38. The Covenant
(Chapter 8) • 1 Now, the main point of the things being spoken is that we possess just such a High Priest who sat down inside of the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, • 2 a minister in the Devoted Place and of the true Tabernacle which the Lord has pitched, not man.
“The main point.” We used to be so disappointed here, because we thought we were “going on to superiority,” even though we did NOT know the Salvation of God. Now we know exactly what this means, and inside that knowing, we are able to define every phrase in these two verses in a way that is “Living and Energeoing,” and not as something static and faraway.
Let me quote from “Seeing the Invisible One” in The Feast of Tabernacles, when I first saw God’s true meaning.
“I Am.” ~ God, this God who already fills us full, connects with us. God is God. He alone can be God. You and I cannot make Him visible; He alone makes us His image. God conforms Himself to us. God knows how to do that; we don’t.
~ What is our part? Faith. How is faith expressed? Three things: 1. Speaking Christ our only life. 2. Asking all that God speaks and believing that God is, right now, revealing Himself through us. That He IS!! As in IS!!!!
~ Did we get that – IS!!!!!! As in “I AM.” Thus, 3. Giving thanks for all things, that all things ARE God through us. All things are of God. 2 Corinthians 5. – God works all in all. 1 Corinthians 12. All things are God through us.
~ Every individual trying to connect with God lives in denial of the Lord Jesus Christ and His redemption. The Blood – never consider sin again. The Cross – never consider sinner again. The Resurrection – consider all that you are, spirit, soul, and body, as Christ alone, Christ your only life.
Turn Around! ~ Then, turn around, turn around, turn around, turn around, turn around, turn around, turn around. You cannot sit down upon the throne of heaven without turning around. You cannot be the Mercy Seat in the earth, God revealed, without turning around.
~ God, in all things you presently experience, is now going out through you. Give Him thanks. – Salvation Revealed. You are already fully connected to God. ~
The MAIN POINT of everything in Hebrews is that Jesus already connects us with God – AND is our pattern (verse 5), that we also might be about our Father’s business.
A More Accurate Picture of Hebrews. In the last lesson, we began with the double arrow, but then discovered the full meaning and pattern of Hebrews. That discovery has now adjusted how I see the straight arrow shot of Hebrews, for it is one arrow that grows larger and more deeply colored or understood the further it progresses towards the target. This enlargement and deepening is different from John’s spiral approach to teaching.
From Main Point to Pattern. Let’s bring in the next Gospel Verse before the comments. 5 As Moses was instructed by God as he was completing the Tabernacle, saying, • “You will make all things according to the pattern that was shown you in the mountain.”
To paraphrase. – As Jesus is instructed by God, as He is the completion of His Church, “You shall make each person who believes into You and every local gathering of believers according to the Pattern that You are out from Me.” Jesus makes us to be just like Himself in Life (relationship with God), in Form (loving one another), and in Ministry (and we also set forth our souls for the brethren). Hebrews says several times, “I can’t write to you what I want, for you are still childish.” The paraphrase above is clearly of God – AND, for those who are mature, hearing by the Spirit.
Placing the Covenant. Okay, Hebrews begins the New Covenant from Jeremiah in verse 7. The three Gospel verses introducing our Covenant with God are – “we have such a High Priest,” “in the Tabernacle,” and “make all things according to His same pattern.” These three concepts must always be together although we will have three Gospel comments. Jesus as (Apostle and) High Priest – inside God’s Tabernacle – making us to be just like Himself through the Tabernacle. – Which is another way to say Hebrews 10:19-22, Ruling Verse 6.
The most important quality we must have to be offered as sons, about our Father’s business, is no consciousness of defilement or separation from God. The one thing that gives us that quality is Blood. Thus the Covenant is placed inside of and together with our Way inside of God, being made just like the Pattern.
According to the Pattern. It is the statement, “make all things according to the pattern,” that has inspired me always to place Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18, and 1 John 3:2, being just like Jesus, as the Covenant, though I’ve never put all of Hebrews together mentally.
1 Definition: Jesus as our High Priest is Jesus as our WAY, the One who has already carried us inside of Himself all the way into God, into Resurrection Life, and who now carries us into the full knowledge of such Glory.
2 Ruling Verse 6: God gave us the picture of the Tabernacle of Moses to show us the full meaning of our Way into the knowledge of God now through us into our world. All gospel writers placed the truths of our salvation upon that Tabernacle.
