the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
Hebrews 7:22
‘Surety of a better testament’
Read Jeremiah 32:37-40 ; Hebrews 8:10-12
The covenant of grace is that solemn agreement between the three persons of the Holy Trinity for the everlasting salvation of God’s elect. The covenant was ordered and made sure in all its details before the foundation of the world. The covenant is God’s immutable, unalterable purpose of grace towards his elect. It is sometimes called ‘the will,’ sometimes ‘the testament’ and sometimes ‘the covenant’ by the inspired writers. But it is clearly revealed, both in the Old and the New Testaments, that our salvation was planned, purposed and made sure in this everlasting covenant of grace by God’s eternal decree (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Jeremiah 32:38-40; Ephesians 1:3-14; 2 Timothy 1:9-10).
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Surety of the covenant. That is to say, God entrusted his glory, his grace and his elect people to his Son, who agreed to assume full responsibility for them, much like a man would entrust his sheep to the care of his son as a shepherd (John 6:37-40). A surety is a representative man, who lays himself under obligation for the one he represents (Genesis 43:8-9). In this sense Christ is our Surety. He drew near to God on our behalf, and laid himself under obligation to God for us, for our eternal salvation (Hebrews 10:5-14).
Christ voluntarily became our Surety. Suretyship, to a man of honor, is a voluntary bondage (Proverbs 6:1-2); and when Christ became our Surety in the covenant of grace, he voluntarily placed himself in bondage to his Father until his service was performed (Isaiah 50:5-7; John 10:16-18). In this sense, he became his Father’s Servant. Christ is an absolute Surety. Whatever God required for our salvation, Christ agreed to perform for us. He willingly became responsible to God for his people, for both righteousness and satisfaction. His work as the Surety of the covenant will not be complete until he presents all God’s elect before him in glory, ‘holy and without blame’. Therefore he says, concerning his elect, ‘Them also I must bring.’ If so much as one of his elect should perish, he would be a failure and must bear the blame forever. And that cannot be!
