The Big Difference
When it comes to the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, there are a couple of major differences that set them apart and should forever bring an end to any argument for thinking the Old Covenant is meant in any way to be a part of a believer’s life.
The greatest separator is Christ Himself, no doubt. The second major difference is the new creation.
Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
Leaving behind any thought about the significance of new creation reality is a big mistake to make.
Think about it for just a moment. Is there evidence of one single person being made into a new creation from Genesis to Malachi?
It is not until Jesus comes to earth, goes to the cross, rises from the dead, ascends to heaven, and then sends the Holy Spirit that we discover a heaven-born brand new species on earth in existence—a sanctified people from every nation, race, and language. Sanctified means set apart. The thing that sets believers apart is being new creations filled with the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 6 tells us it is no longer about being under the law or having the heritage of the law as one’s history. It is about Christ Jesus and the new life He offers to those who, by grace through faith, are born again.
Think about it; you will never find this kind of language in the Old Testament.
2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
I dare you to search and see if you can find anywhere in the Old Testament a statement where the Law made a new creation, and old things passed away, and behold, everything became new. It just doesn’t exist because the law was never given to make someone righteous or new.
Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law brings knowledge of sin, not hope of righteousness, but rather a keen sense of failure and not measuring up. Alas, too many are accustomed to being told how they fail to measure up. It makes them feel a certain way to be reminded continually that they fail to measure up. In fact, they have been conditioned to think that anointed preaching is tasked with making sure everyone knows how miserably they have failed and that they need to repent for it. So ministers continue to use the law to come against the saints and make them ever more mindful of who they are according to the flesh as opposed to preaching the gospel and reminding them of who they are according to the Spirit.
The gospel is sadly left out of the discussion in many churches because it is thought more anointed to make people feel bad and guilty over presumed failures than it is to set their minds on things above and the obedience of Christ Jesus on their behalf. The church needs to know who she really is in Christ if she is ever to live according to the Spirit. If the Spirit’s promise is conditionally based on her keeping the law, then there is no hope for a Spirit-empowered church on this earth.
Galatian 3:5 Therefore, He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—
The big difference is that only in the New Covenant, which is the Spirit covenant made possible by the blood of Jesus, can a new creation exist that is capable of receiving the Holy Spirit of promise and doing life according to the Spirit. Life according to the Spirit was never the fruit of the law. Jesus has come. He completed the work required. By grace and faith in Him, we have now become something we could never have become by our own efforts under the law. We are now the very righteousness of God in Christ! It’s a very big difference!