5 Covenant: The purpose of the Covenant, Jesus connecting us always with God, is that He make us just like His own pattern.
Introducing the New Covenant. • 7 If indeed the first covenant had been without fault [without lack], then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 But in finding fault [blamed for lack, rejected because it was disgraceful] – with the first covenant, • God says, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will establish and bring to completion a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, • 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not remain in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.
7 Definition: The FAULT of the first covenant was that it joined no one actually with God, for the old covenant, like Christian “fake” repentance, brings sin and separation from God back into mind over and over.
With the House of Israel. God has no covenant with “Gentiles,” neither does He maintain two covenants with Israel at the same time. What home owner would draw up two different and opposing contracts with a builder and then require both? (Which is the definition of anti-Christ, that is “Christian” Zionism today.) Central to Paul’s gospel is the open door from Hosea, etc., that allows Jesus to bring in former “Gentiles” as part of Israel.
8 Covenant: God makes the New Covenant only with the House of Israel, and with no other ethnic family. Then Jesus invites us, who were once not His people, to be grafted into that same Israel inside of Him (see Ephesians 2:14-19).
9 Covenant: The old covenant saved no one, neither could it give life, for it placed all under the curse and put all to death. The New Covenant is different; the New connects us with God.
The New Covenant. • 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord, I will place My laws in their through-minds, and upon their hearts I will inscribe them; • and I will be God inside of them, and they will be a people inside of Me. • 11 And no one will teach each their neighbor and each their brother saying, ‘Know the Lord’; because all will be fully aware of Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, • 12 because I will propitiate and resolve their acts of injustice, and their falling short will not be in My thoughts anymore (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
Four specific things. First, I will make you just like Jesus, second, you will be the Church together, My dwelling place. Third, the purpose is that you might know Me personally and together, and fourth, I will do this by Blood cleansing you.
Defining the Rule. There is simply nothing more beautiful to me than this Flow of Gospel Word fitting everything together.
Defining the Rule: This New Covenant is a Blood Covenant by the word “propitiation.” A Covenant is like a contract in joining two together to accomplish one work, but a contract is limited to one task in one period of time and a Blood Covenant is the utter joining of all that both parties are and have forever. The Blood Covenant God has entered into with us has an end purpose, that all will KNOW the Father. The Covenant has two parts, Jesus written upon our hearts making us to be just like Himself, and that we together filled with Jesus might be the image and dwelling place of God, a people for Him. Finally, this whole Covenant is established upon and caused by, sealed and made final by, the Blood of the Lamb shed for us.
Expanded and Personal. This is the covenant I will now make with the house of Israel, including all whom Jesus has grafted in, says the Lord, I will place My laws, the Spirit of Life inside of Christ Jesus, in their through-minds, and upon their hearts I will inscribe the Lord Jesus as every Word I speak fulfilled, that He might make them to be just like Himself. I will be God inside of them, and they will be a people inside of Me, that I might have a House through which I can dwell as I am. Then no one will teach ‘Know the Lord’; because all will be fully aware of Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, because I will propitiate and resolve their acts of injustice by the Blood of the Lamb, My Son, and their falling short will not be in My thoughts anymore.
Christ Made Personal: Jesus connects me utterly with God my Father through His Blood, that I might know God, sharing life and every next moment with my Father and with my brethren forever.
Life and Covenant. Life: Life is purposeful movement within and without. Movement within is Covenant and movement without is Kingdom. Movement within includes the beating of the heart, sending forth all cleansing and union with Jesus continuously.
Covenant: This Covenant Bond we have with God, the Lord Jesus, is absolute and forever. It is utterly profound, going to all depths and including all extent. By this Covenant we can call God as our Life and as all our connections together, for He is, as in, “I AM.”
Speak Christ: Every word of Christ made personal as us is certain and sure by this absolute and profound Blood Covenant. Those who speak Christ through faith honor this Covenant, the Lord Jesus. Those who invest all that they are into God for the sake of others, by this Covenant, honor God.
Symmorphosed and Filled! Ruling Verse 1: The first part of the Covenant, that is, what God WANTS, is that we are made just like the Lord Jesus by His pattern, through “having been” symmorphosed with Jesus already now, His Word written all through our hearts. Romans 8:29, then is always the first verse in the Bible to be placed in the center of this Covenant, along with its close companions, 2 Corinthians 3:18, “being made,” and 1 John 3:2, “will be made.”
