A New Covenant

Matthew 26: 20- 30

A New Covenant

20 When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21 And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” 22 They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?” 23 Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” 25 Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” Jesus answered, “You have said so.” 26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Today we are going to talk about ‘Covenants’. There are 8 Covenants instituted by our Great and Almighty God El Shaddai (Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit). God always keeps His promises. You might not know that some of these are conditional and some are unconditional. So, I want to list them for you and let you know what they mean to you personally.

. 1) the Covenant of loyalty (Conditional)

Our Holy God created the angel’s immortal. Satan and one third of the other angels fell as you know and they remain in their sinful condition forever. When our Holy God made man and woman He made them mortal. He made a conditional covenant with Adam in the garden of Eden. Adam was supposed to obey all God’s commands to earn the right to eat from the tree of life and merit eternal life. Adam rebelled against God and earned instead death and condemnation for himself and all his descendants (Genesis 2: 17 – 18: Genesis 3)

Since we all come from Adam we are under this same covenant and guilty of failing to keep it (Romans 5: 12; 1 Corinthians 15: 21 – 22). Because God Is Holy, all mankind is at enmity with Him based on our own imperfect works. Furthermore, because we now have a sinful nature due to the corruption resulting from Adam’s fall, you commit more sins that heap more guilt upon us. We therefore need a Savior to deliver us from this doom.

. 2) The Covenant of Grace (unconditional)

Our Great and Merciful God gives us this Covenant promise right away as we learn in Genesis chapter 3: 15 that He will provide a Savior. We will learn later in Genesis chapter 22 that this Deliverer Is God Himself. We will learn how this happens from the teaching in the book of Romans chapter 5 verses 12 through 21 that we are saved by grace through faith in the Holy Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and this is not our doing, it is the gift of God to us. Thank You our Holy God.

Because we are sinful we can never keep God’s law perfectly and be pure to stand in His presence. Through faith in Christ Jesus alone, we are declared righteous in His sight, are forgiven all our sins, and have peace with our Creator God and He even adopts us into His family. Wow!

. 3) The Noahic Covenant (unconditional)

In this Covenant our Creator God made a promise to Noah to never again bring a flood to destroy the earth by flood. As a sign of this promise He placed a rainbow in the sky.

We need to think about the bow. It is an interesting fact. You see this bow was our Majestic Rulers ‘bow’ for war. What He did was put in on a shelf in the sky to show that He will never declare war against all us humans. Thank You Merciful God.

. 4) The Abrahamic Covenant (Unconditional)

The Covenant of Grace is further developed in our Holy Father Yahweh’s promise to Abraham. He promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed. He fulfilled this through Adoni Yeshua, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.