How Does Covenant Blood Produce Obedience?
Hebrews ties Christ’s resurrection to “the blood of the eternal covenant” and immediately connects that resurrection to God working obedience in us. Why? Because the covenant that raised the Shepherd is the covenant that remakes the sheep.
How Does the Blood of the Eternal Covenant Raise Us into Obedience?
“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…”
—Hebrews 13:20–21
The writer of Hebrews closes his letter with a benediction that is anything but sentimental. It is dense with covenant logic, resurrection power, and the very architecture of Christian obedience. These are not throwaway words. They are the Spirit’s final summary of how the Christian life actually works.
Resurrection-powered transformation
Why does Hebrews say that God raised Jesus by the blood of the eternal covenant? Why tie the resurrection to covenant blood? And what does that mean for the way we live, desire, obey, and press on? These questions are not academic curiosities. They are the very questions that determine whether we understand the Christian life as Scripture presents it—not as moral striving, not as spiritual self-improvement, but as covenant-secured, resurrection-powered transformation. If we misunderstand this, we will misunderstand everything else.
The Resurrection Stands on Covenant Blood
The phrase “by the blood of the eternal covenant” is not poetic flourish. It is the Spirit’s explanation of why the Father raised the Son. The Greek construction is instrumental: God brought again from the dead—anagagōn (ἀναγαγών)—a compound verb meaning “led up” or “brought up,” suggesting not merely revival but ascent from the realm of death itself. The resurrection is not a disconnected miracle. It is the covenantal vindication of a finished atonement.
Jesus himself taught this. “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again” (John 10:17). The resurrection is the Father’s public declaration that the Son’s obedience unto death was perfect, complete, and covenant-fulfilling. Paul says the same: “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death… therefore God has highly exalted him” (Philippians 2:8–9). Isaiah foresaw it: the Servant would “make an offering for guilt,” and therefore “he shall see his offspring” and “divide the spoil” (Isaiah 53:10–12). And Paul again: Christ “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). The resurrection is the divine announcement that the covenant has been kept.
Any theology that treats the resurrection as a mere display of power detached from atonement misses what Scripture binds together. The resurrection and covenant blood are not separable themes but a single truth: Christ rises because the covenant is complete. If Christ’s resurrection is covenant-secured, then our hope is covenant-secured. The Shepherd lives because the sacrifice succeeded.
The Risen Shepherd Is the Power of Our Obedience
Hebrews does not stop at explaining how Christ was raised. It immediately tells us what that resurrection now accomplishes in us. The God who raised Jesus “by the blood of the eternal covenant” now equips—katartizō (καταρτίζω)—a term meaning to repair, restore, or bring to proper working order, used of mending nets (Matthew 4:21) and restoring the fallen (Galatians 6:1). God equips us with everything good that we may do his will and “works in us” what is pleasing in his sight. The resurrection is not merely historical; it is operative. The risen Shepherd is not distant; he is active.
Paul says we “walk in newness of life” because Christ was raised (Romans 6:4). The power at work in us is “the immeasurable greatness” of the very power that raised Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19–20). Peter says we are born again “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3). And Paul again: our entire moral orientation is now shaped by the fact that we “have been raised with Christ” (Colossians 3:1–4).
This is not moralism. This is not self-help Christianity dressed in biblical language. Obedience is not human-powered but resurrection-powered, and the Shepherd who died for us now lives in us, producing what he commands.
The New Covenant Does Not Merely Forgive—It Transforms
Hebrews calls it the “eternal covenant,” but Hebrews 8 and 10 identify it as the new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31. And what does that covenant do? It does not merely pardon; it creates obedience.
“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). The term law—torah (תּוֹרָה)—does not mean mere legislation or external code but instruction, direction, the Father’s wise guidance for flourishing life. This is not external instruction. This is internal transformation. Ezekiel says God will give a new heart and a new Spirit and will “cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27). Hebrews says the single offering of Christ “perfects” and “sanctifies” (Hebrews 10:14). Paul says the Spirit writes the law—nomos (νόμος), the Greek equivalent—”on human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3), echoing Jeremiah’s promise with New Testament fulfillment.
Any view that reduces the new covenant to forgiveness alone truncates what God promises to do. The new covenant does not merely remove guilt; it produces holiness. God does not leave us to fail. He writes his will into our desires.
If God Works in Us, Why Are We Still Commanded to Work?
Paul holds the tension with surgical clarity: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). We work because God works. We obey because God has already acted. We strive because resurrection power is already inside us.
The command to work out—katergazomai (κατεργάζομαι)—means to carry to completion, to bring to full effect what is already present. Paul is not telling us to begin our salvation but to unfold it, to let what God has worked in become visible in our lives. This is not contradiction. It is covenant logic. The commands of Scripture are not demands placed upon the spiritually dead. They are invitations given to the spiritually raised.
Neither passivity (“let go and let God”) nor legalism (“try harder”) honors what Scripture teaches. Both distort the covenant reality. We work because God works, and our trembling is not fear of abandonment but awe at divine indwelling.
Blood-Bought Obedience in Real Life
Paul says the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us (Romans 8:4). He says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). And Hebrews says we must “strive for holiness” (Hebrews 12:14).
Every holy desire is resurrection echo.
Every act of obedience is Shepherd-led.
Every step of repentance is covenant-secured.
Every movement toward Christlikeness is blood-bought.
This is not abstract theology. Consider the believer who wakes in the morning and chooses prayer over distraction, who speaks truth when silence would be easier, who extends forgiveness when bitterness would feel justified. These are not isolated acts of human willpower. They are the risen Christ working in us what pleases him. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that inclines our hearts toward obedience, redirects our affections toward holiness, and sustains our perseverance through suffering. The blood that secured the covenant secures every step we take in faithfulness.
Holiness is not optional. The covenant that raised Christ raises us into obedience. The resurrection life is not a theological concept we affirm but a living reality we inhabit—daily, hourly, in every choice and every struggle.
Because the risen Shepherd works in us
We began with Hebrews 13:20–21—the God of peace raising Jesus “by the blood of the eternal covenant” and then working in us what pleases him. Now we see why the Spirit placed those truths side by side. The resurrection that vindicated Christ is the resurrection that empowers us. The covenant that raised the Shepherd is the covenant that remakes the sheep. The blood that secured his life secures our obedience.
If the blood that raised the Shepherd is the blood that remakes the sheep, how could obedience ever be anything less than resurrection life at work within us? So we press on—not merely equipped, but transformed—because the risen Shepherd works in us what pleases him. And when we falter, when obedience feels impossible, when holiness seems beyond reach, we remember: the same power that brought Christ up from death is already at work within us, carrying us forward into the likeness of the One who loved us and gave himself for us.