THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 8, MARCH 24, 2002

“HE TAKES AWAY THE FIRST IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH THE SECOND”  

            One of the keys to understanding God’s Word and interpreting it properly is to recognize the distinction between the Old and New Testaments.  This goes far beyond simply knowing that one comes before the other in the bible and that they contain different books.  It involves recognizing the place of each in God’s great plan and understanding what is applicable to us today in terms of authority and what is not.  

            One of the simplest ways to describe the difference and purpose of the two is to say that the main point of the Old Testament is that the Christ, the Messiah, was coming.  The first 4 books of the New Testament, the Gospels, tell us that He was here.  The remaining 23 books of the New Testament tell us that He is coming again and teach us how to live in anticipation of His arrival.  

            The first book of the bible, the book of Genesis, is the book of beginnings.  In it we see the beginning of the world and all things in it.  We see the beginning of man and the introduction of sin into the world.  We see the beginning of the Scheme of Redemption, at least as it begins to be unfolded to man with the first promise concerning it, the Protevangelium (Gen. 3:15).  We also see the beginning of the Jewish nation – the nation through whom the Messiah would come.  

            As the Old Testament begins to focus upon the Hebrews and we move from the book of Genesis into Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and beyond, we find God taking steps to keep the Jewish nation racially and spiritually pure, in anticipation of the coming of the Christ.  They were given a law, the Law of Moses, by which they were to be governed and a land in which to live.  In the New Testament, in Galatians 3, the ultimate purpose of that Law is made clear.  Paul wrote in verses 23 & 24, “But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.  Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.”

A great deal of the Old Testament record concerns the struggle of the nation of Israel with the Law of Moses and their failure to keep it.  Time and again they would forsake the Law of God and face God’s righteous wrath – God utilizing various peoples and nations to punishment the Jews and turn them back to Him.  Time and again we see the compassion and mercy of God as the nation would repent and God would deliver them from their oppressors.  As a matter of fact, the accounts of their struggles with sin and God’s dealings with them serve a tremendous purpose for us today.  In 1 Corinthians 10, after writing of several of the things that the children of Israel did in the time of the Wilderness Wanderings, Paul wrote in verse 11, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”  In Romans 15:4, we find, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Clearly, we can open the pages of the Old Testament, read there from, and learn tremendous lessons.  Actually, we cannot fully understand the New Testament without a knowledge of what came before, what preceded it, and in a very real sense, foreshadowed it.  However, when it comes to our source of authority for what we do in religion today, the Old Testament is not where we are to turn.  Earlier we were in Galatians 3, and saw the ultimate purpose of the Law of Moses.  If we had continued on one more verse, we would have seen the duration of the Law as well.  Gal. 3:25 , says, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”  The purpose of the Old Law was fulfilled.  Salvation is now available through Christ and no one is under the Law of Moses any more. 

In Matthew 17, upon the Mount of Transfiguration, as Jesus appeared with Moses and Elijah in a glorified state, God stated in verse 5, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased, listen to Him.”  In Matthew 28:18, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”  In the book of Hebrews, chapter 1:1 & 2, we find, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”

Jesus is the source of all authority today and His authority for us is found in the New Testament, the covenant Jesus ratified with His own blood.

So much of the book of Hebrews is about the superiority of the New Testament over the Old.  It is a logical presentation of many of the reasons why the Old is no longer in effect and that all who would be saved are bound to obey the New.  In Heb. 7:22, we read, “So much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.”  In chapter 8:6 – 13, we find, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.  For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.  For finding fault with them, He says, ‘Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…and they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.  For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.’ When He said, ‘A new covenant’, He has made the first obsolete.  But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”

            We are under the New Covenant, not the Old today.  To search for authority for our religious practices in the Old Testament is to fail to properly interpret God’s Word.