The Bible: A Tale of Two Covenants

ZChurch Message for July 18, 2026 (full service:    • The Bible: A Tale of Two Covenants  )

Elder Bob Peck brings the message: “The Bible: A Tale of Two Covenants”

The Bible is one book, but does it constitute a single religion? Are we supposed to take everything from Genesis through Revelation and practice it whole? That’s what a lot of Christians are trying to do, and it isn’t working. It’s leading to confusion, frustration, and unanswered questions.

In this eye-opening message, ZChurch Elder Bob Peck will teach us how to rightly divide the Word of Truth by showing how the Bible contains two distinct, mutually exclusive covenants—where one ended and the other began. It’s time to stop dragging elements of the Old Covenant into our New Covenant relationship with God in Christ.

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The Bible: A Tale of Two Covenants

The Bible is one book, but does it constitute a single religion? Are we supposed to take everything from Genesis through Revelation and practice it whole? That’s what a lot of Christians are trying to do, and it isn’t working. It’s leading to a lot of confusion and frustration.

This week, ZChurch elder Bob Peck teaches us to rightly divide the word of truth, including dividing the Bible into two distinct, mutually exclusive covenants, and showing us where one ended and the other began. It’s time to stop dragging elements of the old covenant into our new covenant relationship with God in Christ.

OUTLINE

The Bible is a single story that begins with God who is eternal, passes through the linear time of this age, then ends back in eternity with us living with God forever.

The storyline runs from Adam, the first man, to Jesus Christ, the last man. The rest of the Bible is about the characters and events that get us from Adam to Christ.

Many assume the Bible constitutes a single religion and attempt to practice it whole.

2 Timothy 2:15  Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

First division – two testaments containing two covenants – they are separate, different, do not overlap, and are mutually exclusive. Not understanding this leads to confusion and frustration.

Old Testament Before the Old Covenant

Old Testament covers 4,000 years from Adam to Christ.

The covenant that God made with the people group of Israel at Mt Sinai, with its terms and conditions recorded in the Book of the Law, was not introduced for 2,554 years, more than halfway through the Old Testament.

Many people interacted with God before the covenant, but how?

Hebrews 11 contains a long list of people who God worked with and even called righteous apart from the law, including Abraham.

Romans 4:3  For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Covenant With Israel at Sinai

Exodus 34:27  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

This is a covenant with a people group called Israel, made at Mt Sinai, which has terms and conditions recorded in the Book of the Law.

NOTE: This is a people group, not a nation-state. The word “nation” in the Old Testament is the Hebrew “goy,” meaning persons of the same ethnic family. The old covenant did not institute a political state.

The old covenant was conditional. If the Israelite people group obeyed the covenant, they were blessed; if not, they were cursed; if they disobeyed enough, they would be kicked out of the land like the people before them.

God still interacted with non-Israelite people during the period the same as He did before the covenant.

Acts 10:34-35  Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 

35  But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.

403 Years after the covenant at Sinai, the Israelites requested a king. God called this request for a nation-state a rejection of Himself. (1 Samuel 8:6-7)

The Old Testament books of the prophets came primarily during, and toward the end, of this period of Israel having kings. The prophets primarily warned Israel of their departure from the Lord and of their impending judgment and dissolution.

During this period, the Lord says in Jeremiah 3:8 that backsliding Israel (northern kingdom) committed adultery, so He gave her a certificate of divorce, yet Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.

The Lord said to the southern kingdom of Judah:

Isaiah 50:1  Thus says the LORD: “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.

Not a full divorce like the northern tribes, but “put away,” as in separation, or estrangement.

After this, there are 430 “silent years” between the last record of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. There is no record of prophets, miracles, or the presence of the Lord again filling the temple.

It is during this period, when the failure of Israel to keep the covenant had become apparent, and they were being “put away,” that the Lord announced a “new covenant” that is to come.

Jeremiah 31:31-32  “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32  not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers…

New Covenant is Not an Addition but a Replacement

The new covenant has not been added to the old. The new covenant is not a supplement to the old. The old covenant is taken away and replaced with the new. 

• Hebrews 7:18  For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment…
• Hebrews 8:13  In that He says, “A NEW COVENANT,” He has made the first obsolete…
• Hebrews 10:9  …He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
• Ephesians 2:15  having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments…
• Colossians 2:14  having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us…

If the old covenant is no longer in effect, then when did it end and when did the new begin?

End of the Old Covenant

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21:9  Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!” 

John 12:37  But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 

Matthew 21:10  And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” 

Luke 19:41-44  Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 

42  saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 

43  For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 

44  and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” 

Monday

Jesus curses the fig tree, saying, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” (Mark 11:12-14)

Jesus tells many parables pointed at the Jews, telling of their coming judgment and of the kingdom being taken from them and given to others.

• Parable of two sons (Matthew 21:28-32)
• Parable of tenants and vineyard (Mat 21:33-46)
• Kingdom will be taken from Jews and given to others bringing forth fruit (Mat 21:42-43)
• Parable of the wedding feast (Mat 22:1-14)

Jesus pronounces seven woes against the scribes and Pharisees, announcing that all the righteous blood shed from Abel to Zechariah would come on that generation (Mat 23:1-36).

Mat 23:37  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 

Mat 23:38  See! Your house is left to you desolate; 

Jesus prophesied the Temple’s coming destruction (Mt 24:1–2; Mk 13:1–2).

Tuesday

Mark 11:21-23  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” 

22  So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 

23  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

Wednesday

Chief priests and elders convened to plot the assassination of their king (Mt 26:3–5; Mk 14:1–2).

Beginning of the New Covenant

Thursday

New covenant initiated as Jesus announces, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” (Mt 26:26–29; Mk 14:22–25; Lk 22:19–20)

John 14:6  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Friday

Jesus is crucified, and the new covenant is ratified – signed in blood.

Saturday

Sabbath – day of rest

Sunday

New covenant found effective as Jesus becomes the “firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18), and the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).

The Difference Between the Two Covenants

• One covenant required works; the other gives a free gift by grace.
• One covenant ministered condemnation; the other ministers righteousness.
• One covenant reminded us of our sin; in the other God forgets our sin.
• One covenant was imposed from without; the other springs forth from within as God writes His laws on our heart. 

Contract of works vs adoption. 

The covenant made with the people group of Israel recorded in the book of the law is no more. It’s not available as a means to attempt to approach God through even if we wanted to.

The only question before humanity is whether we will be in Adam, in whom all die, or in Christ, in whom all are made alive.  

Leave the Old Covenant Behind

In Romans 7:1-6, Paul explains that we are as free from the old covenant law as a woman is free from a husband who has died.

Don’t Let the Law Alienate You From Christ

Galatians 5:4  You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 

What Purpose is there in the Law?

Galatians 3:24  Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.