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A. Introduction:

1 Cor 11:24-25, "And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁵In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”"

This is Paul's instruction to the church at Corinth as a result of some problems that they were having in their fellowship as a local assembly, see verses 17-22.

Paul was recounting the instructions of our Lord during the Passover supper in the upper room on the night our Lord was betrayed, Mat 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:14-20.

Luke 22:14, "When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. ¹⁵And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; ¹⁶for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; ¹⁸for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹And when He had taken some bread and 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.” ²⁰And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in My blood. ""

The word "new" is the Greek adjective KAINOS (Kahee-nos') that means “new” or “fresh”.

"Covenant" is the Greek noun DAITHEKE (Dee-ath-ay'-kay) meaning covenant, will, or testament. Joseph Thayer defines it as a disposition, arrangement, of any sort, which one wishes to be valid, the last disposition which one makes of his earthly possessions after his death, a testament or will, a compact, a covenant, a testament, (i.e. God’s covenant with Noah, etc.)

A covenant is a contract between two parties. Party of the first part is God. Party of the second part is certain categories of mankind.

B. Two New Covenants

So what is this New Covenant and its meaning to Church Age believers? To begin we need to note that there are two New Covenants:

1) The New Covenant to Israel.

The New Covenant to Israel is for all Jewish believers of the Millennium and will not be effective until the Millennial reign of our Lord when as King He will act as mediator for Israel. Jer 31:31; Heb 8:8, 13; 9:15

Heb 8:13, "When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear."

Heb 9:15, “And for this reason He is the mediator of a New Covenant, since a death has taken place resulting in the redemption from the transgressions which were under the first covenant, so that those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”

This signifies the fulfillment of the Law/Old Testament which was a shadow of Jesus Christ's work on the Cross and Millennial reign. Once He completed His work on the Cross, which culminated in death, He was free to deliver the promises of the first covenant, eternal kingdom.

The first covenant includes four unconditional "clauses" being the four covenants to Israel.

a) A Kingdom, called the New Covenant

b) A King/throne, called the Davidic Covenant

c) A Land, called the Palestinian Covenant

d) A People, called the Abrahamic Covenant

e) The fifth covenant to Israel is conditional called the Mosaic Law

2) The New Covenant to the Church.

The reason this is a New Covenant to the Church is the fact that Jesus Christ's efficacious work on the Cross, for the forgiveness of our sins, provides for mankind a new spiritual heritage during the Church Age. It provides for a new spiritual species through regeneration, eternal life, and a Portfolio of Invisible Assets during the Church Age.

C. A Covenant needs a Mediator.

A mediator is an intermediary between two parties in conflict to effect reconciliation. A mediator is an intermediator between two parties to effect reconciliation and to provide special benefits (our Portfolio of Invisible Assets) to the ones (believers) being reconciled.

In Biblical covenants, party of the first part (God) makes a favorable disposition to party of the second part (mankind), and that constitutes the covenant.

In the book of Hebrews there are unconditional covenants to individuals (Abrahamic and Davidic), a New Covenant to born again Israel in the Millennium, and a New Covenant to the Church.

You cannot have a New Covenant without a mediator. In the Church Age we have both a mediator and a New Covenant. The New Covenant to the Church is operational now and made to all Church Age believers.

D. Jesus is qualified to be our Mediator

Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant to the Church.

The mediator must be equal to both parties in the mediation. To be equal with mankind, our Lord had to be equal with Adam before he sinned. Jesus Christ in hypostatic union and living the prototype spiritual life provided by God the Father and God the Holy Spirit has equivalency with both God and man which qualifies Him as the mediator between God and man.

1 Tim 2:3-6, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior, who desires all mankind to be saved and come to an epignosis knowledge of the truth. For God (the Son is) one (in essence), and one (person is) a mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom (substitute) for all (mankind), the (statement brought out in) testimony at the proper time.”

The correct translation of verse 5 is “For God is one”, not “For there is one God.” This tells us that God is one in essence but three in persons. Therefore, Jesus Christ is equal to the party of the first part, God the Father.

The phrase "the man Christ Jesus" emphasizes His equality to the party of the second part, Man. This qualification was made possible because of His virgin birth (He was born without sin) and He remained without sinning for 33 1/2 years. Therefore, He is qualified to be the mediator (go-between) between God and man to ratify both the New Covenant to Israel and the New Covenant for the Church.

Heb 12:24, “To Jesus the mediator of a New Covenant, ...”

He is the one who intervenes between the two parties (God and man), either in order to make or restore peace and friendship, or to form or ratify a compact / covenant. He is the medium of communication and arbitrator of the covenant.

Jesus Christ has reconciled us to God the Father by removing the barrier between God and man (sin).

Eph 2:14, "For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups (Jew and Gentile) into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, ¹⁵by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity."

