Old Covenant and New Covenant

 

The word covenant means a binding agreement between a superior and an inferior. In the Old Testament we see several covenants that God makes with individuals like Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and David. God also makes a covenant with a nation, His people, Israel.

 

In Exodus 24 this covenant is confirmed with Israel. Verse 8 says, “And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’”

 

This covenant was confirmed with blood, the blood of animal sacrifices. These animal sacrifices had to be made over and over and the covenant was based on the people obeying all the law that was given to them by God. The purpose of the law was to show God’s people that His standard was more than they could do and for them to look to Him to provide a deliverer to deliver them. But instead of the law leading them to see their sin and failure, they used it as a means of pride and found ways to justify their disobedience. The law then became a burden and a stumbling block to God’s people.

 

Jesus, the Son of God, God in the flesh came to be our deliverer.

 

In Matthew 26:26-29 Jesus is celebrating the Passover with His disciples. In verses 27-28 Jesus takes one of the cups or blessings in the Passover meal, the cup of redemption and says, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

 

Jesus establishes a new covenant not based on the blood of animals, but on His own blood, the blood of God in the flesh.

Jesus establishes a new covenant not based on the law but on grace through faith in His finished work on the cross.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about experiencing the new covenant based in the blood Jesus shed as He died on the cross for our sins.

 

In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” The Law was given by God and thus it was good. But the Law could not justify us or make us righteous. Jesus came as the fulfillment of the law by living a perfect sinless life that obeyed all of God the Father’s commands. So, we depend not on our ability to obey all God’s commands but on Jesus having done that and being the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about depending on Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law and the giving of His life as our perfect sacrifice for sin.

 

In Hebrews 8:7-12 the writer points out why the new covenant established in Jesus is better than the old covenant.

 

The old covenant had faults, but the new covenant is faultless.

The old covenant was exterior, but the new covenant is interior.

The old covenant did not lead the people to know God, but the new covenant enables an intimate relationship with God.

The old covenant temporarily dealt with sin, but the new covenant deals with sin eternally.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about experiencing the superior covenant, the new one based in Jesus and His shed blood.

 

The choice is very clear; depending on a covenant based in keeping the law perfectly or depending on a covenant based in grace through Jesus’ death on the cross where He has fulfilled the Law perfectly.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls,

                         Joe