And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.”
—Mark 14:24

Our Bible is divided into two large parts: one is called the “Old Testament” and the other the “New Testament”. But where exactly does the division between the covenants take place, and how do we divide them rightly? Someone may ask: “Why divide them? Just read the whole Bible and that’s enough.” In fact it is important, because a covenant is an agreement or contract between two parties, and if one agreement is no longer in force, then by fulfilling its terms we are simply doing futile works, or, as Scripture calls them, “dead works”.

The old covenant was made between God and people on Mount Sinai, and it was the covenant of the law. Its essence was this: “Keep the commandments, get the blessings; break them, get the curses.” God found fault with the old covenant, so He did away with it and established a new covenant [Heb.8:7-8]. As I have already said, a covenant is an agreement or contract between two parties, based on promises. In some churches I have seen believers make all kinds of covenants with God, promising Him something. I want to say that in a covenant with God, only God can be the initiator. For example, marriage is a covenant, an agreement between two parties in which they promise to love each other to the end. So God has made a new covenant with us, based on better promises than the old one.

So when did the new covenant begin? Since the New Testament in our Bible begins with the book of Matthew, many think that is when the new covenant began. In fact, a covenant is ratified with the blood of a sacrifice. [Heb.9:18] When was the sacrifice of the new covenant offered and its blood shed? On the cross, of course! That is exactly when the new covenant was ratified and came into force. This is very important to understand, because when we read Jesus’ words in the Gospels, we take them as promises of the new covenant, but Jesus said that He could not tell them many things, because they could not bear them or understand them. [Jhn.16:12] Why could they not bear them? Because Jesus had not yet been crucified and the Holy Spirit had not yet been given [Jhn.7:39], and without the Holy Spirit we cannot understand the promises of the new covenant. [1 Cor.2:9-10]

Since the new covenant is ratified with blood, to understand the promises of the new covenant better we need to understand the power of the blood on which it is ratified. Once my daughter was talking with a brother who was trying to convince her that a believer can lose his salvation if he sins a lot, and then go to hell. She simply told him — and I believe it was inspired by the Holy Spirit: “Look, when the Israelites put the blood on their doors and stayed at home, then regardless of their behaviour the angel of death could not touch them and kill them, for only one reason: the blood of the lamb was on their doors. How much more are we now under the protection of the blood of Jesus.” Hallelujah! If even in the old covenant the blood of animals could keep a person from death regardless of their behaviour, how much more will the eternal blood of the Son of God protect and keep you and me today, not only from hell but from every evil! Amen!