Awestruck Wonder - Day Four: 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 to do His will,

working in you what is well pleasing in His sight,

through Jesus Christ,

to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Hebrews 13:20-21 NKJV

We’re wired to love stories. If our title today were a movie or book, it would be intriguing. But this is more than an intriguing title. This is everything. The mystery of the Gospel is one we get to tell, and it will never grow old.

When humans fell in the Garden, the shriveling fig leaves just couldn’t cut it. By killing an animal to give them a fur covering, our Father was already pointing us to the cross where Jesus would shed cleansing blood to redeem. Rather than destroy the rebels, the Creator covered them through sacrifice. His mercy is astounding.

The New Testament doesn’t make sense without the Old. It points to a new, better, and everlasting covenant. In Leviticus 17:11 temporary animal sacrifices teach us that the life is in the blood and the blood makes atonement. When it comes to the blood of the King, the blood of the everlasting covenant, we will submit to it and enter in before we die or be separated from it for all eternity. Ephesians 1:7-10 says,

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,

according to the riches of His grace

which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

having made known to us the mystery of His will,

according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,

that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times

He might gather together in one all things in Christ,

both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.”

Psalm 89:34 gives us security as the blood of the covenant is a gift to be received by grace through faith. It is indeed everlasting for those who enter in through Christ,

“My covenant I will not break,

Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.”