The Blood of Everlasting Covenant

Hebrews 13:20-21 “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

The important thing to notice is that Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant and that was signed with His blood. The New Living Translation put together Heb.13:20-21 “And now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ all that is pleasing to him. Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep by an everlasting covenant, signed with his blood. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Jesus Christ is the One who has established the everlasting covenant between God and man. A covenant is an agreement between two persons. He has provided the way for us to approach to God. What is that covenant? How can we approach to God? The covenant is the blood of Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ is the way we approach God.

What does this mean? It means that Jesus Christ took our sins upon Himself and bore the guilt and judgment for our sins. He died as a Perfect Sacrifice and what He did was acceptable to God, a well pleasing to Him.  He established a new and living way into God’s presence; by His death Jesus Christ has established a new covenant, a new agreement between God and man. It is now the will of God for man to approach Him through the blood of Christ; the everlasting covenant.  

In the Old Testament, the everlasting covenant was mentioned in several places such as Psalm 105:8-11 “He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.” Just think: it has always been Christ from the beginning of the Old Testament, Genesis 3:15, the Promised Seed until the New Testament, the Revelation, He is called, “The Blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14, 12:11). Jesus Christ is the Everlasting Covenant.

Hebrews 13:20-21 is a prayer of the writer for the Hebrew believers. It is a prayer to make you perfect, to grow, and to mature in every good work to do God’s will. It gives us a beautiful picture of God and of Christ. God is a God of peace, the Source of peace. God plants the seed of peace within our soul and the peace just grows and grows. In fact, the more we as a person waters and nourishes our relationship with God, the more seed of God’s peace takes over our lives. The question is: Have we done that? It is our only hope for peace is to come to God. God and God alone can give us perfect peace within our heart.

Prayer for you: "And now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing His will. May He produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ all that is pleasing to Him. Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep by an everlasting covenant, signed with His blood. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen" [NLT]. 

May the Lord give us peace since Jesus Christ is our Everlasting Covenant! 

[Footnotes: The Preacher’s outline & sermon Bible; The Full Life Study Bible, Donald C. Stamps]