; they know they should reform, but own they cannot, and therefore resolve they will not. But, as we must not despair of the mercy of God, but believe that sufficient for the pardon of our sins, though ever so heinous, if we repent and sue for that mercy, so neither must we despair of the grace of God, but believe that able to subdue our corruptions, though ever so strong, if we pray for and improve that grace. A man must never say There is no hope, as long as he is on this side hell.
6.They had shamed themselves by their sin, in putting confidence in that which would certainly deceive them in the day of their distress, and putting him away that would have helped them, Jer 2:26-28. As the thief is ashamed when, notwithstanding all his arts and tricks to conceal his theft, he is found, and brought to punishment, so are the house of Israel ashamed, not with a penitent shame for the sin they had been guilty of, but with a penal shame for the disappointment they met with in that sin. They will be ashamed when they find, (1.) That they are forced to cry to the God whom they had put contempt upon. In their prosperity they had turned the back to God and not the face; they had slighted him, acted as if they had forgotten him, or did what they could to forget him, would not look towards him, but looked another way; they went from him as fast and as far as they could; but in the time of their trouble they will find no satisfaction but in applying to him; then they will say, Arise, and save us. Their fathers had many a time taken this shame to themselves (Jdg 3:9, Jdg 4:3, Jdg 10:10), yet they would not be persuaded to cleave to God, that they might come to him in their trouble with the more confidence. (2.) That they have no relief from the gods they have made their court to. They will be ashamed when they perceive that the gods they have made cannot serve them, and that the God who made them will not serve them. To bring them to this shame, if so be they might hereby be brought to repentance, they are here sent to the gods whom they served, Jdg 10:14. They cried to God, Arise, and save us. God says of the idols, "Let them arise, and save thee, for thou hast no reason to expect that I should Let them arise, if they can, from the places where they are fixed; let them try whether they can save thee: but thou wilt be ashamed when thou findest that they can do thee no good, for, though thou hadst a god for every city, yet thy cities are burnt without inhabitant," Jer 2:15. Thus it is the folly of sinners to please themselves with that which will certainly be their grief, and pride themselves in that which will certainly be their shame.
Thus does Paul also boast that the observance of the law and the whole glory of the Jewish system was to him like garbage, so that he might be found in Christ, having not his own justification that was of the law, but the justification from God. In this sense, therefore, Paul did not keep his own vineyard—that is to say, he did not keep the Jews’ tradition after he had received the faith of Christ. Perhaps the reason why he did not keep it was that, though it had been planted by God as a true vine, it had turned into the bitterness of a strange vine. “For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah … their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.”
Let us attempt to discuss also a third exposition at the moral level. If there is anyone who, while evils are increasing and vices are overflowing, can turn from the things that are in flux and passing away and fallen and can hear the word of God and the heavenly precepts, this person is building an ark of salvation within his own heart and is dedicating a library, so to speak, of the divine word within himself. He is erecting faith, love and hope as its length, breadth and height. He stretches out faith in the Trinity to the length of life and immortality. He establishes the breadth of love with the compassion of gentleness and kindness. He raises the height of hope to heavenly and exalted places. For while he walks on the earth, he has his “citizenship in heaven.” But he brings the sum of his acts back to one. For he knows that “all indeed run, but one receives the palm of victory,” of course, being that one who was not changeable with a variety of thoughts and instability of mind. But he does not construct this library from planks that are unhewn and rough but from planks that have been squared and arranged in a uniform line, that is, not from the volumes of secular authors but from the prophetic and apostolic volumes. For these authors, who have been hewn by diverse temptations, all vices having been curtailed and excised, contain life that has been squared and set free in every part. For the authors of secular books can indeed be called “lofty trees” and “shady trees”—for Israel is accused of having fornicated “under every lofty and shady tree”—because they speak indeed in a lofty manner and use flowery eloquence; they have not, however, acted as they have spoken. They cannot, therefore, be called “squared planks” because life and speech will by no means be equal in them.
The God who “brings forth the sun on the evil and the good” is a desert to no one. To no one is he who “rains on the just and unjust” ever a land made dry. How is he a desert, when he brings forth the day and causes the night to rest? How is he a desert, when he causes the land to bear fruit? How is he a desert, when he provides for each person in his soul so that it is endowed with reason, so that it can grasp knowledge and exercise its intelligence, and in the body so that it has healthy sense faculties? And so with respect to the way of what is universal, God is not a desert.
God did not make “death, and he does not delight in the destruction of living things; for he created all things that they might exist, and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of hades is not on earth.” Passing over, then, a little passage, I will ask, From where, then, did death come? “By the envy of the devil, death came into the world.” If, then, there is something excellent in our regard, God has made it, but we have created evil and sins for ourselves. For the same reason, the beginning of the passage just read from the prophet speaks in a rhetorical sense to those who have bitterness in the soul contrary to the sweetness that God fashioned for it: “How have you turned to bitterness, you strange vine?” as if he was saying, God did not make lameness, but he has made all things swift of foot, yet what cause arose that has made the lame lame? And God has made all limbs absolutely sound, but what cause arose that makes things suffer? In the same way, the soul, not only of the first man but of all people, arose according to the image—for the statement “Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness,” applies to all people.
