The Blood of the Everlasting 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 the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work . . . .” Heb. 13:20-21.

The new covenant, or the everlasting covenant, is: “Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.” In order to keep this covenant—doing God’s will instead of sinning and then sacrificing the blood of goats—Jesus had to lay down His own life, or sacrifice Himself. Heb. 10:7-10.

The first covenant also was dedicated with blood. The law was written on tablets of stone, and all were sinners when the law was read. Moses took “the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people.” Ch. 9. However, the new covenant says, “I will put my law into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them . . . .” Therefore everything in the new covenant is voluntary. When we serve God, it comes from the heart. It is not the same as serving in the oldness of the letter, but rather in the newness of the Spirit.

Jesus has consecrated the new covenant. Instead of doing His own will and bringing burnt offerings and sin offerings, He offered Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit. He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. In the sufferings the Father gave His commandments into His heart and wrote them in His mind. In order to fulfill them, He had to be offered. He did not live for Himself; He lived the Father’s life through obedience here on earth. 1 John 1:1-3. He did not need the blood of goats for the forgiveness of sins because He had not managed to keep the commandments; on the contrary, by obedience He sacrificed Himself through an eternal Spirit and went into the Holiest with His own blood. He has become the Mediator of a new covenant. “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek . . . .’” Heb. 5:8-10.

Jesus consecrated a new way. He had to have time to receive God’s commandments and laws, so that the fullness of the Godhead could dwell in Him bodily. Col. 2:9-10. We cannot receive this fullness all at once either, but with Jesus as head of the body the Father works in us the things that are pleasing to Him. The commandments are given into our hearts, with Jesus as the Mediator, and by the Holy Spirit we have grace to partake with Jesus in His sufferings by being conformed to His death. Phil. 3:10. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . . .” Then I have boldness to enter the Holiest in the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:19) and become fully equipped for every good work.

This cup of being crucified with Him—the fellowship of His sufferings—is the new covenant in His blood. 1 Cor. 11:25. In the power of this blood Jesus, as that great Shepherd of the sheep, was brought up from the dead, and by this same blood all those who have fallen asleep in Christ and those who live in Him will be caught up in the clouds and will always be together with Him. They will see the Father as He is. Heb. 12:14.

Sigurd Bratlie