The justification, the forgiveness, and the salvation God renders to us have all been "covenanted." In Matthew 26 the Lord Jesus enacted a new covenant, saying, "For this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (v. 28). The new covenant is the Lord's blood, and His blood signifies His death. He died for our sins and transgressions. The symbol of His death is the blood. The blood was the very means by which He made for us the new testament with His Father. Thus, redemption, justification, forgiveness, and salvation have all been covenanted by Him through His blood. Today our salvation is a covenanted salvation.

We can use the buying of a house to illustrate this. We may say we have bought a house, but we need the title deed as a proof of our purchase. The deed is an agreement, a covenant. The house has been covenanted to us, and the guarantee of this covenant is the title deed. Our purchase has been covenanted. It has been legalized. In a sense, we may say that the title deed, the covenant, equals the house. The title deed to the house is the covenant, and the covenant is the house.

Isaiah says twice, in 42:6 and 49:8, that God has given Christ to us as our covenant. This means that God's salvation, God's blessings, and all of God's riches have been covenanted to us, and this covenant is just Christ. Just as my title deed equals my house, Christ equals all of God's salvation, blessings, grace, reality, and riches. All of this has been covenanted to us. Our covenant is Christ. God's salvation, God's righteousness, God's justification, God's forgiveness, God's redemption, God's riches, and all He has and will do have been covenanted to us.

In Greek the word for covenant is also the word for testament. Every proper covenant eventually becomes a testament. Before the person who enacted the covenant dies, it is the covenant. After he dies, that covenant becomes a testament. A testament in today's terms is a will. What if your father had a will which said that you were entitled to ten million dollars, twenty houses, and fifteen commercial ships. Would you not be happy? Our Father in heaven has given us a lot of things. We have a will full of hundreds of bequests. My heavenly Father has given me all these bequests, and they have been covenanted to me as a testament. That is the new testament. We have the New Testament of the Bible in our hands, but this is not the reality. The reality of all the hundreds of bequests in the New Testament is Christ. Without Christ, the Bible is empty, so the real testament, the real will, is Christ. Christ is our title deed, and this title deed is in our spirit as the all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, consummated Spirit.

Christ as the Spirit is one with us, so we are one with Him as the testament. We know that we have been forgiven, justified, redeemed, and saved because the Bible tells us so. The Bible is God's covenant, and after Christ's death this covenant has become a testament, a will. But without Christ the Bible is empty. Actually, Christ is the covenant, and this Christ who is the covenant is in our spirit and has become one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17).

This covenant is altogether according to God's righteousness. It is not a matter of love. A will is a legal matter that does not depend upon love or grace. It depends on the law, and the law is a matter of righteousness. Christ has been given to us as such a legal covenant. He is our forgiveness, our justification, our redemption, and our salvation. This is not my word. This is Paul's logic. Paul said that the gospel is the power of God to save because the righteousness of God is in the gospel. First Corinthians 1:30 tells us that God has made Christ our righteousness. This righteousness is wrapped up with God's covenant. God's salvation today is a covenanted salvation. Today the very salvation and redemption we have received is covenanted by Jesus Christ. He Himself actually is the covenant.