Transcript & Slides: Blood of the Covenant
Blood of the Covenant
David Feddes
At the Last Supper, the Lord's Supper, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26–28). That's what I'd like to focus on with you today: the blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
A covenant is a relationship that's based on set conditions and promises, and it's usually confirmed by a sign. For example, marriage is a covenant where it's kind of an institution with set conditions, where promises are made. A ring is a symbol or sign of that covenant.
God's covenant with the earth through Noah was, “I'm going to preserve everything,” and the rainbow in the clouds is the sign of that covenant (Genesis 9:13–17).
Covenant is something that's mentioned in the Bible again and again—maybe 270 or so times. Covenant reveals something about God: "He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands" (Deuteronomy 7:9). Love and faithfulness—that's what covenant is all about.
God's covenant is very closely tied to blood. Jesus says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” or “my blood of the covenant” (Luke 22:20; Matthew 26:28). What does he mean by that? Well, we need to understand the situation that Jesus was speaking in and all of the history that went into the words "blood of the covenant." Let's consider two of the major covenants: the covenant God established with Abraham and his offspring, and the covenant God established through Moses at Mount Sinai.
Abraham
God made a promise to Abraham. He said, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2–3).
Abram was chosen to become the father of a nation, the nation that would be the source of all blessing to all the other nations in the world. When God made that promise, he said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be." Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:5-6). Abram's faith that God would do what he said was counted to Abram as being righteous and right with God because he believed God's promise.
He also said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it” (Genesis 15:7). God had called Abram from his homeland and said, “I'm bringing you to a place you don't know.” Now that Abram was in that territory, God said, “I'm going to give you this land.”
Abram said, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon” Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two, and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. (Genesis 15:8-11).
Most translations speak of making a covenant, but the literal Hebrew calls it “cutting a covenant.” Here is a situation of cutting a covenant very literally, where Abram cuts those various animal carcasses in half and sets them in rows.
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. “But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land.”” (Genesis 15:12-18)
God is saying, “The land that I'm going to give to your people isn't quite ripe for the picking yet. The people who live there aren't as bad as they need to be before I drive them out and wipe them out. So they've got another 400 years before I judge them."
So this blood of animals and birds has been shed, and God says, “Today I make a covenant that I am giving you this land.” A sign of God's presence was a torch that passed between those pieces of the slain animals. Later in the history of God's people, the sign of God's presence would not just be a torch but an enormous pillar of fire.
We're going to see more of the meaning of blood and sacrifice as we go on. But one of the things that it often meant in ancient situations was simply a self-curse. It sounds very strange, but in passing between these slain animals, God in a sense is putting a curse on himself if he would ever break that covenant. Sometimes it's called self-maledictory. That sounds complicated, but it simply means a self-curse: “If I ever break this covenant, then this is what would happen to me.” Now obviously God is talking to Abraham in language that he can follow, based on some of the customs that were there. But this self-cursing covenant means, “I will keep this covenant no matter what, and I would be harmed myself before I would let this covenant fail.”
Later on, God comes again to Abram and says, “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Genesis 17:7). In a sense, the very core of covenant is simply this: “I am your God; you are my people.” He promises, “I'm going to be God to you and your offspring. This is an everlasting covenant.
The Bible says, "God announced the gospel in advance to Abraham... If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed” (Galatians 3:8, 29). You've been brought into that everlasting covenant with Abraham. If you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, you're among his covenant offspring.
After making promises, God gave a sign of the covenant he was making with Abram, the sign of circumcision: "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, whether born in your household or bought with your money" (Genesis 17:9–12).
The babies who were born into the community were to be circumcised at eight days. Anybody who came from another nation or from somewhere else or was purchased as a servant in one of the households—whatever age they were—they were to be circumcised at that point in time, because that was the sign of being part of God's covenant people under Abraham.
Later on in that covenant, God gives Abraham and Sarah a son through whom he's going to bless all nations. But when Isaac gets a big older, God says what sounds absolutely crazy: "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about" (Genesis 22:2). And Abraham does so. He builds an altar, lays the wood on the altar, lays his son on the altar, and has the knife upraised. Then God speaks from heaven through the angel of the Lord and says, "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son" (Genesis 22:12). Then God says that he doesn't want Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. There's a ram caught in a thicket nearby, so Abraham offers that ram instead of his son (Genesis 22:13). In that blood sacrifice of the ram, Isaac is spared. The ram dies, and its blood is shed instead of the blood of Isaac.
