Thanks Walter.
A couple of notes:
1. The Jews were already in a covenant to remove their sins by the blood of bulls and goats. So that doesn't apply to us. Jesus was demonstrating his authority to forgive sins as God and it was triggered by the faith (belief) of the man's friends.
2. The New Covenant had not been offered yet. This agreement holds the blood value of Jesus death. It allows us to trade places with Jesus. He dies in our place as a substitutionary atonement, and we gain a perfect sin debt record.
he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. - 2 Cor. 5: 21