The Death of the Testator

Christ is the sacrifice that sealed the New Covenant, that executed its promise to take away our guilt and judgment.

Old Testament covenants, like the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, were sealed with sacrificial blood, but those sacrifices were ceremonial in nature.

Not so the Lord Jesus' blood shedding at Calvary! It is the power of the New Covenant, it is the operation, it is that blood that executes the provisions of the New Covenant, because Christ's blood takes away the sin of everyone that trusts in Him.

Christ's sacrifice is indispensable to the fulfillment of the New Covenant, because the promises could not be carried out without Jesus' death for sinners.

Not only so, but Hebrews informs us that by Christ's blood the saints are made perfect to perform every good work to do God's will. Thus the sacrifice of Jesus performs upon us the other promises of the New Covenant - to make us to know and obey God's will.

There yet remains something unique about the death of the Savior in the performance of the New Covenant, which is often missed by believers. Perhaps it is missed by the choice of words by the translators of Scripture.

The New Testament, referred to by Christ and by the writer of Hebrews, is the New Covenant. Why did the translators choose to switch the word from "covenant" to "testament?"

The answer is laid out in Hebrews 9, where it is revealed that the New Covenant is a type of covenant different from all the old covenants in an additional, crucial way.

Not only is it unilateral, not only does it save, not only is it better, but it is in the form of Jesus' will and testament.

It only goes into force upon the death of the testator.