What is the New Covenant? What Commandments does it retain and what Commandments does it nullify?

The New Covenant, as established in Messiah’s blood at Golgotha (Matthew 26:28), is a covenant of restoration, forgiveness of sin, redemption, intimacy, renewal, initiated by faith-belief in Messiah Jesus (John 3:16) as the Messiah who died to pay our sin-debt; that is, a New Covenant between Elohim and mankind engendered by trusting-believing that Jesus is the Messiah as promised throughout the Scriptures (Genesis 3:15; 21; Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:22; John 6:29) who has entered the Realm of Time in order to defeat and destroy the works of Satan i.e., death-Hell-the Grave (1 John 3:8b) via a Gospel (an act of selfless love) which was ordained “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10). The Father has promised to forgive-forget-forever the sins of the one who trusts in the Son, Jesus our Messiah (Hebrews 8:12), and the Father has promised to endow the redeemed in Jesus with the precious indwelling Holy Spirit who is the Guarantor-Seal of New Covenant promise, FOREVER (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Law in the New Covenant v. Law in the Old Covenant,

Commandments, edicts, rules, days, diets, were all a foreshadowing of Messiah in that these pointed to Messiah who would be the only One capable of keeping them, obeying them, honoring them, with absolute perfection and thus make Himself the only One authorized and anointed to pay the penalty for sin; that is, the Spotless-Sinless-Holy-Undefiled “Lamb of Elohim who takes away the sins of the World” (John 1:29-32; 1 Peter 1:18-19) via obedience to Leviticus 17:11.

The astute and discerning Hebrew understood his/her inability to honor Elohim through perfect obedience due the Adamic sin-nature (Romans 5:12; Ecclesiastes 7:20) and they intuitively understood the necessity for a Messiah to go before them and present them blameless before the Father; hence, they understood the need for faith and trusted in Elohim as the one true “God” (Hebrews 11).

Sinai as a bulwark against paganism,

Commandment keeping – rule keeping – Sinai – Moses’ 603 edicts – these were given specifically to the children of Israel for eschatological purposes concerning the coming Messiah via Judah as the Father was concerned relevant to Israel’s compromise with paganism; therefore, the Father codified certain relevant moral and civil laws and etched the most relevant/crucial edicts into stone tablets and presented them to Moses to be distributed/taught among the Tribes; this, in Elohim’s efforts to stymie/thwart Israel’s compromise with Baal and Molech and the pagan tribes/demonic traditions that surrounded them and thereby Elohim sought to stymie a repeat of the atrocious failures exhibited by the Adamic and Noahic generations where all of humanity was judged unto death by water save eight as these generations defiled themselves with the demonic and thwarted their ordination as progenitors of the Messiah.

In the New Covenant,

In the New Covenant, the Law of Elohim is written upon the human heart (Romans 2:14-15), not etched in stone tablets, and these Laws are arbitrated by the redeemed conscience of those who have trusted in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ezekiel 11:19, Ezekiel 36:26, Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10). No longer does mankind seek righteousness through law-keeping (Galatians 2:16) but in the New Covenant, the indwelling Holy Spirit works via daily Christian sanctification through the redeemed conscience of mankind (Galatians 5:16; John 14:16) and produces divine “fruit” (Galatians 5:22-23) through the redeemed in Jesus and this divine fruit fulfills all Law (Galatians 5:23), even those laws that are not codified for the children of Israel – the moral-ethical-holy Law as written upon the human heart is complete, comprehensive and not fragmented or stymied by codification in letters but wholly addresses the comprehensive will of the Father for humanity; it is this divine fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-23) that actually honors the Father, eternally, and proves one to be a legitimate, valid, redeemed, born-again (John 3:5) servant of Jesus our Messiah and thus the Father is honored, eternally, by those who honor Jesus as their Messiah (John 15:8).

It is written,

Life in the Spirit

8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8 (ESV)