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Scripture Reading: Matt. 26:28; Heb. 8:6-12
We have previously seen that God is a God who makes covenants with man. We have also seen that instead of uplifting Himself to an untouchable position, God has lowered Himself to our position, so that we can enjoy the same rights as He has. We see that God has uplifted us. He has allowed us to deal with Him and ask of Him according to the covenant. God allows us to demand that He execute everything for us. Since this is the case, we can rise up and exercise our faith to hold onto God.
We have seen that in the original language, a covenant is both a covenant as well as a testament or a will. Covenant and will are the same word in the original language. Hebrews uses the word covenant many times. It first tells us that Christ is higher than the prophets, angels, Moses, Joshua, and Aaron. All this is very wonderful. But this is not the goal of the book. These teachings are indeed in Hebrews, and Bible expositors have done a commendable job on expounding them. But we see that Hebrews has one specific goal: to put the new covenant before us. This is repeatedly emphasized from chapter six to thirteen. Although this book mentions the blood, Aaron, Moses, and the sacrifices, all these things are mentioned in relation to the covenant. The goal of chapters six through thirteen is to tell us what the new covenant is.
Who is the One who made the new covenant with us? Is it the Lord or is it God? It is God, not the Lord. The Lord Jesus shed His blood to accomplish the new covenant. But the One who made the covenant with us is God. He is the other party. Why is the covenant also a testament? The covenant is something that God has made and, therefore, is a covenant. The covenant is something that the Lord Jesus left to us at His death and, therefore, is a will. A covenant does not require the maker to die before it becomes effective, but a testament requires the testator to die before it becomes effective. It is universally agreed that when a man is still alive, his testament will not be put into effect. Therefore, we see that God made a covenant with us, while the death of the Lord Jesus has left us the testament. On the one hand, the Lord has redeemed the inheritance with His blood. On the other hand, He has left us the new covenant as our inheritance.
Hebrews 9:15-17 says, "And because of this He is the Mediator of a new covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those who have been called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, the death of him who made the testament must of necessity be established. For a testament is confirmed in the case of the dead, since it never has force when he who made the testament is living."
Hebrews 10:16-17 says, "`This is the covenant which I will covenant with them after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws upon their hearts, and upon their mind I will inscribe them,' He then says, `And their sins and their lawlessnesses I shall by no means remember anymore.'"
Please note that Hebrews 8 tells us that God has made a new covenant. He said, "I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them..for all will know Me from the little one to the great one among them" (vv. 10-11). Chapter ten is merely a reiteration of the words of chapter eight.
Chapter nine tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is "the Mediator of a new covenant." A more accurate translation should be "the Executor of a new covenant." The Lord is the One who executes the new covenant. Verse 10:16 says that God is the One who has covenanted the new covenant. As far as the new covenant is concerned, God is the Maker of the covenant, while as far as a testament is concerned, Christ is the Mediator. Now we will list the items included in the new covenant:
(1) Cleansing } Salvation(2) Knowledge } Victory(3) Life and power } Victory
The covenant includes three main parts. Cleansing is in respect to sin. Knowledge is in respect to the knowledge of God, and life and power are in respect to victory. As far as making a covenant with us is concerned, God cleanses us, God grants the knowledge of God to us, and God gives us life and power. As far as a testament is concerned, Christ has willed cleansing to us, and Christ has willed the knowledge of God to us, and Christ has willed life and power to us.
Brothers and sisters, what are the similarities between a covenant and a testament? What we have received from the covenant and testament is the same. But as far as God is concerned, they are different. With respect to our relationship with God, it is a covenant; with respect to our relationship with the Lord, it is not a covenant, but a testament. The Lord, however, is also the Executor of this testament. Since it is a testament, it is not effective until the Testator has died. This is why chapter nine emphasized the blood of the covenant. The Lord Jesus has brought the blood into the Holy of Holies. This shows that the Testator has died. In this way, God knows that the Testator has died and we know it also. On the night of His betrayal, the Lord Jesus lifted up the cup and the bread, as a sign that we should remember His death. Paul explained the same thing to us. He said that the purpose of the cup and the bread is to declare His death. We can declare that the Lord has died and that the testament has come into effect.
