No covenant is binding until it is confirmed by a sacrifice in which each party gives and takes. God sacrificed His only Son, whose death confirmed the everlasting covenant so that “they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15-17, R.V.). Human beings on their part must sacrifice the present world and even forsake all that they have in order to make the covenant binding on their behalf so that they can receive the promised inheritance over which the covenant is made.

Biblical tradition mentions covenants contracted between God and Noah (Genesis 6:18; 9:8-17). These are clearly referred to as covenants, requiring a certain obligation on the part of Noah and certain promises from the Lord. This is a prelude to biblical covenants where the promise plays an important role.

The Lord contracted a covenant with Abraham, with a strong emphasis on the promise. The same God also made a covenant with Moses as mediator at Sinai. Here we can see a new covenant in which the law is read and has detailed description of the necessary stipulations. Here the reference to the Promised Land is taken up. Later, another covenant is formed with David, a covenant which is mainly promissory.

The scriptures speak of two covenants called the “old” and the “new,” which sustain somewhat the same relationship to each other as the old and the new birth. The outstanding text in the Old Testament that mentions these two covenants is Jeremiah 31:31-34, which is quoted in Hebrews 8:6-10. The “first” or “old” covenant is so called chiefly because it precedes the “second” or “new” experience. When Cain tried to save himself by the works of his own hands, he tried in a sense to fit unto the old covenant. However, the most outstanding example of the old covenant was the agreement between God and Israel at Mount Sinai as recorded in Exodus 19:3-8. In this covenant the Lord said to Israel: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. . . . And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” God’s promises constituted His part of the covenant, but they were made on condition that the people carry out their promise to keep His law. After the law was spoken from heaven in the hearing of the people, they repeated their promise to obey “all that the Lord hath said” (Exodus 24:7). The whole nation of Israel fully entered into a solemn covenant to obey God’s law, but they signally failed because they attempted it in their own strength. This is the chief element in the old covenant wherever and whenever it manifests itself. It is attempting salvation by human effort. The sense of the failure of the old covenant and the reasons for the new are set forth in Hebrews 8:6-9, “Now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.” Here we are told that the promises of the old covenant were faulty. It is evident that God’s promises were good, for “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise” (2 Peter 3:9). The Lord would have carried out His part of the covenant if the people had kept their promise. “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,” was the condition on which God made His promises. “For finding fault with them” indicates that the fault was with the promises of the people. A faulty promise is one that is not kept. The people did not keep their promise to obey the law, and therefore the entire covenant was made void. Within forty days the same people who so solemnly promised to obey “all that the Lord has spoken,” soon afterward made a golden calf and worshiped it as the god who had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt.

By human efforts, the attempted obedience to a law written on stone, or in the Bible, or on a chart, is the old covenant regardless of the time in the history of the reign of sin. Every person from Cain to our own day who attempts to perfect character and obtain salvation by his or her own works, depending on human promises and resolutions to obey God’s law, is under the old covenant.

The apostle Paul sets forth the provisions of the new covenant and shows its superiority over the old: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (Hebrews 8:10; 2 Corinthians 3:2-6).

Both covenants were made with the same people, the chosen of God, called “the house of Israel,” and “the house of Judah.” Both have to do with the same law; in fact, the Decalogue is the letter or wording of both covenants. The failure of the old covenant has no effect whatsoever on the validity or perpetuity of the law. The only difference is in the promises regarding the keeping of the law which constituted the covenant. The new covenant is called “a better covenant,” not because it had to do with a better law, but because it “was established upon better promises.”

In the new covenant the Lord promises to write the law, not on tables of stone, but in the mind and heart. In this covenant, humanity makes no promises of obedience in order to obtain the fulfillment of the promises of God. It is the same law written in a different place, a place where it can be kept. It is not right to say that the old covenant was made with the Jews and the new with the Gentiles or that the old covenant was to obey the law and the new abolishes it, freeing human beings from its binding claims.

The new covenant is as old as the plan of salvation. Abel accepted it when he offered the lamb as a faith offering and obtained righteousness by faith. It is therefore called “the everlasting covenant” and “the perpetual covenant,” because it has existed from the beginning and will continue to the end. It is coexistent with “the everlasting gospel.”

Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is the most important part of the forming of a new covenant. The curse of the old Sinaitic covenant is removed by His crucifixion. He is the new Davidic King on the eternal throne. At once two old covenants were superseded - the curses of the Sinai covenant were removed and the promise of the Davidic covenant fulfilled.

The “new” began with the “old” promise made to Abraham, Moses, and David; and its renewal perpetuated all these promises and more. Just as the Abrahamic and Davidic promises were made directly with each of these men, so the new covenant was made with all the house of Israel and the whole house of Judah:

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31-33).

Notice in verse 31 that this new covenant is being made “with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.” Does this appear restricted to the pre-Christian era? If so, then so were the promises made to Abraham and David. But herein lies the solution for all of these passages, for the “seed’ who would benefit from the Abrahamic and Davidic promises included all believers of all ages. So where the benefits of the new covenant applicable to all believers.

It need only to be noted that the new covenant also was part of that messianic era. Here then was a new footing for an old stalemate. The new covenant was indeed addressed to a revived national Israel of the future; but by virtue of its specific linkage with the Abrahamic and Davidic promises contained in them all, it was nonetheless proper to speak of a Gentile participation then in the future. The Gentiles would be adopted and grafted into God’s covenant with national Israel.

The covenant was broken and must be renewed to come into force again. Under the new covenant, the law that was written on stone is written in the mind and heart, so that its principles become a part of our nature and we “do by nature the things contained in the law” (Romans 2:14).

The place where the law is written constitutes the chief difference between the two covenants. The persons who are under the new covenant are the only ones who can know true righteousness. “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings” (Isaiah 51:7). Christ lived under this experience and therefore delighted to obey God’s law, for that law was within His heart. This is the secret of His life of perfect obedience. He was able to declare, “I have kept my Father’s commandments,” because, as the apostle Peter confirmed, He “did no sin” (John 15:10; 1 Peter 2:22).

“Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

It is through the Holy Spirit that Christ, the living law, imprints the law on our mind and makes effectual the divine promises of the new covenant. The new covenant ministers life and liberty, while the old covenant ministered bondage and death. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the “exceeding great and precious promises” of the new covenant make us “partakers of the divine nature.” Then there is liberty from the bondage and condemnation of sin, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). The Holy Spirit leads to obedience, and obedience to the law is liberty.