Troublesome Topic: Have We Been Sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus?

Lesson 14 of 15

HAVE WE COMMITTED OURSELVES TO THE NEW COVENANT WITH A SELF-IMPOSED DEATH-CURSE?

Yes, we have. All covenants utilize blood as a self-imposed death-curse should the participants violate the covenant. All of them require something of both parties. The New Covenant is no exception. Therefore, upon placing our lives in God’s hands through faith, and seeking His atonement from our sins, we have committed ourselves to following the conditions of the New Covenanl. God expects us to take this seriously.

The author of Hebrews addressed that issue by setting up a contrast between the Former Covenant and the New Covenant.

Hebrews 12:18

Translation

For you have not come near to [a mountain]

that is touchable and has been burned with fire, to a thick dark cloud, to gloom, and to a powerful windstorm,

Paraphrase

For this is not like the time when you approached a display of strength that was capable of changing your everyday life, and which threatened punishment; you have not approached a foreboding omen of a difficult future, or a cause for depression, or a demonstration of great power that you fear but can’t understand.

The text goes on for three more verses describing the experience the children of Israel had when God spoke to them from Mount Sinai and they were terrified. Then in vs 22 and following he makes his point about the New Covenant:

Hebrews 12:22

Translation

but you have come to Mount ZION and to the city the living THEOS, to the heavenly JERUSALEM and to myriad angels,

Paraphrase

instead you have come to the protective refuge of THE GUIDING SIGN and to the safe hub of activity of THE CREATOR AND OWNER OF ALL THINGS who is very much alive, and to the place whose PEACEFUL FOUNDATIONS are sent from God Himself, and to tens of thousands of God’s agents that serve as facilitators,

Hebrews 12:24

Translation

and to JESUS, the mediator of the new covenant,

and to the sprinkling of blood which speaks better things than that of ABEL.

Paraphrase

you have come to THE SAVIOR, the one who gets credit for bringing about the new covenant; you have come to commit yourself through a self-imposed death-curse to the New Covenant which is built on a foundation that is capable of bringing about better results than the futile death of the first innocent man to give his blood, whose name was BREATH.

Abel is mentioned because he also was a just man who did not die because of his own sinfulness. The contrast is that the shedding of Jesus’ blood was effective in accomplishing much, whereas the shedding of Abel’s blood did not accomplish anything. These verses from Hebrews also speak of the blood that was sprinkled, and it is referring to the New Covenant. When was the blood of Jesus sprinkled? Neither here nor in any other part of the New Testament is the sprinkling of Jesus’ blood explained, it is simply stated, assuming that the reader would understand it. This was a figurative expression easily understood by all of that day to indicate that when we submitted to the authority of the one who established the New Covenant we were figuratively “sprinkled” by the blood shed at the cutting of this New Covenant (the cross). The fact that we were not personally splattered with the actual blood of Jesus does not lessen the impact of the image. There were many people (e.g. women and children) who never walked through the blood and were never sprinkled with the blood at the cutting of some ancient covenant, but they were still expected to follow the covenant conditions. That was true of the Former Covenant as well; the male leaders were sprinkled with blood, but the rest were not, yet everyone had to obey its regulations or suffer the punishments. The inclusion of this statement in the book of Hebrews is a means of emphasizing the fact that we, as believers, are under obligation to follow God’s conditions because we have voluntarily placed ourselves under His authority. The voluntary nature of it is a key difference between the Former Covenant and the New Covenant. Not only did we commit ourselves to faithful obedience, but we understand that if we do not follow through, the consequence will be death—in this case, eternal separation from God.

There is another passage that speaks to this same question, but it does so in a strange way and is not usually associated with covenant issues:

John 6:48

Translation

I am the bread of life.

Paraphrase

I am that which sustains life.

John 6:49

Translation

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and died.

Paraphrase

Your ancestors ate that stuff called “what is it?” which God provided to sustain them while they were in the desert, but they still died.

John 6:50

Translation

This is the bread which comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die.

Paraphrase

This is the true sustainer of life which is provided by God; anyone who eats it will not die.

John 6:51

Translation

I myself am the living bread which has come down from heaven, if anyone eats this bread he will live to the age,

and the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Paraphrase

I and only I am the true source of real life which has been provided by God; if anyone plugs into this source of life he will live forever. Now the source of life that I offer the world so it can have life is my body as a sacrifice.