Yesterday we mentioned that the new covenant was mentioned in Jeremiah's time. Even though there was a covenant during those five or six hundred years, it had no effect. This is like a man leaving his will in the safe or with a lawyer. The will is not effective until the man dies; only then will the items mentioned in the will become available to others. Before a testator dies, the testament is just a useless piece of paper. But one day, the Lord suddenly said, "Take, eat; this is My body...Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant" (Matt. 26:26-28). By this word we can receive the testament. The greatest and most glorious covenant was there for five or six hundred years. Now it is ours. Brothers and sisters, I am not trying to delay telling you about the content of the new covenant; I am trying to show you what the new covenant is. The new covenant is the Lord's testament; it is the Lord's inheritance. We can know God without anyone teaching us, and we can have the power to do God's will and please Him. These are the things that God's new covenant and the Lord's testament have left to us.
For a testament, there is not only the crucial need for a witness, but more importantly there is the need for someone who will execute the testament. Many times, the executors of testaments cheat. We sometimes find lawyers, serving as executors, who cheat. Thank God that the One who made the testament is the Lord, and the One who executes the testament is also the Lord. As far as His death is concerned, the Lord Jesus is the One who made the testament. As far as His resurrection is concerned, He is also the One who executes the testament. He has given us the most precious and best blessings. He has given us salvation and victory. Although the new covenant seems to include only these three items, all the needs and demands of a Christian are included in these three things. Thank God that the Lord has brought the blood into the Holy of Holies and has told us that the Testator has died. As the High Priest, He has become the Mediator of the new covenant in heaven.
Hebrews 12:22-24 says, "But you have come forward to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels, to the universal gathering; and to the church of the firstborn, who have been enrolled in the heavens; and to God, the Judge of all; and to the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant; and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks something better than that of Abel." Here it tells us that we have not come to Mount Sinai, but Mount Zion, which is the gathering place for God, the angels, the resurrected righteous ones, and the firstborn. But this is also where the Lord Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, is. From this, we see that the Lord is the Mediator of the new covenant in heaven. He is not only the High Priest, but He is also the Mediator, an eternal Mediator. He lives forever and causes the new covenant to become effective in us. He will see the result of His work of shedding the blood: we will know God, no one will have to teach us, and we will have the life and power to obey God. He has become the Mediator for this purpose. As far as God's faithfulness and righteousness are concerned, this covenant can never be repealed or annulled. As far as Christ's resurrection power is concerned, this covenant is forever effective.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the One who has made the testament. In His testament, He has left us an inheritance. Receiving something from the testament means having something which we did not have before. We receive it without labor and work. It is something given to us by Him. This is what it means to inherit the new covenant. Many people have many foolish thoughts. A sinner often thinks that after he has sinned, he has to try his best to do good until his sins are forgiven. I do not know how many years he will wait before he thinks his sins will be forgiven. Others think that after they have sinned, they should pray until they feel peaceful. Then they think that they are forgiven. Friends, this is what they do, but this is not what the testament gives to them.
Paul said one word that was quite meaningful. He said that, humanly speaking, children should not store up for the parents, but the parents for the children (2 Cor. 12:14b). A testament is something that others leave to us; we are only enjoying the labor of others. We only need to sit quietly and enjoy; there is no need to labor and work. We can inherit what others have done.
Many people have asked me how they can know God's will, and why they do not know God's will. Perhaps among us there are some who have similar questions. I wrote in my magazine that a Christian can distinguish God's will like a man can distinguish tares from wheat. After a believer read the magazine, he wrote to me and said that he could not distinguish God's will in a way similar to distinguishing tares from wheat. What enables us to distinguish God's will is a kind of spiritual knowledge. This knowledge causes us to know God's will without any effort or vain attempts. This knowledge is willed to us by the Lord Jesus' testament. It is within us and causes us to know God's will. Therefore, every Christian should know God's will, and every Christian can know God's will. No Christian can deny this.
