The New Covenant

At Calvary Chapel Sydney I preached today on Genesis 15, the passage where God made a covenant with Abram who believed in Him.  He believed God would make of him a great nation with descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars in heaven despite not having an heir in his old age.  He believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness.

Abram brought the requested animals before the LORD and divided the heifer, goat and ram.  The idea was those involved in the covenant would pass between the animals which had been cut in two united before God as witness to do all they had said.  If they broke the agreement, it was with full knowledge their lives would be forfeit, even as the animals which were divided.  In a trance Abram saw a smoking oven and a burning torch pass between the pieces, an emphatic demonstration by God He would keep His word to Abram and his descendants would inherit the land.  By the power and authority of God it would be done without Abram having to do anything to obtain God's favour.

Fast-forward to the new covenant Jesus Christ established with His shed blood on Calvary:  before Jesus breathed His last and died on the cross, the scriptures say the veil in the temple was rent in two top to bottom (Matt. 27:31; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:42).  This was the veil which divided the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant would have been stored, the place where the presence of God dwelt that could only be approached by a sanctified priest on the Day of Atonement with blood of the sacrifice.  The writer of Hebrews shines light on the significance of this occasion in Hebrews 10:19-22:  "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, ²¹ and having a High Priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

God cut a covenant with the only begotten Son of God Jesus Christ who is our great High Priest and KING OF KINGS.  He is the Door through whom we enter by faith to receive forgiveness and eternal salvation, our sins having been washed by His blood.  Like the smoking oven and burning torch that passed through the pieces, Jesus made salvation possible by grace through faith in Him alone.  We cannot do anything to earn the right to become children of God, but He has extended this invitation as a gift to all who will believe and receive Him as LORD.  Jesus has made a new and living way that depended upon Him alone to obtain victory over sin, death and Satan.  What Jesus did in dying on the cross for sinners and rising from the dead in glory gives us full assurance that what He promised He is able to perform.

In His wisdom God has rendered the covenant of the Law of Moses obsolete in establishing a new covenant by Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 10:10-13 says, "By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool."  The Law of Moses demanded blood be shed to atone for sin, and Jesus did so once for all so we can live with a purified heart, conscience and body.  There is not a thing we must do to earn eternal life, but we can enter into the new covenant by faith in Jesus Christ and experience the abundant life He has for us.