The Blood of the Covenant – The problem with contracts

The Blood of the Covenant is not traditionally an atonement theory but I believe it is so central to Christ’s death on the cross that it should be added to the list. Jesus’ death was of itself the enactment of a new covenant. At the last supper before Christ’s crucifixion

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” (Mt 26:26-29).

Here, the blood of the covenant is directly connected to what it achieves: the forgiveness of sins. This is how we are forgiven, through the blood of the covenant. Of His body and blood, Jesus was speaking of His death. The death of Jesus offers us forgiveness through entering into covenant with Him. The death of Jesus was a central key part of enacting this new covenant. His death was an oath—sealed by blood—which we receive by faith. Through His death, He has demonstrated the unchangeableness of God’s purpose to save us and to fulfill the promise He made to Abraham that his descendants (by faith) would be as numerable as the stars in the heavens and the sand on the seashore and shall possess the gate of their enemies and through him, all the nations of the earth would be blessed in an everlasting covenant (Gen 17:7; 22:17; 26:4; Ro 9:8). Covenant is about oath and fellowship. God, who cannot lie or ever fail, has decided to make good on His word and bring the human race into relationship with Him; and where there is relationship through His abundant lovingkindness, there is forgiveness. When remedial justice has been successful, there is no need for retributive justice. The sacrifice of Jesus was about enacting a covenant; it wasn’t about the Father’s wrath being poured out on Jesus. Justice doesn’t need to be satisfied because mercy triumphs over judgement and love covers a multitude of sins. It is on the basis of God’s covenant oath to Abraham that we freely receive pardon from our sins when we enter this covenant through faith. It wasn’t without cost though. Jesus paid with His life. But the payment wasn’t a literal one of some kind of exchange. But the cost to bring us this new covenant was His life, suffering, death, and resurrection.

How I first became aware of the Blood Covenant was through Malcom Smith’s book: The Power of the Blood Covenant. I will be taking some of the foundational ideas from this book. However, I will also add to it my own ideas to communicate as clearly as I can how the Blood Covenant relates to the atonement. This doctrine I will be presenting is also known as Covenant Theology and is popularly taught by many of the Reformed Calvinists. However, I will be presenting a modified view here to exclude Penal Substitutionary Atonement and Double Imputation to see what that looks like.

The eastern culture, especially during the time of Jesus, was much more familiar with covenants. But for the most part today, we lack this concept in our western culture. All we’re familiar with is contracts. Contracts are easily broken, changed, or cancelled. The binding force is typically a signature or verbal agreement between two parties that can be negotiated or cancelled at any time by either party. By cancelling, there may be fines or penalties imposed or there may be no consequences for leaving. Some examples of contracts would be employment, a job contract, or a sale for particular services or goods (e.g. online subscription). Even marriages these days are more like contracts when they should be covenants. On the other hand, covenants are solemn oaths, promises that are made to another that were fulfilled. They were promises that were kept because the person behind it was honorable and had the determination to accomplish it so far as it was in his power to do so. It seems like we see very little of that in our culture these days. If someone doesn’t like things the way they are, they’re gone. They’re out. It’s like marriages these days in America—forget the whole “for better or worse until death do we part” stuff. Rather, it’s more like: “I don’t like it here; this isn’t my dream come true, so bye.” This is how it’s like in our western “me-centered” culture. There’s no honor anymore in marriage. It’s no longer a covenant for most people because an oath hardly means anything anymore. On the other hand, a covenant oath is to say “my life is your life,” or “what’s mine is yours,” and “If you need anything, I’m here. Let me know. My house is your house.” It’s an unwavering devotion and commitment to the other person. In a covenant, the individual binds him or herself to an oath that they promise to fulfill under the presence and testimony of God. In our modern day, we see something similar to this at marriage ceremonies, court hearings, military enlistments, or accepting the duties of a government office in which the person places their hand on the Bible while the other hand is placed in the air they say, “I do solemnly swear.” Or, they may recite some kind of creed of loyalty and dedication to the Constitution of the United States and to the American people to protect them “against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” Throughout the course of history, it was often the case that if a military officer failed to uphold his or her duties to fulfill this oath by deserting or conspiring with the enemy, they were charged with treason and hung or were executed by firing squad. The oath was taken seriously and the violation of the oath was taken seriously. The oath is essentially to say, “I swear by my life to uphold the promises of this oath or else I die.” Essentially, what we need to take away from all this is that a covenant is an oath that is a serious binding agreement that cannot not be broken. It is an honor and commitment to a person or group to make good on all the promises so long as the guarantor/representative of that oath is alive to fulfill those promises.

In biblical times, the oath was given under the testimony of God. This was the binding force of the oath. Because, if one failed to uphold the terms of the oath, then God being their witness, would pronounce a curse upon them. In this way, God was the third party to the covenant as the witness of the oath to ensure people would make good on their promises. Once the oath was made, it could not be revoked. (pg. 17). An example of this is when Jonathan says to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn loyalty to each other in the Lord’s name. The Lord is the witness of a bond between us and our children forever” (1 Sam 20:42; NLT). In verse 3 it says that David took an oath before Jonathan and in verse 8 David says, “Show me this loyalty as my sworn friend—for we made a solemn pact before the Lord—or kill me yourself if I have sinned against your father. But please don’t betray me to him!” (NLT). Then in verses 12-17 Jonathan tells David:

“I promise by the Lord, the God of Israel, that by this time tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, I will talk to my father and let you know at once how he feels about you. If he speaks favorably about you, I will let you know. 13 But if he is angry and wants you killed, may the Lord strike me and even kill me if I don’t warn you so you can escape and live. May the Lord be with you as he used to be with my father. 14 And may you treat me with the faithful love of the Lord as long as I live. But if I die, 15 treat my family with this faithful love, even when the Lord destroys all your enemies from the face of the earth.”
16 So Jonathan made a solemn pact with David, saying, “May the Lord destroy all your enemies!” 17 And Jonathan made David reaffirm his vow of friendship again, for Jonathan loved David as he loved himself.

The “faithful love” spoken of here is the Hebrew word ḥeseḏ, and is most often rendered in the text as “mercy,” “kindness,” and “lovingkindness.” In verse 14 it is translated by various Bibe versions as “lovingkindness” (NASB, LSB), “kindness” or “kindness of the Lord” (KJV, NKJV, CSB, NIV), “faithful love” (NLT, NLV), “steadfast love” (ESV), or “loyal love” (RSV). It is a word often used in the context of faithful covenant-keeping love. The term “friend” is also associated with covenant relationship. Abraham was called a friend of God (2 Chron 20:7; Isa 41:8; James 2:23) and Jesus called His disciples “friends” (Jn 15:15).

Other examples of covenant love & faithfulness, hesed: Isa 54:8-10; Lam 3:22-23; Ps 51:1; 89; Josh 9-10; Lk 1:54-79

This covenant that David and Jonathan made together was an oath and a bond that remained even after Jonathan had died. One of Jonathan’s sons was left alive after the war but he was crippled in both feet. But regardless of the enmity that the house of Saul had for the house of David, David offered kindness to Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth. Despite Mephibosheth’s incapacity to be most useful because of being crippled, David would provide for all his needs and he would eat at the king’s table and live like a king. David offered to him all the riches of the kingdom that previously belonged to Saul and his family (2 Sam 9). Imagine being Mephibosheth in a helpless and dire situation. You hate David and your loyalty is against him but he offers you mercy and grace and the riches of his kingdom because he swore an oath to your father that he intended to keep. But it wasn’t just an oath out of duty, it was an oath because of the love he had for his best friend Jonathan and now you have entered into this covenant family. All you had to do was accept the offer. Once you accepted, you are now in covenant and are kept there by the guarantor of the covenant. This offer of covenant and grace is similar to the offer that God offers to us for salvation. But before we get into that, let’s cover a few more areas about the making of a covenant.

Accountability: Jacob and Laban made a covenant between each other for Jacob to not mistreat Laban’s daughters that he had married or that he would not take any other wives for himself. It’s a long story but suffice to say, there were issues with the in-laws and it was a whole family feud so neither of them really trusted each other. For this reason, they decided to make a covenant with one another to not harm each other and to treat daddy’s daughters well. If this happened in our modern day, dad might have brought out the shotgun. But emotions were rising high and things were getting heated and so they decided to bring God into their covenant as a third party to keep them accountable. That way, they could rest easier. They called on God to be both their witness (Gen 31:48-50) and their judge (v. 53), and they agreed not to harm each other (v. 52). They enacted this covenant through their oath, a covenant meal, a monument, and a sacrifice. In the new covenant, the oath is our confession to God and His confession to us, the meal is communion (Eucharist), and the monument is the cross, and the sacrifice is Jesus.

