The Power of the Blood Covenant: Uncover the Secret Strength of God's Eternal Oath

304 Pages·2006·2.09 MB·English

by  Malcom Smith

THE POWER
OF THE
BLOOD
COVENANT
Uncover the Secret Strength in
God's Eternal Oath
MALCOLM
SMITH
HARRISON HOUSE
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The New King
James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Versionof the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are taken from The Amplified Bible, Old
Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified
New Testament,copyright © 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by per-
mission.
Scripture quotations marked (RSV) are taken from The Revised Standard Version of
the Bible, copyright © 1946, Old Testament section copyright © 1952 by the Division
of Christian Education of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America and
is used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible.
Copyright © the Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked (MESSAGE) are taken from The Message. Copyright ©
1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Scripture quotations marked (PHILLIPS) are taken from The New Testament in Modern
English, (Rev. Ed.) by J.B. Phillips. Copyright © 1958, 1960, 1972 by J.B. Phillips.
Reprinted by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, New York.
10 09 08 07 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Power of the Blood Covenant —
Uncover the Secret Strength in God's Eternal Oath
ISBN 13: 978-1-57794-816-5
ISBN 10: 1-57794-816-2
Copyright © 2002 by Malcolm Smith
7986 Mainland Drive
San Antonio, TX 78350
www.malcolmsmith.org
Published by Harrison House, Inc.
P.O. Box 35035
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74153
Printed in the United States of America. All rights re s e rved under Intern a t i o n a l
Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part in
any form without the express written consent of the Publisher.
Table of
Contents
1 What Is Missing? ..........................................................1
2 Welcome to the World of Covenants ..........................11
3 The World of the Living Dead ....................................23
4 The Lovingkindness of God ........................................41
5 The Core of the Covenant ..........................................55
6 The Representative Man..............................................73
7 The Story of Mephibosheth ........................................91
8 The Blood of God........................................................99
9 The Oath of God ......................................................117
10 Entering the Covenant ..............................................137
11 The Covenant Meal ..................................................155
12 Sin Is Remembered No More....................................173
13 I in You, You in Me ..................................................191
14 The Summation of the Christian Life ........................209
15 How To Walk in the Spirit ........................................227
16 The People of the Spirit ............................................251
17 The Friend of God ....................................................269
Afterword..........................................................................287
Endnotes............................................................................291
References..........................................................................295

