Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The New Covenant replaced the faulty First Covenant

The following Scripture passages point to the New Covenant being a separate and better covenant than the Old Covenant which became obsolete:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, (Jer. 31:31)

you are not under law but under grace. (Rom. 6:14)

But now we are released from the law (Rom. 7:6)

we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Rom. 7:6)

to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor. 3:6)

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, (2 Cor. 3:7)

For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. (2 Cor. 3:14)

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. (2 Cor. 3:16)

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, (Eph. 2:14-15)

(for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. (Heb. 7:19)

This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. (Heb. 7:22)

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. (Heb. 8:6)

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. (Heb. 8:7)

For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, (Heb. 8:8)

In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (Heb. 8:13)

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. (Heb. 9:15)

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” (Heb. 10:16)

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Gal. 3:2-3)

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— (Gal. 3:13)

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, (Gal. 3:23-25)

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1)