Message Two

The New Covenant
(1)

Its Definition and Enactment

Scripture Reading: Heb. 8:7-13; 9:1, 15-23; 10:19;
Matt. 26:27-28; Luke 22:20

1. The new covenant consummated with the blood of Christ is not merely a covenant but also a testament with all the things which have been accomplished by the death of Christ bequeathed to us—Heb. 9:15-17:
   1. A covenant and a testament are the same, but when the maker of the covenant is living, it is a covenant, and when he has died, it is a testament.
   2. A covenant is an agreement containing some promises to accomplish certain things for the covenanted people; a testament is a will containing certain accomplished things bequeathed to the inheritor.
   3. If we would understand the new covenant, we need to know the difference between a promise, an oath, a covenant, and a testament:
      1. God’s covenant is enacted upon God’s promise, which is a common, ordinary word without confirmation—8:6.
      2. After God made His promise, He sealed it with an oath, swearing by His Godhead that His promise would be fulfilled—6:13, 17.
      3. After God’s promise had been confirmed by an oath, it immediately became the covenant sealed by God—8:7-8.
      4. The One who made the covenant died so that the covenant might become a testament, a will—9:16-17.
   4. The contents of the new covenant are the contents of the entire New Testament:
      1. The bequests bequeathed to us by the Lord in the new testament are inexhaustible, and they are for us to experience and enjoy through the Spirit for eternity—9:15.
      2. In the new covenant God gives us forgiveness, salvation, life, and all spiritual, heavenly, and divine blessings—Eph. 1:3.
2. The new covenant, which the Lord Jesus enacted, is better than the old covenant, the first covenant, made through Moses—Heb. 7:22:
   1. The new covenant is new in nature, quality, and form—8:8-13; Luke 22:20:
      1. The old covenant was faulty, weak, and unprofitable; hence, it was annulled—Heb. 7:18; 8:7.
      2. The new covenant is eternal and is eternally effective—13:20.
   2. The new covenant is a better covenant—7:22; 8:6:
      1. The new covenant was enacted upon better promises and consummated with Christ’s better sacrifices and the better blood of Christ—Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:10-12; 9:23, 12, 14.
      2. The High Priest of this better covenant ministers with a more excellent ministry in the greater and more perfect tabernacle—8:6; 9:11.
      3. Whereas the old covenant was lifeless, made with the outward law of letters, the new covenant is constituted with the indestructible life—7:16.
   3. The old covenant was a covenant of law; the new covenant is a covenant of grace—7:19; 10:29; 12:15, 28; 13:9; Gal. 4:22-26.
   4. In the old covenant all things were shadows; in the new covenant everything is reality— Heb. 10:1.
3. According to the divine principle, God’s covenant required the offerings and the blood; hence, the new covenant was enacted with the better sacrifices and with the blood that speaks something better—9:23; 12:24:
   1. Christ is the offerings and He is also the One who shed the better blood to enact the new covenant and to make this covenant a will full of divine bequests.
   2. In the new covenant Christ, the unique sacrifice, is the reality of all the offerings:
      1. As Christ is the eternal Son of the living God incarnated to be the Son of Man who offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit, so His sacrifices are better than those of animals—9:23; 10:11.
      2. Christ offered Himself as one sacrifice, and as the unique sacrifice He has dealt with sins once for all—9:14; 10:12; 1:3; 2:17; 7:27; 9:26.
   3. The enactment of the new covenant required the shedding of the blood of the God-man, the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, for the forgiveness of sins—Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20; 1 John 1:7; Heb. 9:12:
      1. Without forgiveness of sin there is no way to fulfill the requirement of God’s righteousness that by it the covenant may be enacted.
      2. Christ’s blood has been shed for the forgiveness of sins, and the new covenant has been enacted with His blood—Matt. 26:28.
      3. This precious blood speaks for us that by it the new covenant may be enacted; hence, it is called “the blood of an eternal covenant”—Heb. 12:24; 13:20.
   4. “This cup is the new covenant established in My blood”—Luke 22:20:
      1. The Lord shed His blood, God established the covenant, and we enjoy the cup, in which God and all that is of Him are our portion.
      2. The blood is the price that Christ paid for us, the covenant is the title deed that God made for us, and the cup is the portion that we receive from God.