Some Christians say, "It is doctrinally correct that the Bible says this. But after I heard such a word, I was still as weak as ever. Every time temptations came, I failed, and I am still not victorious." Everyone who has experienced Romans 7 knows how weak they are. All those who do not know God's power have no power in themselves to overcome the power of the world and the power within them which is the power of Satan. Brothers and sisters, the way is not by thinking about what to do. Thank God that with the Lord, there is a testament. We do not have to labor and strive before we can receive; everything has been freely given to us.
The executor of a testament is the one who is responsible for the effectiveness of the testament. Every item of the testament is our rightful portion. If the executor is faithful, every item of the testament will be ours. Only if the executor is not faithful will we fail to receive an item. It is impossible for us not to receive all the items of the testament because the Lord Jesus is the faithful Executor. What we should receive are cleansing, life, and power. These three things include every need in our spiritual life. The Lord Jesus died and resurrected for us. He not only left His testament, but He became the faithful Executor of the testament. Therefore, we should no longer live a poor, dry, and powerless life. We should rise up and run, exercising our faith to receive all that the testament has promised.
Since one baptism is enough for a Christian, why must the breaking of the bread for the remembrance of the Lord be done again and again? Why did the breaking of bread occur every Lord's Day in the church at the time of the apostles? The answer to both questions is that the cup is the cup of the new covenant which, every Lord's Day, reminds us that the Christian standing is based on a covenanted relationship. The blood speaks of God's grace, while the cup speaks of God's righteousness. The cup is the cup of the covenant. Every Lord's Day we call to memory the new covenant, and every time we remember the cup, we receive all that this cup contains. The Lord said that we have to drink this cup because it is the cup of His covenant. Therefore, we should not merely see the physical grape juice. This is the cup of the covenant. The Lord wants us to drink until we are full and satisfied. We should drink all that He has given to us. The Lord wants us to remember that He is bound by the covenant. He is happy to give us everything according to the promise in the covenant. He wants us to always remember that we can enjoy forever all of the things in the new covenant. Every time we remember the Lord before God, He shows us these things. The bread is to remember the Lord, and the cup is also to remember the Lord. The Lord deals with us according to the condition stipulated in the covenant. Therefore, every time we remember the Lord, we remember Him in the covenant. Do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Do you want to know God's will? Do you want to be cleansed? These are all easy to achieve.
Hebrews 8:10-12 mentions three things: (1) God will impart His laws into our mind and inscribe them on our hearts; He will be God to us, and we will be a people to Him. (2) We will not teach our fellow citizen and brother by saying, "Know the Lord." All will know Him from the little one to the great one among us. (3) He will be propitious to our unrighteousnesses and will not remember our sins anymore.
We can see that the new covenant includes three distinctive areas: (1) God has given us the power of the new life so that we can have the strength to do God's will. (2) We can now do what we could not do as brothers and neighbors. (3) God gives knowledge to us according to the new covenant so that we will realize that His death is our death and that His punishment is our punishment. When we believe in Him, we are saved.
Brothers and sisters, we are forgiven and cleansed of our sins; they are not merely forgotten. Our sins are forgiven; they are not cleansed by time or by forgetting about them. We can forget sin for a while, but the conscience does not die; it only sleeps. One day our conscience will wake up and condemn us again. Our conscience will not be at peace forever. However, God has caused the Lord Jesus to die, and the problem of our sins is solved. The problem of our sins is forever solved before God. God caused the Lord Jesus to die in order that our sins may be forgiven and our unrighteousness cleansed.
