Covenant

 
           
        As born-again believers, we have a covenant with God. The word “testament”, as in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, means “covenant”. The Old and New Testaments are binding documents God has given to His covenant people. They reveal His will and what He has provided for us.

        2 Peter 1:3-4 (WEB) says, “…seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

      All the great and precious promises of God in His Word He has provided for us through the covenant blood of Jesus, shed on the cross. What is a blood covenant?

       In Genesis 15, God made a blood agreement with Abram. God had promised Abram he would inherit the Promised Land and he asked God how he could know he would inherit it. God told him to prepare for a blood covenant.

      “Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not” (Genesis 15:9-10).

    A blood covenant in Abram’s day was very important. It signified an unbreakable and absolute guarantee of a man’s word. God cutting a blood covenant with Abram convinced him of God’s desire to bless him.

    What is involved in cutting a blood covenant? In Abram’s day, when two families made a blood covenant together, the following happened.

1. They gave one another all they had and all they represented. They were no longer two, but one.
2. A blood covenant filled the gaps created by each other’s weaknesses and strengths.
3. The two parties to the agreement drew up its terms until each article was mutually and fully agreeable.
4. At least three large animals were sacrificed. The carcasses were split down the spine and the halves placed opposite each other on the ground. This resulted in a path of blood between the two halves, called “the way of blood.”
5. At the start of the covenant ceremony, the two parties exchanged their coats, signalling a mutual exchange of authority. They also exchanged their weapons, signifying that your strength is now my strength, and your enemies are my enemies.  
6. Then came the “walk of blood” where they pronounced their pledges of loyalty to promises that couldn’t be broken. This was called the “blessing of the covenant”.  A curse was also pronounced as the penalty for breaking the covenant. Each party swore by their god, thereby making him the third party of the covenant.
7. The cut of the covenant came next. A representative of each party would cut their hands and wrists and bind their wrists together so that their blood co-mingled. The parties joined their names together as a sign they had become one.
8. Lastly, together, they ate a covenant meal of bread and wine, showing their willingness to lay down their lives for each other.

      Romans 4:21 tells us that after God cut a blood covenant with Abram, Abram got the message and became fully persuaded God was able to perform what He had promised. And God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning “father of many nations”.

      How does this apply to us as believers in the 21st century? In the Old Covenant, in Deuteronomy 28, you will find the blessings of those who keep the terms of the covenant. You’ll also find the curses for those who break it.

      In the New Covenant, Jesus NEVER broke the terms of the covenant. But when He went to the cross, He bore the penalty for breaking it so we could go free. “Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed the curse completely as he became a curse in our place. For it is written: “Everyone who is hung upon a tree is cursed.” Jesus Christ dissolved the curse from our lives, so that in him all the blessings of Abraham can be poured out upon gentiles…” (Galatians 3:13-14 TPT). 

      What happened at the cross?

1. Jesus bore the curse and the penalty for our sin so we can receive the blessing of Abraham through faith in Jesus. Through the blood He shed, Jesus established our covenant with God. Remember the “way of blood”? The blood of Jesus made a way for us to be in covenant relationship with His Father.
2. Jesus became our representative – the Mediator between God and man. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
3. Jesus is our covenant meal. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
4. Jesus gave us His weapons and armor, so we can be strong in His might ( see Ephesians 6:14-17).
5. Jesus took our sin and gave us His robe of righteousness, our right-standing with God. “…the Anointed One, who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the very righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 VOICE).
6. He has made us so totally one with Him He has given us authority to use His Name. “And these miracle signs will accompany those who believe: They will drive out demons in the power of my name. They will speak in tongues. They will be supernaturally protected from snakes and from drinking anything poisonous. And they will lay hands on the sick and heal them. (Mark 16:17-18 TPT).”
7. The New Covenant is better than the Old. It doesn’t carry a curse anymore. Galatians 3:13 in the MSG says, “Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse”.

 
            We have a covenant with Almighty God, through His Son, Jesus. May we be like Abraham, who became fully persuaded that what God promised, He would perform. And like David, who stood on that covenant and whipped the uncircumcised giant standing in his way. Today, my friend, whatever you’re facing, stand on God’s unshakable covenant, written with the precious blood of Jesus.

Acknowlegement - Kenneth Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries provided many of the insights for this posting.