The Old Testament and the New Testament are just that: "Testaments"- as in "last will and testament". The Old Covenant was introduced in Exodus 19:5-8. The Ten commandments as well as many other laws were declared in Exodus 20-23 and then in Exodus 24:3-8 were agreed upon by the people of Israel. The jist of the Old Covenant was basically that this is God's standard for conduct and any failure to meet and sustain God's standard is rightly punishable by death. In most cases an innocent animal
was sacrificed as a substitute for your own life as a payment for your sin.
Hebrews 10:1-4 tells us that it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins but, rather it stood as a reminder of the fact we
are sinners and also under the penalty for sin. Galatians 3:24 tells us "the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ" meaning that the law made us conscience of sin(missing God's mark) within our lives, the penalty for said sin(death), as well as our own inability to fix the situation. By the law we know we need a Saviour.
The New Testament was not God changing His mind but rather(as someone has said) a continuation of His redemptive plan. It was prophesied as early as Genesis 3:15 in the old testament.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 probably declares it best within the Old Testament. The fact that this new covenant was to be given to the whole world rather then just the nation of Israel was hinted at in the Old Testament and by Christ but was revealed through the Apostles: Ephesians 3:5,6.
To put it simply the New Covenant stands alone. It is not a revision of
the law but rather a different contract with different promises and different conditions. In the Old testament you received a limited communion with God through ritual and priests if you followed the Law and
provided animal substitutes for your own life when you failed to keep it.
In the New Covenant we are adopted as God's children and need no ritual
or priest to communicate with God. When we sin we are treated as disobedient children and are offered immediate reconciliation upon confession and repentance. We are never condemned as law breakers because the penalty for our sin was paid by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once and for all! Hebrews 10:8-18.
If anyone is struggling with the relationship of the old and new covenants I
would suggest you read the book of Galatians and Hebrews in the New Testament. Galatians was a letter written by the Apostle Paul because
some Jewish Christians were trying to tell Gentile(non-Jews) converts that they need to be circumcised and follow other parts of the law. Hebrews was written primarily to help Jews to understand the separate places these Covenants have in God's plan.
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