Church of God Knowledge Encyclopedia

The Old Covenant

The Old Covenant literally means “an old promise,” but in the Bible it refers to the covenant God made with the people of Israel before the coming of Jesus Christ. The Bible that contains the content of this covenant is called the Old Testament. As a law, the Old Covenant is also referred to as the Law of Moses.

Through His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus Christ established a new promise for the salvation of humanity—the New Covenant. The Old Covenant functioned as a copy and shadow, dimly revealing the New Covenant that was to come.

When the New Covenant was established, the Old Covenant lost its effect. Therefore, in the New Testament age, practicing the regulations of the Old Covenant as they are is an act that separates a person from the grace of Christ. Believers in the New Testament era receive blessings by keeping the regulations of the New Covenant according to the teachings of the New Testament.

Promulgation of the Old Covenant

 
Moses Receiving the Ten Commandments, Raffaello Sanzio, 1518: The Old Covenant was established on Mount Sinai.

The Old Covenant was the covenant that God Jehovah established with the people of Israel through Moses during the Exodus.[1] In the Old Testament it is often recorded simply as “the covenant,” but after the New Covenant was established in the New Testament era, it began to be called the Old Covenant or the first covenant in contrast to the New Covenant. In the Bible, a covenant is a commandment and a law; therefore, the Old Covenant is also referred to as the old commandment or the Law of Moses.

When the Israelites who had come out of Egypt reached the Desert of Sinai, God called Moses up Mount Sinai and said, “If you keep my covenant, Israel will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Then, amid blazing fire, deep darkness, storm, and the sound of trumpets, God proclaimed the Ten Commandments with a majestic voice. He then gave regulations concerning the feasts and various other laws through Moses (Exodus chapters 19–23). When Moses came down from Mount Sinai and conveyed God’s words to the people, they accepted the covenant, saying, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” Moses then sprinkled the blood of the sacrificial offerings on the people, declaring, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you,” and thus the covenant was confirmed.[2] After this, God again called Moses up Mount Sinai and gave him the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments on which the words of the covenant were written.[3][4]

Role of the Old Covenant

Blessings upon Those Who Keep It

The relationship between God and His people was sustained through the covenant. Those who obeyed according to God’s words were recognized as His people, and God promised to be their God and bless them. In the Old Testament era, those who kept God’s commands received physical blessings such as wealth, honor, and protection from their enemies.[5]

When God led the Israelites out of Egypt and toward Canaan through Moses, He did not allow them to enter the land immediately. Instead, He caused them to wander in the desert for forty years. This was a period of testing to determine whether they would faithfully keep the covenant they had made with God.[6] During that time, God gave Israel various commandments, including the Sabbath, and commanded them to observe them. However, most of the Israelites neglected God’s statutes and laws,[7] continually grumbling and complaining, and as a result they perished in the desert. Only Joshua and Caleb—who obeyed God’s words—along with the second generation born in the wilderness, were permitted to enter the promised land of Canaan.[8]

The prophet Jeremiah later explained that the nation of Israel was ultimately destroyed because the people abandoned the covenant they had made with God.[9]

Covenant That Makes Sin Known

 
Jesus Blesses Little Children,  Gebhard Fugel, 1910: The Old Covenant was put in charge to lead us to Christ.

The Old Covenant—that is, the Law of the Old Testament—served the role of making people aware of sin.[10][11] The Law is the standard that reveals what sin is and helps people recognize that they are sinners destined to die.[12] A person who does not realize that he is a sinner feels little urgency for the forgiveness of sins. However, once a person becomes deeply aware of his own sinfulness, the desire to seek forgiveness grows stronger.

As the covenant that exposes sin, the Old Covenant leads people to Christ, who grants the forgiveness of sins. For this reason, the Apostle Paul described the role of the Old Covenant, the Law of the Old Testament, as a tutor—or guardian—leading people to Christ.

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

Galatians 3:23–24


God established the Old Covenant so that humanity would ultimately receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Christ.

Copy and Shadow of the New Covenant

 
The Lamb of God, Francisco de Zurbarán, 1635–1640: The Old Covenant is characterized by its system of offering sacrifices through the shedding of animal blood.

The Old Covenant was established as a model and shadow of the New Covenant that Christ would later establish. The regulations of the Old Covenant reveal, in symbolic form, the system of the New Covenant, which is the reality.


