Guy Duininck: Two Covenants
The Covenant that God made with Israel was made through Moses the mediator; it was a Covenant of Works. This covenant made with Israel was made 430 years after the Covenant of Promise God made with Abraham and his Seed, Jesus Christ. This Covenant of Works did not disannul the Covenant of Promise He made with Abraham. In fact, the Covenant that God made with Israel through Moses was always intended to be temporary — till the Seed should come, as Paul taught the Galatians.
That the Old Covenant was intended to be temporary is clear in Paul's writing to the Galatians and is also clear in the Hebrew epistle which was written to spiritually young Jewish converts to Christianity who, because of afflictions, were thinking about "drawing back" into Judaism. The very purpose of the Hebrew epistle was to set forth the superiority of Jesus over Moses, Melchizedek, and angels and to set forth the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant and, thereby, persuade Jewish converts to, "hold faith to the profession of their faith," in Jesus Christ "without wavering" and not "draw back" into Judaism.
The Old and New Covenants are different. The New Covenant is not a "renewed" Old Covenant. It is a completely different Covenant; a Better Covenant based on better promises, as Hebrews clearly states.
When Jesus said, "This is the "new" covenant in My blood, He used the Greek word "kainos." This word means, "recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn, of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of." The New Covenant in His blood was not a "renewed" Old Covenant, but a fresh, recent, unprecedented, covenant.
Understanding the differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is very important to a proper interpretation and understanding of all the Scriptures — both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