Blood: An animal sacrifice was made. The animal was broken and cut in pieces and then these pieces were placed in two parallel lines and then they would walk in between the blood and flesh of the sacrificed animal to make a pact. This method was to demonstrate serious business and was basically to say, “If I don’t hold up my end of the oath, then let this happen to me. I will uphold what I have promised even if I have to shed my own blood to do it.” In this way, the covenant-maker is invoking death upon himself if he fails to fulfill what he has promised. Another way to make a covenant might have been to shed their own blood in some way, either through cutting their hand or right arm. (pg. 19). A covenant was a serious deal. It wasn’t just a quick handshake or a two-second signature. It was a lifelong commitment.

As you might recall, an example of this ceremony is set forth in Genesis 15 where God promised to Abraham a son that would produce offspring from Abraham’s seed that would be as innumerable as the stars in the sky. God also promised Abraham land to possess and Abraham asked God how he would know that these things will happen. Then God told him to perform this cutting animal ceremony. When Abraham was in a deep sleep, God’s presence walked between the pieces and God swore and made a covenant with him saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates …” (v. 18). Since God was the one making the promise, it was God who walked between the pieces and it was God alone who would bring to pass all that He had said. It wasn’t something that Abraham would have to achieve through His own power, methods, or scheming. Though he later tried through Sarai’s maid, Hagar, it wasn’t through Hagar that the child of the promise would come.

Meal: A covenant meal would be shared (Gen 26:30; 31:46, 54; Mt 26:26-29). Both representatives of the covenant would eat the same bread and drink from the same cup to demonstrate their unity to become as one. In the Jewish culture of bible times, the betrothal/engagement ritual would involve this as well. The groom would take a sip from a cup of wine and then hand it over to the woman he desired to be his bride and she said “yes” by drinking from the same cup. This was a covenant vow for marriage until they consummated their union together. Once they drank from the cup together, they were considered to be legally married and in covenant. In a similar way, the disciples as the bride of Christ, drank the cup that Jesus gave them and entered into covenant with Him.
For more on this topic: The Wedding Discoveries

The Sacrifice Was an Oath

The Father offered to us His Son Jesus as the sacrifice of oath and fellowship. The body of Jesus was broken for us. The blood of Jesus was poured out for us. The Father was basically saying, “I guarantee to uphold my oath and commitment to humanity. I am committed unto death.” And so the blood of Jesus was spilled and then He gave up His spirit to the Father so that His body would die. When He resurrected, He still had pierced hands and feet and the hole in His side where blood and water flowed from when He was pierced. His scars remained because they were the seal of God’s covenant with mankind. The oath could not be revoked. It was sealed by His blood and in His body. Some might wonder, “couldn’t God have had used animals as sacrifices instead?” Well, he used animals in the Old Covenant but this was something new. A new covenant was instituted because God found fault with the first covenant (Heb 8:7-8). We are so weak in our humanity that we find God hard to believe. It’s difficult to believe when you can’t see, you can’t feel, and you can’t experience with your senses. Therefore, in order for God to show to us the unfathomable riches of His kindness toward us, He sent to us His own Son. John wrote about Him, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (1 Jn 1:1-2). Hebrews 6:17 indicates to us that God sent to us Jesus because He desired “even more to show” us how unchangeable and resolute He is in His purpose. Jesus was the Father’s oath to us for all who believe in Him. Not only did God swear by Himself by His word in heaven but also swore by Himself by the living Word on earth through Jesus sealing the oath, “so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 6:18-20). Heaven and earth converge and intertwine to assure us of our steadfast hope of salvation.

