Day 25: Jesus Embodies the New Covenant

Posted on: April 2, 2025
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

Every day, pray aloud worshipfully this golden thread that weaves through the entire tapestry of God’s intent for us.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,

when I will make a new covenant with the

house of Israel. . . .

I will put my law within them,

and I will write it on their hearts.

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

They shall all know me, from the least of them

to the greatest. . . .

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will

remember their sin no more.

(Jeremiah 31:31, 33-34)

Daily Scripture

Luke 22:19-20

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

Hebrews 2:10-12, 14-15

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” . . . Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Picking Up the Thread

We saw yesterday how deeply we require a new covenant from God. We read that the LORD has promised to write his law into our hearts. Moreover, he desires to restore us to communion with himself and one another.

But how would our triune God do that? What is required to create such a change from within rebellious and wandering humanity? This is what was revealed in Jesus. For us to be able to say to God, “We are your people and you are our God,” the Son of God himself had to become one of our people. He had to be made like us in all respects except sin. In that way, the new covenant between God and man gets inaugurated in the man Jesus. He embodies a pure heart for God. He does so as the Son of God who becomes the Son of Man. Jesus lives a covenant relationship out of the first and only human heart wholly devoted to his Father. Such filial love expresses itself most fully in his complete offering of himself on the cross.

How beautifully Jesus signals the depth of his sacrifice during the Last Supper! As we read, the bread he breaks foretells and forever conveys the giving of his body once and for all in crucifixion. The wine poured into the Passover cup foretells and forever conveys the expending of Jesus’ blood as an atonement for sin. He lifts the cup and signs forth the new covenant that would be sealed in his literally poured-out blood. Jesus himself, incarnate, crucified and risen is the new covenant. He is the joining place of reconciliation between God and humanity.

The triune God’s plan all along involved this most astounding gospel. Jesus brothered us by taking up our flesh and blood. Our Hebrews passage implies that now Jesus is cut from the same cloth as we are. He is truly human. And now we are cut from the same cloth as he is. We are truly made sons and daughters of his Father. Jesus accomplished this by living in the obedience we could never give. His perfection grew as his faithfulness in suffering required his ever deeper, “Yes.” Ultimately, then, he defeats death by dying. He takes away forever the power of the Accuser’s condemnation and the stinging fear of our mortality.

Stitching It In

The story of course does not end with Jesus’ gruesome sacrificial death. He rises on the third day. The very same flesh and blood he shares with us, the body that died, lives again. He does not shed his humanity. He is still one of us, though now Jesus already has what we will have in the future: a body fitted for everlasting life. He earnestly desires to share this glorious humanity with us.

In John’s account of the resurrection, we witness a lovely encounter between a grieving Mary Magdalene and the risen Jesus who calls her by name. Her tears change from despair to joy when he reveals himself to her. Then Jesus gives her a mission. We read, “‘[G]o to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’—and that he had said these things to her” (John 20:17-18). All that Jesus has with his Father now belongs to his disciples. Our brother in the flesh has restored our relationship with the Father.

The promise woven through the Hebrew text finds fulfillment in Jesus. The LORD vows, “I will be your God.” Jesus declares that he goes “to my God and your God.” The Scriptures promise that we will be God’s people. Jesus assures his disciples that his Father has claimed them as his own. Men, women, boys and girls who are joined to Jesus are his brothers and thus sons of the Father with him.

As Paul writes, “[I]n Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.” Jesus made the way. Now he calls us to join him by faith. Paul continues, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:19-20).

Praying Along the Pattern

Today let’s pray with 17th century scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal as he reflects on the day of his conversion. This prayer was found inside his vest pocket after his death. Perhaps hold in mind the memory of your own realization that Jesus has made his Father to be your dear Father:

The year of grace 1654, Monday, 23 November. . . .

From about half past ten in the evening until half past midnight

FIRE

“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,”

not of philosophers and scholars,

Certainty, certainty, heartfelt, joy, peace.

God of Jesus Christ.

“My God and your God.”

“Thy God shall be my God.”

The world forgotten, and everything except God.

He can only be found by the ways taught in the Gospels.

Greatness of the human soul.