Hebrews 11 says that when Abraham offered Isaac, he did so in faith because he believed that God would keep his promise to bring all of those offspring through Isaac, even if he killed Isaac. Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead (Hebrews 11:17–19). Abraham, even in those early times, was already believing in the power of resurrection as the key to God keeping his covenant.
When Abraham offered his son as the ultimate obedience, God said, "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me" (Genesis 22:16–18). So after Abraham’s faith produced ultimate obedience, God once again confirmed his covenant, this time with an oath: "I swear by myself." He guaranteed that he would bless Abraham and his offspring.
Hebrews 6 picks up on that: "When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself" (Hebrews 6:13). When people nowadays say oaths, they say, "So help me God," because we're not all that believable sometimes. So to add to our believability, we swear; we make an oath in God's name. The Bible says when God makes an oath, there's nobody greater to swear by, so who else can God swear by but by himself? "Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:17–19).
When God makes a promise, you can take it to the bank. he will surely keep his promise. But when God makes a promise and then takes an oath in his own name, you can really be sure of it. God's oath gives us an "anchor for the soul, firm and secure."
"Jesus became a priest with an oath when God said to him, 'The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever'" (Hebrews 7:21). Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22). So God has guaranteed on oath to Abram, but also he has guaranteed on oath that Jesus is a priest forever.
That’s why we sing in that song The Solid Rock:
His oath, his covenant, his blood
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand."
There’s a story about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. They have a secret that they're supposed to keep. Tom says to Huck, "I think we should hold hands and say we'll keep the secret." And Huck says, "Well, that might work for little common rubbishy things, but for something this big, we need writing and we need blood." So they take a shingle and write on it their promise to keep the secret. They both prick their thumb and put blood on it, because they need writing and they need blood.
The Bible tells us something similar. Little common rubbishy things might not require anything serious, but God's covenant is a huge deal. For that, you've got writing. For that, you've got blood. For that, you have God's own oath. And when you're being shaken, when things are giving way around your soul, the Bible says we have this as our anchor for the soul, firm and secure (Hebrews 6:19). When everything else is giving way, we always have his oath, his covenant, his blood.
Moses
Abram had that dream of the people being oppressed in another land, and it came true. The people ended up in Egypt, where they became slaves, but they were also growing as a nation to become almost uncountable, as the Lord had promised Abram. “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them” (Exodus 2:23–25). God never forgot his covenant with Abraham. He remembered that covenant, and when the people were crying out to him, he came through on that covenant.
He sent Moses to Pharaoh and said, “Let my people go” (Exodus 5:1). Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2). Well, he got a very painful introduction—ten terrible plagues that came upon Egypt. Pharaoh got more and more stubborn with each plague and would not let Israel go. But eventually came that terrible plague—the final plague—in which the firstborn of the Egyptians were killed. That finally broke the will of Egypt and of Pharaoh.
The people of Israel were told to get out of the country. But the Israelites did not just have an automatic pass during that Passover. They did not automatically survive that angel of death who came through Egypt. God made a provision for them. God told the Israelites, “Take a lamb—every household take a lamb and kill that lamb. You're going to use the lamb for a feast that night, but you're also going to take the blood of that lamb and put it above the doorpost and along the sides of the doors of your homes. When the angel of death comes through, the destroyer will see the blood and will pass over those homes” (Exodus 12:3–13).
And that’s what happened. When the Israelites put that blood around their homes, they were spared from the terrible plague that destroyed so many. "They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast" (Exodus 12:7–8).
When Jesus says, “This is my blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:28), when does he say that? He says it on Passover eve. He is killed on the Passover. Jesus is the ultimate Passover Lamb.
John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Scripture says, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). It doesn’t leave us guessing what that Passover lamb was pointing to. "You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect" (1 Peter 1:18–19). Christ is our Passover Lamb.
As the Israelites gathered together, safe because of the blood outside, they were eating together inside. They were eating the body of that lamb. Throughout future generations, they were to eat the Passover meal together.
This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance... And when your children ask you, “What does this ceremony mean to you?” then tell them, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians” (Exodus 12:14, 26–27).
