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The Old Testament |
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How
should Christians view the Old Testament?
Should they reject it as having nothing to say to people today? Or
should they obliterate all distinctions between the two Testaments? The
Old Testament is related to the New in the way that a bud is related to a
flower and an acorn is to an oak. The people of God in the Old Testament
are compared to children; in the New they have come to adulthood.
(Galatians 4:1-7.) The
Christian attitude toward the Old Testament should be like that of the
Lord Jesus and his apostles. If one were to remove all the Old Testament
quotations and their explanation and application from the teachings of the
apostles, he would be left with a very small New Testament. As a case in
point, the next time you read Paul’s epistle to the Romans, notice how
often he establishes each point of doctrine out of the Old Testament. In
fact, the apostles appealed to the Old Testament for their doctrine the
same way Bible teachers appeal to the whole Bible today.
Paul is simply following the example of the Lord Jesus who
established his teaching by quoting from the Old Testament.
One should not overlook what the Lord Jesus himself said: “Do not
think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come
to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17.) Fulfillment
Means that Christ Has Completed the Old and Brought it to its Full
Expression in the New.
For
Jesus to fulfill the Law and the Prophets does not mean that he came
simply to press the obligations of the Torah on God’s people without
change taking place in the structure of the Law.
Our Lord came to bring the revelation given at Mount Sinai to
completion. Through his death
and resurrection, he inaugurated the New Covenant.
Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit on the Church at Pentecost in a
new way, and so he brought the Law to its fullest expression in people
whose hearts are embossed with God’s own moral character.
(For
a fuller understanding concerning the meaning of the Greek word translated
as “fulfill, ” plhrow (pronounced,
play RAH oh), one should consult Walter Bauer or Gerhard Delling. [Walter
Bauer, F. W. Danker, W.F. Arndt, F.W. Gingrich, Greek-English Lexicon
of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third
edition, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000, pp. 827-829] [Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand
Rapids, 1968), Vol. VI, pp. 283-311].) Through
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Law has been fulfilled,
and the forms and structures of worship under the Old Covenant have been
transformed. As a result of
our Lord’s having died and risen from the dead, nothing is the same.
The New Creation has begun to dawn. (2 Corinthians 5:17.)
Every element of the Old Covenant is fulfilled by Christ and so
been radically transformed. The
Old Testament authors foresaw a time of fulfillment during which the
grace, power and presence of God would continually be manifested in his
people in an unprecedented way. The Old Testament writers understood that
they walked under the grace of God and appreciated the many blessings of
the Old Covenant such as full forgiveness of sins, physical healing,
material prosperity, and the presence and joy of the Holy Spirit, (Psalms
103:2-5; 51:11, 12.) but they understood that there was much that was
beyond their experience. So much greater would be the regular
manifestation of the power and presence of the Spirit of God among all of
God’s people, as over against a few, that the Old Testament era could be
contrasted with the New almost as if there were no grace, life, power or
presence of the Lord there. One has but to read Paul’s contrasts in 2
Corinthians 3:3-11 to see how the apostles understood that they lived in
the time of wonderful fulfillment. The
Moral Law Is Permanent Yet Transformed.
Fulfillment
means that our Lord brought out the true meaning of the types and shadows
of the Old Testament. The result is that the Old Covenant underwent
significant transformation. This
underscores that the fundamental structures undergirding the Old Covenant
did not cease to exist. One
may take as an example the moral law of God, what is both given in natural
revelation and in the Ten Commandments.
These commandments are not independent of God, as if he were bound
by some abstract moral principles that are above him and separate from his
existence; rather they refract the very character of God himself, his own
morality. In effect, they
codify, within the ethos and milieu of Israel in the Second Millennium
before Christ, God’s own moral character. A
beautiful analogy to this is found in how a prism refracts light into its
various colors. These
commandments are right simply because they are consistent with who God is.
In other words, murder, adultery and stealing would not be wrong if
they were not contrary to God’s own nature; were there no God, there
would be no right and no wrong. As
Dostoevsky said, “If God does not exist, then everything is permitted.” This
moral nature of God, stamped on the human soul, is part of what it means
for us to be created in the image of God, an image that was radically
marred, gnarled, broken and twisted in the fall, but not completely lost.
