The New Covenant

 

My previous post was on the Old Covenant, so naturally, this one is on the new covenant. The Lord's timing in instituting the Lord's Supper is most significant. He selected the night of the Passover meal as the setting for this action. The Passover festival commemorated God's deliverance of His people from a prideful Pharaoh and recounted how God had provided a means to spare the firstborn sons of the Israelites as the angel of death passed over the land slaying every firstborn son. A lamb was to be slain in each household and its blood sprinkled upon the doorpost. When the angel saw the blood, he would "pass over."

This blood of the lamb redeemed the life of the firstborn even as it was a part of that action by which God led the children of Israel to freedom. This great deliverance of the past was to point Israel to that future deliverance which would be won by the Lamb of God--the Messiah (Is. 53; 1 Cor. 5:7).

Jesus' selection of the Passover, therefore, clothes the institution of the Lord's Supper with Israel's history. In fact, as Christ now distributes His own body and blood, God's redemptive purpose in Israel achieves its fulfillment and goal. The blood of the New Testament (Matt. 26:28; Jer. 31:31; 1 Cor. 11:25) now replaces that of the Old (Ex. 24:8). Christ's sacrifice on Golgotha for the sins of all people is the final and complete sacrifice (Heb. 8-10). Through His death for sin, all people may now be free from sin's curse and may live for God (Rom. 2 - 3).

Jesus is the 8th covenant, with the number 8 representing new beginnings.
(1) Covenant with Adam [Genesis 1:28-30; 2:15-17; Hosea 6:7].
(2) Noah and the earth [Genesis 6:18; 9:9-17; Sirach 44:17-18].
(3) Abraham [Genesis 12:3; 15:1-18; 18:18; 22:18; Sirach 44:19-20].
(4) Sinai Covenant [Exodus 19-24; 34:10, 27, 28; Deuteronomy 5:2-3].
(5) Aaron and Sons high priestly covenant [Exodus 40:15; Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:19; Sirach 45:7; Jeremiah 33:21].
(6) Phinehas: perpetual priesthood [Numbers 25:11-15; Sirach 45:24].
(7) David and descendants [2 Samuel 7:11; 23:5; Sirach 45:25].
(8) Jesus the Priest-King of the New Covenant