The old testament is composed of endless laws and regulations for the people of Israel, which were extremely difficult to carry. This is why the apostle Paul says in Romans 8:2-3
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
When we read the Law of Moses, we notice many laws that were difficult to keep or fulfill at face value and even think that it would be practically impossible to carry. Consider this, there were hundreds of laws, which that generation was very difficult to keep. And this is why in advance He had prepared a much better covenant. A covenant that says:
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; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jeremiah 31:33
The old covenant is commanded by a big number of prohibitions, however, the new covenant speaks to us more of everything that Christ has done for us, of His mercies, of His inexhaustible love, that we do not need anything to come to Him, that we no longer need to carry a goat to sacrifice it before Him.
In chapter eight of the book of John we find a very famous story, which makes a parallel between the new and the old covenant. Here we find a woman who had been caught in adultery and the law of Moses ordered to stone such people. And at that time the pharisees told Jesus about the law of Moses, and they asked him: You, what do you say? Jesus’ response was: “He who is without sin among you must be the first to throw the stone at her.”
Undoubtedly, none of them could answer, since none was free of sin, and therefore they were parading one by one. What does this mean? The old covenant was so strict that you immediately received accusations, however, the new one is quite the opposite, since it is not about an effort of man to find God, but the new covenant is about God seeking the man.
And we give thanks to God because we live in a new covenant, where we have free access to the throne of grace, where we have a lawyer for when we sin. Praise God for the tremendous grace that has been granted!
