5.1 Covenant
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28).
And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:19-20).
The Christian life is the negotiation of a covenant between God and the individual believer. This covenant process passes through three levels.
Contract
The lowest level of covenant is a contract. A contract is a binding agreement between two parties who, together, intend to achieve some aim or goal. Each party to the contract brings certain skills or resources to the agreement, and, by working together as agreed, the two parties reach the goal in a manner satisfactory to both. But a contract is limited to one goal and carefully describes those several limited skills or resources each party must add.
Many Christians have negotiated a contract level of relationship with God. They do certain things for God and God does certain things for them. Read The Two Covenants to understand contract relationship.
Marriage
A covenant contains all the elements of a contract, but then goes way beyond a contract. A covenant is for all of life and it encircles all the skills and resources of both parties, and a covenant is not limited to some specific goal, but includes all goals ever sought by either party. It is a binding commitment of the heart that melds two different individuals into one. Entering into a covenant is a BIG deal. Neither party belongs to themselves but to the other and to this new entity of us. Marriage, including our marriage union with Christ, is just such a covenant.
Blood Covenant
We can see the difference in scale between a young man agreeing to mow his neighbor's yard for a sum of money versus a marriage between a husband and wife, sanctioned and blessed by the Lord, in which children grow up into maturity and strength. We then take that same difference in scale from a marriage covenant to the Blood Covenant God intends to enter into with each one of us through Jesus Christ, the surety of that Covenant. The Blood Covenant is as much a bigger deal than the marriage covenant as the marriage covenant is a bigger deal than the agreement to mow a lawn.
Commitment
In olden times, two men would enter into a covenant with one another, to commit their lives and resources to each other for whatever need might arise. I read of two young men on the American frontier just before the revolution who made such an agreement. That kind of covenant is always sealed with blood, and so they cut their hands and mixed their blood. Then, one of them went with the British and Indians in the conflict and the other with the American settlers. However, even though both fought ferociously for the side they had chosen, yet they risked their lives and place to help the other escape when captured. Their commitment to one another was greater than their commitment to any other issue.
Abraham and God
In Abraham's time, the establishment of a covenant between two men was a big deal. Such a covenant was always made with blood and the cutting open of animals. Thus comes the term, "cutting the covenant." They made a big deal out of entering such a covenant so that the binding commitment the two men shared with each other would be a big deal in each one's heart and mind. Entering into a covenant with another was a bloody, bloody affair. Read about such a covenant in Genesis 15. Paul establishes this covenant between God and Abraham as the core of the New Covenant we have entered with God.
Blood Brother
Why would two persons enter into such a covenant? First, the deepest love and respect for one another was the foundation of entering that covenant. Second, a life with a blood brother always watching your back, always being there for you no matter what, was a greatly strengthened and ennobled life. Two moving as one was always better than facing any situation by one's self. "I've got your back" is one of the key purposes of a blood covenant. At no point will your blood brother ever let you down, but will gladly die for you without hesitation – and you will do the same for him.
Equality of Person
By nature, a blood covenant is an agreement between two equals, who equally commit all to the other and who equally look out for the other as for themselves. One man could be wealthy and powerful, the other poor and insignificant. That difference is erased utterly the moment they enter into a blood covenant together. Passing through that covenant makes them equals in every possible way. No one enters into a blood covenant lightly. A blood covenant is absolute, it is total, it is forever and ever.
Entering into Covenant
Entering into a Blood Covenant with God is a BIG DEAL to Him, to us, and to Jesus who is the Bond, the Surety, the Cutting Open, the Blood, of that Covenant. Once we complete the Blood Covenant with God, we are forever bound to Him and He is forever bound to us. We are equals in every way; we keep each other's backs. We are absolutely committed to one another's person, honor, well-being, hopes, and wishes. We of God's and God of ours. Once I have completed the Blood Covenant with God, I am as much concerned about His interests and honor as He is concerned about mine. God depends upon me as much as I depend upon Him.
Entering through Covenant
God always and ONLY relates with His creation through the means of a covenant. Covenant begins with these words: And God said, “Let there be light.” Notice that the “said” is the action of the Father and the Words issuing forth are the entrance of the Lord Jesus as the go-between, the pattern, the source of all created things. Technically the Hebrew connotes “Light become,” but the context allows for the addition of the word “Let,” as in the entrance of God into His creation only through faith, only through the consent of the created.
“Said – Let” is the beginning of Covenant.
The Bond of the Covenant
Our Covenant with God, however, is not limited to any “agreement” or even to treating each other as equals and committing all of ourselves to one another. Another Person has taken up residence inside of us; that Person is Father God. This other Person has no wish to set aside or overwhelm our human persons; rather, He lives in us as Himself through us as ourselves. The Bond, the Glue, the Catalyst that allows this mind-boggling and absolutely incredible relationship to exist is Christ Jesus. Jesus in our hearts is the Bond that binds you and me together with the Father and the Father with us inside of us.
The Core of the Covenant
We have forever to learn what God living in us in a synergistic union and communion with us, with our persons, with all that we are as humans, bound utterly to us and we to Him as One, really means. Very likely the third course I will develop for Christ Revealed Bible Institute will be The Covenant.
My purpose in this lesson is only to catch us with a glimpse of the awe-inspiring reality into which we are headed. It is the core of that Covenant, the central issue written explicitly and with great importance at the heart of Paul and John’s gospel, however, that we are concerned with here.
We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.