WE REALLY NEED THE OLD TESTAMENT TODAY

Some Christians may question, if we are part of the new covenant, why should we seek to understand and apply the Old Testament?

To understand the Old Testament fully, we must start reading it as believers in the resurrected Jesus, with God having awakened our spiritual senses to perceive and hear rightly.

As Paul notes, Scripture’s truths are “spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14) and only through Christ does God enable us to read the old covenant materials as God intended (2 Cor. 3:14).

I will give many reasons for what I believe we must acknowledge the Old Testament.

1. The Old Testament Was Jesus’s Only Bible and Makes Up 75 Percent of Our Christian Scripture

If word count says anything, the Old Testament matters to God, who gave us his word in a book. In fact, it was his first special revelation, and it set a foundation for the fulfilment we find in Jesus in the New Testament.

The Old Testament was the only Bible of Jesus and the earliest church (e.g., Luke 24:44; Acts 24:14; 2 Tim. 3:15), and it is a major part of our Scriptures.

2. The Old Testament Influences Our Understanding of Key Biblical Teachings

Without the Old Testament, we wouldn’t understand the problem for which Jesus and the New Testament supply the solution. “As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness

Without the Old Testament, we wouldn’t grasp the various types and shadows that point to Jesus.

The Old Testament alone clarifies what John meant when he said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). And the Old Testament indicates what Jesus meant when he said of his body, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19, 21).

3. We Meet the Same God in Both Testaments

Now you may ask, “But isn’t the Old Testament’s God one of wrath and burden, whereas the God of the New Testament is about grace and freedom?”

Note how the book of Hebrews begins: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb. 1:1–2).

The very God who spoke through Old Testament prophets like Moses, Isaiah, and Malachi speaks through Jesus!

God is as wrathful in the New Testament as he is in the Old, and the Old Testament is filled with manifestations of God’s saving grace. Certainly, there are numerous expressions of Yahweh’s righteous anger in the Old Testament, just as there are massive manifestations of blood-bought mercy in the New Testament. Indeed, in Jesus all saving grace reaches its climax.

Nevertheless, what is important is to recognize that we meet the same God in the Old Testament as we do in the New.

4. The Old Testament Announces the Very “Good News” We Enjoy

Gospel means “good news” and refers to the truth that, through Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, God reigns over all and saves and satisfies sinners who believe. Paul states that “the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’” (Gal. 3:8).

Abraham was already aware of the message of global salvation we now enjoy.

Similarly, Paul stresses that the Lord “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” (i.e., the Old Testament prophets) the very powerful “gospel of God . . . concerning his Son” that he preached and in which we now rest (Rom. 1:1–3, 16).

Foremost among these prophets was Isaiah, who anticipated the day when Yahweh’s royal servant (the Messiah) and the many servants identified with him would herald comforting “good news” to the poor and broken—news that the saving God reigns through his anointed royal deliverer (Isa. 61:1; cf. Isa. 40:9–11; Isa. 52:7–10; Luke 4:16–21).

5. Both the Old and New Covenants Call Us to Love and Clarify What Love Looks Like

Within the old covenant, love was what Yahweh called Israel to do (Deut. 6:5; Deut. 10:19); all the other commandments clarified how to do it. This was part of Jesus’s point when he stressed that all the Old Testament hangs on the call to love God and neighbour: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37–40).

6. Jesus Came Not to Set Aside the Old Testament but to Fulfil It

Moses said that those enjoying circumcised hearts in the new covenant age would “obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today” (Deut. 30:8). Moses knew that the laws he was proclaiming in Deuteronomy would matter for those living in the days of restoration.

7. Jesus Said That All the Old Testament Points to Him

After his first encounter with Jesus, Philip announced to Nathanael, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote” (John 1:45).

Do you want to see and celebrate Jesus as much as you can? The Old Testament authors wrote about him! As Jesus himself said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39; cf. John 5:46–47).

Then, following his resurrection, to those walking with Him to Emmaus, he did this…“beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Jesus expounded the things concerning himself that are throughout the Scriptures.”

8. New Testament Authors Expect Us to Read the Old Testament

The New Testament often cites the Old Testament in ways that call us to look back at the original context. For example, Matthew 27–28 portray Christ’s tribulation and triumph at the cross by recalling Psalm 22 many times. Jesus quotes Psalm 22:1 when he declares, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). In stating, “And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots” (Matt. 27:35).

9. New Testament Authors Recognized That God Gave the Old Testament for Christians

Regarding the Old Testament prophets, Peter explains, “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you” (1 Pet. 1:12).

Similarly, Paul was convinced that the Old Testament authors wrote for new covenant believers—those following Jesus on this side of his death and resurrection. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4; cf. Rom. 4:23–24).

10. Paul Demands That Church Leaders Preach the Old Testament

Paul testified to the Ephesian elders, “I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26–27).

The whole counsel of God refers to the entirety of God’s purposes in salvation history as revealed in Scripture.

Luke wants us to know that, had the apostle failed to make known the Lord’s redemptive plan of blessing overcoming curse through the person of Jesus, he would have stood accountable before God for any future doctrinal or moral error that the Ephesian church carried out (cf. Ezek. 33:1–6; Acts 18:6).

Paul believed Christians needed to preach the Old Testament to guard the church from apostasy. While we now have the New Testament, we still must study, practice, and teach the Old Testament like Jesus and his apostles did for the good of God’s church.

So go ahead, read, study and meditate on the Old Testament.