Concept

Old Covenant

Intro

"If God gave the Old Testament laws, why do Christians not keep them?"

This is the question this page is built around. The answer turns on understanding what the Old Covenant actually was, what it was for, and what changed when Jesus arrived.

The Old Covenant is the formal agreement God made with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai through Moses. The story is told in Exodus 19-24. God brought Israel out of Egypt, gathered them at the mountain, gave them the Ten Commandments and a wider body of law, and sealed the agreement with sacrificial blood. "Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words" (Exodus 24:8).

The Old Covenant had several parts working together:

A mediator (Moses) who carried the words between God and the people
A code of law: the Ten Commandments, the laws in Exodus 21-23, and the broader content of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
A priesthood from the tribe of Levi, descended from Aaron
A sacrificial system centered on the tabernacle and later the temple
Blessings for keeping the covenant and curses for breaking it (Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28)

The whole structure was real, God-given, and good. It was also, from the start, designed as a stage in a longer story. The New Testament is clear about this. The Old Covenant revealed sin by giving a holy standard (Romans 3:20). It contained sin by giving Israel a legal framework. It pointed to Christ through types and shadows: the sacrifices pointed to His death, the priesthood pointed to His high-priestly intercession, the tabernacle pointed to God dwelling with His people.

When Christ came, He fulfilled the covenant (Matthew 5:17) and inaugurated a new one in His blood (Luke 22:20). Hebrews 8:13 says the Old Covenant has been declared "obsolete" as a governing covenant. The moral truth it expressed remains. The civil and ceremonial structures that bound it to Israel as a nation in a particular geography do not.

This is why Christians do not offer animal sacrifices, do not observe the Levitical food laws, and do not keep the seventh-day Sabbath in its Mosaic form. The Old Covenant has reached its goal. Its sacrifices were a shadow. The reality is Christ (Hebrews 10:1).

This is also why the moral character of the law (the Ten Commandments, the commands to love God and neighbor) continues to bind Christians. It binds because moral truth is moral truth, not because the Old Covenant code is still in force.

For the structured argument on the question "are Christians still under the Law?", see New Covenant and the parallel discussions of Antinomianism and Theonomy. For the source dialogue that triggered this page, see Are Christians Still Under The Law (ris3n).

In full

The blood-sealed covenantal bond between God and Israel ratified at Sinai through Moses (Exod 19-24). Its content is the Mosaic Law in its full sweep, moral, civil, and ceremonial, and its maintenance was bound to the Levitical / Aaronic priesthood and the sacrificial system of the tabernacle and (later) the temple. The New Testament treats this covenant as real, God-given, glorious, and temporary: a structure that prepared for and pointed toward the New Covenant in Christ's blood, and that has been declared "obsolete" as a governing covenant by the inauguration of the New (Heb 8:13).

Constitutive elements

Mediator, Moses, the prophet through whom the covenant is given.
Ratification, sacrificial blood sprinkled on altar and people (Exod 24:6-8). "Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."
Stipulations, the Mosaic Law: Decalogue, the Book of the Covenant (Exod 21-23), and the broader Pentateuchal legal corpus (Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).
Priesthood, the Aaronic / Levitical line; mediates sacrifice, intercession, and ritual purity.
Sanctions, covenant blessings and curses (Lev 26; Deut 28).

Theological function

Reveals sin. The Law shows God's holiness and exposes human sin (cf. Rom 3:20, 7:7).
Provides typological foreshadowing. Sacrifices, priesthood, tabernacle, festivals all prefigure Christ's person and work (Heb 8-10).
Pedagogical / preparatory. Functions as a tutor (paidagogos) to lead the people to Christ (Gal 3:24-25). See Law as Tutor (Paidagogos).
Cannot definitively cleanse. Sacrifices must be repeated; "for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Heb 10:4). The repetition itself testifies to the system's incompleteness.

Status under the New Covenant

The New Testament's verdict, condensed by Are Christians Still Under The Law (ris3n):

Heb 8:13, declared "obsolete" by the announcement of the New Covenant.
Heb 7:11-12, the change of priesthood (Levitical → Melchizedekian) necessitates a change of law.
Rom 10:4, Christ is the telos (end / goal) of the Law for righteousness.
Gal 3:24-25, the tutor's role completed once faith comes.
Rom 6:14, believers are "not under law but under grace."

Tensions across Christian traditions

How much of the Old Covenant carries into the New is the central battleground of Christian ethics:

Reformed covenantal, treats the Old Covenant as one administration of an enduring covenant of grace; the moral law (Decalogue) continues to bind, while ceremonial / civil are abrogated (or "fulfilled and laid aside").
Dispensational / strong-supersessionist (the ris3n source), Old Covenant fully replaced as governing structure.
New Covenant Theology, Old Covenant fully ended; Christ's law is the new ethical code, derived from the New rather than carried over from the Old.
Theonomy, holds that the general equity of the Mosaic civil law remains binding for civil polity.
Hebrew Roots / Messianic, significant retention of Torah observance; minimal supersession.
Catholic / Orthodox, natural law plus magisterial / ecclesial development; the Mosaic ceremonial law is fulfilled in Christ and the sacraments, the moral law continues.

These differ on the scope of what's been superseded, not on whether something changed at the cross. Record positions as they're ingested; do not arbitrate.