The Blood of the New Covenant

God is a good God in every sense of the word. He created us and even after humanity rejected God, God pursued a people and, through the work of the Lord Jesus, saves those people. And He does not just save them from eternal punishment in hell, He adopts them into His family. He works all things out for their good in Christ. He will, one day, give them resurrected bodies capable of beholding His glory in the face of Jesus Christ for all eternity, freed from the troubles of this life and never knowing pain and suffering again and only knowing unending joy and pleasure in His presence.

Truly God is good. And His goodness is as vast as He is, which is to say infinite. One of the many ways God displays His goodness to us, specifically with His communication (or, revelation) to us is that He uses concrete and tangible things to speak to us.

I recently used the lifting up of the brazen serpent to demonstrate how God uses concrete and tangible things to speak to us. Jesus states it plainly when He tells Nicodemus in John 3:14–15 “14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

That real brazen serpent in Numbers 21:9 “9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” served a communicative purpose. God spoke through the Serpent, we could say.

God uses people, places, and things to speak to us, we can call some of these things types, or shadows. They also serve to aid our understanding by speaking in a way that is analogous, where there are similarities to something we know, and yet it is very different.

We normally call these illustrations or object lessons, similar to the one I presented to our kids this morning. One of the object lessons, if you will, that God uses to communicate His truth is the Passover Meal now called the Lord’s Supper.

We will unpack found points connected to the New Covenant meal, its setting, its Savior, its result, and finally, its requirement.

I. THE SETTING OF THE NEW COVENANT MEAL

We have talked about this before, the the Lord’s Supper is a development, or enhancement, or fulfilling of the Passover Meal Israel shared during their exodus out of Egyptian slavery. God would pass over the Israelites, not taking the life of the first born. All of these develop from the Old Covenant meals of Israel and, as we see, the New Covenant and the meal is way better.

A. The New Covenant Meal develops within and from the Old Covenants of Israel

Abraham was chosen by God to be the lineage through whom Jesus the Messiah would come. God made a covenant with Abraham that we call the Abrahamic Covenant. From the Abrahamic Covenant God worked with the national or earthly people of God, namely Israel (12 tribes), specifically through the Mosaic Covenant, that covenant that operates within the land of Israel for the people of Israel with the many feasts, laws, and stipulations that accompany it.

All these covenants, though, as wonderful as they were, pale in comparison to the New Covenant.

B. The New Covenant is, in every way, better than the Old Covenants of Israel

We will not dive into this with much detail simply for the sake of time, but here are a few ways the New Covenant is better. You can also read the book of Hebrews where Paul discusses this point at length.

The Old Covenant only covered Israel for cleanness to dwell in the land, the New Covenant forgives all sins

The Old Covenant was limited to Israel (earthly people of God), the New Covenant is for all the Church (spiritual, heavenly people of God)

The Old Covenant had limited access to God, the New Covenant enjoys full and free access to God

The New Covenant develops from the Old Covenants of Israel, and is, in every way, better than the Old Covenants is because of Jesus Christ. He is the Savior of the New Covenant meal.

II. THE SAVIOR OF THE NEW COVENANT MEAL

There are two distinctions that I want to draw out on this. First, is that the Old Covenants prepared for and pointed to Jesus Chris and secondly, the New Covenant comes through the sufferings and death of Jesus.

A. The Old Covenants prepared for and pointed to Jesus Christ

The many covenants, people (like Moses or David), and things (like the Temple, the Manna from Heaven, and brazen serpent) prepared Israel for the coming of the Messiah. Each sacrifice they offered, for example, reminded them of their sins. It prepared them for Christ.

But they also pointed to Christ as well. Moses’s constant intercession for the people of Israel pointed to the interceding Christ of the New Covenant.

When Christ sat down with his disciples, they were operating within the Old Covenants world, but it had prepared them for and pointed to Jesus Christ, specifically His sufferings and death.

B. The New Covenant comes through the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ

“Take, eat; this is My body.” “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remissions of sins.”

The Old Covenants were the womb of sorts from which the New Covenant would come, this better in every way possible covenant. The people of Israel had been prepared for and pointed to Christ, who would suffer and die to bring about the New Covenant. But what was the result?

III. THE RESULT OF THE NEW COVENANT MEAL

The other covenants had specific results: inclusion in the earthly people of God (namely, Israel), dwelling in the land due to cleanliness, etc.). So what was the result of the New Covenant meal?

A. The New Covenant provides complete forgiveness of our sins

Jesus says “This is My blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remissions of sins.”

In the Old Covenant sacrifices Paul tells us “in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year” (Heb. 10:3) but “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.” Why? Because, Paul quotes Jeremiah 31:34, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

But that is only half the good news. Because if our sins were washed away but we were not righteous, we could not fellowship with God. We needed to be made righteous, and the New Covenant imputes (deposits) Christ’s righteousness to our accounts.

B. The New Covenant imputes Christ’s righteous to our accounts

This meal is a beautiful picture of the work of Christ. Just as the nutrients from food nourish our bodies, so too the meal of the New Covenant nourishes our souls.

It is our union with Christ, here visibly (like an object lesson but so much more) we see this union. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

IV. THE REQUIREMENT OF THE NEW COVENANT MEAL

Not every single person can enjoy the New Covenant Meal. It is only for believers in Christ, and specifically believers walking with Christ, which then inspires and encourages obedience to Christ. *Prepositional phrases*

A. The New Covenant Meal is established by faith in Christ

Paul builds on the instructions from the Lord Jesus to demonstrate that the Lord’s Supper, the New Covenant Meal, is for believers. They must, by faith, enjoy full and free forgiveness for their sins to partake of this meal. This is displayed in 1 Cor. 10:14 where Paul is offering instructions to “My beloved,” and builds upon his introductory comments about the church in Corinth (see 1 Cor. 1:2).

B. The New Covenant Meal expects purity through Christ

The New Covenant Meal expects purity, we are commanded to partake of it in a worthy manner.

C. The New Covenant Meal encourages obedience to Christ

“If the Lord’s Supper is a sign of our being in fellowship with Christ, testifying that we are His disciples, then it imparts encouragement to us because it reminds us of our Savior’s dying and continuing love for us. That remembrance should also stimulate us to love and good works.” Dave Chanski