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Question: What does the word covenant mean in the Bible?
Answer: A covenant is an agreement between two parties based upon mutual promises. In the Bible, there were a number of covenants made, yet the most obvious or spoken of are the Old and the New Covenants. Hebrews 8:7, 10 describe these two, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”
The Old Covenant
The Old Covenant was an agreement between God and Israel in which God promised to bless Israel upon condition of obedience to Him (Exodus 19:5, 6). The Ten Commandments were the basis of the covenant (Exodus 34:28). The Lord wished to write His commandments in the hearts of the people but the people instead promised that they would do that themselves, thus relying on their own works instead of letting God do the work in them. They said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). Here lies the premise of the weakness of the Old Covenant in that it was dependent on the promises of people.
The weakness of the Old Covenant was not in the commandments over which it was made, nor in God’s part of the agreement, but in the human element “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 . . . 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” (Hebrews 8: 8, 10).
The New Covenant
In the New Covenant, God makes the promises instead of the people. God does that which men tried and failed to do in the Old Covenant. Human weakness did not allow them to keep their promise of obedience to God’s holy commandments. The New Covenant was made in which God promises to live in hearts of the believers and supply them with the strength and grace to obey. Therefore, in the New Covenant it is not the works of the flesh, but “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
The Old Covenant was by works, sacrifices, and ordinances. The New Covenant is by faith in the promises of God. The New Covenant does not cancel out obedience to God’s word and His commandments but rather it makes it possible for the believers to keep them through Christ dwelling in the heart (Philippians 4:13).
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
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