Ruling Verse 2: Christ living in our hearts is our Covenant with God. Through faith is our part. It is this Covenant Bond connecting us always with God that is rooted and grounded inside of Love. The second part of the Covenant, what God wants, is that we might be a people inside of God and God might be God inside our gathering together. Thus Ephesians 3:19, filled with all the fulness of God, must always be the second Bible verse at the heart of the Covenant.
From Rivers to Intimacy. Ruling Verse 3: Covenant and Kingdom cannot ever be separated, for Covenant is always sending forth Kingdom. For that reason, the third Bible verse that must be placed inside the Covenant is John 7:38, Rivers of Spirit out from our hearts, the Covenant, bringing life and healing to all.
Ruling Verse 4: For God to possess what He really wants, the second part of the Covenant, a people in whom He can dwell, He must have a champion who will give all, with Jesus, for the sake of the Church, that she might be set free into the Glorious Liberty of God through her. Revelation 12:11, then, must be the fourth Bible verse added to the Covenant.
Ruling Verse 5: Intimate union with the Lord Jesus is just another way to say, “Our Covenant Bond with God.” That Bond is personal, for Galatians 2:20 is the first HOW of the Covenant, a Jesus who comes into union with us first.
From Boldness to Love. Ruling Verse 6: We can possess no consciousness of sins only because the God into whom Jesus has carried us has no consciousness of any sins regarding us. The Covenant is a BLOOD Covenant, with the Propitiation at its heart, Jesus making our desires and God’s desires to be one, the second required HOW of the Covenant.
Ruling Verse 7: Christ, the Covenant Bond connecting us always with God, lives in our hearts through FAITH. Our confidence that the Covenant is True and certain is the only way that Kingdom, every next step we take, comes out from Covenant, the third required HOW of the Covenant.
Ruling Verse 8: God cannot have a people in whom to dwell unless Jesus causes us to love one another, His completion. God plants Jesus in us, so that we also can be that Bond of Love for Father’s sake. Our loving of one another is God’s return.
The Rock and the Fire. Ruling Verse 9: Two more critical Bible verses must be added into our knowing of the Covenant for God to have the fulfillment of all His Desire. These two are required for God’s purpose in entering into Covenant with us, that ALL might know Him. Thus the ninth critical verse that must be placed into the Covenant is Romans 8:19, for it is through the unveiling of the sons of God that the knowledge of God comes to all.
Ruling Verse 10: The tenth critical verse, the verse that completes the Covenant, must then be John 17:3, “This is age-unfolding Life, to KNOW You, the One True God and Jesus Christ whom You have Sent.” And the reason we don’t need anyone to teach us to know the Lord is that we know Jesus Sent into us, that we are inside of Him inside of the Father, and Jesus is inside of us. And the Proof of the Covenant is to put the Lord Jesus Christ upon all that we are, faithful and True.
The Kingdom as Father Made Known. Kingdom: The Kingdom, then, is all creation knowing the Father as they see His people loving one another with pure hearts fervently. It is through such a people, just like Jesus, that God can be Himself in the ordering of all things by blessing and goodness. And God being Himself is the One who walks beneath to lift others up into Joy.
The Form for God through Jesus: The whole purpose of the Covenant, and of every part of it, is that God might have a people in whom to dwell, His visible and knowable Form inside of creation, to all that is heavenly and to all that is earthly forever. That Form is Christian Community, brethren out from Jesus sharing life together, committed to the Father and to one another, loving one another with pure hearts fervently, the revelation of Jesus Christ, Life forevermore.
Faithful and True. In my early thirties, as I began an ever more earnest search of my Bible that I might know God, three concepts came together for me. One was the word “image,” out from Genesis 1:27, which then connects directly to the second concept, Romans 8:29, that we become just like the Lord Jesus Christ. The third was what a God of Love wants, a people in whom to dwell, that all might know Him, the Covenant.
This might be the first time I have written this layout placing the Ruling Verses of the Bible as the required assumptions of the Covenant, and it might be the first time I have actually detailed Hebrews 8:10-12. But I know this just as much, that the progression of my thinking and of all that I write, from then until now, has followed this exact pattern out from the Covenant. And I know with tears, that as I planted Hebrews deep into my heart so long ago, God is faithful and True.
The Tabernacle. (Chapter 9) • 8 The Spirit of the Devoted thus indicating that the way into the Most Devoted Place had not been made visible while the first tabernacle was standing. 9 This is a symbol and parable for the present time…
Moses’ Tabernacle is the pattern of the REAL, thus the actual old pattern must cease so that our understanding can be transferred to the True Way into the knowledge of God. Yet in this transfer, all the meanings are kept as the structure and flow of the Gospel, the path of the Ark of the Covenant.