In the fall, man lost more than a gift of super added grace (donum
superadditum); rather, the totality of his being, including his
intellect, was radically affected by sin.
Humankind is totally but not utterly depraved; man is not as bad as
he can possibly be. The shattered image of God, including moral judgment, remains
in fallen man. That is to
say, even lost people have an innate, intuitive, instinctive sense of
right and wrong, based not only on experience but as part of the very
essence of what it is to be human. This
knowledge of the true God and of his character exhibits itself imperfectly
in the human conscience: “For
when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the
Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show
the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing
witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them . .
. “ (Romans 2:14, 15.) This moral law, because it is common to all human
beings by nature, is one facet of natural law.
Natural law, including the moral remnant of the image of God within
each human person, does not make it possible for lost people to please God
and earn salvation, but it does demonstrate that people are without excuse
for their refusal to turn from their sins to God, and it gives them a
knowledge of right and wrong. Yet
even the Moral Law itself experiences transformation through the person
and work of the Lord Jesus. The
Fourth Commandment demonstrates this, because it is unique among the
Ten Commandments. While all
of the commandments are a reflection of God’s own character and are
therefore a permanent statement of unchanging moral principles, the Fourth
Commandment is a Creation ordinance in a more particular way than the
other commandments, and so it is part of the structure of the world—the
very rhythm of life, if you will. (Genesis 2:2, 3.)
It was structured into reality for the welfare of humankind:
“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
(Mark 2:27.) Not
only is it part of the structure of Creation, but it also is given to
reflect God’s pattern of activity—a cycle of six and one, of work and
rest. (Genesis 2:2, 3; Exodus 20:8-11.)
Furthermore, it is also given as a sign of redemption:
“You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt,
and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an
outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the
sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:15.) This
makes it unique among the Ten Words, because the wording and rational for
the Sabbath commandment undergoes change as a result of God’s redeeming
his people out of Egypt. The
Sabbath commandment is the only one of the Ten Commandments that has both
an unchanging, moral aspect, and a changing aspect that reflects Old
Testament ceremonial law. As
such, our Lord is said to have “broken” it:
“For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to
kill him, because he not only was breaking [luw
(pronounced, LOO oh), “break, set free, loose, untie”] the Sabbath,
but also was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
(John 5:18.) So
it is that under the New Covenant, believers are given a good measure of
freedom regarding how we observe it, including treating all days similarly
as the New Covenant Sabbath—thus enjoying worship and refreshment every
day. As a result of the Lord Jesus’ nailing the Old Covenant
with its ceremonies, sanctions and curses to the cross—thereby dealing
the death blow to the world, the flesh and the devil—we are free people
(Colossians 2:8-15.) —free, not that we should continue in sin (i.e.
what is contrary to God’s own moral nature.), but free to reflect the
restored image of God in our daily lives.
How
we keep Sabbath is with an emphasis on liberty and grace, particularly
with regard to the interpretations and homespun religion of our fellows: “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food
or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things
which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to
Christ.” (Colossians 2:16, 17.) “One
person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.
Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.
He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats,
does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for
the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.” (Romans 14:5, 6.) While
the creation pattern of six and one remains, the weight of evidence from
the New Testament is that the day of worship and rest has been shifted
from the seventh to the first day. When
used of a specific day of the week, as over against a part of a festival
or a Sabbath year, the Sabbath refers to the period of time from sundown
Friday until sundown Saturday. Early
Christians did go to the synagogue, but they did so for evangelistic
purposes, and the Sabbath was when Jewish people were there. (Acts 13:14,
44; 16:13; 18:4.) However, we
find that the Church did not worship then but appears to have worshiped on
the next day, the first day of the week. (Acts 20:7.) Sunday
is not identical to the Sabbath, but we may refer to it as the Christian
Sabbath in the way that we might refer to the Lord’s Supper as the
Christian Passover, or to Baptism as Christian Circumcision. They are so
typologically and figuratively, just as Christ is the Passover Lamb. These
Old Testament ordinances are fulfilled in their New Testament
counterparts, as we shall see. Fulfillment
of the Old in the New Underscores the Severity of the Justice of God in
the Old Testament.
