I know it’s been a while since I wrote a blog, but after I listened to my own sermon yesterday, I really felt like I needed to drive this home a little better.  Many of us don’t really understand what it means to make a covenant.  ”I promise” “I Swear” are thrown around so flippantly in our vocabulary that I don’t think we understand what a “promise” is let alone “a covenant”.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am a total believer in “Simply let your yes be yes, and your no be no” (Matthew 5:37).  That should be enough for us as believers to keep our word.  But when we say “covenant” it means something so much deeper.  You can’t help but find yourself sit up a little straighter when someone says, “I have entered into a covenant”.

So what is a covenenant.  Well our number 1 resource for information these days (Wikipedia) defines it as this:

A covenant, in its most general sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. In certain religions, a covenant is a formal alliance or agreement made by God with that religious community or with humanity in general. This sort of covenant is an important concept inJudaism and Christianity, derived in the first instance from the biblical covenant tradition. An example of a covenant relationship in Judaism and Christianity is that between Abrahamand God, in which God made a covenant with Abram that He would bless Abram’s descendants making them more numerous than the stars. Also Job made a covenant with his eyes (Job 31:1).^[2] Christianity asserts that God made an additional covenant through Jesus Christ, called the “new covenant“, in which Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross would atone for the sins of all who put their faith in him (Matthew 26:28).

I can’t help but think about movies between children when they would make a “Blood covenant” with each other.  You remember the story.  2 kids make a promise and they write out the contract on a document and at the end they sign either 2 ways.  One way is they prick their finger and they write it in blood.  The second is that they both prick their finger and then they put their fingers together to combine the blood and then put their finger print at the bottom of the document.  Now think about that for a moment.

The most famous Blood covenant ever made was the one that Jesus made with you and I.  God had to have a “blood sacrifice” so that you and I’s sin could be covered.  The old covenant required that you sacrifice a lamb or make a “sin offering” unto the Lord.  The sacrifice depended upon the sin and what you had to give.  Some gave a grain offering, a dove, a ram, etc. (See Leviticus for more)  When Jesus went to the cross he was making a “new covenant” with you and I.  That he would be the final sacrifice for you and I.  Isn’t it cool to think that at the end of our life that all the bad could be written on a document and instead of you and i having to pay with our life, Jesus signs his name at the bottom in his own blood.

God wants to enter into a covenant relationship with you!  When you accept Jesus as your savior, you are accepting this “blood covenant” on your life.  It truly is humbling to think that Jesus came to earth so that he could die for you and me.  Isn’t it great to know that the God of universe wanted to go and die for you and be the final sacrifice for you and I.

Are you honoring your covenant with God?  Are you living for him on a daily basis.  Are you replacing the old self with God’s wisdom in your life.  We must learn to have discipline in our lives and that no matter how hard it gets or how tough it gets.  I could never turn my back on my savior, because I entered into a “Covenant” with him.  Jesus went and made it a “blood Covenant”.