8-9 Definition: The Tabernacle pattern given to Moses was just a visible expression of the realities of the Gospel, of the Covenant, and of our Way inside of Jesus into God. For that reason, no one who does not KNOW the first Tabernacle applied to the Gospel can know the Gospel.
The Turn Around. • 11 Christ, however, having arrived now with us as High Priest of the good things [of Christ] that have come, through the greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made by hands [not of this creation]. 12 And not with the blood of goats and calves, • but through His own blood, He entered once for all into the Most Devoted having obtained age-unfolding redemption and release. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling that which is unclean, makes devoted for the purification of the flesh, • 14 how much more, rather, does the blood of Christ, who through the age-unfolding Spirit offered Himself unblemished and faultless to God, purify our consciousness from dead works into serving the living God.
There you have it – verse 14. TURN AROUND, it is finished, you are offered as sons, God through you into your world.
The Way and the Atonement. Verses 11-13 gives us two massive and critical definitions. First, Jesus as the WAY means the way through the Tabernacle into the full knowledge of God, and second that the Day of Atonement also shows us the meaning of that WAY.
11 Definition: Jesus as the WAY means the Way through the Tabernacle into the full knowledge of God, the True Tabernacle known by the pattern of the old. Every element that is the Gospel is structured for us by that pattern.
12 Definition: The Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16, is the clear pattern being used by Hebrews to impart to us a knowledge of what the Blood of Jesus means inside of God. The Day of Atonement is fulfilled in our lives only as we, like Aaron before, but even more, like Jesus, TURN AROUND inside of God, KNOWING no consciousness of sins forever.
The Blood. The Blood is the Flow of Life in the body. The Blood does two things continuously. First, the Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to every cell in the body, and second, the Blood carries away the waste from each cell to be removed from the body. The internal organs, then, operate in service to either one of these actions of the Blood.
14 Ruling Verse 6: The Blood of the Lamb is the Flow of Life inside the Body of Christ, that is, our gathering together, as well as each of us in particular. The Blood brings sustenance to each member and to each local assembly and carries away all hurt and every imagination of disconnection continuously and automatically. That function of Blood is called “propitiation,” that is, resolution always all. The Blood is pumped continuously by the Heart, that is, by the Covenant.
The Inheritance. • 15 And for this reason, He is the Mediator of a new covenant, by means of a death having already taken place, into redeeming the stepping aside that took place under the first covenant, that those who have been called might receive the promise of the inheritance unfolding through the ages. • 16 For where there is a will of inheritance, the death of the one who made the will is necessary for it to come into effect. 17 For a will is not in force while the one who made it is still alive, indeed it is affirmed only after the will-writer dies.
The Covenant is also a will of inheritance, that is, the transfer through impartation (see 59. “Overcoming as Jesus”) of the ministry of Christ now through us. Jesus, through the “death” of the Seed planted has now become His Church; thus we inherit His ministry to her.
The Mediator. The modern English word “mediator” comes from the Latin word that means “in the middle.” It means the One who continuously connects in-between God and us, as members in particular, as local assemblies, and as the entire Body of Christ, the One who is the Resolution of all imbalance between two very different persons. And because the two being joined are personal, so the One joining must be a Person.
15 Definition: A Mediator is the One in the middle, the One Person who joins two other P/persons together, God and us, in continuous, unbroken union, resolving all differences.
16-17 Kingdom: The Covenant is also a will of inheritance. The inheritance is part of Kingdom. The Covenant guarantees Kingdom, that is, the Covenant as Jesus in our hearts (planted into death) makes us joint-heirs with Jesus by His Resurrection (see Romans 8:17).
The Meaning of “Therefore.” • 25 Not that he should offer Himself repeatedly, even as the High Priest enters into the Most Devoted every year with the blood of another; 26 otherwise it would have been necessary for Him to have suffered repeatedly from the conception of the cosmos. • Now, however, in the completion together of the ages, He has appeared once for the putting away or cancellation of sin, of all disconnection from God, through the sacrifice of Himself.
Now, our lesson length splits Hebrews at the “wrong” place. For that reason, let’s place fully into our understanding this in-between portion, in-between the Blood Covenant in Chapter 8 and the clearest and most powerful rendition of THE WAY in the Bible in Hebrews 10. This in-between goes from 9:1 to 10:18, showing up in 10:19 as the first word, “Therefore.”
