The new covenant.
The covenants before Mount Sinai were God’s grants. They did not require a contribution or participation by the covenant recipients. However, the covenant made at Mount Sinai was not a grant. The covenant at Mount Sinai was an agreement between the people and God. The agreement was made at the request of the people. The people did not fulfill their part of the agreement they made with God at Mount Sinai. Therefore, the covenant made at Mount Sinai became invalid and ineffective, and useless. Accordingly, God promised a new covenant that would not be like the covenant at Mount Sinai. The new covenant is the unilateral action by God without human participation. “The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and house of Judah.” Jeremiah 31:32. An agreement between the people and God could not endure because the people could not obey the requirements perfectly and remain faithful to God’ Therefore, God said that the new covenant would not be like the first, the covenant at Mount Sinai.
The two covenants represent the two methods of salvation. The covenant at Mount Sinai represents the man-to-God method. The new covenant (The Messiah) represents the God-to-man method of salvation. However, God did not establish two methods of salvation. There was only one way to salvation, which was Jesus Christ. The people preferred the man-to-God method. The people intended to obey the requirements of the covenant made at Mount Sinai. However, they did not know they were sinners by nature, utterly helpless, and unable to render perfect obedience. God knew that the people would not remain faithful to him before he agreed. Therefore, God promised to make a perfect method of salvation, the Go-to-man method.
The new covenant is a person, Jesus Christ. “In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Luke 22:20. The new covenant represents the only effective way of salvation, the blood or life of Jesus Christ. And this method is the unilateral act of God. He did not require participation by humankind. Humankind is the beneficiary of the new covenant. “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance – now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” Hebrews 9:15. The covenant made at Mount Sinai could not remove the sin from the people. The sins had to be taken away from humankind. God took away from humankind all sins committed under the first covenant. Jesus conquered temptation; therefore, his spirit, his life, was made perfect. By trusting God and trusting Jesus, we inherit everything we could not have obtained by our satisfactory performance. We receive the eternal inheritance. We did not earn it.