Chapter 1
What Is
Missing?
B
Before they actually saw it, astronomers were aware that
the planet we now know as Pluto was in the solar system
because of the gravitational influence it exerted on other
planets. My journey into the contents of this book was much
the same.
As I read through Scripture and studied its characters, I
became aware that they knew something that I did not know.
That “something” exerted a tremendous influence over the way
they understood God and His salvation. The bold faith they
exercised with authority was in response to that “something.”
As I studied the Psalms and the prayers of the men and
women of God recorded in the Scripture, I became aware that
their praying and worshipping was in response to a revelation
that they had of that “something.” It became obvious to me
that whatever it was, was the foundation upon which the
people of God built their lives. That “something” was the secret
of their life and walk with God and the basis of their exploits
done in His name.
It showed up the most in the New Testament, where again
I was aware that the believers were responding to something
that I did not know was there. They seemed to look at salvation
through a different lens than the one I was using.
1
The Power of the Blo od Cov e n a n t
I had been re a red to see my salvation through the model of
a court room where I was the condemned prisoner under the sen-
tence of death, and the Judge took my place and paid my penalty,
and I was justified, declared righteous. That was a quite useful
model, but it lacked something I could not put my finger on.
A few weeks after my accepting Christ, I had an experience
of the Holy Spirit that dramatically changed my life; but as I
read and reread the pages of the New Testament, I realized that
the Spirit was the writer’s very life. This very Spirit was the way
they defined and understood their salvation. They knew Him
not merely as an ecstatic experience but as the entire context of
their lives.
It was obvious that they did not have a second or third expe-
rience that catapulted them into this dimension of life. There was
“something” they knew by which they interpreted the cross, the
blood-shedding of Jesus, His re s u rrection, His ascension, and the
giving of the Holy Spirit that I knew nothing about. That same
“something” gave the definition to the work of the Spirit in their
individual lives and in the community of believers that was light-
years beyond my experience of the Spirit.
The Covenant Core
I discovered that the “something” I did not know about was
the covenant God had made with His people. It is difficult for me
now to remember how I looked at the Scripture before I came to
see and understand the covenant. I certainly did not see that
everything was working out from the hidden core of the
covenant. I had a belief system that was incoherent; each part
stood by itself as an island in a sea called Christianity, no part
having any real relation to the other parts. I believed God
created the universe, but I did not see how that related to our
salvation. Salvation was the act of God’s love, but it just hap-
pened without any connection to certain commitments He had
2
What Is Missing?
made. My experience of the Spirit was a glorious add-on to being
saved from sin; I did not see it as vitally part of everything else.
It all lacked the “something” to tie it all together. The
promises of God were the Word of God and utterly reliable, but
again hung in their own space with no relationship to a com-
mitment in blood that God had made.
Faith was a mystery to me. I pondered the authority with
which the heroes of Scripture spoke, and I wondered whence
came the authority for them to speak such wonders and for
God to honor their words. I did not realize they were speaking
out from a prior commitment God had made to them.
Prayer fell into the same category: What did it mean to pray
in the name of Jesus? It seemed limiting and liberating at the
same time. I did not know that His name was at the heart of the
covenant. Even the praise, thanksgiving, and worship in the
Psalms were thanking Him for “something,” which I did not
realize was His covenant and loyal covenant love.
The discovery of the new covenant made in the blood of
God, shed from the wounds of the Lord Jesus, gave to me a new
Bible. My vague sea of Christianity gave way to solid land, and
the islands of truth and experience came together as a whole. I
was introduced to a rest in Christ and an understanding of the
place of the Spirit in my personal life and of the church that I
had never known prior to my discovering the covenant.
A Gospel Without Power
The tragedy is that a vast majority of believers entering
the twenty-first century are blind to the fact that the Gospel
announces and empowers them to be included into such a
relationship with God. Not realizing such a bre a t h t a k i n g
calling, they settle for the weekly round of church serv i c e s ,
attempts at prayer and Bible study, and the keeping of ru l e s
that deal for the most part with the physical life.
3
The Power of the Blo od Cov e n a n t
I am not mechanically minded. In fact, I could be described
as illiterate in things mechanical. In my late teens, I was the
pastor of a small church in a farming community in Northern
Ireland. I visited my congregation at their farms on my bicycle;
and to make my task of visiting the flock easier, one of the
farmers gave me a small motorbike that had belonged to one of
his sons. I had never owned or dreamed of owning such a
machine and took to it with fear and awe. No one told me how
it worked or what I had to do to make it work, and no instruc-
tion book came with the old bike.
I dressed the part with helmet and riding gear and set out
savoring the new experience of being taken to my destination.
Gone were the days of pedaling myself to exhaustion against
a headwind.
The second day out, though, the bike sputtered and died. I
sat sad and confused without a clue as to what might be wrong.
I began pushing the machine along the road. I sweated under
my heavy gear and longed for the old days of a predictable
bicycle. I trudged mile after mile under the sun. I was tempted
to trash the wretched machine in the ditch but did not want to
offend the farmer who had given it to me.
My thoughts of disgust at my gift and despair that so soon it
was broken beyond repair were interrupted by the voice of a
friendly farm e r. He had seen me dragging my load along the ro a d
and called out, “You can have some of my gas, son!” I stopped
in delighted wonder: My bike was not broken, but out of gas!
I have met many Christians who push their lives along the
highway, about to throw it into the ditch because, although
they have the outward trappings of a Christian, they do not
know the powerful energy that is the heart of the believer’s life.
They are pushing themselves to exhaustion, when they should
be propelled by the energy of Another.
4
What Is Missing?
What is the Gospel? If what we believe to be the Gospel is
not the power of God unto salvation, then we need to ask if we
understand it at all.
What is biblical faith? For many, it is the religious version
of the faith spoken of by the writers of self-help books.
How do we stop being terrified of God and begin to truly love
Him? Is it possible to be His friend as well as being His servant?
What is true holiness? It surely must be more than keeping
a list of external rules.
What did Jesus mean by the phrase “I in you and you in Me?”
It sounds like a lot more than going to church twice a week!
How do we overcome temptation? Is it a matter of strong
willpower and determination?
How is it possible to love unlovable people? How can
we love one another as Jesus loved us? How can we forg i v e
the unforgivable?
Tragically, there are millions of believers who are as edu-
cated in the answers to those questions as I was in how the
motorbike works.
Let me share a letter with you that I received the other day:
Dear Malcolm,
You do not know who I am, and I have never met
you, but a friend of mine told me he has been greatly
helped by your teaching and he gave me your address
and urged me to write. I trust you will read this letter
and give me some answers.
I am writing to you because my Christian life is a
disaster and I have nowhere to turn. I am in a position
of leadership in my church, and if I shared with the
pastor or any of the deacons the way my life is, I do not
know what would happen. I know I would no longer
be welcome in the church. I pray that you will read this
and be able to help me.
5
The Power of the Blo od Cov e n a n t
Let me say upfront that if you saw me in the
context of the church, in the weekly meetings, in social
gatherings with other church members, or teaching my
adult Sunday school class, you would never imagine
that I am not the person you see.
I did not set out to be a hypocrite. From the very
first, I gave my very best to live for Jesus. I have disci -
plined myself to pray every day and read and even
memorize the Scripture. I honestly set out every week
to live for Jesus. But I fail every time. The life that my
family and the people I work with see is very different
from the one that is portrayed before the church. I have
a terrible temper that I cannot control, however much
I try. I wrestle every day with lustful thoughts, and
when I am out of town on business I watch porno -
graphic movies in the hotel room. I have a brother I
have not spoken to in twenty years and cannot bring
myself to forgive because of a betrayal of confidence
that deeply hurt me. If Christianity is loving as Jesus
loved, then count me out.
But above all, I do not love God; I do not find joy
in my prayer or Bible reading—it is something I do
because I have been told that it will nurture my
Christian life. But my heart is not in keeping His com -
mands and being with Him; in fact, there are times I
have to admit that I envy the world—they look a lot
happier than I ever feel.
Maybe I have continued to live this way for the last
ten years because in the church I can get by with a
veneer that satisfies my peers and leaders. You know
what I mean by veneer—the rules of the subculture we
evangelicals are part of. I went over them the other
day. We are the people who do not do certain things;
we do not go to certain places; we do not smoke or
6