The Blood of the Atonement. And this in-between is to establish absolutely the BLOOD in the Day of Atonement as our WAY already into all that is God. In other words, this is the fiery expansion of the ARROW head as it zeroes in on the Target. Also, the emphasis is now moving from Jesus as our High Priest, the Mediator of the Covenant God has entered into with us – to the Blood of the Atonement by which the Propitiation is made complete for all forever.
25 Definition: Verse 25 is referencing directly the actions of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. This action of carrying the blood of calves and goats into the Most Devoted to be sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat removed all sins from Israel for one year, and thus was done again every year.
26 Ruling Verse 6: Placing the blood of sacrifice on the Mercy Seat pointed to Jesus resolving all as the True Propitiation joining God and us.
The Sacrifice of Himself. Verse 26 contains a phrase that is the deepest meaning of the in-between that joins God with us; that phrase is “the sacrifice of Himself.” Another way to say “the sacrifice of Himself” is, “By this we know Love.” When God looks at us, He sees us through, “By this Jesus, giving Himself to you, I define LOVE.” And when we look at God, we see Him only through, “My Lord Jesus, by You in-between, I know Love.” This is the meaning of “the Lamb slain and now alive,” the Blood of the Lamb.
26 Ruling Verses 5 & 8: “The sacrifice of Himself” is what John meant in 1 John 3:16, “By this we KNOW Love.” This giving of Love is the meaning of the Blood and of the Lamb slain and now alive. This active giving of Love that is Jesus is then shared by God and us together, “this One who loves us, this One who gives Himself for us,” the In-between.
The Apocalypse. • 27 And just as it is appointed to men to die once with judgment; 28 so also Christ, having been offered once to bear, to up-carry, the sins of many, out of a second time He will be perceived without sin into salvation by those eagerly expecting Him.
We need definitions for “to die once with judgment” and for “will be perceived.” Again, this is a verse that has been entirely cut away from the context, for the context is the Day of Atonement. The death of Jesus is our appointment with death, and to perceive Him is the Apocalypse. “Judgment” has been defined already in verse 26, “the putting away of sin.”
27-28 Definition: There is only one death “with judgment,” the death of Jesus upon the cross, the only means by which God judges all (verse 26 “putting away sin”). And to perceive Jesus NOW – without sin into salvation, is the Apocalypse, for we are just like Him.
Covenant to Kingdom. “Without sin into salvation” MEANS turn around, as on the Day of Atonement. You ARE utterly connected with God, who comes now through you into all creation, God now known as Love by all. In this context of the Flow of Gospel Word, then, the phrase “those eagerly expecting Him” means, not “the rapture,” but as God manifest in our flesh, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
27-28 Covenant to Kingdom: The missing ingredient in any “someday salvation” is SEE JESUS here and now, actively joining us with God. Those who “eagerly expect Jesus” are not those waiting for someday, but rather those who KNOW that, being just like Jesus and being turned around, God Himself is now coming through them into their world.
Now we are ready for the largest expansion of that piercing arrow shot HITTING the target.
Let’s Pray Together. “Lord Jesus, You Love us with all that You are; You give Yourself to us and to the Father that we might share our lives with God even as He shares His Life with us.
“Lord Jesus, we SEE You as the One who loves us, even as You continuously give Yourself for us, for our sakes. We SEE You as the One who shares intimate Fellowship of soul with us, the One who always makes our desires and the Father’s desires to be the same. And as we SEE You, Lord Jesus, we know that we are just like You. We know that we share the same relationship with God that You enjoy. We know that we love one another even as You love us. And we know that God is now inside of us reconciling the world to Himself, that it is Your ministry of Love now going through us to Your Church.
“We give ourselves to You, Lord Jesus, freely and joyfully, now in the Day of Your Power. We give to You every moment of our lives, every difficulty and every delight, every failure and every success, that You are Lord, that You share all with us for the sake of the Church.
“Lord Jesus, Your Word is in our mouth, Your authority is in our hand, and Your passion for Your Church fills our hearts. Be the Apocalypse through us right now, Lord Jesus, that Your people also might SEE You, that they might know the wondrous Love that You are, already joining them fully with God. Let Your Church be clothed with the Fire of Your Glory, Lord Jesus, millions running into You right now through the Doors of Tabernacles flung wide open, our very hearts given to and filled with You. Even so Come, Lord Jesus.”