LAW AND GRACE (John 1:17)
The bible tells us that, we live under the new covenant that is established between God the Father and Jesus Christ (Luke 22:17-21). We become part of this covenant by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savoir. Then we receive everything from this covenant as our inheritance. This inheritance is called a testament. The New Testament means the believer`s inheritance because of believing in Jesus Christ.
What is a blood covenant through biblical understanding?
A covenant is an agreement between two people, or two parties. This agreement was established by blood. They would take one person from each party and cut these peoples’ palms, and then bring these peoples’ hands together. In so doing, these two people become one or these two parties become one party. All that belongs to that party belong to this party. Nothing can break this covenant except death. But then, a party or a person has the responsibility of fulfilling his part when the other party has fulfilled theirs. Blood is used because blood means life, in other words, the blood covenant means that a person is committing their lives for another persons’ life.
It is important to understand the old covenant and this new one that we are under. This understanding will help us to acknowledge and to thank God for what he has done for us through Jesus Christ. For a better understanding, I will separate these two covenants.
THE OLD COVENANT
1) It was established between God and Israel with Moses as the mediator between God and Israel, and it was established by the blood of animals (Hebrews 8:19-23). The word ‘Israel’ means ‘Prince of God’.
2) This covenant was focused only on the physical Israel at that time and not other nations. This was done only for a short while until God brought forth Jesus Christ from Israel who would reconcile all people to God regardless of their nationalities.
3) It was governed by the law that God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai and other laws that God gave to Moses.
4) The law of this covenant revealed the way of worshiping God at that time, the way of living with other people and the way to behave as God’s nation.
5) God`s grace was limited in the Old Covenant: God was unable to manifest His grace in fullness in this covenant because the sin of man had not yet been atoned for, but they were just covered by the blood of animals when sacrifices of sins were made (Hebrews 10:4). In fact, we see God judging people hastily in the old covenant because the blood of animals could not cover some sins because of their magnitude. God had to judge sin justly because there was no sacrifice that he could point to that had atoned for the sin of that magnitude. But he allowed some minor sins to be covered by the blood of the animals. In other words, when a person had sinned, an animal would rather die instead of that person. Because according to God`s justice, ‘where there is sin, there has to be blood shedding’. This means that the person who has sinned has to die (Ezekiel 18:4). But God in His mercy commanded that animals should rather be killed instead of people.
6) God’s blessings and promises were based on obeying the law even though they were limited.
7) God’s people were servants in the old covenant; they were not His sons as we are in the new covenant (Galatians 4:6 and 7, Hebrews 3:5-7). They did not have the rights of sons and daughters.
8) God lived with his people in the old covenant, but he did not live inside of them as He does with us in the new covenant: From there He would be upon the prophets, priests and kings only, but he did not live inside of them. They were not baptized in the Holy Spirit as we are in the new covenant.
9) Physical circumcision was the sign of the Old Covenant: In other words, all male persons had to have their fore skins cut off to show that they had a covenant with Jehovah. That was the only thing that they did, not the initiation school (it was not the African kind of circumcision as we know it today). This circumcision began with Abraham. It was proof that he had a covenant with Jehovah even before the Law of Moses was given. It was then included in the Law of Moses and it ended with the old covenant. In the new covenant, our circumcision is that of the heart. This means that the sin nature is cut off from the believer and he is given a brand new nature that looks exactly like God`s nature.
10) God established this covenant for a short time until Jesus Christ came to earth: It was not God`s plan for this covenant last forever. His ultimate plan was to establish the new covenant through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8:8-13, 2Corinthians 3:7, 11). The old covenant was just a shadow of the new covenant (Colossians 2:16-18, Hebrews 10:1).