The Two Covenants

The New Covenant

The New Covenant was made with Moses, and can be found in Exodus 19:

Exodus 19:5-6 – And now, if ye really hearken to My voice, then ye have kept My covenant, and been to Me a peculiar treasure more than all the peoples, for all the earth [is] Mine; and ye – ye are to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation: these [are] the words which thou dost speak unto the sons of Israel. (YLT)

Unlike the Old Covenant, this covenant is conditional. It says that only those that obey God’s voice will be priests in the kingdom of God. This covenant is talking about salvation. This New Covenant is explained in more detail in Leviticus 26. Here are some exerts from the chapter:

Leviticus 26:3-7 – If in My statutes ye walk, and My commands ye keep, and have done them, and I have given your rains in their season, and the land hath given her produce, and the tree of the field doth give its fruit; and reached to you hath the threshing, the gathering, and the gathering doth reach the sowing-[time]; and ye have eaten your bread to satiety, and have dwelt confidently in your land. And I have given peach in your lain down, and there is non causing trembling; and I have caused evil beasts to cease out of the land, and the sword doth not pass over into your land. And ye have pursued your enemies, and they have fallen before you by the sword; (YLT)

Leviticus 26:15-17 – and if at My statutes ye kick, and if My judgments your soul loathe, so as not to do all My commands – to your breaking My covenant – I also do this to you, and I have appointed over you trouble, the consumption, and the burning fever, consuming eyes, and causing pain of soul; and your seed in vain ye have sowed, and your enemies have eaten it; and I have set My face against you, and ye have been smitten before your enemies; and those hating you have ruled over you, and ye have fled, and there is non pursuing you. (YLT)

Those that obey God and understand His full plan will be successful in their lives as seen in verses 3-7. Evil will not be able to destroy them. People against them will fall to their good will. On the other hand, those that disobey God will have pain in their souls as seen in verses 15-17. They will be destroyed by evil.

The Old vs. The New

Now here is where people get confused. The Old and New Covenants contradict themselves. By the Old Covenant, mostly everyone would be thrown into the lake of fire to pay for their sins. However, this New Covenant says that anyone who obeys God will be saved from the lake of fire. Which covenant is correct? To answer this, look at Galatians and Hebrews:

Galatians 3:15-22 – Brethren, as a man I say [it], even of man a confirmed covenant no one doth make void or doth add to it, and to Abraham were the promises spoker, and to his seen; He doth not say, And to seeds, as of many but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ, and I say, A covenant confirmed before by God to Christ, the law, that came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not set aside, to make void the promise, for it by law [be] the inheritance, [it is] no more by promise, but to Abraham through promise did God grant [it]. Why, then the law? on account of the transgressions it was added, till the seed might come to which the promise hath been made, having been set in order through messengers in the hand of a mediator – and the mediator is not of one, and God is one – the law, then [is] against the promises of God? – let it not be! for if a was given that was able to make alive, truly by law there would have been the righteousness, but the writing did shut up the whole under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ may be given to those believing. (YLT)

Hebrews 9:14-17 – how much more shall the blood of the Christ (who through the age-during Spirit did offer himself unblemished to God) purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And because of this, of a new covenant he is mediator, that death having come, for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those called may receive the promise of the age-during inheritance, for where a covenant [is], the death of the covenant-victim to come in is necessary, for a covenant over dead victims [is] steadfast, since it is no force at all when the covenant-victim liveth, (YLT)

Galatians 3:15 says that once a covenant has been agreed to by both parties, it cannot be changed or nullified. However, the Old Covenant was a one-way unconditional promise by God. Abraham had no say in the covenant because he was asleep (Gen. 15:12). Therefore, if a separate covenant is made that in which both God and man agreed to, it can change the previous covenant. This is exactly what the New Covenant is.

Galatians 3:19 as well as Hebrews 9 says that Jesus Christ was the mediator for the New Covenant. This means that Jesus was needed to make the New Covenant valid. Remember that by the Old Covenant, man was liable to be thrown into the lake of fire for our sins. So the death of God’s perfect Son, Jesus, pays that debt to satisfy the Old Covenant, and opens the door for the New Covenant. Remember that the New Covenant is conditional; only those that obey God can be saved from the lake of fire. So after the death of Jesus, all we have to do is have faith and obey God to be saved from the lake of fire. This is salvation.

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