[Socialite]

We are not under the Old Covenant of Law, blessings or curses given based on our performance, but under the New Covenant of grace, granting us blessings from God based on Christ’s performance. In other words, under the New Covenant, the blessing precedes our obedience. We obey because we are blessed in Christ (Eph 1:3), not the other way around.

New Covenant
Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 11:25, Hebrews 9:18, 9:20, 12:24, 13:20

Sadly, most Christians believe that Jesus shed His blood merely to “forgive their sins”. Actually, Jesus shed His precious blood “for the remission of sins” (Mat 26:28) and to institute a New Covenant.

The entire book of Hebrews is taken up with the vast difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, law and grace, the inferior priesthood of the Old Covenant versus the superior, the perfect, eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ, the inferior mediation in the Old Covenant, and the superior mediation of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant.

We know that a covenant, particularly a blood covenant, is the most binding promise of performance or contract that exists.

In short, the Old Covenant is the Covenant of Law. It is a contract between God and man, based on man’s performance. In essence the Old Covenant says:
* IF you obey, perfectly, all of the law, THEN you will be blessed (Deuteronomy 28:1­-14).
* If you fail to perfectly obey, you are cursed. (Deuteronomy 27:26, 28:15-­68). Jesus made it even clearer when He said that perfect obedience must come from the heart (Matt 5:21-30).In short, the Old Covenant is a conditional covenant, based on the performance of man, based on man’s obedience. It says “Perfectly, totally obey and then you will be blessed. Disobey, even at one point, and then you will be cursed” (James 2:10, Deuteronomy 27:26).

Then Jesus came along and put the law on steroids. He declared in Matthew 5:20:

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

The reason was simple: God demands perfect obedience, from the heart. He is not interested in fake, artificial or counterfeit (external) righteousness.

Thus the Old Covenant is a covenant of failure, condemnation, curses and death. Romans 1:18-­3:19 provides ample evidence of the total, abject failure of all men in sin. Romans 3:19 says:

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.

That is why Romans 3:20 declares:

Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.