Because God’s covenants are all based on what he does for us, basically there is no difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant as a covenant of works never existed as something that God made with his people. In fact, we do not find the expression Old Covenant in the Bible at all. However, we do find that several times it is called the "everlasting covenant."

In Galatians 4, Paul refers to two covenants, but they are not covenants that God made. Paul uses Isaac and Ishmael, Sarah and Hagar, the Jerusalem above and Mount Sinai and the present Jerusalem, the child born according to the Spirit and the child born according to the flesh, the child of the free woman and the child of the slave to represent the two types of people in the Galatian church.

On one side in this passage are those whom Christ has set free, who are justified by faith alone, who live and are led by the Spirit. On the other side are those who submit again to a yoke of slavery, who seek to be justified by works, who live and are led by the flesh, and thus gratify the desires of the flesh. These are highly metaphorical comparisons, not descriptions of the Old and New Covenants.

The Old Covenant as we use it above is God’s everlasting covenant until the death of the Christ. The New Covenant is God’s everlasting covenant since the death of Christ. At the last supper, when Christ took the cup, he said "This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many" (Mark 14:24).

The only difference—although a significant one—is that the Old Covenant was a covenant of promise, whereas the New Covenant is one of reality. In the Old Covenant, forgiveness was a promise based on the death of Christ. As the author of Hebrews writes, "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Heb. 10:4). In Hebrews 8, where the author discusses the New Covenant, one of the significant benefits mentioned is that God says, " I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more" (vs. 12).

Another difference under the New Covenant is that we have an eternal high priest, not an ever-changing one, who serves in the very presence of the Father. "Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).

A significant benefit of the New Covenant described in Hebrews 8:10 is the fact that God "will put his laws in their minds and write them on their hearts." A measure of this took place in Old Covenant times, but the fullness of its application could only come about as a result of Christ’s life.

The law is an expression of God’s character, but in its written form it has limitations. Christ came as a full expression of God’s character. He could say to Philip in John 14:8, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." Thus, Christ was the full expression of God’s character, or the living law.

Throughout his life, Christ taught that the basis of the law is love, love to God and love to humankind. He taught, therefore, that the mere keeping of the letter of the law was insufficient. For instance, he taught that simply not killing a person is not the same as keeping the law. Not only must one not have hate in one’s heart, one must also do all he can to be reconciled to all and do all he can to preserve other people’s lives.

Thus, what Christ taught and how he lived help those of us who live after Christ to have the law written in our hearts, as others in previous times could not.

If Christ’s death brought real forgiveness , then we can truly say, "we have peace with God" (Rom. 5:1), knowing that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).

Jewish understanding conceives of a present age and the age to come. Christ’s coming brought a change in that understanding. Although the age to come remains in the future, with the coming of Christ it has partly invaded the present. Thus, one of the benefits of the New Covenant is that eternal life is not something we wait to receive in the future.

As long as we are in Christ, we have eternal life now. "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11–12). This does not mean we shall never die, but that we can never remain dead. As Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11:25–26).

Another way the age to come has penetrated the present one is that the judgment is already settled for the Christian. "Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3:18).

Also, we refer to the fact that we are justified by faith. This statement implies that God has judged us and acquitted us on the basis of our faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we need not fear the judgment, but can look forward to it with "boldness" (1 John 4:17).

Thus, the new covenant life is a life based on the reality and validity of Christ’s life and death and their implications for the future.

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