The Blood Of The Covenant

“Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of an everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” CH 13:20-21.

It was through the blood of an everlasting covenant that God brought up our great Shepherd from the dead. Without that testimony God could not have raised Him from the dead. In other words, He was not raised up because He was the Son of God. No, God sent His only begotten Son to accomplish a work; this was to establish a new covenant and to consecrate a new and living way into the Holiest for us so that we could be His brethren and partake of divine nature.

This covenant was: “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.’ Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin you did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” CH 10:7-12.

All these sacrifices and offerings and offerings for sin had to be offered as an “emergency measure” until the time came for reformation. God did not desire these measures, but they were necessary because people did not do the will of God. This situation did not satisfy God, and that is why Jesus came to put everything right.

Instead of all these sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings, He came with a body like ours and offered that body by offering Himself. An altar was set up in that body, and God determined those sacrifices that were to be placed on the altar. He condemned sin in the flesh, which had hindered people from doing God’s will. Thus, that which had been impossible for the law became possible, “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Rom. 8:4.

“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness....’” “But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you.” Luke 11:39 and 41. “Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.” Matt. 23:26.

To merely cleanse the cup on the outside is to serve the tabernacle. There can never be any development or growth with that ministry; but when it is cleansed from within, a new life comes forth. The new life is to use our body to do God’s will, “...that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable [spiritual] service.” Rom. 12:1.

Jesus established this service, which was the new covenant with His Father. There had to be a cleansing of the inside and a dying to sin in the flesh to establish this covenant. Jesus offered Himself through the blood of an eternal covenant. The blood that was shed through that offering was the blood of the covenant. That blood testified that Jesus had never done His own will but kept His covenant with the Father. His food was to do the will of God, which is why it is written of Him: “This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness... the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.” 1 John 5:6-10.

The water cleanses the body outwardly, and the blood cleanses it inwardly. Jesus came not only with water, which brought an outward cleansing; He also came with the blood, which cleansed inwardly. What Jesus came with, He came with for our sakes. This blood was His own blood, which was evidence that He did not live Himself but that the Father lived in Him. It is by this blood of Jesus that we have boldness to enter into the Holiest. We come to this when we have been crucified with Christ and do not live ourselves, but Christ lives in us. If you are not faithful in this new covenant and do your own will, you can receive the forgiveness of sins—an outward cleansing, which is the testimony of the water. You are justified “with His blood.”

“He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself,” 1 John 5:10. He who believes in the Son of God, follows Him and enters into the new covenant and into the life which Jesus lived. He also has God’s witness of the Son in himself. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Rom. 8:16. This witness is, of course, far greater than the witness of people. It is because a person doesn’t have this witness of the Spirit that the witness of people is of such importance to him. Then his moods fluctuate between sullenness and joy, depending on what people say or think. Only when he comes to the blood of the covenant can he find rest.

“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” CH 4:11-13.

People strive and strain to please others. That was what the angel of the church in Sardis did. He received the testimony that he was alive, even though he was dead. He had lived for people and received a good testimony from them, but it is to God that we must give account. God declared the angel to be dead, and it is to Him that we are to give account. When a person seeks honor of men, he is living for himself and is dead to God. Jesus taught us this explicitly. “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Matt. 6:1. “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” Col. 3:23-24.

“You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” Rev. 3:4-5.

One cannot live in the new covenant and at the same time please people. We must have an altar in our bodies where sin in the flesh is put to death, so that we can receive food (which is to do God’s will) and complete the work He has given us to do. The angel in Sardis had stopped being faithful here, and therefore he had lost the witness of the Spirit with his own spirit that he was the child of God.

“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Rev. 19:7-8.

This is the bride, who follows the Lamb wherever He goes. (See Rev. 17:14.) She was faithful in the new covenant and did not live for herself. She had not defiled her garments (her deeds) with eyeservice. Like Jesus, she had to do with God alone. She will also be raptured in the power of the blood of the covenant when Jesus returns to take those who belong to Him. 1 Cor. 15:23. He will come as a thief, but He is not a thief. He will not take anyone except those who belong to Him.

“(Now may the God of peace) make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” CH 13:21.

When God works in us, He does so through the head of the body, who is Christ. Therefore it is the head who joins us together and “by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” Eph. 4:16.

Without being connected to the head, we cannot partake of this salvation. In order to have communion with the head, we need to enter into the new covenant. Jesus makes the conditions for being His disciple very clear and plain. It is, among other things, necessary to forsake everything and hate your own life. (See Luke 14:25-27 and 33.)

When we have done this, we can say that we have lain on the altar just as Jesus did when He came into the world. This is the narrow gate, which few people find. This is what it means to be baptized into Jesus’ death in order that we might live a new life. God answers us with fire, and we are baptized with the Holy Spirit and receive the power necessary to follow Jesus. John baptized unto the forgiveness of sins, but we are baptized unto the death of Christ, and it is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. (See Acts 19:2-7. and Rom. 6:1-5.) Shall we then continue in sin? Certainly not!

“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” CH 10:10. It was because Jesus submitted to His Father’s will that He, through the eternal Spirit, could offer Himself without spot to God. When we yield our bodies to do the same will, we belong to His body. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all.

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” 2 Cor. 5:14-15. The death which took place in Jesus’ body is imputed to us when we live for Him and cease to live for ourselves. Then we hate our own life, and the Spirit gives us light and leads us to the same sacrificing that took place in Jesus’ body. We are then in the blood of Jesus—the blood of the covenant.

“And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take a way sins.” CH 10:11. All these sacrifices were taken from outside their bodies, and since they were not able to take away sin, there was no change in their lives. In the same way, we see how religious assemblies speak about sacrifices. There are many things to offer up. First of all, they have to “tithe” at the very least, and then give voluntary donations to mission work. One gets the impression that if only they had enough money, they would save everyone in the world. However, no change takes place in their own lives, beyond living honestly before people (and even that does not always succeed!).

This shows that their sacrifices—“the same sacrifices”—which they are so eagerly encouraged to make, cannot take away sins. They do not believe in the method of evangelizing that Jesus spoke about in His prayer: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” John 17:20-23. What a prayer! With this unity as our foundation, we can evangelize.

Do you think Jesus was praying aimlessly? Do you believe that this salvation is impossible? “No,” you answer. Then we must ask, “Why, then, do you not preach it!? Why do you not hear about this salvation in the various denominations? Or why do you not see Jesus’ prayer being fulfilled?” That is because they do not know the new and living way that Jesus has consecrated for us through His flesh. Neither do they know that since one died, “all died.” 2 Cor. 5:14. They have not entered by the narrow gate and do not hate their own life. They have entered by the wide gate and say, “He has done everything, we are to do nothing.” They know nothing of the altar in the body of Christ, where one’s food is to do the will of God and to complete the work that He gave us to do. Therefore there is always strife and division among them.

Nevertheless, they build mission centers and send out many missionaries. And yet, where these missionaries come from, strife, envy and division exist, and the same things will arise in those places where they are going. Despite all their sacrifices, sin does not come to an end. “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” CH 10:12. It is the blood of Him who “through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God” that purifies our consciences from dead works to serve the living God. All those who are crucified with Christ are “in” the blood of Jesus and have boldness to enter the Holiest by that blood. There is no envy, strife or division there. There they are one, just as the Father and the Son are one.