A contract is an agreement between two people, but a blood covenant is an unbreakable commitment. Ancient people symbolized it by exchanging possessions and declaring that what belonged to one belonged to the other. They mingled their blood to symbolize that their agreement was unbreakable. God declared by Jeremiah (CH. 31) that He would establish a new covenant with ancient Israel, one that would be unbreakable. Here is how God put it: “The day is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife. I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins. I, the LORD have spoken!” Six hundred later, Jesus came to earth to institute the New Covenant. He died on the cross shedding His blood to formalize the covenant. The Bible teaches that God offers that new covenant to everyone. He declares that the sacrifice His Son offered is sufficient to atone for the sins of all humanity. Yet it only takes effect for us when we repent of our sins and by faith accept God’s Son as our Savior.
