We are contemplating the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood and after a consideration of John 6:22-59 have come to the understanding that both bread and blood are metaphors for life and by pertaining to Jesus Christ, they are metaphors for eternal life. To eat Christ’s flesh is to come to him. To drink Christ’s blood is to believe on him. Further, Christ’s blood speaks of eternal life in tandem with atonement and so in coming to the New Covenant, to believe on the blood of Christ is to appropriate atonement (the letting out of blood) and to assume the nature of Christ (the taking in of blood).
Before pondering the letting out and taking in of Christ’s blood in the New Covenant it is prudent to have a clear perspective on the New Covenant itself. This article addresses:
It’s use and application pertains to:
We are contemplating the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood and after a consideration of John 6:22-59, have come to the understanding that Scripture uses both bread and blood as metaphors for life, and when pertaining to Jesus Christ, as metaphors for eternal life. To eat Christ’s flesh is to obey God’s call by coming to him. To drink Christ’s blood is to believe on him. Further, Christ’s blood speaks of eternal life in tandem with atonement and so when thinking of the New Covenant; to believe on the blood of Christ is to appropriate atonement (the letting out of blood) and to assume the nature of Christ (the taking in of blood).
Before pondering the letting out and letting in of Christ’s blood in the New Covenant it is necessary to have a clear perspective on the New Covenant itself.
The Bible speaks of numerous covenants each with their own source and terms. When the writers of the New Testament penned the scriptures they had two Greek words for covenant at their disposal. The New Testament authors continued the decision of those who had translated the LXX from Hebrew to Greek and used the word diatheke, dismissing the alternative of suntheke. [1] Whereas suntheke carries the notion of a covenant or contract negotiated and agreed between two equal parties, diatheke has to it the notion of a settlement of terms or a disposition unilaterally made, much in the way that a person’s estate is unilaterally allocated by the terms of the dead person’s will. In Scripture, a divine covenant is an agreement which is unilaterally imposed but with bilateral obligations. It is an agreement between God and man, which is unilaterally specified from God’s side but which in its administration holds obligations for both God and man.
Furthermore, there are two types of covenant or unilaterally specified agreements. There is:
There are examples of each in the Old Testament. The most well known instances are that of the Sinai covenant (a covenant of law) and the Abrahamic covenant (a covenant of promise)[2]. When we come to the New Covenant, we find that it is a covenant of promise. The blessings which accrue to us in that covenant are ours, not because of our performance, indeed not even because of our faith (since it is Christ who is the author and the finisher of our faith - Heb 12:2). The blessings of the New Covenant are ours because of the personal performance and faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
The promise of a new covenant appears in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Although worded slightly differently by each prophet, there is a consistency of content.
(Eze 36:25-28) (28) Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. (26) A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. (27) And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. (28) And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
(Jer 31:31-34) (31) Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: (32) Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: (33) But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (34) And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
If we collate the main elements of Ezek 26:25-28 with those of Jer 31:31-34 we will find four promises to the New Covenant. Participants in the New Covenant are:
To be sure, there is a fifth promise in Ezekiel, the promise of a land (Ezek 36:28a). This promise also has a New Covenant implication but it is beyond the scope of this analysis to deal with it here.
In terms of the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood we might observe that the first promise is a fruit of the atonement and so can be thought of as the consequence of Christ’s blood being poured out, or as we have said earlier, the consequence of his blood being “let out”. This is an almighty consequence in itself and were a Christian to live only in that benefit they would do well. But if it is a profound and solitary benefit that forgiveness comes via Christ’s blood being “let out”, what wonder attends the fact that there are three other benefits which accrue to Christ’s blood being “let in”?
Let us recall that the soul life of flesh is in the blood (Lev 17:14, Gen 4:11, Heb 11:4, Ps 72:14). The “letting in” of Christ’s blood makes us party to the life of Christ. It results in a new heart (Ezek 36:26 & Jer 31:33b). But more than that, we are party to a new blood line in which we are God’s people and he is our God. This is a blood line in which Christ is a brother (Heb 2:11) and the Father is our Father because of the resurrected Christ (John 20:17). Remembering that Christ has life within himself (John 5:26), to receive (or believe in) Christ’s blood as a “letting in” is to take a stance as Henry Clay Trumbull (1830-1903) writes:
“It was a primeval idea, of universal sway, the taking in of another's blood was the acquiring of another's life with all that was best in that others nature. It was not merely that the taking away of blood was the taking away of life, but that the taking in of blood was the taking in of life and of all that that life represented.” [3]
Remember that to speak of the letting in or intake of Christ’s blood is to speak by way of metaphor for believing in Christ. Notwithstanding there is a pleasant corollary in the natural. Heart surgeons rely on the skill of a perfusionist during surgery. The perfusionist is a medical technician responsible for operating the heart-lung machine which oxygenates the patient’s redirected blood while the patient’s heart has been stopped for surgery. There are times when to re-start the patient’s heart it will be necessary to zap it with electrically charged paddles, but perfusionists tend to find that in most cases, as much as is necessary is to let the blood back into the heart. The “let in” blood stimulate the new heart!
