Do you know or understand the difference between a contract and a covenant? A contract is simply a written (or spoken) agreement intended to be enforceable by law between two parties or entities. It establishes clear expectations, prevents disputes, and protects the rights of all parties involved. Contracts are used in many different business situations, like the purchase of a home.

A covenant on the other hand, from a biblical perspective is much stronger than a contract. Marriage should be entered into as a covenant. There would be far fewer divorces if couples entered into this solemn relationship as covenant partners.

Blood covenants have been an important part of many cultures not just the ones described in the Bible. It is a promise between two tribes or even individuals and covers an agreement of peace, mutual assistance (protection) in peace and war from mutual enemies as well as provision for each other. They cut this covenant with blood and usually other gifts. The honor of each tribe is at stake and covenant-breaking rarely happens. Even cultures that have no relationship with Jesus understand the value of covenant and the importance of blood. 

In the Old Testament, we read about covenants God made with an individual and their family where God Himself is the initiator and keeper of that covenant. God made covenants with Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, and David. But the greatest covenant of all, foreshadowed in these covenants is the New Covenant. Jesus Himself became the “Lamb slain before the foundations of the Earth.” His blood sits on the Mercy seat in heaven bearing witness to the eternal covenant our merciful God made for us. It is a unilateral covenant, meaning all of the responsibility for keeping that covenant lies upon Him. Nothing we can do to earn it or break it. It is unconditional. Most other covenants, like the marriage covenant mentioned above, are bilateral (conditional) – both parties have their part to play in upholding their part of the contract or covenant.   

Jesus gave us a model at His last Passover meal with His disciples right before His death. We are encouraged to continue to implement and celebrate this meal often. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26) Communion is the ultimate reminder of the covenant Jesus gave to us, at the costly price of His own life.

I don’t take communion every day but I do it most days in my home. For me, it is an intentional celebration that will help to shift your expectations and understanding of the power behind the bread and juice. If I am with others when we celebrate together (at church and in one of my weekly meetings) I am encouraged that others have embraced this covenant as their own. I think many in the church do not have a very good understanding of the power of celebrating our New Covenant. I am constantly asking the Holy Spirit for more understanding and revelation concerning the power of the blood of Jesus. It can be a purposeful and proactive part of our relationship with the Lord. I believe it is a prophetic act – that it has tangible results in the spiritual realm. It can release something into the atmosphere that causes a breakthrough, perhaps to a specific prayer area. It alerts the spiritual realm to whom I belong. I acknowledge that I am a daughter of the Most High God with all of the rights and privileges that He has made available to me. This is not pride or presumption but a declaration of the reality of Whose I am and who I am!

One of the promises that our New Covenant makes is healing for our bodies. I purposely include in my confession of His provision the healing aspect of this amazing covenant. I love to quote and meditate on Isaiah 53. This prophet saw into the future to when Jesus would become the Lamb of God on the earth as he proclaimed: “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness: and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his way: and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of My people was He stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked – but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge, My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

What an amazing portion of scripture that was written 700 years before the birth of Jesus! Isaiah saw and captured the revelation of Messiah perhaps better than any other prophet although I am convinced that others like Noah, Moses, Abraham, and David had encounters with the Lord that were equally profound.  It was Isaiah who was able to articulate the spirit and content of this Covenant that would far surpass the other covenants that God had made with his predecessors. He laid out in detail the atoning work of Jesus through His suffering and identification with all of our sins, sicknesses, griefs, and sorrows. Each of these previous covenants captured the essence of it through the types and shadows portrayed but it was Isaiah that gave us undeniable details that should have enlightened every educated, religious Jew, especially during Jesus’ incarnation (time here on earth as the God-man). How anyone could read this chapter and not know that Isaiah was proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth – our Savior and the Lamb of God, is beyond my comprehension. Celebrating this New Covenant by partaking in the Communion elements is one way to testify of our relationship to Him as our Savior and Lord.