Why was that first covenant not good enough? It was because the people didn’t follow God, they aimlessly wondered in the wilderness many years, and rebelled against their Creator. They didn’t keep God’s covenant and the problem was with their hearts. They didn’t believe that God is a rewarder of those that earnestly seek Him. They didn’t believe in the love and goodness of God. Otherwise, they would have continued following and believing in Him. And so, a new covenant was in order. To convince us of God’s unwavering resolve and love for us for our good, He sent to us His only Son as proof so that we would by faith take hold of the promise of eternal life and remain faithful to Him. With Abraham, God swore by Himself to keep His oath and that word should have been more than good enough but humanity was too weak to believe in God’s promises from heaven and so God sent His promise down to earth. He lived and walked among us. Jesus is God’s oath to us. But this time, the sealing of His oath was not by the blood of lambs and goats but by the Lamb of God. He shed His own blood to prove His unwavering commitment and love to us. He sealed His oath by the blood of God. God’s first covenant did not fail. Rather, it was we who failed God. For this reason, it seemed fitting for God to find a way to increase our faith. What better way than to show us God Himself, to show us Love, Light, and Truth walking among us so that we could truly know the Father and believe His love for us. For Jesus and the Father are One. This Jesus also is the anchor of our soul, our hope, our sanctifier, and High Priest (Heb 6). Therefore, both the faith and the blessings of the new covenant are better and that’s why it was needed.

In this covenant, there is no picture here that God’s wrath has anything to do with the animal being sacrificed to enact this covenant. The sacrifice was to provide the food for fellowship. The sacrifice was about oath and fellowship. Jesus’ death on the cross was about God’s oath to us that if we believe in Him, we shall partake in His life and enter into fellowship with God. His oath is that “whoever believes in Him will have eternal life” (Jn 3:15) and our oath is to confess with our mouths Jesus as King and to believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead (Ro 10:9). Jesus means Yahweh saves. Christ means Messiah which means the rightful King. So when people said Jesus Christ, they heard and understood it as: Savior—King. So when we confess Jesus unto salvation, we confess Him as both our Savior and our King. This means He is the savior of our lives and the king of our hearts.

This is a belief that is more than just intellectual data and when Jesus said that whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood will have life in themselves, He was really speaking about believing in Him in the way that you enter into covenant and become united together. He’s not talking about the Eucharist. The context of receiving eternal life through the body and blood of Jesus is clearly speaking about belief. Next time you read John 6, notice every time it uses the word “believe” in connection with eternal life. The purpose of the Eucharist for the disciples was to enter into covenant with God but after the last supper, it was a constant reminder of that abiding covenant (1 Cor 11:25). Now, I don’t have issue with communion being “real presence,” as long as it is not believed to be transubstantiation where the body and the juice literally become the physical nature of Jesus’ body and blood. One could view Eucharist/Communion as a means of grace to enliven faith even as such things like prayer and reading the word do but it is not a means to faith. In John 6, Jesus wasn’t speaking literally but metaphorically. He also had a very large crowd following Him for wrong reasons and so He was trying to get rid of any followers who weren’t legit. Abraham himself entered into covenant with God through his belief as the Scripture says “Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6). This means that on the basis of his faith, he was in right relationship with God. Righteous does not mean morally perfect in this context. It means that He is considered right with God because He is in right relationship with God. By his faith, he was in covenant.

Every covenant needs a representative on behalf of a group. In our western culture, we have state representatives and ambassadors to other nations who represent the desires and intentions of the people and of the president. At least, they’re supposed to anyway. We don’t live in a perfect world yet. But contrary to our western culture, the eastern culture of the Bible has this idea of the representative or guarantor of the covenant having those he represents as “in” him. That is, the actions and achievements of the representative are the same as the whole group, family, clan, or tribe. An example of this way of thinking is 1 Samuel 17 where David and Goliath battled it out on behalf of their people. The deal or proposition was that whoever won, would take the rest of their people as slaves. The intention of this strategy was used to avoid a full-on war. When David defeated Goliath, the rest of Israel shared in his victory. (pg. 13-16). Now, briefly think about all those passages in the Bible that say we are “in” Christ.

Jesus was our representative to God the Father since Jesus was a man but He was also God’s representative to us since He is God. Jesus represents the will, wishes, and plan of those He is a representative for. Since Jesus was God when He came to this earth, He was able to represent God’s side to seal the oath by His death on the cross. Since Jesus was also man, He was able to represent humanity’s side to seal the oath by His death on the cross. As a result, when we partake of His indwelling presence by believing in Him, we also partake of His achievements and faithfulness to uphold our end. But this faithfulness, I don’t see as a legal fiction but as a real transformation which results in both a restful and fruitful service to God through our connection to the Vine. Jesus lived a perfect life and a life of full faith so that the nearer we draw to Him, the more restful we are and the more fruitful we become through His presence and life infused to us. The result of the hypostatic union of Jesus being both God and man is that our faith is restful obedience as John says, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 Jn 5:3) and as Jesus says, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt 11:30). The sealing of the oath of Jesus has given us rest. This rest is the opposite of anxiety, fear, frustration, and strivings. It is peace. The way I picture it is like the hand of My heavenly Father coming to swoop me up and laying at peace in His hand as in a hammock.

