Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd

of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good that you

may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ,

to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13, 20, and 21.

Christ shed the blood of the eternal covenant. By this successful redemption he obtained the blessing

of his own resurrection from the dead. That is even clearer in Greek than it is in English and

here it's clear enough. God brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus by the blood of the eternal

covenant. This Jesus raised by the blood of the covenant is now our living Lord and shepherd

and because of all that God does two things. One, He equips us with everything good that we may do

His will. Two, He works in us that which is pleasing in His sight. The eternal covenant secured by

the blood of Christ is the new covenant and the new covenant promises this. I will put my law

within them and I will write it on their hearts, Jeremiah 31, 33. Therefore the blood of this covenant

not only secures God's equipping us to do His will but also secures God working in us

to make that equipping successful. The will of God is not just written on stone or paper as a means of

grace, it is worked in us and the effect is we feel and think and act in ways more pleasing to God.

We are still commanded to use the equipment He gives, work out your salvation with fear and trembling

but more importantly we are told why. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work

for His good pleasure, Philippians 2, 12 and 13. If we are able to please God,

if we do His good pleasure, it is because the blood-bought grace of God has moved from mere equipping

to omnipotent transforming.