Can we please note that both forms of God’s covenant, the covenant of law and the covenant of promise entail blessing.
For those with a tender conscience or who have experienced the conviction by the Holy Spirit concerning sin, the New Covenant’s promise of forgiveness is a clear and evident blessing. The offer of forgiveness in Christ brings with it the blessing of an eased conscience, a freedom from guilt and condemnation, the joy of restored relationship with God and the hope of an eternity spent in God’s heavenly presence. The benefits of blood let out are evident.
What is not so readily perceived, especially in our current era of antinomian preaching, is that the New Covenant promise of being able to adhere to the law is in itself, also a blessing. Despite the New Covenant’s the promise of a new heart, being a heart inscribed with God’s law and a heart lead by the Holy Spirit in that way, many of us question the extent to which law keeping is a blessing. This is perhaps the reason why so much of Christian rhetoric at the communion table about Christ’s blood is in terms of blood let-out rather than blood let-in.
This ambiguity of attitude might be traced to the natural or carnal mind, because the natural mind “is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be” (Rom 8:7) and added to this is our failure to be “renewed in the spirit of our mind” (Eph 4:23). But there is a more fundamental shortcoming in our attitude to law: we forget that the law is a revelation of God’s character.
"God's law is an expression of His nature, so that God's law reveals to us what God is like. When God gives us His law as our covenant law, and by adoption makes us members of His royal family, we are then expected to do more than keep the law. The law must become a part of our nature even as it is basic to and an expression of God's nature.” [4]
Therefore it would be delinquent of God, given his desire to bless his creation, if he did not bless it with that which is most blessed, his own character. The promise of a new spirit and a new heart toward God’s law, blood let-in, are an important part, nay - a necessary part, of the New Covenant blessings.
How then might this understanding of the New Covenant in Christ’s blood be applied to our lives?
FIRST - When we ponder the Cross, especially when doing so at the communion table, it challenges us to appropriate more than forgiveness from Christ’s shed blood. It invites us to grasp on to the reality and blessing of a new heart, a heart which is inspired with a love of the law of God, realizing that God the Holy Spirit is committed to instructing us in the law and to guiding us in how to apply the law to our everyday lives.
SECOND - We can look to Christ’s blood as the means by which his “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him” (2 Peter 1:3). We can take hope in the realization that the Holy Spirit, that same life force who animated Christ in His incarnation and earthly ministry, is now our life force to guide us in how to glorify Christ’s Cross in love and sanctification.
THIRD - A doctors’ first task when dealing with a sick patient is to gain information about the symptoms being experienced. By assessing these symptoms the doctor is able to diagnose and treat the cause of the illness. It is no use for a doctor to prescribe aspirin for a headache if the headache is the result of a chemical imbalance in the blood. The aspirin treats the symptom not the cause.
Similarly, Christ’s forgiveness treats the sin which is the evidence, the outworking or symptom of our fallen nature and sin-sick hearts. It is necessary to treat more than the symptom, the cause must be dealt with, otherwise we keep sinning and keep needing recourse to forgiveness. Surely it is better to deal with the cause than to treat the symptom. It is for this reason that the New Covenant includes both a remedy for the cause of sin, a new heart and the guiding power of the Holy Spirit, as well as a palliative for the symptom, the forgiveness of sin.
Let us learn to look to Christ’s blood for both.
[1] P Golding, ''Covenant Theology - The key of theology in Reformed thought and tradition'', Christian Focus Publications, Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, 2004, pg 80-82
[2] M Horton, ''Introducing Covenant Theology'', Baker Books, Grand Rapids MI, 2009, USA, pg 36-37
[3] H C Trumbull, ''The Blood Covenant'', Impact Christian Books, Kirkwood MO, USA, 1975 (1885), pg 110
[4] R J Rushdoony, ''Systematic Theology'', Vol II, Ross House Books, Vallecito CA, USA, 1994, pg 853
