THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST (BY Mrs. LEELA CHANDY)

CHAPTER ONE

THE NEW COVENANT

The Bible is full of covenants, since God is a covenant-

making and covenant-keeping God. It starts with the

Adamic Covenant, where God brought Adam and Eve

into the Garden of Eden and placed them there to tend the

garden, but told Adam not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of

Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, as we know, Adam

disobeyed God, and so was driven out of the garden. After

this, he had to eat food from the sweat of his brow. Life

became difficult for Adam and Eve, since they had disobeyed

the Lord.

Then, God made a covenant with Noah (Noahic

Covenant), promising that He would not ever again destroy

the earth by floods. God placed a rainbow in the sky as a

reminder of His promise

Then came the Abrahamic Covenant, through which

He promised that all the earth would be blessed through

Abraham. The token of this covenant was circumcision.

After this came the Mosaic Covenant, which we call the

Old Covenant. God gave it to Moses on Mount Sinai and

we can read about it in Exodus 20:1-20. This covenant is

completely dependent on a person's obedience to God's laws

and commandments. Only by complete obedience can a

person be righteous before God. Under the Old Covenant.

God blessed man according to his obedience. It is therefore

called the covenant of works. Under this covenant, if we

disobey even a single law, we are cursed. While God gave

this covenant to the Jews, His true desire was to bring all

of us to Christ by showing men the futility of trying to be

righteous by keeping the Law, since the Bible declares that

no one can keep God's laws all the time.

Galatians 2:16 says, "Knowing that a man is not justified

by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even

we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified

by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law: for by

the works of the law no flesh shall be justified." Similarly

Galatians 3:24-26 states, "Therefore the law was our

tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by

faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under

tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in

Christ Jesus." This clearly teaches us that the Old Covenant was

our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we may

justified by faith in Him, rather than by the works of

the law.

When we receive righteousness as a gift from God, it

becomes the root of our lives and soon will produce the

fruits of righteousness in us! It's not by our struggling, but

rather by our yielding to the Holy Spirit that the fruits of

righteousness’, goodness and truth are produced in us

The New Covenant that Jesus made for us is very different

from the Old Covenant. God sent Jesus, His beloved Son,

to give us this glorious New Covenant. It was made between

God the Father and God the Son. The blessings of this

covenant are contingent on faith in Jesus and His perfect

 obedience to our Father's will. Good works follow us when

believe in and receive what Jesus has ALREADY DONE

AND IS CONTINUALLY DOING for us

In order to make this covenant and to establish it, Jesus

had to suffer and die and shed all of His precious blood for

us. To truly understand the power of the New Covenant,

we need to mediate on His sufferings and fully understand

what it cost Him to make this glorious covenant for us.

When we believe in and receive the gospel, God places

us in Christ Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 1:21, "Now He

Who establishes us in Christ, and has anointed us, is God."

He further elaborates on this theme in 1 Corinthians 1:30,

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us

wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification

and redemption." What is the gospel? Paul summarizes the

heart of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, declaring,

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I

preached to you, which also you received and in which you

stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that

word which I preached to you-unless you believed in vain,

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received:

that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third

day according to the Scriptures."

When we believe that Jesus died as our substitute and

rose again on the third day, never to die again, we can have

a living relationship with Jesus each day. Knowing Him and

the Father through the New Covenant is the eternal life

that Jesus came to give us. In John 17:23, Jesus prayed for

all those who would believe in Him and declared that He

would be one with us, saying "I in them, and You in Me

that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world

may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as

You have loved Me."

The New Covenant brings us into the complete work

of Christ on our behalf. As we meditate on it, we receive

grace and peace through Jesus Christ. Grace can be defined

as us receiving what Jesus deserves. This is often described as

"God's riches at Christ's expense." We become beneficiaries

of these riches, earned at Christ’s expense, when we take our

place and abide in Christ.

The New Covenant was promised in the Old Testament

of the Bible, and is clearly described in Jeremiah 31:31-

34. The prophet Jeremiah declares, that the Lord will make

a new covenant with the house of Israel wherein He will

put His law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.

Under this covenant, God promises to forgive their iniquity

and not remember their sins anymore. At the heart of the

New Covenant is this precious promise that God would no

longer remember our sins and iniquities!

God further declares His deep desire to bless us through

the New Covenant, stating in Jeremiah 32:39-42, " Then

I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear

Me forever, for the good of them and their children after

them.40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will

put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from

Me. 41 Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I

will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and

with all My soul'42 "For thus says the LORD: 'Just as I have

as brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring

on them all the good that I have promised them. " What

a life- altering revelation this is: God's express intent is that

He will never turn away from doing us good!

God proclaims His rich promises to the recipients of the

New Covenant, declaring in Jeremiah 33:6-9, ""Behold, I

Will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal

to them the abundance of peace and truth. 7 And I will cause

the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and

will rebuild those places as at the first. I will cleanse them

from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against

Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they

have sinned and by which they have transgressed against

Me. Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and

an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all

the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for

all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for

it." In these few verses God promises to pour out abundant

blessings on anyone who chooses to become an heir of this

New Covenant by taking their place in Christ.

The writer of Hebrews (8:8-13) echoes the promise

declared in Jeremiah 31:31-34 when describing the New

Covenant. We see again the promise that God will not

remember our sins anymore. Instead, He will plant the

knowledge of Himself in our hearts and minds.

Later in this book, we will explore more deeply the

contrast between the old and new covenants, to discover how

different they are from each other. If we realize the benefits

of the New Covenant and choose to live in it every day,

every one will want what we have. This glorious life in the

New Covenant comes out of the precious relationship that

we have with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Through

this covenant we will KNOW GOD and He will put His

laws in our hearts and minds, so that we know what He

loves and what He hates. As we choose to live to please Him,

by abiding in Christ everyday, we can truly enjoy heaven on

earth!

PRAYER

Father, I open my heart to allow the Holy Spirit to impart the truth of the New Covenant to me, in Jesus' Name