So also God is introduced by the prophet as saying to the person who had become evil by his own choice, “Yet I had planted you a fruitful vine. How have you turned back into a wild vine?” Anywhere it is said that evils happen to the wicked from God, it must be understood as an accidental coincidence of name. This name is given to the chastisements that God in his goodness is said to send not for the hurt of those who are chastised but for their benefit and profit, in the same way that a physician might be thought to apply bad things in his painful and bitter remedies to save the sick.
Sin is a terrible thing, and the most grievous disease of the soul is iniquity, which corrupts the fiber of the soul and makes it liable to eternal fire. It is an evil freely chosen, the product of the will. The prophet clearly declares that we sin of our own free will: “I had planted you, a choice vine of fully tested stock; how could you turn into bitterness, a spurious vine?” The planting was good, but the fruit coming from the will is evil. So the planter is blameless, but the vine will burn with fire since it was planted for good and bore evil fruit of its own will.
Learn this also, that before the soul comes into the world, it has committed no sin. But though we came into the world sinless, we now of our own choice commit sin.… Remember also how God again accuses them and says, “I have planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed; how then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?”
Yet if the husband’s power allures you, pray tell me who it was that spoke in the prophet, saying, “O Lord, make it known to me that I may know. Then I saw their thoughts. I was led as a harmless lamb to the slaughter and knew it not. They took counsel together against me, saying, Come, let us throw wood into his bread.” For if the Son here spoke of the mystery of his coming incarnation—because it was blasphemous to suppose that the words are spoken concerning the Father—then surely it is the Son who speaks in an earlier passage: “I have planted you as a fruitful vine—how did you become bitter, and a wild vine?”
Hence God gave the gift of prayer. But he does this, even though he does not need for us to ask, but that we might not grow indifferent from being saved without effort. For this reason, he said to Jeremiah, “Do not pray for this people, for I will not hear you,” not wishing to stop his praying (for he earnestly longs for our salvation) but to terrify them. Seeing this, the prophet did not stop praying. So that you may see that God did not wish to turn Jeremiah from it, but to shame them that he said this, hear what it says. “Don’t you see what they are doing?” Also when he says to the city, “Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” it is not that he may cast them into despair that he so speaks, but that he may rouse them to repentance.
(Verse 22) If you wash yourself with niter, you will multiply for yourself the herb borith, you are stained in your iniquity before me, says the Lord God. As for the herb borith, which we render in Hebrew, the LXX translated it as 'poan' to signify the herb of fullers, which grows in green and moist places according to the custom of the province of Palestine; and it has the same power for washing away stains as niter. But our niter and the herb of the fuller is repentance. The book of Ecclesiasticus, which also rebukes and rebukes and corrects wrongdoers, has the similarity of sharp nitre. However, one who is stained with light stains of sins is cleansed by lighter admonitions. But serious sins, which lead to death, cannot be diluted by nitre or the herb Borith: but they require more severe torments. For the work of each person will be tested by fire, and it will be revealed in the fire (1 Cor. III). And he added beautifully: You are spotted in your wickedness in my sight: for even if you seem clean to men, you are not clean to me, who know the consciences of each one. Hence it is said in another place: Not every living thing shall be justified in your sight (Psalm 42:2).
Now, those who were called children and were enrolled in the ranks of children made themselves foreign by proving ungrateful for favors done, limping in respect of the faith and abandoning the path of godliness. Thus God said through the prophet Jeremiah, “How did you turn into bitterness to me, a foreign vine, whereas I planted every vine to be genuine and fruitful?”
God through Jeremiah reproaches the evil of the human will in such a way that he teaches that it is foreign to him. He says, “Yet I planted you as a choice vine.… How then did you turn degenerate and become a wild vine?” He says that the vine is foreign to him not because of some defect in the divine creation but by the avoidance of his own will, which is justly blamed because it brought forth bitterness, something God did not produce in it. It had the bitterness not from God’s predestination or from God’s work but from the evil of its own will. Because of that bitterness, God rebukes it a second time through the prophet mentioned above: “Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God: the fear of me is not in you.” Since, therefore, it is evil and bitter for a person to have left the Lord and not to have in him a fear of God, who is contrary to the truth in such a way that he thinks it comes from a good and kind God.
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SUMMARY
Jeremiah 2:22 starkly reveals the utter inadequacy of human efforts to cleanse deep-seated sin and spiritual apostasy in the sight of a holy God. Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord confronts Judah's profound spiritual defilement, declaring that no amount of outward ritual, self-effort, or superficial purification can erase the indelible mark of their iniquity, which remains permanently recorded and visible in His divine presence. This verse powerfully underscores the unbridgeable chasm between humanity's attempts at self-cleansing and God's demand for true, internal purity, highlighting humanity's desperate need for a divine solution to sin.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Jeremiah 2:22 masterfully employs several potent literary devices to convey its profound message. Hyperbole is evident in the phrase "take thee much soap," exaggerating the amount of cleansing agent to emphasize the futility of even the most extreme human effort. The core of the verse relies heavily on Metaphor and Symbolism: the physical act of washing with "nitre" and "soap" serves as a vivid metaphor for human attempts at spiritual self-cleansing, while the "marked iniquity" symbolizes the indelible, deeply ingrained stain of sin that defies such superficial efforts. This creates a powerful and striking contrast between superficial external purification and deep-seated internal defilement. Furthermore, the phrase "marked before me" employs a subtle form of Anthropomorphism, attributing human-like perception (seeing a mark) to God, thereby making His awareness of Judah's sin more relatable and impactful to the audience. The entire verse functions as a powerful Rhetorical Statement of undeniable truth, challenging any lingering notion that human actions alone can rectify profound spiritual rebellion without divine intervention.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Jeremiah 2:22 serves as a profound theological statement on the pervasive nature of sin and the inherent limits of human capacity for self-redemption. It underscores the foundational biblical truth that sin is not merely a mistake or a superficial blemish, but a deep-seated corruption that permeates the human heart and leaves an indelible mark in the sight of a holy and righteous God. This verse powerfully refutes any notion of self-salvation or purification through rituals, good works, or moral reformation alone. It sets the crucial stage for understanding humanity's desperate need for a divine solution to the problem of sin—a radical cleansing that transcends all human capabilities and originates solely from God's sovereign grace and power. The utter inability of "nitre" and "soap" to remove the mark of iniquity points directly to the absolute necessity of a supernatural intervention for true spiritual cleansing and reconciliation with God.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Jeremiah 2:22 offers a timeless and sobering reflection on the human condition and the profound nature of sin before a holy God. It compels us to confront the uncomfortable reality that our deepest spiritual defilement cannot be washed away by external efforts, religious rituals, or self-improvement initiatives, no matter how strenuous. This verse challenges any form of self-righteousness or superficial piety, reminding us that no matter how diligently we try to "clean up our act" or present a virtuous facade, our true iniquity remains "marked before" the omniscient gaze of God. The passage serves as a powerful call to profound humility, urging us to abandon reliance on our own strength and instead acknowledge the immense seriousness of sin and our utter inability to erase its stain. True cleansing and transformative change must originate from a source entirely beyond ourselves, leading us to a posture of complete dependence on divine grace and mercy.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What were 'nitre' and 'soap' in ancient times, and why are they used in this verse?
Answer: In ancient times, "nitre" (Hebrew: nether) referred to sodium carbonate, a natural alkaline salt found in mineral deposits, particularly in regions like Egypt. "Soap" (Hebrew: bôrîyth) was likely a plant-based alkali, derived from the ashes of certain plants, used for its cleansing properties. Both were powerful cleansing agents widely employed for laundry and personal hygiene, representing the strongest detergents available in the ancient world. They are used in Jeremiah 2:22 metaphorically to illustrate the most vigorous and thorough human attempts at purification. The profound point is that even with the most potent physical cleansers, spiritual iniquity remains "marked" before God, emphasizing the complete futility of human effort to cleanse sin.
Why does God say Judah's iniquity is 'marked' before Him?
Answer: The Hebrew word for "marked" (kâtham) means to carve, engrave, or inscribe indelibly. When God declares that Judah's iniquity is "marked before me," it signifies that their sin is not merely remembered or overlooked, but it is permanently etched, branded, or deeply stained in His divine sight. It conveys the idea of an unerasable record, a visible and permanent blemish that no human effort can remove or conceal. This emphasizes God's perfect knowledge, His uncompromising holiness, and the profound, inherent nature of Judah's sin, which cannot be superficially washed away. It highlights the seriousness of their apostasy and the desperate need for a divine solution beyond human capabilities, as seen in God's lament over their forsaking Him in Jeremiah 2:13.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Jeremiah 2:22, with its stark declaration of sin's indelible mark and the futility of human cleansing, powerfully foreshadows the ultimate and divine solution found supremely in Jesus Christ. While Judah's strenuous efforts with "nitre" and "much soap" proved utterly futile against their ingrained iniquity, the New Testament reveals that true and lasting purification comes not through human striving or ritual, but through the perfect atoning work of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. The blood of bulls and goats under the Old Covenant could only provide a temporary covering for sins, but it is the precious, unblemished blood of Christ that truly cleanses us from all sin, as affirmed in 1 Peter 1:18-19. His sacrificial death on the cross was the ultimate act of purification, making it possible for God to be both perfectly just and the righteous justifier of those who place their faith in Jesus (Romans 3:25-26). Through faith in Him, the "marked iniquity" that stood irrevocably before God is not merely covered, but completely removed, and our sins are remembered no more, a glorious promise fulfilled in the new covenant established through Christ's perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 8:12). He is the one who "saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).