The New Covenant Versus the Old

Hebrews 9:24-28 points out that if the spiritual impact of Christ’s sacrifice were not timeless, “Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world” (Hebrews 9:26, NIV).

Before Adam even sinned, it was established that the one who declared “before Abraham came into existence, I AM” (John 8:58) would enter the human race to rectify the catastrophe by bearing in his own holy being the full horrors of all of humanity’s sin.

Like communion, animal sacrifice was never of itself a means of obtaining forgiveness (Hebrews 10:4). Instead, it pointed symbolically to the Lamb of God whose blood was shed on the cross for the forgiveness of humanity’s sin.

Although under the Old Covenant, non-Jews were, in general, always able to become Jews (Many Scriptures), under the New Covenant they can become God’s people without becoming Jews, and hence not to subject to ceremonial law, though of course, still obligated to submit to God’s morality.

The two greatest commands are about love (Matthew 22:37-39) but let’s not forget these are Old Testament commandments, and not just for those living under the New Covenant. In fact, Jesus said they summarize the entire Old Testament (Matthew 7:12; 22:40).

When Paul was still writing some of the New Testament, he reminded Timothy of how God-breathed and invaluable Scripture is (2 Timothy 3:15-18). He wrote, “From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures . . .” Paul had to be referring to the Old Testament, since there would have been little or no New Testament writings accessible to Timothy back then. Of the Old Testament, Paul wrote, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through patience and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).