That’s one of the great purposes of having an ongoing feast or ceremony—to get the kids to ask questions. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper each week, it’s a time for us to again gather around the new Passover meal that the Lord has given to his people and realize that Jesus is indeed our Passover Lamb, the one who gives the blood of the covenant. But it’s also a time for people to say, “What’s that all about?”—especially the little kids. And then you’re to tell them about Jesus. You’re to explain to them, “Now this is what Jesus did the night that he was betrayed,” what he did in giving his life for us. Just as the Israelites of old at the Passover meal were to tell of that great deliverance from Egypt, so the Lord's Supper is an opportunity to talk about Jesus to your children.
Then God tells Moses, “An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you” (Exodus 12:48–49). In other words, you had to be part of God’s covenant before you could take part in the covenant meal. Circumcision was the sign of entering the covenant, and then that meal was the sign of continuing in that covenant.
Covenants have signs and seals. A sign is a visible, physical picture of invisible, spiritual fact. As seal makes something official and confirms gospel promises to each member of God’s familys. Under the old covenant, circumcision and the Passover meal were two of the primary signs of being in covenant with God. Under the new covenant with Jesus Christ, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are two signs and seals of being in relationship—in covenant—with God through Jesus Christ.
Under the old covenant, first circumcision, then Passover. You had to be circumcised first, then you could take part in the Passover. Under the new covenant: first baptism, then the Lord’s Table. Babies of covenant members and new converts are to be baptized, and baptism comes first, then the Lord’s Supper. So don’t take the Supper until you’ve been baptized. That’s just the nature of the two signs. One is joining the covenant; the other is continuing in it.
Then, after all of that, they’ve been brought out of Egypt. God has brought them through the Red Sea, judged Pharaoh and his hosts, and destroyed the pursuing armies. Then God officially sets up his covenant with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. He says, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:4–6). As a kingdom of priests, Israel was to be the nation that represents the whole world before God, and the nation that represents God to the world. God call Israel as his covenant nation.
In the New Covenant, God takes the very statement that he made to Israel at Mount Sinai, and he makes an almost identical statement to all the people of God in the church. “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). He says of all followers of Jesus what God said of Israel: “You are the chosen people. You are the royal priesthood. You are the holy nation. I’m your God. You’re my people.” Revelation says, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10).
God made covenants with Levi and David. The Levites were to be the priests. David and his descendants were to be the kings. But at another level, all of Israel was to be priests for God and to be God's kingdom in a special way—a kingdom and priests to serve our God. And God doesn’t just say that about long-ago Israel; God says that about you, who are part of his covenant community, his church right now.
Moses heard God call Israel his chosen people, and he heard what God expected of his chosen people: the Ten Commandments and other laws that God gave in his covenant in Exodus 20 through chapter 23. Moses comes back down from the mountain, and remember what I said before—for little rubbishy things, talk is enough. But for the really important things, there has to be writing and blood.
When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do.” Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain.
Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.” Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (Exodus 24:5-8)
“This is the blood of the covenant.” That’s exactly what Jesus said at the Lord’s Supper:
What happened with the blood of the covenant at Mount Sinai? Half of the blood was poured on the altar; the other half was sprinkled on the people. If you like big words from theologians, that’s a picture of propitiation and expiation. Propitiation means that God’s wrath against sin is absorbed and turned aside. The blood on the altar is a sign that God’s wrath, which is provoked by sin, is dealt with by blood. Expiation means that the blood on the people removes guilt and cleanses conscience. Both of those things are needed.
Propitiation deals with what sin does to God. Sin offends God. Sin makes God angry. And because God is just, sin must receive its due punishment. The only way for that punishment to be turned aside is through blood. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). So propitiation means the blood toward God is poured on the altar.
Expiation means sin doesn’t just cause problems with God; it causes an inner problem for us. We feel guilty. We feel filthy—we are filthy. So the blood has to do something for God, but it also has to do something for us. It has to remove our guilt and cleanse our conscience—that’s what is sometimes called expiation.
Then after that blood is poured on the altar and sprinkled on the people, something else happens.
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. “Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank” (Exodus 24:10–11).
This is one of the most mysterious passages in the Bible. What does it mean that they saw God? Later on in the very same book, God tells Moses, “No one may see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). What did these Israelites actually see when they "saw God"? The described something under his feet that was kind of like sapphire, and that is about all they could say or remember of what they saw. Nobody sees the living God as he is and lives to tell about it. But somehow they were very close to God on the holy mountain, in his presence, encountering him directly—and they were not destroyed. That was the great meal that happened in God’s presence.
When Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples, he says, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). During that same evening he says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Philip says, “Lord, show us the Father” (John 14:8). Maybe Philip remembered what had happened so many years ago: Moses and his companions had "seen God" while they feasted in his presence. Philip wants to see the Father. Jesus says, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:6-9).
Thanks to Jesus, our picture of God is much clearer now than just something kind of like sapphire somewhere under his feet. In Jesus we see what God is like when he takes on truly human shape and lives a truly human life. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." Every time you gather around the Lord's table and take his blood of the covenant, you are among those who have feasted in God’s presence—and God did not raise his hand against you.
As the years went by from Abraham through Moses, things sometimes got very bad. In fact, they got very bad shortly after that covenant with the leaders of Israel. The first thing they do is start worshiping a golden calf, and they break the covenant. They would have been wiped out had Moses not interceded for them. They always needed, again and again, somebody to stand between them and God.
Centuries later, the people went into exile and then came back. The prophet Zechariah wrote, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit” (Zechariah 9:9–11).
Jesus
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, that’s the prophecy he was fulfilling. He was coming to his people, righteous and having salvation, and he was going to proclaim peace to all the nations. And how was it going to happen? Through the blood of his covenant. That’s how he would free the prisoners. So at the Lord's Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).
Hebrews says, “You have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood” (Hebrews 12:24). That’s what we do whenever we come to the Lord’s Table. We’re coming to the blood of the new covenant, and we’re coming to Jesus Christ, the mediator of a new covenant. Isaiah had prophesied of that new covenant: “He will sprinkle many nations… He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities… He poured out his life unto death… He made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 52:15; 53:5, 12). Ezekiel the prophet had said, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean… I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you” (Ezekiel 36:25–26). So there was this promise of new covenant sprinkling.
Just as under the old covenant Moses had sprinkled the people with blood, so under the new covenant Jesus would sprinkle many nations with his blood and cleanse them. The Bible says that you have been chosen "for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood” (1 Peter 1:2). We are "the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). “Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood” (Hebrews 13:12).
Are you beginning to get a picture of why so many songs are about the blood of Jesus—at least the good ones? There are a lot of songs about the blood of Jesus because God’s Word says so much about the blood of Jesus and the blood of the covenant.
"Jesus entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption… the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God [propitiation], will cleanse our consciences [expiation] from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:12, 14) After the covenants with Abraham and with Moses, God set up a place of worship, the tabernacle and later the temple, in which there was the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies. "Jesus entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood." No longer were there to be the old rituals of a priest offering animal blood again and again, year after year. Instead, Jesus entered the heavenly Holy of Holies once for all by his own blood. He offered himself unblemished to God—that’s propitiation, turning aside God’s wrath.He cleanses our consciences—that’s expiation, doing something to us. God’s wrath against sin is taken away by Jesus’ blood, and our guilt and our sense of unworthiness are cleansed by Jesus’ blood.
“Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses” (Hebrews 3:3). “Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:15).
What’s the upshot of this? We’ve seen already that his oath, and his covenant, and his blood are an anchor for the soul, to make us firm and secure (Hebrews 6:19). But Hebrews also offers this invitation: “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22). That’s one of the things that baptism points to: the washing, the cleansing that comes from God through Jesus' blood. So come near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. You can come into God’s presence because Jesus has gone there ahead of you. You can come into God’s presence because you’ve been sprinkled and made clean with the precious blood.
If you are under the blood of the covenant, you don’t have to be scared of God. In fact, quite the opposite. If you’ve been cleansed by that blood and you’ve been made a holy priesthood and a nation belonging to God, God’s own treasured possession, then know who you are. You might think, “I’m of very little value. What am I?” The Bible says, “You are God’s treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6). You are his own people. You are his priests. You are his kings. You need to know who you are and draw near to God, clean and confident, because of all that Jesus has done for you.
If you have not already come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, does that mean you can’t? Of course not. The invitation is there: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). You can be washed by his blood. The Bible says, “You who are far off—you who were not even a people—you’ve become the people of God because of what Jesus did in this new covenant” (1 Peter 2:10). Anybody can belong to Jesus through faith in him. Remember how Abraham "believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). He was right with God because he believed. And when you believe in the Lord Jesus and his blood, then you are right with God.
