3.2 Marriage and Blood
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
We continue in this session in a layout of the structure of the Covenant, and thus we continue to search out the specific legal statements that make up the Covenant, even including our marriage union with the Lord Jesus.
Our union with the Lord Jesus is pictured for us in figurative form as the marriage of the Lamb has come, for His wife has made herself ready (Revelation 19:7). This same reality is also pictured for us as the plant coming out from the original seed and producing many more seeds just like the first – Christ planted in the earth – Christ living now as us. Yet the terms of this marriage covenant are also in the gospel.
Married to Another. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God (Romans 7:4). Paul then further develops this transfer of marriage license. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
We will see the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross as the center point of every aspect and level of our entering into this Covenant Bond with God Almighty. And thus, again, Galatians 2:20 – this One who loves me, this One who trades His life for mine.
One Flesh. And then we bring in the primary supporting verse of Galatians 2:20. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:30-32).
“One flesh” includes the meaning of Romans 7:4 – that we should bear fruit to God. And thus we see that this picture of a marriage covenant transfers directly into the picture of our relationship with God as sons and as heirs.
Heirs of God. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together (Romans 8:16-17). – He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son (Revelation 21:7). We see again how John’s vision relates directly with Romans 8 and is simply a further view of the same gospel.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (1 John 5:4). Our signature to the Covenant is our faith expressed specifically at three different levels through the tabernacle.
Our Union with Christ. Our union with Christ is based entirely on a legal agreement set out in specific terms in the New Testament. When we were born again we agreed only to consider entering into such an agreement with God. Only as we receive full immersion into the Spirit are we able to know what union with Christ really means.
Yet we see that the Atonement of the Lord Jesus from Gethsemane to the sprinkling of Blood upon the Mercy Seat is the legal as well as the experiential basis of our binding agreement with God. Thus we cannot proceed with our understanding of a Marriage Covenant without also bringing in the Blood.
Out from His Side. Indeed, here is the Church coming into existence. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out (John 19:34). Just as God put Adam to sleep and then drew Eve out of his side, so as Jesus “slept” upon the cross, God drew the Church out from His side.
To understand Blood Covenant, we must go back to Abraham; indeed the writer of Hebrews as well as Paul contends that our Covenant with God, the New Covenant, is simply our inclusion into the Covenant God made with Abraham. If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29).
Genesis 15. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Galatians 3:14).
The story of God entering into a Blood Covenant with Abraham is found in Genesis 15. Learn Genesis 15 until you know it. Your Symmorphic Covenant with God forever is based on this connection of God and Abraham. The “promise of God to Abraham” is what we inherit, and that promise in Genesis 15 consists of three distinct things.
Abraham’s part in this agreement is the same as ours. And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6).
The Promise to Abraham. The first promise to Abraham is God Himself. Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward (verse 1).
The second promise to Abraham is Christ Jesus, coming through Isaac, the promised Seed, as Seed, singular, that cannot be counted for multitude. Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your Seed be” (verse 5). The Bible translators want to make “Seed” to be “descendants,” that is, many seeds, but Paul says in Galatians 3 that it is ONE SEED, that is Christ.
Inheriting the Land. And the third promise to Abraham is the possession of all the land, a land we know of as the promise of the Spirit. Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it” (verse 7).
Now, although the Blood Covenant God made with Abraham was for all three of these promises of God, yet the cutting of the Covenant began in response to Abraham’s question concerning the land. And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” (verse 8). – On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your Seed I have given this land” (verse 18).
I AM Abraham’s Seed. We are speaking of the inheritance promised by God in the Old Testament. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Judaic nor Greek… there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed (singular), and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:27-29).
If the natural ground of what is called “Israel” in the Middle East is part of that inheritance, then I have more claim to that land than any “Jew” who rejects the One Seed of Abraham. Yet my inheritance is not so limited, for the meek shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5) and he who overcomes shall inherit all things.
Cutting the Covenant. Now we come to the action of the Blood Covenant. So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know…” (verses 9-13).
Abraham’s “know” was personal to him, and ours is personal to us.
Gethsemane. In that day you shall KNOW that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you (John 14:20). John 14:20 comes to us in the very transaction of the Blood Covenant.
And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your Seed I have given this land…” (verses 17-18). This same experience for us is Gethsemane, not as a historical event, nor as something we know about, but Gethsemane fulfilled as the transaction of Christ inside of us.
Another Oath. In Abraham’s case, the sacrifice of the heifer, the female goat, the ram, the turtledove, the pigeon picture for us Christ Jesus as the Bond, the Surety of the Covenant. One of the primary pictures of Jesus as this Bond of the Covenant is as the High Priest connecting us with God.
Now this is very interesting, for the writer of Hebrews referred to the oath sworn to Abraham, which Paul pointed out came before the law. Yet Hebrews points out that another word of Oath came after the law. “The Lord has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest inside the present age according to the order of Melchizedek,’” by so much more Jesus has become the surety of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:21-22).
I AND the Children. As you can see, Psalm 110 is a key part of the Covenant, that’s why it is quoted in the New Testament more frequently than any other Old Testament passage. Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool (Hebrews 1:13 and Psalms 110:1).
Now here is the most significant line in Scripture regarding our place in Gethsemane and through all the Atonement. “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me” (Hebrews 2:13). These words are spoken by Jesus at every step of the walk of the Atonement and are the loudest words in the universe. You and I were there, literally, in the cutting of the Covenant.
The Atonement of Christ. In a Blood Covenant, as in a Marriage Covenant, both parties bring all that they are and all that they have and give all of themselves to the other as the other’s possession, while at the same time receiving from the other all they are and have.
Just as our union with Christ is a legal agreement, rooted in Blood, so also is our union with the Father a legal agreement, rooted in the cutting of the Covenant, that is the walk of Jesus through the Atonement.
Yet the Atonement of Christ in the Covenant is not presently “about sin.” In other words, if we are still considering sin or sinfulness, we are not walking as one with God. And thus we will see the Atonement of Christ in this journey out with God as something far deeper than we have ever known.