The Covenant: Part 5
“The Covenant” part 5
Seven components of a covenant…
1. Covenant Representative
2. Covenant Oath
3. Covenant Promise
4. Covenant Sacrifice
5. Covenant Seal
6. Covenant Meal
7. Covenant Memorial
“An agreement between God and His people in which He has made binding promises
based off of His unconditional love.”
“Covenant Sacrifice”
• There is always the shedding of blood in a covenant.
Q—Where did mankind get the idea of shedding blood from?
Genesis 1:26-27 [TPT], Then God said: “Let Us make a man and a woman in Our image to be like Us.” …27 So God created man and woman and shaped them with His image inside them. In His own beautiful image, He created His masterpiece. Yes, male and female He created them.
Genesis 2:15-17 [TPT], God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work and watch over it. 16 And God commanded him: “You may freely eat of every fruit of the garden. 17 But you must not eat of the Tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will most certainly die.”
Genesis 3:1-11 [TPT], Now the snake was the most cunning of all living beings that God had made. He deviously asked the woman, “Did God really tell you, ‘You must not eat fruit from any tree of the garden…?’” 2 But the woman interrupted, “—We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, 3 except the tree in the center of the garden. God told us, ‘Don’t eat its fruit, or even touch it, or you’ll die.’” 4 But the snake said to her, “You certainly won’t die. 5 God knows that the moment you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree produced delicious fruit, delightful to look upon, and desirable to give one insight, she took its fruit and ate it. She gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he also ate it. 7 Immediately, their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked, vulnerable, and ashamed; so they sewed fig leaves together for coverings. 8 Then Adam and his wife heard the sound [voice] of God passing through the garden in the breeze of the day. So, they hid among the trees concealing themselves from the face of God. 9 Then God called Adam’s name and asked, “Where are you?” 10 Adam answered, “I heard your powerful presence moving in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” God said. “Did you eat the fruit of the tree that I commanded you not to eat?”
Q—What did Adam and Eve lose when they yielded to temptation and committed sin in the Garden?
Adam and Eve lost their…
-covering
-peace
-place of belonging in God’s presence
-innocence and purity
-identity
-freedom
-intimate relationship with their Creator
Q—How did God respond to Adam and Eve's betrayal?
Genesis 3:21 [NIV], The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Through this act of love God revealed…
1. His willingness to initiate covenant with mankind
2. Forgiveness only comes through a covenant or blood sacrifice
Hebrews 9:22 {NASB], “and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
3. The pattern of a substitute as an acceptable offering
Genesis 4:1-6 [TPT], Now Adam had slept with his wife, and she conceived and bore a son named Cain. 2She said, “By the grace of God I have birthed a man!” Then later, she gave birth to Cain’s brother, Abel. Abel grew up to be a shepherd, and Cain became a farmer, working the ground. 3 After some time passed, Cain presented an offering to God from the produce of the land. Abel also brought his offering, from among the finest of the firstborn of his flocks. God was very pleased with Abel and accepted his offering, but with Cain and his offering, God was not pleased, making Cain furious and resentful. 6 So God said to Cain: “Why are you so angry and bothered? If you offer what is RIGHT, won’t you be accepted?”
Q—How would Abel and Cain known what was an acceptable offering to the Lord?
Q—What is the significance of the blood?
Leviticus 17:11 [NLT], “for the LIFE of the body is in its BLOOD. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.”
1 Peter 1:19-20 [NLT], It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose Him as your ransom [substitute] long before the world began…
“The blood began to be shed in Gethsemane when He anticipated the horrors that awaited Him. He sweat great drops of blood through the pores of His skin. When guards came to arrest Him, His tunic was stained crimson with the blood of the covenant. It continued to be shed in the vicious torture that was inflicted upon His body, the scourging and the crown of thorns being jammed into His forehead. It was complete on the cross with the nails through His hands and feet and finally with the spear thrust of the soldier into His side, releasing a flow of blood and water. God the Son in our humanity, as us, and for us was making covenant with God the Father. The life is in the blood, and in this case the blood that was shed was the physical blood of God that flowed through the veins of the God-Man Jesus Christ.”
Hebrews 9:11-15 [NLT], So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. 14…Christ offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 …For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
Hebrews 9:24-26 [NLT], For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. 25 And He did not enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. 26 If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, He has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by His own death as a sacrifice.
Hebrews 10:19-22 [NLT], And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
Q—What did we lose when Adam and Eve yielded to temptation in the Garden?
We lost our…
-covering
-peace
-place of belonging in God’s presence
-innocence and purity
-identity
-freedom
-intimate relationship with their Creator
The good news is by the shedding of His blood Jesus has RECOVERED everything that was once lost.
We recovered our…
-covering
-peace
-place of belonging in God’s presence
-innocence and purity
-identity
-freedom
-intimate relationship with their Creator
The blood of Jesus continually cries out that we are WORTH it.