The whole design of the Covenant of The Blood model of the atonement is to cause people to rest in Christ through faith rather than trust in any of their works. I do not see the need for the doctrine of imputed righteousness here as being necessary to achieve that rest as long as we understand that we must have full faith in Christ and fully rest in Him, trusting His forgiveness and righteousness to be in a relationship that is right with God and results in salvation through the transformed life of Christ’s indwelling presence through His resurrection power. There is also a central component here of Jesus as our High Priest who cleanses us from sin by purging sin from our hearts and through this expiation, forgiveness is granted. However, that will be a lesson for another time (Heb 10:18).

The obedience God wants from us is not perfection unto salvation but devotion from relation, even as He exemplified to us through Jesus who was obedient to the Father in all things from devotion and Abraham who was obedient through faith. It’s about a relationship to live in a manner pleasing to God, not about merit to obtain a particular blessing. It’s about a covenant—not a contract. We relate to our Father in heaven relationally, not transactionally.

In analysis of the essential mechanics of these doctrines presented under this system along with my own beliefs, we would say that God forgives us through the expiation/purging of sin/ renewed nature as we enter into the new covenant by faith. Our faith in the goodness of God is what results in the cleansing of our hearts. This covenant is a restful state and not performance driven because it’s about relationship. But, it’s also not antinomian cheap grace where we can just live however we want because we actually do love God since our hearts have been transformed. It is also possible of our own free-will to exit this covenant. However, if our doctrine is right, it is easy to abide in faith because Jesus made this covenant easy for us in that regard. But we can still walk away and apostatize if we choose. Therefore, we need to guard our hearts and guard our faith and live in community to persevere; and of course, love God and love people. Obedience is the outflow of our faith but it is also the inflow to our faith’s vitality. Obedience keeps our faith strong and alive and is a means of grace like prayer, mediating on the word, praising God, gratitude, and Christian fellowship. All of these things flow out of and in through faith. Love flows out through genuine faith and godly virtues flow in through the hunger of God and conviction of sin. In this way, our living faith breathes in and out.

Extra Information for Further Contemplation

The Abrahamic covenant does not pass away (Ps 105:8-11; Ro 4:10-11).

Jesus fulfills His covenant promise to Abraham by His death to produce a numerous offspring by faith but His death did not end the term of His oath because Jesus still lives. Of course, Jesus fulfilling and enacting this oath was not the only reason Jesus died. It was, however, an explicit reason the Bible gives us regarding His sacrifice to offer us forgiveness.

Jesus forgives our sins because He has made an oath to do so.

Jesus wasn’t a payment—He was a proof. He was a proof of God’s faithful love.

In covenant love, God protects us, keeps us, and pursues us even when we walk away from Him so that He might bring us back (e.g. book of Hosea; Ps 89; God sending His prophets, showing mercy and patient endurance putting up with Israel’s evil). God is committed to us no matter what. He has said I will never leave you nor forsake you (Heb 13:5). This view is incompatible with what some charismatics believe that you can lose your salvation easily like every time you sin and that the Spirit is gone until you confess those sins. A view like that is thinking contract—not covenant relationship. We must know Jesus Himself and stop interpreting the Bible by turning everything into some kind of mathematical formula. Jesus is a personal being—not an equation.

Under the Covenant model of the atonement, the Old Testament sacrifices were about initiating and re-affirming the believer’s and Israel’s covenant with God. The sacrifices were continually offered as a reminder of this covenant but once Jesus died, the Lord’s Supper replaced the old system of sacrifice because Jesus was the one sacrifice for all time. Therefore, when Jesus said “it is finished,” He was speaking in contrast to the role of the high priest whose job was never finished but now Jesus as our One and only final High Priest, has finished the work. He now sits down at the right hand of God. No greater sacrifice could be offered besides a body from God Himself to secure God’s covenant oath with mankind. The result of this ratified/new covenant is a transformed life—a new heart in which God’s law is written on our hearts and the evil of sin and its power is cut off from us so that we can be effectually reconciled to God.

Hebrews 9:14-15

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.