Being included into the visible, Christ-confessing covenant community (the church) is only the beginning of the story of our Christian life. There is still the living of the Christian life. As the Reformed churches understand Scripture, the church is essential to the Christian life. This distinguishes us from some Christian traditions, especially in America, where rugged individualism (which can be a social and economic virtue) is assumed to be the pattern of the Christian life. In contrast to those who view the visible church as irrelevant to the Christian life, for whom the Christian life is a solitary endeavor, the Scriptures describe and prescribe the Christian life in the context of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12–27).
The Inauguration Of The New Covenant Church
In the institution of the Lord’s Supper (Holy Communion or the Eucharist), our Lord Jesus said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out on your behalf” (Luke 22:20).1 There is a rich background behind Jesus’ carefully chosen words. In the Hebrew Scriptures, covenants are said to be “cut.” In Genesis 15:18, the Hebrew Bible says, “Yahweh cut a covenant that day with Abraham.”2 The Scriptures use the verb “to cut” deliberately because, in the Ancient Near Eastern world, covenants were made over the bodies of dead animals. The parties to the covenant swore oaths together to the effect, “may it be to me as it is to these animals if I break this covenant.” So, the verb was used both figuratively and literally. In the verses immediately prior, we read that Yahweh instructed Abraham to bring him animals (a heifer, a goat, a turtledove, and a pigeon), which Abraham did. What he did next might shock us now, but it was quite normal in Abraham’s world. He proceeded to cut in half most of the animals (except the two birds) and to lay them out carefully. He even had to chase away the birds of prey from the carcasses (Gen 15:9–11). This is how covenants were made. We make similar promises today when we sign papers to get married or to take out a mortgage. In those, we agree to financial and legal penalties if we do not fulfill our promises.
Then the story becomes even stranger. Yahweh then caused Abraham to fall into a deep sleep and then he promised him:
Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete (Gen 15:13–16).
Remember, Abraham was asleep when the Lord made these promises.
Finally, while Abraham was still sleeping, after it was dark, Yahweh caused a flaming torch to pass between the pieces that Abraham had cut up. Then the Lord “cut a covenant” with Abraham by saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites” (Gen 15:18–21). Abraham did nothing. The Lord was promising, and more than that, it was Yahweh in the symbol of the torch, who passed through the pieces. In Abraham’s context, the Lord was taking on the obligation of the covenant promise. He was saying, may it be to me as it is to these animals if I break covenant with you. This is to say that he will surely fulfill it. This is a truly gracious and spiritual covenant, even if it is cast in typological terms.
So, for the Lord Jesus to say, “this is the new covenant in my blood,” is to say, in effect, “I am about to be cut in two, as it were, for your sake.” The new covenant was to be cut in his flesh for us.
Thus, the new covenant was inaugurated at the institution of the Holy Supper but the new covenant church was established at the feast of Pentecost. We see this in Acts chapter 2. The miracle of Pentecost had just occurred—that is, the Spirit has been poured out on the Apostles (Acts 2:1–13) and, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter has preached the law and the gospel to the multitude assembled in Jerusalem for the feast (Acts 2:14–36). Luke tells us that “when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?'” To which, the Apostle Peter replied, “repent and be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Because the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far away, whomever the Lord our God might call” (Acts 2:37–39).3
Here we see the earliest moments of the new covenant church, which begins with a reversal of the curse pronounced at Babel (Gen 11:1–11). By the power of Holy Spirit (Acts 2:15), the gospel has been announced and heard by Jews from “every people group under heaven . . . each in his own language” (Acts 2:5,6).4 Sin has been prosecuted and the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus has been announced. Just as Abraham and his sons were initiated into the visible church in Genesis upon repentance and faith (Gen 17:1–7), so it is under the new covenant. Furthermore, the promise that God made to Abraham, to make him the father of many nations (Gen 12:2; 15:5; 17:6), is being fulfilled. The gospel is to go to all the nations, out of whom God is going to call his elect to new life and true faith (Mark 13:27). There were about 318 people in Abraham’s household (Gen 14:14) who were added to the church then. At Pentecost, however, about three thousand souls were added to the Christ-confessing covenant community (Acts 2:41), and that is only the beginning as the gospel ministry is on its way to “Judea, Samaria, and the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8), which we begin to see already in the rest of the book of Acts.
The Apostolic Program For The Church (Acts 2:42)
And they were devoting themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and to the communion—that is, the breaking of the bread—and to the prayers (Acts 2:42).5
In the previous section of Acts 2 we saw the new believers (and, according to Acts 11:14; 16:15, 31, their households) were baptized into the church just as Abraham and his household were circumcised into the church (Gen 17:22–27). Here we get the architecture of the Christian life lived in the Christ-confessing covenant community: the apostolic teaching, holy communion, and the prayers.
Next time we turn to the three aspects of church’s life in Acts 2:42.
Notes
- My translation. In the Greek text of Luke 22:19 the verb “to give thanks” is the root of our English word Eucharist, which is one of the most ancient Christian ways of referring to the Lord’s Supper.
- My translation.
- My translation.
- My translation.
- My translation.
©R. Scott Clark. All Rights Reserved.
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R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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