Why is the New Covenant more glorious that the Old Covenant?

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Yeah, and the argument, as you just said, is kind of a better -than argument.

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It's not that the Old Covenant did not have glory. It does have glory. If you say that it had no glory at all, then it's not, you know, it's not much of a comparison to say that the

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New Covenant had a greater glory. Greater than what? Well, not much, but it had a great glory. It was marvelous.

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It's the grace of God to give it. It's just that what came after was so much better. Yeah, so he does make a number of comparisons to demonstrate how much better it is.

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It is a greater glory because it is a glory, he just explains, that produces life rather than death.

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He calls the Old Covenant the letter that kills.

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In verse 7, it is the ministry of death. Whereas the

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New Covenant is one in which the Spirit gives life. And you can think about how even the giving of the

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Old Covenant, in a sense, came with death. Because as God came to Moses on Sinai and gives him the law, while all that's happening, the people are down below worshipping in a golden calf.

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And God sees them, he tells Moses about it, and he threatens to kill them all.

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And Moses intercedes for them, and God relents and does not kill them.

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But the people are so obstinate, they're so stiff -necked, that they can't look at the representation of God's glory that shines on Moses' face.

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So he has to veil his face before the people. The problem was not with the law, or with the

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Old Covenant, or the glory of that covenant. It was the obstinate hearts of the people.

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They can't stand to look at it. Which also says something about another problem, that is, you have people who are members of this covenant who are dead.

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They can't look at glory. But the New Covenant is a covenant in which the Spirit gives life to every person who's a member of that covenant.

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And they can stand to look at the glory. That glory is not veiled before them. He mentions that later, we all with unveiled face behold.

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A second contrast that he gives is not just a greater glory, but he calls it an abounding glory.

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In verse 9, if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

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The Old Covenant was, to a great degree, a ministry of condemnation.

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And that's what it was intended to do. It was intended to be a tutor to point us to the need for Christ.

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It was full of laws and rules that we could not keep. And it only promised the answer in Christ.

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It foreshadowed the answer. So it was a ministry of condemnation. But then a greater covenant comes that doesn't condemn, but is life and it provides life.

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Christ keeps the law for us and he appeases the wrath of God. He atones and he gives life, righteousness by faith.

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So it's a much greater glory in that sense. A third, he calls it in verse 10, a surpassing glory.

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And here he says what had glory in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.

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Again, it's like what you said earlier about it paling in comparison.