THE NEW COVENANT IS A VERY OLD COVENANT

THE NEW COVENANT IS A VERY OLD COVENANT

                “Jesus therefore said to them “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood HAS eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him. John 6:53-56

                Jesus was in Capernaum teaching in the synagogue when He made this declaration and it was at that time that many of His disciples left him and no longer walked with Him.

                If the truth be known, this declaration remains the dividing line between the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares. And it is not the little wafer and the sip of wine that makes the difference. The issue is much deeper than that and so the question remains: Are we really eating the flesh of the son of Man and drinking His blood, or are we just repeating a traditional ritual?

                Later on at the end of His ministry on earth, Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples saying:” Take, eat it: This is My body. And He took a cup and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them; and they drank from it.  And He said to them: “This is My blood of the covenant which is to be shed on behalf of many.” Mark 14:22-24.

                We often call Jesus’ communion with His disciples the institution of the New Covenant and there is no reason to split hairs here, but Jesus was not offering His disciples or us a New Covenant, but a very old covenant… a covenant that came before Moses, before the Law.

                The Communion service is, of course, called “Passover for a reason, for it commemorates Israel’s exodus from Egypt and the blood and body of the lamb that saved them at that time

                God instructed Moses saying: “Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put in on the two door posts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. And they shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire and they shall eat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” Exodus 12:7, 8

                So here we have the first Passover, which occurred in Israel’s exodus out of Egypt and it becomes a pattern of our exodus from the kingdom of Satan and into the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This Passover too came fifty days before the Law in order to show us that the Law cannot save us. It is only by the flesh and blood of the son of Man that we can be saved.

                But Israel’s Passover was not the beginning of this feast, for we have to go way back in time to an ancient priesthood and to a communion service that occurred hundreds of years before the Exodus story.  After Abram’s defeat of Chedorlaomer and the other kings that were with him, it says:

                “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And Abraham gave him a tenth of the spoils.

                So as Jesus sat at the communion table with His disciples on that fateful night; He was not really offering them a New Covenant, but a very old covenant. It was a covenant that came before the Law, a covenant that came before the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. And if we think that this is not important, we must realize, that after His resurrection, Jesus reinstituted the ancient priesthood of Melchizedek and with it a change of Law, for the Melchizedek Priesthood came hundreds of years before the Law was given and therefore could not be based upon a Law that had not yet been given.

                But Jesus was not misleading His disciples in calling it a New Covenant, for indeed, even though it was based upon a previous covenant, it was indeed New because this time around it was based not on the blood of animals, but on the blood of the true Son of Man which came down from heaven to offer His life as a ransom for our sins.

                However, it is important for us to realize that we now serve Jesus Christ under a new priesthood and a new law for as it says in Hebrews 7:12: “For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe (Other than Levi), from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek who has become such not on the basis of law of physical requirements, but according to the power of an in destructible life for it is witnessed of Him, “Thou art a Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” For on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (For the Law made nothing perfect) and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.” Heb. 7:12-19

                So, the question we have to ask ourselves is why God gave us the law on stone in the first place?

                Paul answers this for us saying: “Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, UNTIL the Seed should come to whom the promise had been made…. Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then the righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under law, being shut up to faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ.”

                Now I want to inject a couple of points right here that I think need to be mentioned.

1.       There has to be a Law in order for the world to be judged. All judgment must be conducted according to a law, for it there is no law then there is no infraction and therefore no sin.

2.       Every person on this earth is under the Law if they are not in Christ. It is only in Christ that we are redeemed from the curse of the Law. Only His blood can atone for our sins and only His Spirit can come in and produce in us a life that fulfills the Law.

                So the New Covenant represents a restoration of an ancient covenant that came before the Law and before the Levitical priesthood. But this New Covenant only benefits those who are in it, through the blood of Christ. Jesus became a High Priest after the order of the ancient priesthood of Melchizedek and when we are baptized into Christ we are also baptized into the Melchizedek Priesthood and into a change of Law.

                This may shock a few people, but it is true and not a new teaching at all, for everything in the Old Covenant was pointing forward to this everlasting priesthood that Yeshua would bring, for in Jeremiah 31:31-33 it says:

                “Behold, days are coming” declares the Lord,”When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS IN THE DAY I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO BRING THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT…But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord. “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be My people.”

                So why is this issue so important in these last days? It is important because we need to enter more fully into the real thing. ..As it says in Hebrews 10:1, “For the Law, SINCE IT WAS ONLY THE SHADOW of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offered continually, make perfect those who draw near.”

                God’s remnant people in the last days are identified as those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Well, a testimony is a testament and a testament is a covenant and what this is saying is that we are in a covenant with Jesus and if so, then we are in a Melchizedek covenant with Him, and where there is a change of priesthood, there is a change of law also… but why?

                It is because the Ten Commandments can tell us what is wrong with our lives, but it cannot empower us to change. All it can do is to usher us to the foot of the Cross where the better blood of a better sacrifice both covers our sins and empowers us to fulfill the Law.

                But how is the Law then fulfilled? The Law of the Melchizedek priesthood does not break the Mosaic Law. In fact as we learn in Romans 8:4, the Law is fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

                But this idea was not new to Israel either for the great Shema is this: The Pharisees asked Jesus saying: “Which is the great commandment of the Law?” And He answered: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment and the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Mt. 22:36-39

                This is the great Shema of Israel and what it tells us is that the Law can only point forward to this greater truth, for it is a shadow of things to come and not the very substance. It is love for God and for each other that fulfills the Law.

                The very history of communion tells us that more than an external law on stone, we must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink of His blood and this not only on communion day when we eat the Unleavened bread and drink the wine, but we must derive our very life from the Body and blood of Christ and as we do that our lives will manifest true love for God and true love for our neighbor and love is the fulfillment of the Law.

                God’s remnant people will be a people who love God with all of their hearts and their neighbor as themselves… and while we may pride ourselves, like the rich young ruler, in keeping the Law, according to Paul, it says: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” 1 Cor. 13:1. God is looking for the real thing in us and it is something that only He can produce in us. This is why we must eat His flesh and drink His blood so to speak.

                 We must bear the fruit of the Spirit then, for keeping the letter of the Law will get no one saved. We must daily eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood so that His life will be manifest in our mortal bodies. We must live by His Spirit and not by our flesh. And in doing so, our love for God and for each other will become paramount. We can look at the Ten Commandments and think we are doing pretty well, but when we look at the fruit of the Spirit, we suddenly realize just how much we need the indwelling presence of the Lord to animate our lives and to transform us into His image.

                Only that which is borne in us of the Holy Spirit will stand in the end. And we need to move into maturity in this, for we are about to face unprecedented times. A great shaking is going on right now in churches and in nations and wheat and tares are being separated at every level.

                The history of communion is a very old history, dating not only back to Abram and to Melchizedek King of Salem, but all the way back to the gates of the Garden of Eden where the blood of the Lamb was shed for their sins and clothing made of the skins of the animal to cover their nakedness. The whole of the Bible makes great sense when we follow its themes from Genesis to Revelation.

                When Jesus declared that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood they have no life in themselves, many of His disciples no longer walked with Him from that point on. And may I point out that this is largely the same issue that will be the dividing line in these last days between the faithful remnant church and the church that will fall away to wonder after the beast? It is a love issue… we must have a love worth living for or dying for. Selah.