The Old Covenant
There have been two ways that God has been dealing with mankind since the beginning. The first --the Old Covenant-- was based our ability to be good and to do good; and success was measured using God's standards.
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:29-32)
Romans chapter one provides a practical summary of those standards along with the penalty for failing to fully comply with them. It's death! Can you honestly say that you haven't committed at least one of the sins in that list? (I haven't met anyone else who can either --including me!) So as long as we're living under the old covenant, we're waiting for judgement day when our punishment will be declared.
The New Covenant
Knowing our inability to live up to the strict requirements of the law, God provided a new way --a New Covenant-- that does not rely on our goodness, but instead relies on His mercy. The new way doesn't just improve or add to the old one --it's a complete replacement. The new covenant is spelled out in the book of Hebrews.
Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. (Hebrews 10:13-18)
Did you see that? He made us perfect and holy by his sacrifice, not ours --and he made us that way forever! "After that time" refers to the when the perfect sacrifice --Jesus-- was put to death. Now we're perfect and holy because He refuses to bring our sins into His mind. He remembered them once when His Son was sacrificed on the cross and He will never think about them again!
The Day It Changed
The modern term for testament (or covenant) is what we call a "last will and testament" --or more commonly, a "will." And of course, a will only becomes effective after the person who made it is dead. For that matter, only the last will that the person makes is the one that actually goes into effect.
In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. (Hebrews 9:16-17)
The gospels document Christ Jesus' life and death, but the "new will" hadn't gone into effect yet --since He was the One who made that will and He hadn't died yet. In the Bible, the results of the "new covenant" begin in the book of Acts (which starts after Jesus' death)!
Did you ask yourself "So what does that mean?" It means that the page that separates the new and old testaments in your Bible really ought to be placed between John and Acts! That way, when you want to read about how you should live according to God's new testament, you would begin reading the book of Acts rather than the gospels.
Why Do We Gentiles Want the Ten Commandments?
The Israelites were shown to be set apart from all the other nations of the world because God had given them the law. The legal aspect of the law (based on the Ten Commandments) set up a system to determine offenses, rules about the testimony, and the punishment associated with the offenses.
The law laid down in the Bible says that if we break any one of these commandments, we are guilty of breaking them all. Breaking "one commandment" doesn't mean one today and another tomorrow; it means we are guilty if we ever break even one commandment in an entire life time!
The punishment for breaking any of "the Ten" is death. It's not the sacrificing of an animal or begging for forgiveness; it's being stoned to death at the city gate! Isn't it strange that we want so much to be under the law that we forget that God says that anyone who is under the law is under a curse?
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (Galatians 3:10-13)
Why do we Christians hold up the Israelites' Ten Commandments like a banner to set us apart from the rest of the world when we have something so much better? We have the law of love written on our hearts and minds along with the Holy Spirit to lead us every step of our lives!
Next: It Is Finished!