John 6:52

Translation

The Jews were arguing with one another saying, How is this man able to give us his flesh to eat?

Paraphrase

The Jews started arguing with one another, saying, What does this guy mean by saying he will give us his body to eat?

John 6:53

Translation

Therefore Jesus said to them, I say to you, Amen, amen,

If you have not eaten the flesh of the Son of Man, and have not drunk his blood,

you do not possess life inside you.

Paraphrase

Then Jesus said this to them: Listen to me. This is important; you need to get this. If you have not plugged into Me as the source of true life, and if you have not subjected yourselves to the covenant made with my blood, you don’t possess true life, only a cheap copy of it.

John 6:54

Translation

The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood possess eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day,

Paraphrase

The one who plugs into me as the source of true life, and subjects himself to the covenant made in my blood possesses life that will last forever, and on the final day I will raise him up from the dead to a life that is eternal,

John 6:55

Translation

For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

Paraphrase

because my source of life is the source of true life and is the only source worth seeking, and the covenant made by my blood is the most important covenant of them all, the only one worth seeking.

John 6:56

Translation

The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides

in me and I in him.

Paraphrase

The one who plugs into my source of life and submits to the covenant made by my blood will always be present with me and I will always be present with him.

John 6:57

Translation

Just as the Living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

Paraphrase

Just as the Father who is the source of all life sent me and I live because I am plugged into the Father, so the one who is plugged into me will live because I will be his source of life.

John 6:58

Translation

This is the bread that has come down from heaven; it is not like what the fathers ate and then died. The one who eats this bread will live to the age.

Paraphrase

I am the source of life that has come directly from God; I am not like the temporary provision for life that our ancestors ate and then later died. The one who is plugged into me as a source of life will live forever.

Jesus was saying that whoever did not take part in His sacrificial act could not have salvation. But whoever took that shed blood for himself as a life-giving sustenance would be under His covenant and enjoy life for eternity. In the end the image of drinking His blood is the twin brother to the image of being sprinkled by His blood. His blood (his covenant) and His flesh (the sacrifice of His life for ours) are the only true source of spiritual sustenance, the only thing one can be nourished with in order to have eternal life. The result of participating in, or taking for one’s self, the sacrifice of Christ, is that we will have a close bond to Him (he “abides in me, and I in him”). The converse is also true; the one who does not take Christ’s blood for himself will die.

As seen in these two passages, the Bible clearly indicates that those of us under the New Covenant also pass through the blood (are sprinkled) and thus are committed to following the covenant stipulations. We are not on our own, left to decide what we can and cannot do; we are under obligation to follow His orders as precisely as we possibly can, aided by His Spirit.

The next lesson in the Full and Midsize series on Covenants is: We Can’t Change the Rules

Footnotes

1

The text does not include the word “mountain” in vs 18, but readers who knew Jewish history would know it was a mountain. The text doesn’t even include the word “something.” Also, the word mountain is used in vs 20, and it is contrasted with Mount Zion in Vs 22, so it is safe to assume that “mountain” is implied.

2: "mediator"

Moses is considered the mediator of the Former Covenant, and you will notice how we call the Law the Law of Moses even though it was God’s law. In the same was Jesus was the one who made the New Covenant possible.

3

The name Abel can mean “breath or vapor.” It is different form of the key word of Ecclesiastes, where it means “vapor-like.”

4

“to the age” means “forever.” It is a shortened version of the phrase “to (through) the ages of the ages,” i.e. “on and on.”

5

When “Amen, Amen” were used at the beginning of the sentence instead of at the end, it is an emphasis marker, intended to point to an upcoming statement of pivotal importance, one that will be essential for understanding what is being said in the entire passage.

6

Blood was mentioned here as Jesus looked ahead to His death. When He said these words no one fully understood what He meant, but after he died and rose again His disciples remembered them and understood them because His blood now fulfilled a role they had not understood before.

7

Eternal life does not mean we will not see physical death, rather it means we will be separated from our bodies, we will rest and wait for a while and then He will take us to a place where we will enjoy true life that is unending.

8

“Abides” can also mean “remain, dwell” and also “be present.” Here “to be present with” seems to fit best. The idea of “to be present” carried with it a sense of extreme longevity, “to be present always.”