In Jeremiah 31:33b we see the second item of the new covenant. "I will be their God, and they will be My people." From the time we were saved, we have had the desire that God would be our God. For God to be our God implies a great deal. This means that He will be known by us, understood by us, apprehended by us, and lived by us. It also means that we will be constituted with Him to be utterly one with Him.
"They will no longer teach, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for all of them will know Me, from the little one among them even to the great one among them, declares Jehovah" (v. 34a). This word indicates that we will know God to such an extent that we will not need anyone to teach us.
When I was a young Christian, I had a problem with this verse. I did not understand how we could do without teaching. Eventually I began to see that this word about knowing God and not needing others to teach us is related to the spontaneous, automatic function of the divine life within us. As an illustration, let us suppose that a child is given two different things to taste, something bitter and something sweet. The child will automatically reject what is bitter and receive and enjoy what is sweet. This reaction is a matter not of teaching but of taste. By the sense of taste, which is an aspect of the function of human life, the child knows to reject what is bitter and to receive what is sweet. The proper teaching the child receives regarding the sense of taste will serve to develop, but not to replace, the life capacity within the child.
The principle is the same with knowing God through the function of the divine life, the eternal life, within us. Eternal life has a special function, and this function is to know God (John 17:3). To know God, the divine person, we need the divine life with its function. Eventually, there will be no need for outward teachings, for we will know God by the function of the divine life.
No religion on earth can replace the new covenant or even compare with it. Confucius and Socrates were good, but they could not put themselves into their followers as life. Only Jesus Christ as the embodiment of God can do this. Throughout the centuries He has put His life into millions of persons. As believers, we all have received His eternal life. This is indicated strongly in John 3:16. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life." By believing into Christ we have received eternal life, the divine life. This divine life is the centrality and universality of our Christian life. This life is nothing less than Christ Himself, and Christ is the very God. Since we have God within us as life, we can know Him, apprehend Him, live Him, and be constituted with Him. Furthermore, by dispensing Himself into us as life, God is accomplishing His economy, that He may have a corporate expression of Himself for eternity.
Today we know Christ as our life (Col. 3:4). He is the divine life, the eternal life, the uncreated life, the life that is all-inclusive. Because we know the divine life, we can experience the divine dispensing—God's dispensing Himself into us that we may become His increase, His enlargement, for His expression. This is God's intention, God's goal, God's purpose, God's economy with His dear dispensing.
The Triune God has been processed and consummated in order to dispense Himself into our being. Now, through this dispensing, we have the capacity to know God and to be His people.