One of the most important things in the Bible, yet so easy to overlook is the purpose of the covenants.

To start, a covenant is a sacred promise, and in a Biblical sense, a sacred promise between mankind, a smaller group of people, or an individual person with God. How it works is God offers certain things in exchange for certain requirements being met by the other party. When these requirements are fulfilled, the group or individual then gets what is promised to them and a sign is given that the covenant is true.

For example, let's take God's covenant with Abraham. God promised Abraham that He would one day father a huge people group that would be innumerable by man and that the entire earth would come to be blessed by God through him (aka Jesus Christ would come through him). In exchange, Abraham just had to follow wherever God sent him while he was alive. Abraham agreed, did what God said, and we know what happened after that. As a sign, Abraham sacrificed some animals and he and the Spirit of God went between them. In Hebrew culture, this symbolically means "let this or worse happen if I break my end of the deal."

Now, a testament is a specific type of covenant that requires the death of a creature to be sealed. The Old Testament was sealed with the blood of animals, while the New Testament was sealed with Jesus Christ. The New Testament then replaced the Old Testament.

Hebrews 9:16 - For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

God promises salvation to the whole world, in exchange, we must accept His Son as our Savior. It is a testament requiring death, which Jesus Christ fulfilled. Jesus is the symbol, with His resurrection.

Matthew 12:38-39 - Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

Now, why does this matter? Yeah, we know the covenants happened. So?

The reason it matters is because a lot of the contradictory, hard to understand beliefs in Christianity come from a lack of understanding of the covenants.

For example, I heard all the time in church that there was a moral law and a ceremonial law. The laws of "don't kill," "stay pure," and "don't steal" are moral laws while "the Sabbath day," "eating pork," and "sacrifices" are ceremonial laws. We have to keep the moral law or God will be angry with us, but the ceremonial law doesn't really matter.

Then we get all the different ideas about what parts of the Old Testament are moral and what aren't and what we have to do or not.

Well, this actually isn't true. The New Testament never, ever mentions this once. This is an assumption we have, but actually isn't true. The law is always looked at as one chunk (yes, even the Ten Commandments), never as separate parts. Remember what Jesus said about the law?

Matthew 5:17-18 - Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Not ONE JOT OR TITTLE. (That's like crossed t or dotted i in Hebrew.) Even the ceremonial parts.

So, what are we to do then? Keep ALL of the law, even the ceremonial parts?

No! And the reason is because we are under a new covenant/testament that has replaced the old one.

We are not under the Old Testament, morally, civilly, ceremonially, etc. We are free. There is no angry God sitting in Heaven waiting to hit you with a baseball bat if you mess up. This was literally my idea of God a few years ago. I was so terrified of displeasing Him and so angry that no matter what I did I would mess up and I would be the blame for it. But that's not how it is! There is no law we are under!

Rather, we are under something greater. We are under a new law, a philosophy, one that says -

Matthew 22:37-40 - Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

This is what we are under. The only "law" we are under is to love God with all we can and love others exactly as we love ourselves. Can we love people like we should and murder? No. Can we love people like we should and steal from them? No. Can we love God like we should and serve other gods? No. Can we love God like we should and blaspheme His name like it's a swear word? No.

And a principle will take us so much further than a law can. A law can say don't commit adultery, but it can not say don't lust after a person. A law can say divorce is wrong, while the principle of love tells us why it is wrong. Rather than being an excuse to do wrong, this principle of love brings us to a lifestyle of doing good for God and others for the right reasons. If we keep the law, yet hate it, we eventually will leave church and do our own thing. So we need to rather be under the principles of love.