Although salvation is and has always been by faith, the principle of the Old Covenant required performance first in order to gain temporal blessings from God. The New Covenant is a whole different operation. Access to God and blessings are now freely given, apart from works.

Will the Christian desire to perform? Yes. But what a joyful life one could live knowing that divine blessing and favor have already been given out of grace, regardless of performance!

We want so desperately to live by law keeping so that we can claim just a tiny weeny smidge of glory. We wave our hands in the air and shout to God, “Hey! Look at me! Look at what all I am doing. Surely you are satisfied. Surely I am doing enough!”

God says, “Stop.” God continues… “Look. Look at my beautiful son. Look at Jesus Christ. His work is sufficient.” It is a crushed ego that causes us to look upward in faith.

So, why is the Old and the New so different, so diametrically apposed? To name a few:

The Old Covenant is one of judgement and death; the New Covenant is one of grace and life.

The Old caused us to shrink back in fear; the New spurs us on in confidence, knowing the righteous ones live by faith.

The Old is never enough – repeated sacrifices of bulls and goats remind the soul of sin; the New declares we “have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10)

The Old limited access into the holy of holies; the New tore the veil from top to bottom.

The Old affords no hope for the inner man; the New anchors the soul with “a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:19)

The oldness of the letter kills; the New Creation is sufficient in Christ, where the Spirit gives life.

The old provided many priests that could not continue due to death; the New provides Jesus Christ who continues forever.

The Old erects a mountain of blazing fire – Mount Sinai; the New beholds Mount Zion, a mountain of refuge.

In the Old we were born of Adam, where “all flesh is like grass and all it’s glory like the flower of grass…withers, and the flower falls…” (1 Peter 1:24); In the New we are “born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23)

The Old is passing away; the New makes the Old obsolete.

The Old drives us out; the New draws us near.

So, is there a place for works in the New Covenant? A thousand times, yes. We were prepared for good works!

When our motives for good works are wrought by expectations of blessing and acceptance, we are operating under that Old Covenant of Law, where there is only failure and death. We insult the Spirit of grace when we ignore the blood of Christ and turn to the Law for righteousness.

When good works spring forth from a place of deep tenderness toward our Savior and what HE has done for us, we are moving about happily and freely under the sweet New Covenant of grace.

May we continue to press in, more and more, to this understanding, that we are indeed under the New Covenant- a covenant where we have free access to the Father, in Christ. We are told to “come boldly to the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:16)

Let us not shrink back in fear. Let us draw near to our mediator of the New Covenant, Jesus Christ.

Supporting verses:

Romans 7:6, 2 Corinthians 3:6, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:15, 1 Peter 1:23, Matthew 27:51, Hebrews 6:19,20, 7:18-25, Hebrews 9:11-16, Hebrews 10:1-14, Hebrews 10: 29, Hebrews 10:35-39, Hebrews 12:18-24

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