Exodus 24:6 says, “And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.” The blood here was for redemption. Although we are sinful, fallen, and corrupted, we have the blood for our redemption and for the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9:22 declares, “And almost all things are purified by blood according to the law, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
The blood in Exodus 24 should have reminded the people of the blood of the Passover lamb. Less than a year before the covenant was enacted at Mount Sinai, the children of Israel put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses.
Moses sprinkled the blood on “both the book itself and all the people” (Heb. 9:19) and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded to you,” as an indication that the children of Israel were sinful and needed the covering of the blood. This blood came from the sacrifices, and the sacrifices typify Christ. Therefore, 1 Peter 1:18 and 19 say that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
The Old Testament not only reveals the covenant enacted in 24:1-8, but also prophesies of a new covenant. Jeremiah 31:33 says, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” In Ezekiel 36:26 and 27 the Lord made this promise: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them” (lit.). These prophecies indicate that God would make another covenant with His people, a covenant which would make up for any shortage in the first covenant. In Jeremiah 31:33 God promised to write His law in the hearts of the people, and in Ezekiel 36 He pledged to change their nature by giving them a new heart and to regenerate them by putting a new spirit and also His Spirit within them. For the law to be inscribed on our inner being means that we are regenerated, that we receive a new nature, and that God’s Spirit is placed within us. The result, as indicated by the enactment of the covenant, is that we are replaced by Christ and spontaneously live in a way which corresponds to the righteous requirement of God’s law. Then instead of being those who try to keep the law, we shall be a living reflection of the law.
We have seen that for God’s people to become His living testimony and reflection, they had to be redeemed, terminated, and replaced. According to Ezekiel 36, this results from a profound inward change, from receiving a new heart, a new spirit, and the divine Spirit.
All these matters have their counterpart in the New Testament. The New Testament reveals the cross of Christ through which we are redeemed, terminated, and replaced. The New Testament also reveals that, as those who believe in Christ, we have a new nature, that we have been regenerated to receive a new spirit, and that the divine Spirit, God Himself, dwells in our spirit. Now if we walk according to the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled with our spirit, we shall have a living which is the reflection of God. All this is made possible because we have the precious blood of Christ to cleanse us of our sins. Thus, our sins are cleansed, and we become God’s reflection.