Rewire Your Heart: 10 Days To Fight SinSample

Old Testament Versus New Testament

What’s the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament? 

The first thing to point out is that the word “testament” means “covenant.” So the real question is, what’s the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant? 

The truth is that there are several differences. But the major difference, brought up by Jeremiah 31:31-34, is the heart. 

The old covenant is the one given to Moses and the people of Israel after their exodus out of Egypt. This covenant came with a law. This law included the famous ten commandments. If Israel kept the law they would be allowed to dwell in God’s presence in relationship with him. 

However, Israel never kept the covenant. They constantly broke God’s law. 

Why couldn’t they keep the covenant? Because the law was outside them. It was not inside them. 

The new covenant would be different. God would write the law of this covenant on his people’s hearts. It would be inside them. 

Laws on the outside can’t change the inside. There must be a change on the inside to obey the law on the outside. 

We try to change ourselves with outside influences all the time. Through all kinds of rules, disciplines, routines, and restrictions, we try to change our actions. We try to fight sin, become holy, and transform our behavior by laws exterior to ourselves. But this will never work. 

Laws can’t change hearts. 

So how does God use the new covenant to change our hearts? He fulfills all the requirements of the covenant for us in Jesus. Jesus died under the curse of the law that we earned and gave us the blessings of the covenant that he earned. He did this at the cost of his life on the cross. Such a sacrifice moves our hearts in a new way. 

But it is not just by hearing this story of the Gospel that our hearts are changed. Something else has to happen. After all, the Israelites were saved from Egypt and their hearts remained hard toward God.  

Something had to happen within us. That is why God gives us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit changes our hearts to actually believe the gospel, enjoy the gospel, and respond to God because of the Gospel. 

The difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is that the new covenant changes our hearts, so that we can finally obey God freely.