This is not all. At the same time, He put us into a new position and into a new home so that we can begin to serve God. When we begin to serve God, we will feel that this is wrong and that is not right. If we think that we do not know how to serve God and deal with God, we will suffer much. We will think that had we known God's will earlier, we would not have made this and that mistake. If we do not have knowledge from God, we will be tossed in sorrow day and night. But let me say that God has not only forgiven our sins, but has given us the knowledge to know Him so that we can know God's will and God's heart. We are not those who merely know God's will, but those who know God's heart. The meaning of this is very profound. It means that we do not have to ask God before we can make judgments and discernments according to God's judgments and discernments. Some brothers and sisters can understand God's will. But the new covenant is not limited to this; it allows us to know God's heart and to judge and discern based on His heart.
But let me say this: it is one thing to know God's will and God's heart. It is another thing to be able to do them. We must not only know where we should go. We must also have the power to go there. Within the new covenant, God has given us the power. He has not only given us knowledge, but also the power to carry out God's will. Brothers and sisters, since this is the case, what more can we ask? If we have this, we have to say that we are satisfied. If we are forgiven and cleansed, and have received the knowledge, life, and power, we are satisfied before God. We must know that God has only given us one new covenant; He has given us nothing else. God is supplying us and filling us with this one thing.
The first item in the new covenant is cleansing. This has to do with salvation. The second item is knowledge. This has to do with our understanding of God. The third thing is life and power. This has to do with our victory. If the first item is reliable, then the second and third items must also be reliable. Why have so many people received the first item and so few received the second and third items? A believer can receive all three items at the same time. There is no need for receiving at different times, and there is no need to seek God a second time to obtain these. Whoever will rise up today and cling to God by faith, saying, "God, Your covenant has said that I can know God, understand God, and know Your method. I can know God's heart, God's nature, and God's way." This knowledge is not the knowledge that we ordinarily speak about. Rather, the eternal life enables us to know God. This knowledge has no distinction of age. Not only can the young ones know God, but the older ones can know Him as well. If we have knowledge, life, and power, they will be useless if we are not cleansed. That is why there is the forgiveness of sins. However, this does not mean that when we receive the new covenant, we experience these things in three different stages.
Many people consider salvation and victory to be two different stages. Actually, there is no need to divide salvation and victory into two different stages; we do not need a second work of God's grace before we can overcome. Salvation, victory, and power can be received at the same time. Because some people's lives are sick, they need a second work of God's grace. Paul did not have a second experience; he was filled with the Holy Spirit from the beginning. Not every saved person can be as mature as a faithful and experienced believer immediately. A Christian needs to grow, but growth does not mean that cleansing, receiving life and power, and receiving knowledge have to be in different stages.
Young Christians cannot be as experienced as those who are faithful in the Lord and who have followed the Lord for twenty or thirty years. But neither should they be in a condition of failure like many Christians today. How many Christians today listen to the inner voice and know how to be led by God? How many can do the right thing without the need for others to teach them? Many people need others to tell them what they should do and should not do, or else they will make mistakes. Some people are very loving, patient, and good. But they need someone to be their head. In everything, they ask others what to do. How many can go on according to the Bible and the inner leading, without asking others what to do? How many have received the truth, power, life, knowledge, and cleansing that are contained in the new covenant?
How many among us are powerful? We know that power does not come from us. As soon as temptation comes, we fail. We all know that we are weak; our hearts melt as water (Josh. 7:5), and we cannot overcome. But in the new covenant, there are wonderful provisions. The new covenant meets our needs. No one needs to add anything to it or take anything from it. God has done a perfect job; it cannot be more perfect. This is what every Christian ought to receive. God saves a Christian and gives him three things so that he can live without want for the rest of his life.
Before we were saved, we considered what we should do about our sins and what we should do when our conscience was not at peace. We wondered what would happen if we repented. When we heard that God would forgive all of our unrighteousness and forgive our sins, we wondered about His willingness and ability to forgive. We did not realize that God sent the Lord Jesus to the earth to save us, that His covenant confirmed it, and that we did not have to wait any longer. Now we can realize the glory within God's new covenant. With the new covenant, there is the cleansing, knowledge, and power. However, those who do not have faith will remain unchanged.
