The Old and New Covenant

"For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another."
~ Hebrews 8:7 (NIV)

A question was raised during tonight's CG session about the old and new covenant. Essentially, the question is asking about the differences between the two. We went on to discuss why the Bible mentioned the above. It seems to imply, that there is something wrong with the old covenant. So we shared what we learnt from our own personal study. Here I'd like to note down some of those things.

1. Limited atonement - continual sacrifice for the atonement of sin has to be made. This can only be done at a fixed appointed time. Sacrifice is imperfect.

2. No direct access to God - the interaction with God very much revolves around the levitical priests and the physical temple of God. There was no intimate personal relationships with God.

3. Dependence on people - people fail and are bound by limitations and imperfections. Even the high priests were imperfect.

4. Legalistic practices - approval and blessing from God is conditional upon the obedience of the people

The above are some of the main points that we've discussed. However, having said that, I also want to note that no matter how different the 2 covenants are, there is an intrinsic similarity of the 2. That is, sacrifice for sin must be carried out for atonement. Hence, when the Scripture said, "By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear." ~ Hebrews 8:13 (NIV), it's not implying to mean that the Old Covenant is to be thrown away. In effect, it means that, the New Covenant has fulfilled what the Old Covenant is essentially meant for. It doesn't mean that we should ignore learning about the Old Covenant.