Bible Readings — Bible Questions Answered

The Old and New Compared

Under the old covenant, what did the people promise? BR-ASI9 270.7

To keep the law of God in their own strength. BR-ASI9 270.8

Note.—Under this covenant the people promised to keep all the commandments of God in order to be His peculiar people, and this without help. This was virtually a promise to make themselves righteous. But Christ says, “Without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5. And the prophet Isaiah says, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6. The only perfect righteousness is God’s righteousness, obtained only through faith in Christ. (Romans 3:20-26.) The only righteousness that will ensure an entrance into the kingdom of God is “the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Philippians 3:9. Of those who inherit the kingdom of God, the Lord says, “Their righteousness is of Me” (Isaiah 54:17); and the prophet Jeremiah says of Christ, “This is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6). BR-ASI9 270.9

Under the new covenant, what does God promise to do? BR-ASI9 271.1

“I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” Jeremiah 31:33. BR-ASI9 271.2

Note.—The new covenant is an arrangement for bringing man again into harmony with the divine will, and placing him where he can keep God’s law. Its “better promises” bring forgiveness of sins, grace to renew the heart, and power to obey the law of God. The dissolution of the old covenant and the making of the new in no wise abrogated the law of God. BR-ASI9 271.3

Where was God’s law written under the old covenant? BR-ASI9 271.4

“And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone. . . . And He wrote on the tables . . . the ten commandments.” Deuteronomy 10:3, 4. BR-ASI9 271.5

Where is the law of God written under the new covenant? BR-ASI9 271.6

“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.” Jeremiah 31:33. BR-ASI9 271.7

What reason is given for making the new covenant? BR-ASI9 271.8

“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.” Hebrews 8:7, 8. BR-ASI9 271.9

Note.—The chief fault in connection with the old covenant lay with the people. They were not able, in themselves, to fulfill their part of it, and it provided them no help for so doing. There was no Christ in it. It was of works and not of grace. It was valuable only as a means of impressing upon them their sinfulness and their need of divine aid. BR-ASI9 272.1

What unites all believers under the new covenant? BR-ASI9 272.2

“Ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:11-13. BR-ASI9 272.3