Ratifying the New Covenant

(Galatians 3:15-18)

A covenant is the same thing as a will. It is put in place to define what will happen after a certain condition or situation occurs.

To ratify something is to bring it into effect. In the case of a will, the condition that ratifies the will is the death of the individual making the will.

The New Covenant came about by the making of a promise between God and Abraham. But the covenant did not come into effect until after a death had occurred. That death was the death of Christ.

The Covenant of the Flood

This section of scripture explains and provides insight into understanding the covenants made between God and man. God has made a number of covenants with man that He has ratified in various ways.

For example, after the floods that destroyed the entire known world with the exception of Noah, his family and the animals on the Ark, God made a covenant that He would never again destroy the world through water. The seal and sign of this covenant was the placing of the rainbow in the heavens that appears after every period of rain.

Now we know today that the rainbow is created by the refraction of light through the rain, breaking the light into the spectrum of colours that we recognise as the rainbow.

Does this mean that God did NOT make the rainbow a sign of His covenant not to flood the world and it is just a natural phenomenon? Not at all. It is my belief, although it is only opinion, that the conditions were ripe for this to occur, in accordance with the plan of God. He just held back the waters until the Ark was complete and Noah and his family were safely aboard. This is how I believe (it is my opinion only) that the flood unfolded.

There appears to be evidence from the Bible that prior to the flood it had never rained upon the earth. All the fresh waters of the world were bound up in the sky and underground. But when God chose to destroy the world by a flood, He opened the heavens and the freshwater springs of the earth to dump all of the freshwater in the system onto the world in one fell swoop. It rained solidly for forty days and nights destroying everything in the world.

After the rains ceased, all of the water that had been held in the atmosphere was now on the ground and the weather conditions we see today where water is evaporated into the clouds and then falls as rain began. There was no possibility of a recurrence of a universal deluge because the rain was no longer captured in such volume in the atmosphere. And I believe this was God’s plan too so that He could make the promise of not flooding the earth again and use the rainbow, which appeared for the first time after those flooding rains, as the sign and seal of His covenant not to flood the world again.

Am I correct in believing this? To be honest I don’t know, but from things I have read both in the Bible and elsewhere, I believe this explanation could be plausible. It takes nothing away from the scientific explanations of these things and it also takes nothing away from the biblical position of God as Creator and controller of the world and the whole Creation. And we must remember that the greatest scientist of all is God.

The New Covenant

Moving on to other covenants, we should look at this scripture under review. It is clear that what we call the New Covenant actually pre-dates the Old Covenant of the Law by some four hundred and thirty years.

16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many; but, referring to one, “And to your offspring,” which is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. (Galatians 3:16-17)

The original covenant that was given to Abraham that his descendants would inherit the world in the kingdom of God was not ratified until Jesus came and died to ratify that covenant. The Old Covenant that was given through Moses did not change or negate the promised covenant from God to Abraham, and we will see why that Old Covenant was given in my next post.

The promise of God was to Abraham and his “offspring” meaning ONE offspring. The offspring this promise referred to was Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus that all of the promises of God given to Abraham have their effect and completion.

The inheritance promised to Abraham came by a promise. It was not enshrined in a law and was not part of the law given to Moses and the children of Israel. The inheritance was given by a covenant promise, and that covenant came with the appearance and more importantly, the death of Jesus Christ.

Jesus taught the details of the covenant to His disciples and they spread the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the covenant of promise after He died. His death marked the ratification of the covenant after which it could not be changed, just as a human will cannot be changed once ratified by the death of the person making the covenant (ignoring the legal challenges that go on today!) Even the Old Covenant of the Law was not brought into effect until a death had occurred. In that case it was the sacrificial death and the shedding of the blood of sheep, goats and bulls that ratified the covenant. When all the law had been given, Moses sprinkled the blood to ratify the covenant as we see discussed in the following verses.

16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Hence even the first covenant was not ratified without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. (Hebrews 9:16-21)

Likewise, the New Covenant has been ratified by the shedding of the blood of Christ. We have now received those promises made to Abraham and ratified by Christ Jesus. We have access to the freedom promised by the old prophets and the way to enter God’s Kingdom now.

Christ’s death achieved many things. It opened the way for man to enter into the kingdom of God, as discussed in John chapter 3. For those who have faith it sets man free from sin and releases man from the law.

But overriding all of these, none of this would have been possible until the covenant was ratified. And that was the first critical aspect of the shedding of the blood of Christ; to ratify the New Covenant and set the wheels in motion for us to receive the promises.

The study of the ratification of the New Covenant and all it means is indeed a fascinating study.

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