“For this is My blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Matthew 26:28
What is a covenant, in particular, a covenant of God? Throughout Scripture we discover many covenants that God made, or established, between Himself and his people. In the Old Testament, we find that covenant directed towards individuals, and then, the nation of Israel. In the New Testament, we find it primarily directed again towards the individual, with a larger and more amplified application to the body of Christ, the church. In all of these covenants we find some basic truths, essential for the believer to grasp, if he would know the power given according to the covenant of God.
We find the first truth embedded in the sovereign commitment, wisdom, and love of God. It is the fact that the covenant had its origin in God, and not man. God designed it, fulfilled it, applies and accomplishes it. It is the perfect commitment by God, to work faithfully to accomplish all that He has promised. In every application of that clearly declared action and attitude of God towards man, He requires that man respond by faith in God. It is a response that is more than the hearing of the words of the covenant. It is an engagement, sometimes confirmed by a physical action or sign on the behalf of the believer, to “ratify” that covenant in the heart. In the Old Testament, we see this concerning Abraham, and the eventual nation of Israel. The sign of circumcision of all males, was originally an act of faith, declaring that the person, or nation, that believed, was henceforth, set apart unto God, belonging to Him. In the New Testament, there is the sign, or testimony, of believer’s baptism. This is the outward testimony, and witness, to the fact of one’s faith in Christ. It is essential to ask at this point, “How can a covenant, a perfect covenant from the living and eternal God, exist with that of sinful man, who is not perfect? Is it not a covenant that is destined to fail in its realization in this sinful world, where Satan assails the believer, and the world’s system is basically, godless?
In the book of Genesis, we find where God made a covenant with Abraham. Now, this Abraham, though he was a man of faith, was not without faults, and knew failure at times in his walk with God. However, his response to the revelation of God to his heart, and the commitment of God in the form of the declared covenant, was that of faith, “…he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.” (Gen. 15:6) Was this perfect covenant of God affected, or altered, by the imperfect walk of the one, or ones, to whom it has been committed?
When we get to the New Testament, we find the Lord Jesus proclaiming a “new covenant.” This does not mean that the old covenants had faults, or errors, or that God did not honor them. But it does mean that, as Christ was the fuller, and most complete, revelation and expression of God’s covenant, it had “better” promises, more extensive and eternal effects. This new covenant of Christ would deal in a perfect, and most complete manner, with all the sins of men, the sin nature itself, Satan, and the entirety of the world system. This covenant, as revealed by the Lord Jesus, and manifested in a “magnified” way after Pentecost, was the very basis for all else in the Christian life. This would be why John the Apostle would write: “And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev. 12:11) The testimony of the new covenant in the blood of Christ, would seal those who were His for time and eternity. He took the place of sinful man on that cross. In that substitution, the eternal strength of the covenant was proven, and confirmed. From that day forward, the totality of man’s sins could be forgiven daily, washed away, so that man could know covenant fellowship with Christ by the Spirit.
Dear Father, Wash and keep us daily, cleansed completely in Jesus’ blood. In Jesus’ name, Amen.