I'll answer the last question first. Is the new Covenant better than the old? Absolutely. And here's why.
............This covenant was to be shown in types and symbols. The entire law, moral, ritual, civil, and even health, were a “lesson book” for the people of Israel (Gal. 3:24,25) and beginning from the very first sacrifice slain by God Himself to clothe Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21) the people of God, in the form of our ancient fathers, and later Israel were to learn (or should have learned) three vital lessons.
1. That sin results in death. (Genesis 2:19; 3:19; Ezekiel 18:20; 1 Cor. 6:9,10; Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23; James 1:15; ) for remission is only possible through the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22)
2. That the constant shedding of innocent blood was to teach man an abhorrence and hatred for sin and thus encourage the people to repent and turn away from not just sin, (Isa 1:11-20; Ezek. 18:21-23) but the incessant sacrifices that were necessitated because of sin. God had no pleasure in the rivers of blood that flowed from the altars in the temple every Passover when the whole nation gathered together in Jerusalem.
3. The symbols, sacrifices, and services of the sanctuary were a prophetic picture of a coming savior; they were a depiction of the gospel of grace. (Gen. 22:8; Isa 53:6,7)
And how were these promises, this covenant, to be appropriated by the individual personally? By faith. (Hebrews 11:6) Was Israel at any time justified or saved by works of the law? No. Not at all. A big error Israel did make however was to attempt to do just that. Making a promise that was…
a. Impossible, and
b. not required of them…
KJV Exodus 19
8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD….
They began to rely on their obedience and in their participation in these services and sacrifices etc rather than in the grace and mercy of God. (Rom. 10:3-9
. This is what the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians was all about.
What then, does all this mean for us living as we know in the “New Testament” times? What is this New Testament, or covenant? God’s love has not changed (Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17), nor His purpose in undoing all the works of Satan. (1 John 3:8) Therefore the new covenant must involve a new
method by which He is to be able to fulfil His promises. Why? Because the old covenant was based on
faulty promises. Were God’s promises faulty? Surely not, no, but rather the peoples promises. (Heb. 8:6,7) The people had misjudged the part they were to play in the covenant. In Exod. 19:5,6 God promised (again) that He would make of them a mighty nation and a holy people, and their response was in the form of a faulty promise. They answered,
“all that the Lord hath spoken we will do”. (Exod. 19:8) Unfortunately they had little idea of what they promised. God said that
He would perform and establish His covenant; rather than thanking Him and surrendering themselves in faith and acceptance to His promise, they said
they would perform His promise. Just like Abram and Sarai when introducing Hagar into the transaction between God and Abram. In a sense they were introducing a mediator, much as has Rome done which is the spirit of Antichrist. This was not Abraham’s covenant to alter or amend. This was God’s covenant, and like all covenants or testaments, once blood is spilt that testament can never be changed. History reveals of course the abject failure of Israel’s promise, failure to such an extent that Israel didn’t even recognize the very God of the covenant when He visited…we are all well aware of what they did to their own Messiah.
Therefore God had to make a new covenant with the house of Israel, based on better promises (Heb. 8:9,10) Today,
God’s promises remain. He still would bring us power and victory over Satan and sin, but the
method by which He would accomplish this has changed. The just however must still live by faith.
The old covenant, the old method by which God was to save His people and establish righteousness and obedience to His commandments was through the Mosaic law. The terms were for Israel, "obey and live" Circumcision, sacrifices and burnt offerings, the annual sabbaths and feast days and the accompanying services of the sanctuary etc (Hebrews 9:1-7), comprised God’s method to teach His people, the nation of Israel, the ways of righteousness. They were His lesson book. Israel was to look upon these as the gospel of mercy and in faith look ahead to their Savior, their Messiah. The new covenant is still by faith, not in a coming Savior, but in a risen Savior, Who writes His holy moral law in our hearts and minds. (2 Cor. 3:3) Thus, through Jesus, Satan is conquered, and his power over us is broken. Justice is satisfied, and God looks upon us as if we had never sinned. God gives us the new birth experience and the power to overcome sin. (1 John 3:9; 2 Peter 1:3,4). He dies to satisfy the law, and we, by faith die with Him, and therefore satisfy the law (Romans 6:1-7). And the result is what Adam and Eve had before the fall: a loving personal relationship with our Creator. Only today, by God’s grace and mercy, we are closer to Him than Adam and Eve could have ever imagined, for we have His Spirit abiding within. (Col. 1:27) Thus instead of a false, weak, ineffective promise to "obey and live", all we are required to do unto the new covenant is "believe and live". Believe in what? Better promises. God's promises. The promises of forgiveness of sins and of the grace of God to renew the heart and bring it into harmony with the principles of God's laws, "
written not on stone, but on fleshy tables of the heart". 2 Corinthians 3:3
The new covenant is a one way promise to write His law in our hearts, and to give us everlasting salvation as a free gift. That is righteousness by faith. Imputed and imparted.