Mediatorship means, “be reconciled to God.” While our Lord was bearing our sins on the Cross, He was functioning as our mediator, reconciling the world to Himself. There is no reconciliation to God without the mediatorship of Christ.

E. Jesus Christ had to be a mediator before He could be a Savior.

Our Lord was born a mediator and had to demonstrate that in His perfect body, He would not fall into the same trap as Adam and commit a personal sin. Our Lord became a mediator at the point of His virgin birth. He became our Savior on the Cross. Because He is the only mediator, He is the only Savior. Christ qualified as our mediator for thirty-three years before He could be our Savior, and He could not reconcile us to God until He became our Savior on the Cross.

This can be called the concept of equivalency. Jesus Christ cannot be a mediator unless he is born with the same human perfection that Adam had before he sinned. Jesus Christ had to be equivalent with Adam before the fall. Jesus Christ could not be a mediator if His only equality is with spiritually dead humanity. Therefore, our Lord had to maintain His perfect humanity without sin for thirty-three years.

Mat 1:23,“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”"

Heb 4:15, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin."

The phrase “the man Christ Jesus” in 1 Timothy 2:5, is the title of our Lord as both true humanity and God united into one person in hypostatic union as our mediator. God cannot be our Savior because God cannot go to the Cross. God must become a man to go to the Cross.

F. His motivation was Love for mankind.

Our Lord made a decision to become true humanity and a mediator and provide salvation from the motivation of impersonal love for all mankind, John 3:16, 13:1.

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

John 13:1, "Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end."

Only as a mediator is Jesus Christ qualified to reconcile mankind to God. Therefore the decision to become a mediator requires motivation and action—to go to the Cross.

To be a true mediator in the reconciliation of man to God, Jesus Christ had to become true humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever. Therefore, our Lord was motivated by impersonal love for all mankind in eternity past to make a decision to become true humanity, so that He could perform the action of offering Himself as a sacrifice for all mankind. Good motivation results in good decision, which produces good action.

John 13:3, "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, ⁴got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself (as a Priest)."

G. As a priest our Lord could offer Himself as a sacrifice.

The New Covenant required the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, His efficacious offering of the blood, so that God the Father can ratify a New Covenant.

Heb 9:16, "For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. ¹⁷For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. ¹⁸Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood."

Heb 12:24, "And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel."

“Blood” means redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. The blood of Christ links animal blood in the representative analogy of the Law with the saving work of Christ on the cross.

No one has the right to offer a sacrifice unless he is a Priest. A Priest represents mankind to God. Therefore, Jesus Christ not only had to be a mediator, but He also had to be a Priest.

1) In eternity past God the Father appointed Jesus Christ a High Priest, Psa 110:1, 4.

2) He became our mediator at the point of the virgin birth.

3) He became our Savior on the Cross.

The Mediator Priest offered Himself as an efficacious sacrifice on the cross. The Father was propitiated. The covenant was ratified.

As a mediator He could reconcile each one of us to Himself. But our Lord had to be a Priest in order to be a mediator and offer Himself as a sacrifice to God the Father.

With His Priesthood, Jesus Christ had motivation in His love to become a mediator and provide salvation for every person in the human race.

1 Tim 2:4, "Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Heb 9:14-15, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the agency of the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works? And for this reason He is the mediator of a New Covenant, since a death has taken place resulting in the redemption from the transgressions which were under the first covenant, so that those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”

Heb 7:27, “[Jesus Christ] who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, because of this He did once and for all offer Himself.”

H. Salvation has always been the same.

Salvation through the blood of the New Covenant is the same as salvation through the blood of the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Law. Under the Mosaic Law, the Jews remember salvation through the blood of the animal sacrifices, which taught about the saving work of Jesus Christ. Under the blood of the New Covenant, Church Age believers are saved through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ. We look back to the cross; they looked forward to the cross.

You cannot be a member of the Royal Family of God in the Church Age until you believe in Jesus Christ. No Jew can be a recipient of the New Covenant unless he believes in Jesus Christ. So salvation and the blood of Christ is a part of every dispensation in human history. The blood of Christ is related to the New Covenant and to the Church in regards to our eternal salvation.

When we drink from the cup, we remember what our Savior did for us on the Cross. Drinking itself portrays faith, because drinking is a non‑meritorious function as is faith.

Mat 26:27-28, "And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins."

I. At salvation we enter into the grace contract.

Christ, our High Priest, is the mediator of a perfect contract between man and God. At salvation we entered this grace contract, and the contract requires nothing else on our part. God has contracted to do everything for the Royal Family as a matter of grace.

Your spiritual life is based on what God the Father provided through the mediator, God the Son, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The person who rejects the saving work of Jesus Christ on the Cross insults all three members of the Trinity and is headed towards the eternal lake of fire.

Heb 10:26, "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth (and rejecting it), there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries."

Heb 10:29, "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God (reject the gospel), and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?"

