Our God had a lot of history with the Jewish people before He set about to establish a covenant with them. Their obstinate rebellion against Him was well known by Him as He had been dealing with them as a people for some 1,000 years and many generations. Still, His love for them was overwhelming. When He set about to establish a covenant with them, the history He had had with them was an important consideration. Paul tells us the old covenant law was meant as a schoolmaster for the Children of Israel. The Children of Israel needed a strict disciplinarian to direct them to Jesus. The Old Testament law fulfilled that need perfectly. As long as the Jews obeyed the law perfectly they enjoyed the blessings of the covenant., but if they strayed at all, the curses of the covenant were aggressive in their pursuit of them. There was no mercy under the old covenant. This was because the Jewish people had proved that they needed this kind of guidance.
However, when Jesus set about to establish a covenant with the Gentile people, He had no history with them. Being a God of mercy and grace, He gave the Gentiles the benefit of that lack of knowledge. The Gentiles had watched the Jews squander their relationship with God and there was a fair amount of pent up desire to get in on what the Jews were throwing away. Cornelius' household, from the tenth chapter of Acts, is an example of this pent up desire. Cornelius, and his whole household, worshiped and served God. However, because Cornelius was not a Jew, he went beyond what God required of the Jews in an effort to be acceptable to God. Many Gentiles were involved in the same practice. God, being an all-knowing being, realized this truth and drafted a covenant with the Gentiles accordingly.
The problem has been that the Jews were jealous of the freedom of the covenant God established with the Gentiles. The earliest Christians were Jews that converted to Christianity from the old covenant law and they sought to impose the law on New Testament Christians, even though, according to old covenant law, one must convert to Judaism before they can partake in the old covenant. Acts 10 reveals that Peter thought that Cornelius' household would need to convert to Judaism before becoming Christians. The first Church council was held to answer the question whether Gentiles could become Christians without first converting to Judaism. The question was debated for several days before it was decided that Gentiles would not need to convert to Judaism to become Christians. This indicates the pervasiveness of the thought that Christianity was simply an extension of the old covenant and not a completely new covenant. The Jews intended to extend the old covenant just past Jesus' death on the cross to supplant the blood of bulls and goats as a way to cover sins and continue to live under the old covenant. This thinking was prevalent in the early Church and it is clear that this argument ultimately won out and the Church has been living under the old covenant for two thousand years.
The truth is that Jesus established a new covenant by His blood at the cross. This covenant was not established with the Jews, or Jewish nation. This covenant was established with Gentiles, or all men. Jesus did not die as a Jew, He died as a man for all mankind. The covenant He established was with the entire human race and there is but one law that has to be kept to gain and maintain entrance to this covenant, the law of belief in Jesus. If any man believes in Jesus, that is, if any man accepts His death on the cross as their payment for their sins and receives Him as that sacrifice in their life, they are provided with the righteousness of Christ, they are clothed with Jesus. The word "in" means, "to be clothed by." Righteousness, by definition, is doing the right thing. If belief in Jesus is maintained, believers will do the right thing. This is because by righteousness, the Word of God is written on our hearts. If belief in Jesus is allowed to lapse, sin can be committed, but as soon as the belief is re-instated, the sin is washed away. The blood of Jesus is magical in its ability to utterly wash sin away.
This quality of the blood of Jesus, as compared to the blood of bulls and goats, indicates a completely new covenant based on a completely different set of values. Before Christians can discover the importance of the gift of tongues, they must first realize the difference between the old and new covenants. They must embrace the new covenant and leave the old behind. However, many modern day believers are seeking to enter deeper and deeper into the old covenant. They are studying its feasts and re-enacting its statutes. Christians are pursuing life under the old covenant and are shunning the new. They are seeking to convert to Judaism.
The gift of tongues belongs to the new covenant. There is no way to gain understanding into the great power of the gift as long as the new covenant is shunned to go back to the old. However, if the practice of obedience to the old covenant laws are dropped and the new covenant belief in Jesus is embraced, understanding of the new covenant can be gained.
The word "righteous" means, "doing the right thing." This aspect of God being righteous is what compels God to do the right thing and flows out of His holiness. It is the right thing for God to deal with His children based on the covenant He has drafted and ratified with them. On the other hand, if they insist on going a different way, His righteousness compels Him to deal with them accordingly. If Christians insist on living under the old covenant the understanding of the new covenant is cut off from them and they are allowed access to the curses of the old covenant. In other words, if Christians prove themselves to be stiff necked and rebellious, as the Jews were, then they are given the same schoolmaster to lead them to Christ. God's righteousness demands it.