BIBLE-OLD TESTAMENT
How can
Christian pastors hope to feed their flock on a well-balanced spiritual diet if
they completely neglect the 39 books of Holy Scripture on which Christ and all
the New Testament authors received their own spiritual nourishment?
A New Look at the Old Testament, Decision,
August 1972, p. 5.
Only the
person who understands that the cross is the center of all human history can
understand the Old Testament. Through the lens of the gospel, the Bible
truly becomes one book telling one story:
the story of sinful man, a holy God, and His plan of salvation through
the substitution of Himself for His people.
The Cross Centered Life, 2002, Sovereign Grace Ministries, p. 76-77. Used by permission of Multnomah Publishers, Inc. Excerpts may not be reproduced without prior written consent of Multnomah Publishers, Inc.
Once we truly grasp the message of the New
Testament, it is impossible to read the Old Testament again without seeing
Christ on every page, in every story, foreshadowed or anticipated in every
event and narrative.
There are
many reasons why pastors must preach from the Old Testament: (1) the Old
Testament is part of the Christian canon, (2) it discloses the history of
redemption leading to Christ, (3) it proclaims truths not found in the New
Testament, (4) it helps us understand the New Testament, (5) it prevents
misunderstanding of the New Testament, and (6) it provides a fuller
understanding of Christ.
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 25. www.eerdmans.com.
Jesus Christ
is the link between the Old Testament and the New. God's revelation reaches its climax in the
New Testament - and this climax is not a new teaching...but a Person, God's own
Son. The Old and New Testaments are
related, therefore, not as law-gospel but as promise-fulfillment (a Person).
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 49. www.eerdmans.com.
The two
Testaments are not two books but one.
Since the literary context of the Old Testament in the Christian canon
is the New Testament, this means that the Old Testament must be understood in
the context of the New Testament. And
since the heart of the New Testament is Jesus Christ, this means that every
message from the Old Testament must be seen in the light of Jesus Christ.
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 51. www.eerdmans.com.
The
conviction that Jesus inaugurated the messianic age enables the New Testament
writers to preach Christ from the Old Testament, for this presupposition means
that God's redemptive history reaches its climax in Jesus. In Him all the Old Testament promises come to
fulfillment.
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 196. www.eerdmans.com.
The Old
(Testament) is in the New revealed; the New (Testament) is in the Old
concealed.
The Bible was
the only book Jesus every quoted, and then never as a basis for discussion but
to decide the point at issue.
We conclude
that in His use of the Old Testament Jesus stood alone among His Jewish
contemporaries, and that not because He took unusual liberties with the text
(He was in general usually faithful to its intended meaning), but because He
believed that in Him it found its fulfillment.
Jesus and the Old Testament, Regent, 1998, p.
201.
It is beyond
doubt that Jesus highly esteemed the Old Testament and constantly submitted to
it as to an authoritative revelation. He taught that the Scriptures bore
a witness to him, just as he bore a witness to them. Because they are the
words of God, Jesus assumed their complete reliability, in whole and to the
smallest part.
James Montgomery Boice
Taken from "Foundations of the
Christian Faith-Book I" by James Montgomery Boice, page 45.
(c)1986 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA,
Revised edition. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400,
Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=991.
Old Testament
narratives are not just stories about people who lived in Old Testament
times. They are first and foremost
stories about what God did to and through those people. In contrast to human narratives, the Bible is
composed especially of divine narratives.
God is the hero of the story - if it is in the Bible.
How to Read the Bible for all it’s Worth, Zondervan, 1993, p. 81.
The Old
Testament is not our testament. The Old Testament represents an Old Covenant,
which is one we are no longer obligated to keep. Therefore we can hardly begin
by assuming that the Old Covenant should automatically be binding upon us. We
have to assume, in fact, that none of its stipulations (laws) are binding upon
us unless they are renewed in the New Covenant. That is, unless an Old Testament
law is somehow restated or reinforced in the New Testament, it is no longer
directly binding on God's people (cf. Rom. 6:14-15).
How to Read the Bible For All It’s Worth,
Zondervan, 1993.
I beg every
devout Christian not to despise the simplicity of language and the stories
found in the Old Testament. He should remember that, however, simple the Old
Testament may seem, it contains the words, works, judgments and actions of God
Himself. Indeed the simplicity makes fools of the wise and the clever, and
allows the poor and simple to see the ways of God. Therefore submit your
thoughts and feelings to the stories you read, and let yourself
be carried like a child to God.
Martin Luther
The
principles underlying the OT are valid and authoritative for the Christian, but
the particular applications found in the OT may not be. The moral principles are the same today, but insofar
as our situation often differs from the OT setting, the application of the
principles in our society may well be different too.
The New International Commentary on the Old
Testament – Leviticus, Eerdmans, 1979, p. 35. www.erdmans.com
We shall not
benefit from reading the Old Testament unless we look for and meditate on the
glory of Christ in its pages.
John Owen
Meditation on the Glory of Christ, 1684, ch. 8.
Through the
Spirit of Christ, the believer becomes excited in the joy of discovery to
discern new veins of truth in Scripture which confirm the spiritual unity of
the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament
becomes to him a Christian book just as much as the New Testament; because “the
entirety of the Old Testament points as one great arrow to the fulfillment
which the New Testament records.”
The Israel of God in Prophecy – Principles of Prophetic Interpretation,
Andrews University Press, 1983, p. 78.