You are insulting all three members of the Trinity when you do not execute this spiritual life. You must have motivation to live your spiritual life. You must make decisions from your motivation to live the spiritual life. You must take action based on your decisions.

Motivation to live the spiritual life should be personal love for God the Father as demonstrated through metabolizing Bible doctrine that circulates in the stream of consciousness and applying it. Virtue demands that you be motivated by love and Bible doctrine.

Heb 8:6, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much that He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on the basis of better promises.”

The better covenant is the New Covenant to the Church.

J. For a covenant to become operational four categories must be effective:

1) God as party of the first part,

2) The Church as party of the second part,

3) A mediator to reconcile both parties, and

4) A priest to perform an efficacious sacrifice by which reconciliation with God is made.

This New Covenant to the Church is a spiritual legacy to the Royal Family of God and authorizes the royal priesthood. It applies only to those who are born again. It is God’s grace disposition to the Royal Family in time and eternity. Therefore, the covenant calls for the Royal Family to live forever in the Holy of Holies, Rev 21-22.

K. The New Covenant to the Church rescinds and supercedes the old covenant to Israel.

The old covenant to Israel, the Mosaic Law, has been rescinded and replaced with a better covenant—the New Covenant to the Church, Heb 7:18-19.

All Church Age believers are under a New Covenant with a royal priesthood, High Priest, and Mediator, which is different. Mat 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 3:6; Heb 7:22; 10:29; 12:24.

L. The New Covenant and the Royal Priesthood.

The New Covenant to the Church authorizes the royal priesthood of the Church Age. In order to make a covenant to all believers, we have to have a priesthood. The New Covenant authorizes a new priesthood and a royal priesthood of the Church Age, 1 Peter 2:5, 9. The specialized priesthood, the Levitical order of Israel is set aside.

With this priesthood, we are to administer this new Covenant to others, i.e. bring the gospel to them.

2 Cor 3:6, "Who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

The New Covenant to the Church is the basis for establishing the Royal Family forever. Part of the plunder of Jesus Christ's strategic victory on the Cross is the establishment of the Royal Family composed of Church Age believers only.

The strategic victory of Christ in the Angelic Conflict interrupts the Age of Israel and voids the old covenant. But it does not void the unconditional covenants to Israel.

The New Covenant to the Church includes its priesthood, its royalty, its escrow blessings, sharing God’s happiness, and the operational power system of God for the believer, (GPS).

M. Summary of the Authorizing Covenants for Priesthood.

1. The Mosaic Law authorizes the Levitical priesthood of the Age of Israel.

2. The New Covenant to the Church authorizes the royal priesthood of the Church Age.

3. The New Covenant to Israel authorizes the Levitical priesthood of the Millennium and the millennial temple of Ezek 40-48.

N. Jesus Christ is our unique High Priest.

1. He is unique because He was appointed by God the Father in eternity past, Psa 110:4.

2. He is unique because He is the only High Priest in history to be born as Adam was created. He has to be equal with both parties in the mediation—He is equal with God as God, and He is equal with Adam before the fall as true humanity.

3. He is the only High Priest to be filled with the Holy Spirit from birth, Isa 11:2; 42:1; Mat 12:18; John 3:34.

4. He is the only High Priest to offer Himself as a sacrifice.

5. He is the only High Priest who offers eternal life to anyone who believes in Him.

6. He is the only High Priest to be born perfect and remain perfect under the greatest pressure and temptation of all time, Heb 2:17-18, 4:15.

7. He is the only High Priest to test and prove the prototype spiritual life, which has now been given to us.

8. He is the only High Priest in a resurrection body.

The Church Age is the time of the formation of a royal priesthood, which in resurrection body will function as Priests forever, 1 Pet 2:5, 9; Rev 1:6.

O. The Distinction of the New Covenant to Israel.

The New Covenant to Israel is found in Gal 4:4; Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:8-12, 10:15-18. The New Covenant to Israel is the authorizing agent for the restored Israel in the Millennium. The New Covenant to Israel replaces the Mosaic Law for the function of Israel’s priesthood and all Israel in the Millennium. There will be animal sacrifices in the Millennium authorized by the New Covenant to Israel as a memorial to the death of Christ, and this is not a shadow.

P. The Shadows and the Reality.

All shadows of the old covenant point to the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the reality. He is the guarantee of a better covenant between God and man, Heb 7:22. The blood of the Covenant has set us aside as Royal Family, Heb 10:29.

So the New Covenant found in our Priest, Mediator, Savior, Jesus Christ provides eternal salvation for all of mankind that is only effective to those who believe in Him. This is an everlasting covenant making Church Age believers Royal Priests forever that cannot be rescinded. It is also a New Covenant promise to Israel of her own personal kingdom in the Millennium and into eternity with our Lord sitting on the throne of David in the Promised Land of Palestine over the people of Abraham, Israel.