COVENANT
• Conditional Covenant or bilateral Covenant
1. In this Covenant, the agreement is binding on both parties for its fulfillment, i.e., both parties must agree to fulfill the terms of the agreement.
2. If either party fails to meet their responsibilities, the Covenant is broken, and neither party has to fulfill the expectations of the Covenant
• Unconditional Covenant. An unconditional or unilateral covenant is an agreement between two parties, but only one of the two parties has to do something. Nothing is required of the other party.
When God called Abraham, it came to a time when God wanted to test Abraham's mind that
he decided to enter into a Covenant with him: You find that the Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional
. The actual Covenant is found in Genesis 12:1–3. The ceremony is recorded in (Genesis 15:9-10). Indicates the unconditional nature of the Covenant. When a covenant was dependent upon both parties keeping commitments, both parties would pass between the pieces of animals. In ancient Near Eastern royal land, treaties of this ritual were made to "seal" the promises made. Through this blood covenant, God was confirming primarily three promises He had made to Abraham: the
promise of heirs, land, and blessings (Genesis 12:2-3).
▪ I will make of you a great nation
▪ I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.
▪ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
A blood covenant communicated an oath utterance of a curse oath. The parties involved would walk the path between the slaughtered animals, so to say, "May this be done to me if I do not keep my oath." Jeremiah 34:18-19 also speaks about this type of oath-making. Thus God's solitary action indicates that the Covenant is principally His promise. He binds Himself to the Covenant.
However, the type of blood oath or Covenant that God made with Abraham was exceptional, in that God alone moves between the halves of the animals. Abraham was in a deep sleep. When the evening came, God appeared in the form of a "smoking firepot, and flaming torch [that] passed between the
pieces" (Genesis 15:17). In Gen 22:13-18, God swore again to reiterate to be faithful to His Covenant. "When God made his promise to Abraham since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself" (Hebrews 6:13-18).
Abraham and his descendants could trust, count on, and believe in everything God promised. The promise in their total obedience to God will make them overcome every problem they will ever encounter in the life journey.
God's ultimate Covenant with man
God does not break His Covenant with any man that violates their part Ps 89: 34-37: My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. (I will not violate my Covenant or alter what my lips have uttered.) Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before meIt shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven.
▪ (Hebrews 9:19-21): For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the Covenant that God
▪ (Hebrews 9:22): Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
In the Old Testament, the blood of animals served as a covering, or atonement, for the people's sins. The animal's life was given in place of the sinner's life.
All these were a shadow of God declaring, He would shed his blood to serve both Covenant and remission of sin.
▪ These things were only "shadows" of the better Covenant to come (Hebrews 9:23). The lives of animals could never remove sin; an animal's life is not a sufficient substitute for human life (Hebrews 10:4).
The blood of bulls and goats was temporary appeasement until the final, ultimate blood covenant was made by Jesus Christ Himself – the God-Man (Hebrews 9:24-28).
This way, everyone should come under the blood and remain under the blood since God is eternal and can no more break an oath than He can die.
▪ Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18 KJV God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not do it.
In fulfilling the promise God made with Abraham (Gal 3:29), God provided Jesus Christ to the Lamb of God to shed his own blood as the New Testament covenant ((Luke 22:20). Thou exclaim John the Baptist at the river Jordan (John1:29 Revelation 13:8; Isaiah 53:7; John 1:29): On the morrow, he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!
As the apostle Paul explains, the Covenant was established with Abraham and his "seed"—singular. Paul interprets this as the singular person of Christ (Galatians 3:15-16). Therefore, all who are "in Christ" are spiritual heirs of the promises made to Abraham (Galatians 3:29). The blood covenant is a promise made by God that He will choose a people for Himself and bless them (Galatians 3:7; cf. Genesis 15:6). God's promise of eternal blessing is given only based on faith in the saving blood of His Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:12).
▪ Heb13:20-22: Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant.
Blood covenant
▪ Exodus 12:7-13 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
God's ultimate Covenant with man
▪ The Blood of Jesus can be applied to every situation-And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Revelation 12:11.
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.2 Corinthians 10:3-4
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:11-12
The blood of Jesus IS POWERFUL. It...
▪ Frees us from sin (Revelation 1:5),
▪ Justifies us (Romans 5:9),
▪ Redeems us (Ephesians 1:7, 1 Peter 1:18-19),
▪ Gives us the confidence to approach God (Ephesians 2:13, Hebrews 10:19), and
▪ Cleanses us and makes us holy (Hebrews 9:22 and 13:12, 1 John 1:7).
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