The New Covenant In My Blood (Luke 22:20) (Part 4)

by Cornelius Van Til on June 10, 2022 | 1 Comment

Then comes darkness. “Then came darkness upon the face of the earth for the space of three hours from noon til mid-afternoon.” This is the hour and power of darkness. Come forth then all ye that are and shall be bound by chains of darkness forever. A furlough is granted you from hell to attack this pretender that called Himself the Son of Man and Son of God, who said that He would rend the Kingdom from my clutches, as though He, and more than any other man could be called the Son of God. Did not Moses say, “The Lord thy God is one Lord”? As though He could establish a Kingdom of Truth as even standing before Pilate He had the nerve to say that He would.

What becomes now of His boast when He said that, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”? His way is the way unto death. Then too the way of all men will be the way of death. It is the way of death for all men as it is for me. There is no truth and life is life, life unto death. What, Who is the victor now? “Let Him save Himself” they say.

Satan also spake through the mouths of the Scribes and Pharisees to Him who hung upon the accursed tree. One of the malefactors at His side, now sure that all was hopeless, snarled at Jesus, “If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us.” The rulers also with the people derided Him saying, “He saved others, let Him save Himself if He be the Christ, the chosen one of God.” All these were but the tools of Satan. It was Satan that spake through their mouths, they spake with the Spirit and breath of hell upon their words.

But hear Him pray the words of David in the 22nd Psalm, “For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”

But all this is the beginning of sorrows for our Saviour. It was not all this as such that He thought of when He spoke of the New Covenant of blood, it was not this at all as such that He was thinking of when He prayed to the Father and asked if it were possible that this cup might pass from Him. The hour and the powers of darkness He could and did withstand so long as the Father was with Him, but now at last the Father forsook Him. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? All others have forsaken me, that I could bear, but thou, My Father, of whom I have said so often to the people, ‘The Father and I are one.’”

When these words burst from His lips, then He was truly suffering without the gate. Now He senses that it is the Father that has permitted Satan to do all that He did. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? I came to do thy will O’God and now you forsake me as I do it. Is this the cup that I now drink, Satan’s cup? Was Pilate right when in derision he said, ‘what is truth’? Is all life then life unto death as Satan claims that it is? Was it all a dream of Mary my Mother (who) was told that my name was called Jesus because I should save my people from their sin? Have I no people then? Hast thou no people for me to redeem, my Father? Or, will they redeem themselves so that all my suffering for them is not needed at all? Have I been deluding myself all my life when I claimed to be the great High Priest, the great King, and the great Prophet for the people of God?

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It was of this cup, this being forsaken of God the Father, that Jesus spoke when He said at the supper, that His blood was the blood of the New Covenant. And now the New Covenant springs into being. The New Covenant is now being sealed by means of His blood. The Father has forsaken Him, but forsaken Him for the sake of His people, that He had come to save.

How could this spotless lamb of God be forsaken of God the Father for Himself? How could He who had done no sin receive any punishment for sin? Paul has taught us what the suffering of Christ was all about when he said “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree”, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Part 3.

Part 5.

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