Read and pray: “Likewise, after supper He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20)
From Hebrews 7 through 10, Christ is presented in a threefold way: as the High Priest, as the Minister, and as the Executor of the new covenant. When Christ is mentioned as the High Priest, we are also told that He is the Minister of the sanctuary and the Executor of the new covenant.
These three titles are mentioned together because their functions overlap. While Christ carries out His priestly work, He also executes the new covenant and at the same time ministers its contents to us.
In this message we will consider how He executes the new covenant. This is the most complicated point in the New Testament to understand; however, it is all-inclusive.
GOD’S SPEAKING TO MAN
Throughout the Bible, God’s speaking occurred in three ways: His word, His promise, and His covenant (or testament). In God’s speaking there was His promise. When spoken under oath, His promise became a covenant, which is also a testament.
From the beginning, God spoke to man. Before Adam disobeyed, God spoke to him. After the fall, God came back to speak to him again, this time promising that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15).
With God’s speaking came God’s promise. This was also true in the case of Abraham. In speaking to him, God promised him a seed and the good land (Gen. 13:15). God spoke and God promised. How did the promise become a covenant? It was by the addition of an oath made with a sacrifice in which there was the shedding of blood (Gen. 15:7–18). A covenant is a pact in which one party promises certain things to the other.
A testament, on the other hand, is an inheritance of what has already been accomplished. In present terms, it is a last will, a written legal declaration for the distribution of the testator’s property at the time of his death. The Bible, viewed as a whole, is actually God’s testament, and even its two parts are called the Old and New Testaments.
God is a speaking God. The more He speaks, the more He commits Himself by His words. Yet He cannot refrain from speaking! He has much to say to human beings. The Bible is full of God’s speaking. It is God’s word to man.
When we speak, we may make promises even unconsciously. If we can get others to speak with us, we may induce them to make promises they did not intend to make. As long as they remain silent, we cannot persuade them; but if they speak, they may take on an obligation toward us.
God has spoken. In both the Old and the New Testaments He has spoken, and in speaking He made promises. The Bible is full of promises—promises to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to David, and to us, the New Testament believers.
If the Lord Jesus had not died, these promises would have remained merely promises. But in order to fulfill these promises, He actually died. Through His shed blood, these promises became a covenant.
Now there is a firm commitment for their fulfillment. In this covenant there are still some things to be done. Others have already been accomplished and have been bequeathed to us as an inheritance. Thus the covenant became a testament, which tells us what our inheritance is.
“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 under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, the death of the testator must be established. For a testament is confirmed in the case of the dead, since it never has force while the testator lives” (Heb. 9:15–17).
In Greek, the same word is used for both covenant and testament. The new covenant, consummated with the blood of Christ (vv. 11–14), is not only a covenant but also a testament that includes all the things accomplished by the death of Christ and bequeathed to us as an inheritance.
First, God promised that He would make a new covenant (Jer. 31:31–34; Heb. 8:8–13). Then Christ shed His blood in order to enact the new covenant (Luke 22:20). Since there are promises already fulfilled in this covenant, it is also a testament.
This testament, or last will, was confirmed and validated by the death of Christ and is carried out and executed by Him after His resurrection. The promise of God’s covenant is secured by His faithfulness; God’s covenant is guaranteed by His righteousness; and the testament is executed by the power of Christ’s resurrection.
The Bible first tells us that Christ will come. Then it promises that He will come. There is not only the speaking but also the promise. Many blessings are included in this promise: that He would die for us so that our sins might be forgiven and we might be redeemed; that we would receive life; that this life is the Spirit, who in turn is God Himself as everything to us for our enjoyment; and finally, that we will inherit all that God is, has, and does. After speaking and promising (including the contents of His promise), Christ went to the cross and died, shedding His blood.
Because of His death, the promise was consummated, the covenant was established, and the testament was enacted. We therefore have four stages in God’s speaking with man: His speaking, His promise, the establishment of His covenant, and the execution of His testament.
Adam, in Genesis 2, was in the first stage. Abraham, in Genesis 12, was in the second stage, the stage of promise. The disciples, in seeing Christ die on the cross, were in the third stage, the stage of the establishment of the covenant. We today are in the fourth stage, when the testament is being executed. God spoke, promised, Christ established the covenant, and the covenant became a testament to us.
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Hymn: Praise to the Lord – “In Remembrance of Him”
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