Daily Devotions
Sunday, August 31, 2025
“Christ Himself, the priest presiding, Yet in bread and wine abiding In this holy sacrament, Gives the bread of life, once broken, And the cup, the precious token Of His sacred covenant.”
God made a covenant, an agreement, with the people of Israel, telling them, “If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples” (Exodus 19:5b). The people agreed to obey the Lord. Animals were sacrificed and Moses sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices, the blood of the covenant, on the people to seal the divine agreement. This is the old covenant, or old testament, the agreement between God and His people that gives us the title of the first books of the Bible. As we learn in the history of that covenant, the people of Israel did not obey as they promised.
Yet behind and before the old covenant or testament, there was another covenant of God. It was a new covenant, new in the timing of its fulfillment, new in the kind of covenant that it is, but it was not new to God. Already in the Garden of Eden, God announced the way the covenant would be fulfilled. The Offspring of the woman—Jesus our Lord—would come to defeat the tempting serpent and deliver people from sin and death. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God described His new covenant. It was not like the covenant that Israel had broken through their disobedience. In the new covenant, God would write His Law, not on tablets of stone, but on the hearts of His people. According to this new covenant, God promises, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34b).
The old covenant was confirmed by the blood of sacrificed animals. The new covenant is confirmed and sealed in the blood of Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb who was “foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times” (1 Peter 1:20b). At the Passover meal on the night before He died on the cross, Jesus gave His disciples the bread, saying, “This is My body.” He gave them the cup of wine, saying, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). God’s new covenant was sealed in the blood of His Son. In the Lord’s Supper we receive Jesus’ body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins, as “the precious token of His sacred covenant.” It was a covenant known to God for all eternity, but for us it is wonderfully new, the shining promise of God’s steadfast love and grace. It is the covenant promise that our sins are forgiven, washed away in the blood of His Son.
WE PRAY: Lord Jesus, I give You thanks and praise for the precious gift of Your body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of my sins. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler. It is based on the hymn, “Jesus Comes Today with Healing,” which is number 620 in the Lutheran Service Book.
Reflection Questions:
- What was the purpose of God’s covenant with Israel in Old Testament times? How did Israel fail on its end of the arrangement?
- How does the new covenant God has made through the blood of Jesus surpass the Old Testament covenant?
- How does partaking of Communion strengthen and renew our faith?
Today's Readings:
2 Chronicles 15-162 Corinthians 5