Promises and Conditions in Both Covenants

Two comparisons are often used to explain the difference between the old covenant and the new. Both are memorable, and both travel easily from one sermon to the next.

The first is about contracts: “The Ten Commandments are a two-sided contract. Keep them, and you are blessed. Fail, and you are cursed. Look at the commandments: the subject of every one of them is ‘you.’ You shall, you shall not. The new covenant, by contrast, is a one-sided contract. In it God says, ‘I will do it for you.’”

The second is about a house: “The new covenant is God saying, ‘I will buy you a house, so live at ease.’ The old covenant was God saying, ‘I will help with the down payment. Pay the rest by your own strength, and if you cannot, the house will be taken away.’”

Both comparisons say something true about grace, and both also make a claim about the old covenant. This chapter weighs that claim against the text.

The First Word Is “I”

Is the subject of every commandment really “you”? The first line God spoke at Sinai answers the question:

Exodus 20:2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of servants.

The first word in Hebrew is anokhi אָנֹכִי aw-no-kee', “I,” and not “you.” Before a single “you shall” is spoken, God speaks of Himself and of what He has already done: He is the one “who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of servants.”

Chapters 7 and 29 showed that the rescue came before the commandments. Here the point is simpler still. The subject of the first sentence is God, and the verb is in the past tense. The deed was done before the commandments began.

God had said the same a chapter earlier, when Israel first arrived at the mountain:

Exodus 19:4-5 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on wings of eagles and brought you to Myself. And now, if you will indeed hearken to My voice and keep My covenant (berit בְּרִית ber-eeth'), then you shall be to Me a treasured possession from among all the peoples; for all the earth is Mine.

Verse 4 is full of “I”: “what I did to the Egyptians,” “how I bore you on wings of eagles,” and “brought you to Myself.” Only after that does verse 5 say “if you will indeed hearken.” The “if” is spoken to a people who have already been carried.

Nearly forty years later, Moses told Israel why any of it had happened:

Deuteronomy 7:7-8 Not because you were more than all the peoples did the LORD set His love upon you and choose you — for you were the fewest of all the peoples — but because of the LORD's love for you, and because He kept the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD brought you out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

God did not choose them because they were great or because they had earned it. He chose them “because of the LORD’s love for you, and because He kept the oath which He swore to your fathers,” and so He “redeemed you from the house of slaves.”

The old covenant, then, was not a contract that said, “Keep these commandments and you will be saved.” It was a way of life given to a people who had already been redeemed.

What God Says “I Will Do”

On the other side of the comparison, the new covenant is described as a one-sided promise in which God says, “I will do it for you.” That much is true. The question is what He says He will do, and Hebrews 8:10, which we read in Chapter 36, gives the answer: “I will put my nomoi νόμοι nom'-os(laws) into their dianoia διάνοια dee-an'-oy-ah(thought), and write them on their kardiai(hearts, soul-domains).” The work God does on His side is to put His law inside His people.

Ezekiel says the same in a verse we read in Chapter 8 of this book: “I will cause you to walk in my statutes (chuqqim חֹק khoke), and you shall keep my judgments (mishpat מִשׁפָּט mish-pawt') and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27). Chuqqim and mishpatim מִשׁפָּט mish-pawt' are not new words. They are the words the Torah uses when it names its own commandments (Deuteronomy 4:5, 8; 6:1). What God promises to do for His people is to make them walk in those very things.

Nor does this one-sided promise appear for the first time in the new covenant. It is already in the Torah:

Deuteronomy 30:6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul (nephesh נֶפֶשׁ neh'-fesh), for the sake of your life (chai חַי khah'-ee).

God does the circumcising, and He does it for a purpose: “to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul (nephesh).” Moses spoke these words on the plains of Moab. The promise that God Himself would change the heart belonged to the old covenant before it was ever called the new.

A Covenant With No Conditions?

The contract picture also suggests that the new covenant has no conditions at all. Yet the same letter that speaks of the blood of the new covenant speaks of obedience as well. We read the warning of Hebrews 10:29 in the last chapter, and here is another line, this time about Messiah Himself:

Hebrews 5:9 and being made perfect, He became the source of eternal Salvation to all who obey Him,

The Greek word for “obey” is hypakouo ὑπακούω hoop-ak-oo'-o, to listen and heed. Salvation is His gift, and those who receive it are described as those who obey Him.

The House Was Already Built

That brings us to the second comparison, the house.

Picture a family that has rented small apartments all their lives. One day someone hands them a key and an address, and they drive up to a finished house. The furniture is in, the pantry is stocked, and in the garden out back the trees already bear fruit. There is no down payment and no mortgage; the house is simply theirs. On the kitchen counter lies a note, and it does not say, “Payment due on the first.” It says, “Don’t forget who gave you this.”

That picture is not an illustration of the new covenant. It is very nearly a word-for-word description of what God promised Israel in Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 And it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to you — great and good cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not hew, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant — and you shall eat and be satisfied — beware for yourself, lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.

Israel received “great and good cities which you did not build,” “houses full of all good things which you did not fill,” cisterns they did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees they did not plant. That is no down payment. It is a house already built and already filled, given freely, and the grace of the house is the same in the old covenant as in the new.

The Note on the Counter

What God attached to the gift, however, was not “live at ease.” He said, “beware for yourself, lest you forget the LORD.”

Two chapters later, Moses says in plain words what it means to forget Him:

Deuteronomy 8:11 Beware lest you forget the LORD your God, in not keeping His commandments (mitzvah מִצוָה mits-vaw') and His judgments (mishpat) and His statutes (chuqqot חֻקָּה khook-kaw'), which I am commanding you (tzivvah צָוָה tsaw-vaw') this day;

To forget the Giver is to stop keeping His commandments. The word for “forget” is shakach שָׁכַח shaw-kakh', to forget, to ignore, to leave behind.

The house was a gift, and it came with the same word that came with everything God gave: remember Me, and walk in My ways.

Both Sides of the Comparison

Set the two comparisons beside the text, and both give way.

The old covenant was not a contract that made “you” the subject. Its first word was “I,” and its first sentence spoke of a rescue already finished. The new covenant is a promise that God carries out: He writes His Torah on the heart, and the Torah itself had already promised that He would circumcise the heart.

Nor was the old covenant a down payment. It was a house already built and given freely. In both covenants the gift comes with the same word: do not forget Me, and walk in My commandments.

One hard verse still remains. Hebrews calls the first covenant “obsolete and growing old” and “ready to vanish away,” and if something is fading, it is fair to ask why God would write it on anyone’s heart.