To Encourage You

Hebrews 13:20-21 “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Through the ages God has dealt with man on the basis of covenants, agreements, if you will, that put an obligation on God and an obligation on man.  They were conditional contracts that stipulated the responsibilities of each party.  In the verse above we have mention of “the eternal covenant.” Elsewhere it’s known by the name of “the new covenant” (Hebrews 8:13). As such, it has supplanted what was known as the “old covenant” or “the first covenant.” And what was this first covenant? It was the covenant of God’s Law. We see it expressed in Exodus 19 just before God gave the Ten Commandments to Israel on Mount Sinai. It was there that God said, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). This was a promise of blessing if people would simply obey God’s laws.  That’s all there was to it. Obey and you will be blessed. Disobey and you won’t be.  It was straightforward. It was easily understood.

So, how did the people of Israel respond? We see it in verses 7-8 of Exodus 19: “So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do.’”  So did they actually do it?  Hardly!  And has anyone else kept their side of the covenant since that time?  Have you?  The answer is obvious. No one has, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  It’s the sad reality that although God has promised to bless those who perfectly keep his law, no person has ever been able to do so.  It’s a covenant that reveals our inadequacy, and to rely on this first covenant for future blessing (though many people seem to think they can), is to be doomed to eternal failure and the curse of eternal death. 

But . . . there is a new covenant. An eternal one.  It’s one that, wonderfully, “makes the first one obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13). The fact that this covenant is eternal is different, because it began in eternity past, before any of us existed.  So, who was this covenant with?  What type of agreement could this be? The answer: it was a covenant within the eternal Godhead. It was an agreement between God the Father and God the Son. It was a promise to the Son that he would one day receive an inheritance, that one day he would be the Great Shepherd of the sheep.  And the Son’s part in this covenant?  He would give his life as an act of perfect obedience to the Father. He would give His life to save the sheep.

But, unlike the first covenant in which man could not keep his part, in the new covenant, the Son of Man obeyed perfectly.  Wonderfully, it is Jesus who “is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:15). 

So, if you think you can be good enough to receive the reward of eternal life in the end, know that you are still living under the first covenant, and you have already failed to keep your end. But if you will but place your faith in the Great Shepherd of the sheep, you will become one of His own, and magnificently, the benefactor of the eternal covenant that was made possible only through the one Who died on the cross for your and my sin. 

Praise God for the eternal covenant, the covenant fulfilled completely by the Son.  Praise God that we can be a partaker of its eternal benefits, benefits that we would be forever bereft of without the perfect obedience of the Son.  What gratitude we should show for all this.  What desire we should have to do His will and live a life that is pleasing in His sight.  It’s all made possible by the awesome eternal covenant, the covenant that has eternally and wonderfully bound the eternal Father and His eternal Son.