I do have to add, though, that when you think about covenant, there are covenant warnings. Under the old covenant, when they worshiped that golden calf, many people perished. When they broke God’s covenant in other ways, there were dreadful consequences for those individuals who rejected God.
The Bible says, “How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?… It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:29, 31).
If you were once part of God’s covenant, if you were baptized into his family, if you had access to all of God’s good promises, if you were once among the people of God—his church—and you say, “Who needs it? I’m walking away. I don’t need to be part of that covenant. I don’t need that Jesus stuff,” well, you have treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant. You have insulted the Holy Spirit of God. And for those who insult the Holy Spirit of God, for those who treat as an unholy thing the blood of God’s covenant, there is no sacrifice for sins. There is no hope, because Jesus is the only hope—and you're turning away from the only hope there is.
I’ve had people ask me, “If a person is baptized and you take them to be part of God’s covenant, does that mean they’re just automatically saved?” Well, here’s your answer. If you’ve had access to God’s covenant—maybe even received the signs of God’s covenant—and you eventually say, “I don’t need it. I’ll just trample the Son of God underfoot. I’ll treat the blood of the covenant as though it doesn’t matter, and the Holy Spirit as though he is a non-factor,” there is this urgent covenant warning of what happens to covenant breakers. "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
We need to hear the warnings and hear them honestly. But we also need to hear the invitation: Come! Come clean! You can be clean and accepted because of the blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible's warning is not meant to frighten and terrify those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and are distressed by the ongoing sins that they have not yet completely been freed from. This is a warning to those who despise Jesus and turn away from him, and who reject the work of his Holy Spirit in their lives.
If you’re in covenant with God, the Bible says that we have Jesus Christ as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2). And Hebrews, near the very end of it, says, “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will” (Hebrews 13:20–21). Again, it’s appealing again to the blood of the eternal covenant that God never gives up on. That’s the foundation of our hope. That is what keeps us safe and sure.
Most of the time when I come to the Lord’s Table, I’m just going to quote Jesus and say, “This is my blood of the covenant” or “my blood of the new covenant, which is for you” (Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:20). I'll just speak those brief words of Jesus. I’m not going to give this lengthy sermon every time I say that phrase "blood of the covenant."
But as you hear those words, I do want you to think again.
Think again on the God of Abraham. Think again on God and that smoking firepot going between the pieces that had been cut (Genesis 15:17–18). Think of Isaac offered on the altar—and a ram sacrificed instead of Isaac—so that Isaac could live and God’s promises could continue (Genesis 22:9–13).
Think again of the great deliverance from Egypt and the Passover lamb whose blood was spilled (Exodus 12:1–28). Think again of Moses and that blood of the covenant—with half the blood on the altar, the other half on the people (Exodus 24:6–8).
And always, always, think of the blood of Jesus. When you hear him say, “This is my blood of the covenant,” take that as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure (Hebrews 6:19).
Prayer
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your precious blood. Thank you, Father, for the great gift of your Son. You ultimately didn’t take Abraham’s son from him, but you gave your only Son to us. Thank you for Jesus, the atoning sacrifice for our sins and for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). Lord, cleanse us with that precious blood, that you will give us a clean conscience, that you will give us assurance that your wrath has been propitiated and turned aside.
Thank you that we are your treasured nation, your holy people, your kingdom of priests who represent you here on the earth. Lord, give us a sense of cleansing and of gladness and of being blameless in your sight, and a sense of purpose—of significance—of being those who are blessed and who can be a blessing to those in the earth who still need you.
Lord, help us to live as people of the covenant, covered by the blood of the covenant, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Blood of the Covenant
David Feddes
Blood of the
covenant
Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it
to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the
cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)
Covenant love
Covenant: a relationship
based on set conditions and promises, usually confirmed by a sign.
He is the faithful
God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love
him and keep his commands. (Deut 7:9)
Promise to Abram
“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)
God said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.
Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. (Genesis 15:5-11)
Nightmare of
slavery
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and
a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the LORD said to him, “Know
for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own,
and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.”(Genesis 15:12-13)
Dream of rescue
“But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and
afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to
your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation
your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet
reached its full measure.” (Genesis 15:14-16)
Covenant sign
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking
firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that
day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give
this land.” (Genesis 15:17-18)
Covenant offspring
I will establish my
covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their
generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring
after you. (Genesis 17:7)
God announced the
gospel in advance to Abraham… if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's
offspring. (Galatians 3:8, 29)
Covenant mark
“As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your
descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you
and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among
you shall be circumcised. (Genesis 17:9-10)
Babies &
newcomers
For the generations to come every male among you who is
eight days old must be circumcised… Whether born in your household or bought
with your money, they must be circumcised. (Genesis 17:12-13)
Covenant oath
I swear by myself, declares the LORD… I will surely bless you and make your descendants as
numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore… and through
your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed
me. (Genesis 22:16-18)
Promise + oath
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no
one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself… Because God wanted to
make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was
promised, he confirmed it with an oath. (Hebrews 6:13, 16)
Anchor for the soul
God did this so that, by two unchangeable things [God’s
promise and oath] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to
take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this
hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (Hebrews 6:18-19)
Guaranteed on oath
Jesus became a priest with an oath when God said to him:
“The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest
forever.’ ” Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better
covenant. (Hebrews 7:21-22)
Oath, covenant,
blood
His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support
me in the whelming flood;
When all around my
soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
Covenant concern
The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out,
and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their
groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with
Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. (Exodus
2:23-25)
Salvation meal
They are to take some of the blood and put it on the
sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That
same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter
herbs, and bread made without yeast. (Exodus 12:7-8)
Our Passover lamb
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world!” (John 1:29)
Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (1
Corinthians 5:7)
You were redeemed … with the precious blood of Christ, a
lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19)
Salvation meal
This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations
to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance.
(Exodus 12:14)
Explain to children
“And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony
mean to you? then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who
passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he
struck down the Egyptians.’ ” (Exodus 12:26-27)
Babies and newcomers
“An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover must
have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one
born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. The same law applies to
the native-born and to the alien living among you.” (Exodus 12:48-49)
Covenant signs & seals
- Sign: visible, physical picture of
invisible, spiritual facts
- Seal: confirms gospel promises to each
member of God’s family
- Old: circumcision, Passover
- New: baptism, Lord’s Supper
Baptism and Supper
- Babies of covenant members and new converts are to be baptized.
- Baptism comes first, then Lord’s Supper.
- People should not take Supper until they have been baptized.
Covenant nation
“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I
carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me
fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured
possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of
priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:4-6)
New covenant nation
You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people belonging to God. (1 Peter 2:9-10)
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve
our God, and they will reign on the earth. (Rev. 5:10)
Spoken &
written words
When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words
and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will
do.” Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the
next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. (Exodus 24:5-6)
Blood on the altar
Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt
offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. Moses
took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on
the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the
people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said;
we will obey.” (Exodus 24:5-7)
Blood of the
covenant
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the
people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will
obey.” Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is
the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with
all these words.” (Exodus 24:7-8)
- Blood on altar absorbs God’s wrath against sinners (propitiation)
- Blood on people removes guilt and cleanses conscience (expiation)
Meal in God’s
presence
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders
of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like
a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his
hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and
drank. (Exodus 24:9-11)
Blood of the
covenant
See, your king comes to you, righteous and having
salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey… He will proclaim peace to the
nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and … to the ends of the earth.
As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your
prisoners from the waterless pit. (Zechariah 9:10-11)
“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)
You have come to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood… (Hebrews 12:24)
New covenant sprinkling
He will sprinkle
many nations… He was pierced for our transgressions… he poured out his life
unto death... (Isaiah 52-53)
I will sprinkle
clean water on you and you will be clean. (Ezekiel 36:25)
… chosen for
obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood. (1 Peter 1:1)
Blood-bought church
… the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
(Acts 20:28).
…the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
(1 John 1:7)
Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the
people holy through his own blood. (Hebrews 13:12)
Cleansing blood
Jesus entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own
blood, having obtained eternal redemption… the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God (propitiation), will cleanse
our consciences (expiation) from acts that lead to death, so that we
may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:12, 14)
New covenant
mediator
Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses.
(Hebrews 3:3)
Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who
are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as
a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
(Hebrews 9:15)
Draw near to God, clean
and confident
Let us draw near to
God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed
with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)
Covenant warning
How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be
punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an
unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has
insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29)
Blood of the eternal
covenant
… the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal
covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the
sheep (Hebrews 13:20)
Covenant praise
Jesus Christ… is the faithful witness, the firstborn from
the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has
freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and
priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and
ever! Amen. (Revelation 1:5-6)