Are you familiar with Biblical covenants? Reading the Bible without understanding covenant is like going to a medicine cabinet when you are ill and swallowing whatever pills you find. You might get better, or you might get sick and die.
All medicine is good, but not all medicine is good for you.
In the Bible there are at least five covenants between God and man. But the two biggies are those by which we divide the scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, or the old and new covenants.
(Pro tip; the old covenant does not begin in Genesis 1 and the new covenant does not begin in Matthew 1. The old covenant began at Mt Sinai, while the new covenant began at Mt Calvary.)
The old vs the new covenant
Understanding the difference between the old and new covenants is essential if we are to rightly divide the scriptures:
- Old covenant: Man makes promises to God and breaks them repeatedly
- New covenant: God makes promises to himself and keeps them forever
At the foot of Mt Sinai the Israelites boasted:
We will do everything the Lord commands. (Exodus 19:8)
What a foolish boast! What the law demands you cannot provide. Your flesh is incapable of delivering a perfect performance – which is the whole point of the law-keeping covenant.
The law is not your ladder to success but your fast track to failure. The law is designed to humble the proud and silence the boastful so that all may see their need for grace.
In contrast with the old covenant, the new covenant is based on God’s unbreakable promises to us.
I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. (Jeremiah 32:40)
The difference between the old and the new is we will versus he will.
In the old, we broke our word again and again, but in the new God keeps his word forever. We no longer wobble on the shaky ground of our resolve, but we stand secure on the Rock of Ages.
If you have been making and breaking promises to God, give up. Repent of your pride, stop saying “I will,” and put your faith in the “I wills” of God.
Reading scripture through a new covenant lens
Jesus’ death on the cross was the single most important event in history. It brought about a conclusion or end to the old covenant and it ushered in the new covenant.
What is the new covenant? The new covenant is a covenant of grace where God blesses us with new life and divine favor for no reason other than it pleases him to do so.
Before the cross the old law covenant reigned, but after the cross a new covenant based on grace made the old covenant obsolete (Heb. 8:13). Under the old covenant you were blessed if you were good, but under the new covenant we are blessed because he is good.
When reading any scripture in the Bible we need to ask, what does this passage mean in light of the cross? Consider these contrasts from scripture:
- Before the cross we were blessed when we obeyed and cursed when we disobeyed (Deu. 11:26–28). But after the cross we are blessed because we are forgiven (Rom. 4:8) and we are redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13).
- Before the cross we forgave in order to earn God’s forgiveness (Matt. 6:14). But at the cross we were unconditionally forgiven and we now forgive because Christ has forgiven us (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13).
- Before the cross loving your neighbor meant not coveting his wife or property (Deu. 5:21). But after the cross we love and accept others because Christ loves and accepts us (1 John 4:19; Rom. 15:7).
- Before the cross God was distant and unapproachable (Ex. 19:12). But because of the cross we have been brought near to God to receive mercy and find grace (Eph. 2:13; Heb. 4:16).
More contrasts between the old and new covenant can be found in the table below. (Click the image to download a printable PDF.)
In every way, the new covenant is superior to the old:
- The old covenant failed because it hinged on your imperfect obedience, but the new covenant endures because it is founded on Christ’s perfect obedience unto death.
- The old covenant says you will be blessed if you do good, but the new declares we are blessed because God is good.
- The old covenant warns that you will be punished if you do bad, but the new declares that in Christ you are eternally unpunishable.
Thank God for the new covenant of his grace!
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One way to avoid covenant confusion is to read the Bible with the aid of a new covenant commentary. Here’s one: