Tag: Matthew 26:28 For this is the blood of the New Testament

The Redeemer Shall Come!

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“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion…”
Isaiah 59:20

Ready or not, was what we shouted when we were ready to open our eyes to find those who hid from us in the game of Hide-and-Seek. But today, we are past the times of games. There is no more time for playing.

The Redeemer shall come and those who are repentant, who turn from their transgressions and sins will meet Jesus face to face!

Oh, what a day that will be! The chains and the shackles of this world will be permanently loosed and true freedom will come once and for all. God’s people will rise to reign in victory because the Redeemer has come!

At Jesus’ first coming He was a babe in a manger who grew to become our Savior; our sacrifice on the cross. At His second coming, He’s coming with all the power of heaven to judge: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works,” (Matthew 16:27).

For those who remain unrepentant, it will be a fearful time: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” (Matthew 24:30, emphasis added).

Luke 21:25-28 explains further that it is going to be a time for the “distress of nations, with perplexity” and also of “men’s hearts failing them for fear.” That the “powers of heaven shall be shaken,” then, they will see the “Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (v.27).

The end of verse 28 encourages us to, “Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh!” The Redeemer is coming, ready or not!

The Redeemer is coming for His people. God had long ago established a direct covenant with His people from the time of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 15; 17:1-7).

But Jeremiah 31:31-33 foresees a new covenant that God will write on the hearts of mankind. The “new” that God was doing would not resemble the same as He established with their forefathers. “New” did not mean recycled or upcycled to God. New meant new. A new way of doing things. A new story to tell. A new deliverance to grant to a lost and dying world. New!

The idea behind the new covenant is for restored lives, regardless of ethnicity or background. This restoration will take place when people are made new spiritually. People are made new when they enter into a new relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus. When they do, God forgives their sins. It’s the message behind the Bible, it’s the message centered in the Gospels, and it is the message carried through to Jesus Christ on the cross, the testator of the New Testament, the new covenant (see Hebrews 9:14-22).

At the Lord’s Supper, Jesus declares, “For this is the blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins,” (Matthew 26:28). Jesus was and is the Source of the new covenant, the Redeemer that would take away the sins of the world to those who accept Him:

  • “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,” (John 1:12, emphasis added).
  • “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,” (Galatians 3:26, emphasis added).
  • “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God, (Ephesians 2:19, emphasis added).
  • “Ye are Christ’s!” He has secured membership for you and me. He has redeemed us and set us in place to be called His own. We are now “joint-heirs” with Him, we are connected with Him, (Romans 8:17, emphasis added).

The Bible tells us, “Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!” (Psalm 31:19, NKJV, emphasis added). God promised a Redeemer and our Redeemer is coming back! We who belong to Him have something to get excited about!

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth,” Job 19:25

Job knew where his trust lies, and we know today, that in Christ is our redemption: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,” (Colossians 1:14).

Victory is ours. New life is ours. Our Redeemer is real and He saves, and He is coming back again! Get ready!

Text Free Image by giografiche from Pixabay

“I will remember My covenant!”

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There once was a time in our history where God, due to His righteousness in comparison to the sinfulness of mankind, had to take actions to cleanse what had become polluted. We know the familiar story of Noah and the flood, when only eight people out of all the people who lived on the earth at that time, were saved (Genesis 6-9).

In chapter eight, after the events of the flood took place and Noah built an altar to worship God (Genesis 8:20-22), God determined in His heart that He would not curse the ground in such a way ever again to destroy everything and that while the earth remained so would seedtime and harvest.

God, in chapter nine, relayed this promise to Noah and his sons, saying, “And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Genesis 9:14-15).

In the future, they had this promise to cling to because some days there would be gray skies and fearsome weather. Some days storms will blow and cause the world to look like it was being torn apart, but God said to them they had no reason to fear these times because “I will remember my covenant.”

How much comfort must those words have brought in turbulent times? How much peace must they have felt by holding on to God’s Words of His faithfulness to keep what He has spoken?

Remember the time of the Exodus? When God commanded the lamb to be slaughtered and blood to be placed on the doorpost to cover His people (Exodus 12). God spoke, “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13). God had a promise that would keep His people and bless them from being destroyed.  As His covenant people, God was going to protect them!

Words such as these are pivotal to our Christian faith. They stand as reminders that, we too, are covenant people and God always keeps His covenant.

On the night of His arrest, the last Passover celebration Jesus would celebrate here on earth with His disciples, also to become known as the Lord’s Supper, Jesus spoke these words, “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). Through His sacrifice, they who by faith accept the Lord Jesus Christ, are found in a covenant relationship with God: “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Hebrews 8:6).  

In Christ, you are secured in His holy covenant. In Christ, you have a blessed and better promise to hold on to:

“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:11-15)

Regardless of the gray skies in your life and the storms that blow or even the floods that rise, God is never far from His people. The Bible reminds us of this wonderful truth, saying, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). The blood of Christ has placed us in the safest place we could be, in a pure covenant with God, and God always remembers His covenants and those who are part of it.

“I will remember my covenant”, though spoken to Noah, are words of promise that we can hold on to as children of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, today, and forevermore.  

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