There’s one concept in the Bible that many modern-day Christian fail to grasp and understand; and it’s found throughout the Bible, from beginning to end. That concept is covenant and, particularly, the covenants established by God for the benefit of man.
Unless one studies law, he may rarely even hear that word covenant today. Another word often used interchangeably and with similar meaning is testament. The usual Hebrew and Greek words are “berith” and “diatheke.” Basically, a covenant is a binding agreement and promise made sure by certain pledges and guarantees – sometimes by property but in the Bible covenants often included an oath and, in many cases, the shedding of blood (thus, the expression to cut a covenant).
There are many covenants in the Bible. Most notable are God’s covenant after Adam and Eve fell into sin; His covenant after the flood; His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; His covenant renewed at Mt. Sinai; and the new covenant promised in the Old Testament (Covenant) Scriptures and put into effect by the death of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.
And these covenants and promises of God were connected to the shedding of blood. Animal sacrifice began immediately after the fall into sin (Gen. 3:21; 4:4; 8:20) and continued through the Old Testament era, pointing ahead to the promised sacrifice of God’s Son.
As the covenant maker, God Himself passed between the pieces in Genesis 15. He, Himself, provided a substitute ram for Isaac in Genesis 22 and promised in Isaiah 53, Psalm 130, Psalm 22 and elsewhere a substitute who would, by the shedding of His blood, make atonement for the sins of all mankind and establish a new covenant – that covenant promised in Jeremiah 31 and explained in great detail in the New Testament – especially in the Book of Hebrews.
And there was a sign and mark that a person was made a part and recipient of God’s covenants. The rainbow was a sign of God’s covenant with all mankind not to again destroy the entire world and all living creatures by a flood. Circumcision was a sign and mark that Abraham and his descendants were God’s own people and recipients of God’s covenant with Abraham to bless them, give them the land of promise and through Abraham’s Seed to bless all other peoples of this world (cf. Gen. 17).
There was a covenant meal which assured to recipients the blessings promised in the covenant. The people ate the Passover lamb who’s blood was shed and put upon the lintel and door posts of their houses that they might be spared God’s judgment upon the Egyptians (cf. Ex. 12). The people partook of their sacrifices under the old covenant worship laws and, in Exodus 24, were even sprinkled with the blood of their sacrifices.
As promised throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, God kept His promise to send the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, His only-begotten Son in human flesh, the virgin-born God-man Savior, to fulfill all righteousness in the place of fallen mankind and then to bear on the cross the full and just punishment for the sins of all mankind. By dying for the sins of the world and rising again on the third day as our substitute, Jesus has put into effect a new covenant of God with man, a covenant which no longer requires continual sacrifice of animals for sin because Jesus by His one sacrifice has paid the debt of all sin for all time. Read Hebrews 9-10. This is a covenant in which God forgives all our sins for Jesus’ sake and remembers them no more (cf. Jer. 31:31-34 and Heb. 8:1ff.), a covenant in which He again writes His laws upon our hearts and will one day restore all things to perfection.
And as circumcision was a mark and sign that a person was a child of God under the old covenant, baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is the way God has appointed to bring us into this new covenant He has made with man through the shedding of Christ’s shed blood. That’s why baptism is called the circumcision made without hands (Col. 2) and why making disciples of all people in this world is done through baptizing them in the name of the Triune God and then teaching them all that Christ taught and commanded (Matt. 28:18-20). It is why all of us who have been baptized in to Christ are called children of God and heirs with Abraham of God’s eternal promises (Gal. 3:26ff.). It is why the apostle Paul, after his conversion on the road to Damascus, was commanded by Ananias: “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord,” (Acts 22:16 NKJV). When He was baptized and brought into the new covenant established by Jesus’ blood, all His sins were washed away and remembered against him no more.
And the same remains true today. Baptism is not some insignificant thing we do in obedience to God’s command. It is what God does in us, bringing us into His new covenant in Jesus’ blood and washing away all our sins! Why would people put off baptism or deny its benefits to their children? Indeed, why would anyone wish to delay becoming a covenant child of God through Jesus’ sacrifice!
And yes, Jesus has established a new covenant meal in which we are given to partake of the very sacrifice for sin that made this covenant possible! As God’s people, under the old covenant, continued to partake of the Passover lamb each year in remembrance of that first Passover sacrifice and God’s saving of His people, so we are invited by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to partake often of the body He gave into death when He died for our sins and the blood He shed when He established this new covenant in which we have forgiveness of sins, life in fellowship with our God and eternal salvation. In the Lord’s Supper, we remember Christ’s atoning sacrifice for all sins and are given to partake of it that we might be assured of God’s covenant promises.
That is why Jesus says, in each of the four Lord’s Supper accounts: “This is My body … This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (quoting from Matt. 26:26,28 NKJV; cf. Mark 14; Luke 22, 1 Cor. 11). When Christians partake of the bread and the wine in the Lord’s Supper, they are also given to partake of the sacrificial Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world (John 1:29) and of the covenant-establishing blood He shed for the sins of the world. And why is this so important? Because this is a means God has appointed in order to offer and assure to us the blessings of this new covenant; namely, the forgiveness of all our sins and life eternal as a child of God in His kingdom.
Some might ask how God could bring us into this new covenant through the waters of baptism or how he could give us to partake of Christ’s body and covenant-establishing blood in the Lord’s Supper. No, I can’t explain it, but I certainly am not going to question the words or wisdom of the One who created all things by simply saying, “Let there be….” Why would I doubt or try to explain away His Word?
And what is the benefit of considering what it means to be a covenant child of God? Let me speak personally. It means that though I am a sinner, God has graciously brought me into a covenant (a binding agreement and promise) He has established through the shedding of Jesus’ blood to not remember or hold my sins against me but to forgive and accept me as His own dear child. It means I have the promise of an eternal inheritance in heaven and can live and die in the confidence that I will not be condemned for my sins and failures but have forgiveness and the certain hope of life everlasting for Jesus’ sake. He gave His word on it and it is promised and guaranteed to me through the shed blood of Christ Jesus, my Savior! There’s nothing more sure than that!