OLD COVENANT VS. NEW COVENANT
In my last blog post, I wrote about why the New Covenant is such a big deal. Since we are under a New Covenant, if we try to live our lives according to the Old Covenant we will be met with frustration, failure, and fear. The Christian life will not work!
In this blog post, I want to explore more of the differences between the Old Covenant and New Covenant.
Understanding these differences has changed my life and the way I live the Christian life, and I think it will do the same for you.
TYPES OF COVENANTS
In his fantastic book, Jesus Changes Everything, Bob George outlines various types of covenants before analyzing the differences between the Old and New Covenants.
Here’s a summary of the various aspects of covenants as he outlines them in his book.
Unilateral or Bilateral
A unilateral covenant is one-sided. All the duties and responsibilities rest on a single party in the agreement.
A bilateral covenant is two-sided. Both parties have duties and responsibilities in the fulfillment of the covenant.
Conditional or Unconditional
A conditional covenant is one that says, “If you do this, then I will do that. But if you don’t, then I won’t.”
The covenant depends on the performance of the parties involved and failure to keep the conditions breaks the covenant relationship.
An unconditional covenant is a covenant where one or both parties are responsible to fulfill their promises regardless of the other party’s actions.
Temporal or Perpetual
A temporal covenant is one that has a beginning and an endpoint. There is some event or time limitation that causes it to come to an end.
A perpetual covenant has no end in view. When God is involved, a covenant can continue forever since He is an eternal being.
WHAT TYPE OF COVENANT WAS THE OLD COVENANT?
Bilateral
In Exodus 19, the Israelites reached the Desert of Sinai, and Moses went to talk to God on the mountain. God met Him there and spoke to Moses. There he outlined the covenant that would be established among them and how it would work.
5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” 7 So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. 8 The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.”
(Exodus 19:5-8)
As you can see, this is a bilateral covenant. Both parties had duties and responsibilities.
The Israelite’s job was to obey God, and God’s part was to make them his treasured possession and into a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Both the Israelites and God would have to participate in their part of the covenant since this was a two-sided covenant.
Conditional
You can clearly see the conditions of the covenant by the IF-THEN statement that was made by God in Exodus 19:5.
5 Now IF you obey me fully and keep my covenant, THEN out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.
(Exodus 19:5)
If-then statements are conditional. If the conditions are met, then there will be a certain kind of response.
The Israelites had to obey God fully for His part of the covenant to kick in.
We see in Deuteronomy that if the conditions were met that they would receive blessings, but if they were not met then they would be cursed.
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God…15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you.
(Deuteronomy 28:1-2, 15)
This was a covenant based on performance. If the Israelites could perform well, then they would be blessed. If they failed in their performance of keeping the rules and obeying the commandments, then they would be cursed.
Temporal
In Galatians 3:19 the apostle Paul says…
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions UNTIL the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.
(Galatians 3:19)
The Old Covenant was temporary. It was only given until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.
The Seed is Jesus. The Old covenant was only meant to be in effect until Jesus came and established the New Covenant.
The author of Hebrews reminds us of this truth by saying that since the New Covenant has now been established, the old one has now been made obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).
WHAT TYPE OF COVENANT IS THE NEW COVENANT?
Unilateral
In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, God foretells the new covenant that He would establish when Jesus came. Here is what He said.
33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
(Jeremiah 31:33-34)
Repeatedly, God says “I will.” There is no mention of anything that His people will have to do.
This is a one-sided covenant. All duties and responsibilities of the covenant rest on a single party, God.
Unconditional
There is no IF-THEN statement in this covenant. God does not say in the New Covenant that if we hold up our end of the bargain that we will be blessed and if we don’t that we will be cursed.
Let that sink in. As a New Covenant believer, you are in an unconditional covenant. You are not more blessed if you perform well, and you are not cursed if you fail in your obedience.
You already have all of Jesus, all of the time, and in Him, you have all of His blessings. Wow!
Perpetual
If God is an eternal being, and He establishes a one-sided, unconditional covenant then it will last for all of eternity. There will be no end to this covenant.
The Old Covenant was temporary because it was never meant to save us and bring us the Life that we were missing. The law couldn’t bring us Life. But since God fulfilled the Old Covenant through Jesus and put His eternal Life in us, then all the work is finished. This is the final covenant, and it will never end.
OLD COVENANT VS. NEW COVENANT CONCLUSION
The New Covenant is a unilateral, unconditional, perpetual covenant that has replaced the Old Covenant.
Unfortunately, I still see so many Christians trying to live as if they are under a bilateral, conditional covenant, and it leads to failure and frustration.
Jesus didn’t come to die on the cross and establish a New Covenant for you to put yourself back under the Old.
He isn’t keeping a close eye on you to do your part so He can either dish out blessings or curses on you.
He did all the work for you and gifted the benefits to you by His grace. He wants you to rest. He wants you to enjoy Him. He wants your intimacy. He wants you to trust Him and His work through you.
For the New Covenant believer, the Christian life is a life of receiving from Jesus and trusting in what you already have in Him and what He is doing through you in your eternal relationship with Him.
Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant, the new agreement God established, and the one under which we live today.
This is the change that makes all the difference in the history of the universe and all the difference in your life and mine
- Bob George
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