Hebrews 10:16-17

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"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

Hebrews 10:16-17 (NKJV)

"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."

Hebrews 10:16-17 (NIV)

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Hebrews 10:16-17 (KJV)

"But this is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he says, "I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds."

Hebrews 10:16-17 (NLT)

"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

Hebrews 10:16-17 (ESV)

"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them," He then says, "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will no longer remember."

Hebrews 10:16-17 (NASB)

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will imprint My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will inscribe them [producing an inward change]," He then says, "And their sins and their lawless acts I will remember no more [no longer holding their sins against them]."

Hebrews 10:16-17 (AMP)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

He then goes on to say, And their sins and their lawbreaking I will remember no more. [Jer. 31:33, 34.] Now where there is absolute remission (forgiveness and cancellation of the penalty) of these [sins and lawbreaking], there is no longer any offering made to atone for sin.

Hebrews 10:16-17 (AMPC)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

I'll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins. Once sins are taken care of for good, there's no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.

Hebrews 10:16-17 (MSG)

Scripture quotations from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.

New Covenant Meaning

Laws Written on the Heart: The Internal Revolution of the New Covenant

The old covenant wrote the law of God on tablets of stone. The new covenant writes the law of God on the heart and mind of the believer. This is not merely a change in medium. It is a change in the mode of relationship with God. The stone tablet stands outside the person as an external demand. The law written on the heart is a transformed internal disposition, an inward inclination toward God's will rather than a command confronting a resistant nature from outside. The prophet Jeremiah announced this in chapter 31 as the defining distinction of the new covenant, and the writer of Hebrews quotes it here as the covenant that Christ has inaugurated.

The Non-Remembrance of Sins: The Covenant Conclusion

Verse 17 is the second term of the new covenant as quoted from Jeremiah: God will remember sins and lawless acts no more. The writer draws an explicit conclusion from this in verse 18: where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. If God has covenanted to remember sins no more, then the sacrifice system has accomplished its purpose and has ended. There is nothing left to pay for. The non-remembrance is not a divine choice to suppress memory. It is a judicial declaration that the record is permanently closed, never to be opened as grounds for condemnation again.

The writer quotes Jeremiah 31 twice in Hebrews, first in chapter 8 (vv. 8-12) and again here in chapter 10 (vv. 16-17). The repetition is deliberate. By chapter 10, the writer has demonstrated through careful argument that Christ's single sacrifice accomplished what the repeated animal sacrifices never could. He then returns to Jeremiah's new covenant promise to show that the prophetic word has now been fulfilled. The two terms he highlights are the ones that most sharply distinguish the new covenant from the old: the internalized law and the permanent non-remembrance of sins.

Application for Your Life

God's Law in You Is Not a Stricter Version of External Demands

When believers hear that God writes His laws on the heart, they sometimes understand this as an intensification of the demands, a higher standard applied inwardly as well as outwardly. But the point is the opposite. The law on the heart is not a harder external law internalized. It is the transformation of the person so that they want what God wants, delight in what He delights in, and move naturally toward what pleases Him. This is what Ezekiel 36:26-27 describes as the heart of stone replaced by a heart of flesh, with the Spirit placed within to cause the person to walk in His statutes. The law on the heart is life, not burden.

Your Sins Have Been Remembered No More

Verse 17 is a covenant term, not a conditional promise. God did not say He would stop remembering sins if the believer behaved well enough. He declared in the terms of the new covenant that sins and lawless acts would not be remembered. This means that for the believer in Christ, the record has been permanently closed by God's own declaration. Not reduced. Not paused. Closed. When guilt or shame presents your past sins as evidence against you, it is contradicting a covenant term that God Himself established. You do not need to carry what God has declared He will not remember.

Prayer Based on This Verse

Father, I receive the terms of the new covenant. You have put Your laws in my heart and written them on my mind. I am not left with an external code confronting a resistant nature. You have changed me from within. And You have declared that my sins and lawless acts You will remember no more. That is a covenant term. I stand on it. I do not present my past as an ongoing liability, because You have declared it closed. I receive the internal law as life, not burden, as the natural inclination of a transformed heart. Write Your ways deeper into me. And let me live free from the record You have already closed. In Jesus name. Amen.