Hebrews 13:20 (NLT)
Now may the God of peace— who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—

covenant - Gk - diathēkē - a contract

Rom. 6:23 - wages sin/death

1. Who did God make a contract with?

Isaiah 28:18 (KJV)
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

2. Your sin caused you to make a contract with death.

a. the penalty was hell

b. God ‘bought out’ your contract

3. God chose the thing that would produce faith, building a covenant.

4. The Hb. Word for covenant suggests “where blood flows”

5. Why was blood needed?

Leviticus 17:14 (KJV)
,,,for the life of all flesh is the blood

6. All blood covenants have 3 basic reasons for being cut:

1) Love and devotion - expression of dedication forever

2) Protection - the strong becomes available to the weak

3) Equality - one will not take advantage of the other

7. Blood covenants are recorded in all ancient civilizations.

8. It is the total giving of one’s self to another.

a. for example...a marriage

9. But, the more civilized we become:

a. the more we move away from a covenant of blood

b. because it demands absolute loyalty / trust

c. and in some cases, it requires animal sacrifices

10. Why did God ‘buy us out’ from satan’s kingdom?

Ephesians 2:12 (NLT)
In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.

aliens - Gk - allotrios -

a. belonging to another

b. foreign strange

c. not of one’s own family

d. an enemy

commonwealth - Gk - politeia

a. belonging to a community

strangers - Gk - xenos -

a. foreigners

b. a different creature/species

2 Cor. 5:17 - new creature in Christ

covenants - Gk. diathēkē - arrangements

11. Our diatheke is:

a. God offers everything

b. we can offer nothing in
return

promise - Gk - epaggelia - a gift bestowed

Promise also mean:

1) An undertaking to do

2) An attempt to give

12. God’s motive?

13. Because he loves us.

14. And...

Ephesians 2:12

no hope - Gk - elpis -favorable and confident expectation

a. in dealing with the unseen

b. the future having a happy anticipation of good

c. basically, we were helpless

15. Meaning:

1) We were foreigners to the citizenship of heaven.

2) As foreigners, we did not know the rights/privileges, or promises of being a citizen of heaven.

3) As foreigners, we did not have access to the promises (plural) of being a citizen of heaven

4) We had no hope, nothing to look forward to.

5) Without hope, we were at satan’s mercy.

6) We were without God in this world.

16. Signifying that:

a. if Jesus was not our Lord

b. then satan was

John 8:44 your father, the devil

Ephesians 3:15 (KJV)
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

17. There are two families involved in this blood covenant

1. Heaven 2. Earth

Hosea 4:6 - destroyed

18. A believer who does not:

a. act on his covenant rights

b. is without God’s power in
this world

19. In the blood covenant,

a. all that one has

b. becomes the property and possession of the other

20. Ignorance can make you spiritually bankrupt

21. A blood covenant can never be annulled.

a. bible calls it an everlasting covenant

Psalms 89:34 (NLT)
No, I will not break my covenant; I will not take back a single word I said.

22. When you pray,

a. you are activating your covenant rights

b. receiving it by faith in the blood that makes it possible

Psalms 89:28 (MSG)
I'll preserve him eternally in my love, I'll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.

23. Our blood covenant with God is based on:

a. unconditional love, agape,

b. and unending mercy, hesed

24. Faith is the application of His blood to the word.
Phil. 3:8 - consider all things dung/know Him

25. God wants us to know Him, not just believe in Him.

James 2:19 - even devils believe

26. The Bible reveals 2 covenants:

1) Old Testament - for the flesh

b. man acted on God’s word but fell short

2) New Testament - for the inner man

a. God acting upon His own word

27. God used the blood covenant to reveal His love for His people

28. He even sacrificed a family member to prove it; Jesus!