The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

Hebrews 10:1


A prominent feature of the Old Covenant was the sacrificial system, in which the blood of animals—such as sheep, cattle, and goats—was offered in the sanctuary.[13] When the people sinned, they received forgiveness from God through the sacrifice of these animals, which served as substitutes for their sins.[14]

Representative examples are found in the feast ceremonies such as the Sabbath, the Passover, and the Day of Atonement. The Sabbath and Passover were observed with the sacrifice of lambs,[15][16] whereas the Day of Atonement required a bull and a male goat as sin offerings.[17]

The sacrificial system of the Old Testament according to the Old Covenant was also a shadow of the system of the New Covenant. The sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament foreshadowed the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of many.[18] Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the regulations of the Old Covenant were revealed as the reality in the regulations of the New Covenant. Representative examples are as follows:

This entire sacrificial system of the Old Covenant was a shadow of the sacrificial system of the New Covenant. The sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament foreshadowed the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, who became the atoning sacrifice for the sins of many. Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the regulations of the Old Covenant were fulfilled, and their true reality was  revealed in the regulations of the New Covenant. Representative examples include the following:

  • Circumcision→ Baptism
In the Old Testament era, the people of Israel received circumcision as the sign of becoming God’s people.[19] This circumcision of the Old Covenant was fulfilled in the baptism of the New Covenant. Baptism[20]—immersing the body in water—is the “sign of salvation”[21][22] through which a person washes away past sins and is reborn into a new life as a Christian. Just as Jesus died on the cross, the “body of sin” is buried through baptism; and just as Jesus rose again, the one who washes away sins through baptism is also reborn to a new life.[23]


  • The Passover: Liberation From Egypt → Liberation From Sin and Death
The Passover of the Old Covenant commemorated the day the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.[24] Jesus Christ chose this very day to establish the New Covenant, promising the forgiveness of sins[25] to those who keep the New Covenant Passover. Through it, humanity is liberated from slavery to sin and death.[26]


  • The Feast of Firstfruits → The Day of Resurrection
The Feast of Firstfruits was an Old Testament offering in which the first sheaf of grain was presented to God on the day after the first Sabbath following the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Sunday).[27] Jesus Christ became the reality of this feast. As “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” He was resurrected.[28] Just as the offering of the Feast of Firstfruits was presented on the day after the Sabbath, Jesus was resurrected on the first day after the Sabbath (Sunday), thus fulfilling the prophecy of the Feast of Firstfruits.[29]

Completion of the Old Covenant in the New Covenant

 
The Old Covenant was replaced when Jesus Christ established the New Covenant at the Passover, during the Last Supper.

In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, it is recorded that a New Covenant would be established in the future. When the Old Covenant was broken by the sins and disobedience of the people of Israel, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied that God would establish a new covenant with His people.[30] The Apostle Paul testified that this prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus Christ, and that once Jesus established the New Covenant, the Old Covenant became obsolete.

For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant . . . This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. . . . By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Hebrews 8:7–10, 13


Through the Law of Moses—the Old Covenant—no one could obtain complete salvation, that is, eternal life. Therefore, Jesus established the perfect law, the New Covenant, so that humanity might receive full and complete salvation.[31]

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Nehemiah 9:13-14".
  2. ↑ Exodus 24:3–8
  3. ↑ "Exodus 24:12-18".
  4. ↑ "Exodus 31:18".
  5. ↑ "Deuteronomy 28:1–19".
  6. ↑ "Deuteronomy 8:2–16".
  7. ↑ "Ezekiel 20:10–13".
  8. ↑ "Numbers 14:34–38".
  9. ↑ "Jeremiah 22:8–9".
  10. ↑ "Romans 3:20".
  11. ↑ "Romans 7:7-13".
  12. ↑ "Romans 6:23".
  13. ↑ "Leviticus 1:1-5".
  14. ↑ "Leviticus 4:1-35".
  15. ↑ "Numbers 28:9-10".
  16. ↑ "Exodus 12:5-11".
  17. ↑ "Leviticus 16:11-15".
  18. ↑ Matthew 10:28
  19. ↑ "Genesis 17:10-14".
  20. ↑ "Colossians 2:11–12".
  21. ↑ "Colossians 2:12".
  22. ↑ "1 Peter 3:21".
  23. ↑ "Romans 6:3–5".
  24. ↑ "Exodus 12:5-33".
  25. ↑ "Matthew 26:19, 26-28".
  26. ↑ "Romans 6:16-23".
  27. ↑ "Leviticus 23:10–11".
  28. ↑ "1 Corinthians 15:20".
  29. ↑ "Mark 16:1–9".
  30. ↑ "Jeremiah 31:31-33".
  31. ↑ "Matthew 5:17".
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