We know what a last will and testament is. Most of us normally just call it a “will.” A will is a legal document someone uses to transfer title of his property or goods after his death. It’s a way of making sure that what you have is given to those you want it.
But before that happens, before your property or goods are distributed, you have to die. That’s how a last will and testament works. Death is the key. Until your death takes place, there’s no inheritance for someone to receive.
That’s the point the book of Hebrews makes. Jesus gave His last will and testament, which wills to us what He chose to give us: the forgiveness of sins. But for Jesus’ last will and testament to take effect, He has to die. Yet, for Jesus to be able to will us such forgiveness means that He has to do more than die. He also has to shed His blood.
Quoting the Old Testament book of Leviticus, Hebrews says, “Without blood being shed, there is no forgiveness of sins.” And so God has been in the blood business since humanity’s Fall into sin. That’s because God never overlooks sin. He is instead in the business of exposing and, in turn, forgiving it. He doesn’t simply say, “That’s okay. I’ll excuse your wrongdoing.” Instead, He forgives sin. And that forgiveness needs blood!
Hebrews says that even in His first covenant, God did not put that in place without using blood. Hebrews is referring to God’s covenant made at Mount Sinai. Exodus 24 records that for us. There, Moses spoke God’s words of the covenant to all the people. And the people agreed to the covenant with God by saying, “We will do everything the Lord has said” (Exodus 24:3).
Then Moses built an altar at the foot of Sinai. He set up 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel. Sacrificial animals were slaughtered for both burnt and peace offerings. Moses then took the blood of those animals: Half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar; the other half he sprinkled on the people.
It was through the blood of sacrifice that God sealed His covenant with the people of Israel. The blood bound the people to their God and God to His people. And stained with the blood of sacrifice, Israel was cleansed to stand before God.
Through shed blood, God continued to remain in communion with His people. For example, in Leviticus 16, Aaron sprinkled the blood of bulls and goats on the mercy seat in the tabernacle. Now, the mercy seat was on top of the Ark of the Covenant. That was a gold slab with cherubim (angels) attached to it on both ends.
But what’s noteworthy about the Ark of the Covenant is that it had three items inside it. They were the Ten Commandments, a jar of manna, and Aaron’s walking stick, which had earlier budded with leaves.
Manna was the bread-like food God used to feed the Israelites during their 40 years in the wilderness. Manna was also the food the Israelites complained about, showing their sin and lack of gratitude toward God. The budded rod of Aaron was in the Ark because the Israelites rebelled and tried to set up their own priesthood, contrary to God’s command. And of course the Ten Commandments–who can follow those without flaw?
Those three items in the Ark represented Israel’s sins. And how does God deal with sin? He either punishes or forgives. And so to forgive in the Old Covenant, God had the High Priest pour blood on the mercy seat, covering the sins of the people by the blood of a sacrifice. That was the whole point of the mercy seat: it was the place where God brought His forgiveness to His Old Covenant people. Indeed, God’s people were well aware, “without blood being shed, there is no forgiveness of sins.”
That was the first covenant. But Jesus is the Mediator of a new covenant, a new testament, which supersedes the first. This New Covenant is Jesus’ new last will and testament, which God Himself put in place by blood, His Son’s own blood shed on the cross.
No more would priests have to offer an endless procession of goats and bulls for sacrifice. For the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both the High Priest and the Lamb for sacrifice, offers Himself in our place. He pours out His own blood to atone for the sins of the world. From His veins flow the blood that covers our sin, making us pure and holy to stand in God’s presence. His blood gives us an eternal inheritance.
In Newton, North Carolina, stands one of the oldest Lutheran churches in the country. Old St.Paul’s Lutheran Church was around well before the Revolutionary War. St. Paul’s is known, not just because it’s an old church, but because it still has bloodstains that are visible in its balcony.
In the years before the Civil War, slaves sat in the balcony during the worship service. Then people called the balcony the “slaves’ gallery.” One day, the slave of a local plantation owner ran away and hid himself in that balcony, thinking that, after nightfall, he would make his way north and eventually find freedom.
As the story goes, the plantation owner was a man with a hot temper. His search for the runaway slave led him to the church, where he found the slave crouched under a pew in the slaves’ gallery. Then and there, he shot and killed the slave. The bloodstains on the pew and the floor are still there to this day–a reminder of blood shed long ago.
However, the blood of the New Covenant is more than a reminder. The blood of Jesus Christ is a present reality. That’s the blood that our Lord gives you to drink in His Holy Supper. It is the blood of the New Covenant poured out for the forgiveness of your sins.
The blood that dripped from the hands and feet of our Redeemer did more than stain the wood of the cross and redden the ground beneath it. The blood of Jesus Christ atones for the sin of the world. When you take the chalice in the Lord’s Supper, you are not simply remembering a death far away and long ago.
When you drink from the cup of the New Covenant, you are drinking the blood that Jesus shed to forgive you of your sins. As Jesus says: “Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the new covenant that is being poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28).
Yet, because Jesus’ blood forgives you, it also gives you an eternal inheritance. For where you have the forgiveness of sins, you also have life and salvation. Jesus’ death has set His last will and testament in motion. And in it, He names you as an heir–and the gift that He gives is eternal life!
Christ put the New Covenant into effect as He died on the cross. He sealed the New Covenant of pardon with His own blood as it poured out from His precious veins. We know the New Covenant is in effect. The Old Testament predicted the death of the Messiah. The New Testament stands as a faithful witness to His death.
The blood of Jesus commutes our eternal death sentence. The blood of Jesus, shed on the cross, gives us a sure and certain future with our God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–because in His mercy, Christ bled and died. And in His mercy, the precious blood of Jesus still cries out for our pardon. That pardon is ours in the blood of the New Covenant: the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He gives to you in His Supper. Amen.
