Old Testament vs New Testament – Covenant Differences

The word testament is like our concept of a last will and testament. It is the testimony of someone declaring their will. Typically, the testimony of their will provides some sort of inheritance.

The Old and New Testaments are the testimonies of God revealing His will to us. The Old Testament can be likened to His first draft, and the New Testament to His final one. Of course, God doesn’t need to make drafts, but we will address that in a moment.

The testimonies of God can also be understood as contracts because they are binding agreements in which He makes promises. We use the word covenant to describe these agreements. Therefore, the Old and New Testaments can also be seen as the Old and New Covenants.

What Is the Old Covenant

God promised that if we followed His law, we would never die. We would never feel the sting of death; it would hold no power over us. This is what is meant by the Old Covenant.

However, we do not always obey His voice. At best, we go between obedience and rebellion. We break the covenant. Because of this, we cannot live forever, as God made eternal life conditional on our obedience to His law.

For an unrighteous person, it is unnatural to fully keep the law.

What Is the New Covenant

In the New Covenant, God promises to write His law in our hearts and to be merciful when we fail to keep it. This signifies a transformation of the heart—God’s law becomes not merely a set of rules to follow but an important part of who we are.

God also promised that through this covenant, we would never die. The key difference between this covenant and the first is that the New Covenant does not require perfect obedience to the law in order to receive eternal life. Instead, it assures us that God will have mercy on our sins.

This is the fundamental difference between the Old and New Covenants.

Why Did God Make the Law

You may be wondering why God created two covenants in the first place. If He is all-knowing, wouldn’t He have already known the first one would not work? Of course, He would! So why not start with the second one?

It’s because mankind was already corrupted. We were full of evil. But without a law, how could we truly understand that? Good and evil would become relative rather than objective. Without a standard of righteousness, nothing could truly be called sin.

God made the law to establish that objective standard. He doesn’t want us to be unrighteous; He wants us to be without sin. But the first step is admitting that we have a problem.

1 Timothy tells us that God made the first covenant and its law specifically for the unrighteous—which includes all of mankind! By establishing this objective standard and revealing that we would be judged by it, God made us aware of our own evil.

However, simply knowing we are evil doesn’t change that fact. We cannot keep the law because it is not in our nature.

That’s why God made the second covenant. Instead of writing the law on stone and requiring us to keep it, He promised to write it in our hearts and be merciful when we fail.

So, we see that God established the first covenant to help us understand our need for the second one. He didn’t make it because He wanted to punish us. He showed us our sin first, and then He showed us our Savior.

The unrighteous man will sin and die without God unless he turns to Jesus. Because of the law, no one will be able to claim ignorance of their sin. No one can say they didn’t know. But if we turn to Jesus, we can find mercy for our sins.

What Happened to the Old Covenant

Some claim that the old covenant has been done away with—that the law has been erased. However, this belief stems from a misunderstanding of certain scriptures. Let’s examine a few often-cited passages:

If taken alone, these verses might suggest that the law has been abolished completely. But if this were true, it would contradict other parts of scripture, such as the following passages that affirm the law will never be done away with:

The Word of God does not contradict itself. When we encounter verses that seem to conflict, we need to seek the “bridge” between them, ensuring we understand them correctly without adding to their meaning.

For instance:

• Romans 6:14 says you are not under the law, but it does NOT say the law no longer exists.
• Romans 10:4 says Christ is the end of the law for those who believe, but it does NOT say the law has ceased to exist.
• Galatians 5:18 says if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law, but it does NOT say the law is abolished.
• Hebrews 8:13 says the old covenant is ready to vanish, but it does NOT say the law no longer exists.

If the law still exists, why does scripture say believers are “not under the law”? And why does Ephesians 2:15 say Jesus abolished it?

The Answer

These verses refer specifically to believers. For Christians, the law’s penalty—the wages of sin, which is death—has been paid by Jesus Christ.

A Christian seeks to follow the law because it is written in their heart. They desire to obey it out of love for God. But while they strive to follow it, they are not subject to its penalty, which is death, because Christ has already paid that price.

An unbeliever, however, remains under the law. They are subject to its penalty because they have no Savior to atone for their sin.

For Christians, Jesus’ forgiveness gives them a new heart—a heart that loves God and desires to obey His law. An unrighteous person has no such love for God and thus cannot keep the law, which is founded on love.

This is the difference between being “under the law” and having it become part of who you are. As Christians, we no longer want to break the law because we love it. We try to follow it, not out of fear of punishment, but out of love for God.

The New Covenant

Under the old covenant, people gained the promise through their works. But because we were too weak to uphold the law, God made a better covenant. The new covenant allows us to gain the promise through faith in God’s mercy and forgiveness.

For Christians, the penalty of death required by the law has been paid by Jesus. The law’s power to bring condemnation and death has ended for those who are in Christ. This is why Jesus is called the “end of the law”—He has the final say on who is righteous. The law no longer holds power over those He forgives.

But this does not remove the law from us. Instead, it establishes it within us.

Who Is Under the Law

If Christians are not under the penalty of the law, who is?

1 Timothy 1:9 reminds us that “the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless.” The purpose of the law is to lead people to Christ. Those who turn to Christ are counted as righteous by God because they believe in His promise of forgiveness. However, for those who reject God’s forgiveness, the law remains in effect, and its penalty—death—is still binding.

If a man were to perfectly obey the law, he would never die. But since no one can fully obey it, God, in His mercy, provided a way for us to live despite our failures. This does not abolish the law; it places it in its proper context—written in our hearts through love.

In our next study, we will explore a better covenant.

Continue To Unit 2:5 – The Covenant of Faith – God’s Promise to Abraham OR

Return To Christianity 101 Unit 2 – Sin and Eternal Judgment