Treasures, Old and New
Jesse Robertson
Although the Christian Bible has two main divisions—the Old Testament and the New Testament—the Bible is still composed of one, unifying, epic story. We cannot fully appreciate the cross without knowing what happened in the Garden of Eden, and we will miss some of the meaning of the Lord’s Supper if we never study about the Exodus and the Passover. It seems that if we are going to be “New Testament Christians,” we also have to be “Two-Testament Christians.” As we do that, here are a few points to keep in mind.
(1) There is only one God, but there is more than one covenant. God makes several covenants in the O.T. (with Noah, Abraham, David, etc.), but it is mainly about the covenant he offered to Israel through Moses. The N.T. is about the covenant God offers to all nations through Christ. God himself is always the same: “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). His covenants, on the other hand, are not all exactly the same: “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13). Because there is one God, however, all of God’s covenants fit into one master plan, and many of his commands never change (for example, Romans 13:9 quotes five commandments straight from the O.T.).
(2) All of Scripture helps us to know God better. Paul put it this way, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2Timothy 3:16-17). What would Paul have in mind as “all Scripture?” The O.T. was the Bible the early church started with. The Jews in Berea were more virtuous than those in Thessalonica, because “they searched the Scriptures [=O.T.] daily” to see if what Paul and Silas were teaching them was true (Acts 17:11). The truth about God is attested from Genesis to Revelation because all of Scripture—the Old and the New—comes from the heart of God.
(3) We read the Old Testament as Christians. That is to say, because we now know the work of God in Christ, we are able to see things in the O.T. that the Jews could not know before Christ. After Jesus was resurrected, he reminded his disciples that his mission was to fulfill the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, and “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:43-44). When we read that God promised to bless all families of the earth through Abraham (Genesis 12:3), we see a connection with the Great Commission. When we read in Isaiah 53 about one by whose “stripes we are healed,” we can begin here and preach Jesus, as Philip did (Acts 8:32-35). Space fails me to point out the connections with the priesthood, the Tabernacle, the sacrifices, the wanderings in the Wilderness, Joshua, David, and many other great figures and events. But as Christians who live under the new covenant, let’s remember that Jesus said, “Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Matthew 13:52).