When
one thinks of our Lord’s words about fulfilling the Law and the
Prophets, he should compare Paul’s references to the Old Covenant as “the
ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone” and
“the ministry that condemns men” with his descriptions of the New
Covenant as the ministry “written . . . with the Holy Spirit . . . on
tablets of human hearts” and “the ministry that brings righteousness.”
As glorious as the Old Testament was, says Paul, “it has no glory now in
comparison with the surpassing glory (of the New Testament).” (2
Corinthians 3:3-11.) The
Apostle John put it succinctly: “For the law was given through Moses,
but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17.)
John is not saying that there is no law under Christ, nor that
there was no grace under Moses, but he is showing the great contrast in
emphasis between the two Testaments. The
Old Testament abounds with examples of its being “the
ministry that brought death.” Not
only did every sexual act outside the bounds of marriage—with
the exception of simple fornication between an unmarried man and an
unmarried woman—carry
the death penalty, but many other things did as well: ‘And while
the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that
gathered sticks upon the sabbath day . . . the LORD said unto Moses, “The
man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him
with stones without the camp.”’ (Numbers 15:32-35) ‘If a man
has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his
father or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him,
will not hearken unto them: then shall his father and his mother lay hold
on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate
of his place; and they shall say unto the elders of his city, “This our
son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a
glutton, and a drunkard.” And all the men of his city shall stone him
with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and
all Israel shall hear, and fear.’ (Deuteronomy 21:18-21) That
contrast between “the ministry that brought death and condemns men”
with “the ministry that brings righteousness.” is nowhere displayed
more graphically than in the incident of the woman captured in adultery,
recorded in John 8:2-11. In
order to release her from death, our Lord Jesus responds to the scribes
and Pharisees’ hypocritical question by stating:
“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a
stone at her.” (John 8:7.) By
this terminology, Jesus transforms the civil law of Israel, because he
demands that those who would put her to death must not simply be people of
good character (the two or three witnesses of Deuteronomy 17:6, etc.), but
actually without sin. (This hapax legomenon, anamarthtoV
[pronounced, an ah mar TAY tos] is rendered as, “without sin, i.e. not
having sinned.” [Bauer, op.
cit., p. 67].) This pattern of restoration rather than execution is found elsewhere in the New Testament. When one of the members of the Church in Corinth became involved in an incestuous sexual relationship, a death penalty offence under the civil code of Israel (Leviticus 20:11.), Paul counseled that he be put out of the Church. This is the New Testament fulfillment of Old Testament execution. But under the New Covenant, this is with a view to the person’s restoration to fellowship and ultimate salvation. (1 Corinthians 5:5.) Once this sinning Corinthian had repented, he was fully restored to the fellowship of the Church (2 Corinthians 2:5-8.), a situation that could never occur under the finality of the death penalty. The
Church should handle its own business and avoid dealing with the state
wherever possible. (1 Corinthians 6:1ff.)
Nowhere is there any hint of the Church seeking to get the civil
authority to enforce the civil code of Israel and its penalties.
On the contrary, Christians are to recognize pagan civil
governments as ordained of God. Because of natural revelation, even pagans
know right from wrong, retaining God’s moral law within themselves,
having been created in the divine image. The result is that they do
enforce God’s justice even in this present evil world. (Romans 13:1-7; 1
Peter 2:12-17.) Though
thoroughly just and showing the people of Israel what all sin deserves,
there is a harshness in the juridical code of Israel that testifies to a
barrier between sinful people and our most holy God.
But this barrier is removed by the death of the Testator of the New
Testament. (Hebrews 9:16.) And
so that code is fulfilled in Christ. The
Fulfillment of the Old Brings Unprecedented Intimacy with God as Exhibited
in New Testament Worship.
This
idea of fulfillment is written large over the doctrines and practices of
the Old Testament. The power of the Holy Spirit brings the meaning of Old
Testament institutions to their true significance. This new, heightened
Spirituality often involves some modifications in the outward form.
One may consider as an example, the Old Testament celebration of
the Passover. After having given elaborate instructions about selecting
the Passover lamb, God told his people, “Obey these instructions as a
lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.” (Exodus 12:24.) How are
New Testament believers to carry out this commandment? Are we to slaughter
lambs today, or are we simply to abandon the Passover ordinance
completely? We are to celebrate it, says Paul, “For Christ, our Passover
Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival . . .” (1
Corinthians 5:7, 8.) Christian
people have continued to observe the Passover for almost two thousand
years; they do it every time they break the bread and drink the wine in
the Lord’s Supper. And just as Old Testament believers purged the leaven
out of their houses, so we must purge out of our hearts the old yeast, the
yeast of malice and wickedness. (1 Corinthians 5:8.) What
is true of the Passover is true of other Old Testament institutions: the
kingdom promised to David is fulfilled in his Son, Jesus Christ, who sits
at the Father’s right hand in glory and subdues all nations unto himself
by pouring out his Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:29-36.) The
Old Covenant had a hierarchy of religious leaders, including priests and
high priests whose bloodline had to be traced back to Levi. (2 Chronicles
26:16-18.) The New Covenant embraces the fundamental equality of all
Christians and recognizes the priesthood of every believer. (Galatians
3:26-29; 1 Peter 2:9.) The
Old Covenant was structured around the barriers between a sinful humanity
and a holy God. Only
Israelites were permitted to certain levels of intimacy, with only males
moving in more closely. Only
Levites could proceed to the holy place, and only the high priest could
enter the holy of holies. He
did this but twice a year, on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.
(Leviticus 16.) When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the
temple was torn from top to bottom, opening the way for intimacy of
communion between God and all believers. (Mark 10:38; Hebrews 10:19-22.)
By his death, Jesus “has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of
hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14.) In
the New Testament, Israel comes into her own:
“I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different
from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under
guardians and managers until the date set by his father.
In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to
the elementary principles of the world.” (Galatians 4:1-3.)
And the great division of humankind is removed once and for all: “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and
has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing
the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself
one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us
both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”
(Ephesians 2:14-16.) The
Old Covenant never resolved the issue of sin and guilt because “Day
after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and
again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.”
(Hebrews 10:11.) But when Jesus “had offered for all time one sacrifice
for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12.) “Unlike
the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after
day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He
sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”
(Hebrews 7:27.) “Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and
again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with
blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times
since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at
the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just
as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ
was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will
appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who
are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:25-28.) New
Testament worship, as over against that of the Old Covenant, affirms a
once for all time, completed sacrifice. The Lord’s Supper is not a
re-sacrifice of Christ, but a memorial of his having “entered the Most
Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal
redemption.” (Hebrews 9:12.) Through this means of grace, through the
power of the Holy Spirit who lifts us up to Christ, we have communion with
the body and blood of Christ, but the bread remains bread and the wine
remains wine, and the effect is on us, not on God. (1 Corinthians 10:16.) The
bloody death of Jesus on the cross fulfills the Tabernacle with its bloody
animal sacrifices. (Hebrews 9 and 10:1-22.) The glorious Temple of the New
Covenant is composed of the people of God, whom the Holy Spirit indwells.
(1 Corinthians 3:16, 17.) Each
believer is a living stone in the edifice that the Lord Jesus is building.
(1 Peter 2:5.) But now there
is no heavy veil separating sinful man from a holy God; it is gone; it was
ripped apart as the flesh of the Son of Man was ripped on the cross. (Cf.
Matthew 27:51 and Hebrews 20:19, 20.) Instead
of a focus on outward beauty: magnificent, special buildings covered with
gold and silver, with professional musicians and billows of incense, New
Testament worship is profoundly simple and spiritual. (John 4:24.) The
church in the New Testament is not a holy building but a holy people;
believers themselves are the living stones comprising the Temple of the
New Covenant. (1 Corinthians 3:9-17; Ephesians 3:19-22; 1 Peter 2:5.)
Incense is fulfilled in the prayers of all saints and the sweet aroma of
the gospel of the Lord Jesus. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16; Ephesians 5:1;
Revelation 5:8.) The
Rubicon of Redemptive history has been crossed in the death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus:
“Christ . . . forgave us all our sins;” he has “canceled the
written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood
opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” Therefore you
should never “let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with
regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.”
Because these Old Testament ordinances “are a shadow of the things that
were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” (Colossians
2:14-17.) “The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and
useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is
introduced, by which we draw near to God.” (Hebrews 7:18.) |
