Special Sunday Edition
Ethan Barton, Pastoral Resident, Tallowood Baptist Church
I’ve always thought the Old Testament was a lot less fun to read than the New Testament. There are a lot of memorable stories, but it’s much harder for us Christians today to read Old Testament passages and know how to apply them. What do I do with laws about sacrifices or prophecies about destruction? Surely those aren’t as important for me, right?
Oh, but they absolutely are, says Paul. The Old Testament is indispensable! Paul is being accused of teaching things that contradict the Law and Prophets, but he responds that he still reads, knows, and wholeheartedly believes them. God is one, and God does not change; and so the words that God gave to his people a thousand years before Paul are still authoritative and have much to teach us.
So in one sense, Paul has not broken off from the religion of his ancestors or of his accusers; he still worships the one true God and studies his sacred Scriptures. Yet he also admits that “the Way,” which he follows, is a little bit different. But this is not because anything about the Law or Prophets is being changed or removed; it has been fulfilled through Jesus. Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount that he came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), and after his resurrected, he spent perhaps hours explaining how all of the Scriptures ultimately pointed to himself (Luke 24:27). Jesus loved the Old Scriptures too, and better yet, he made every last bit of them make sense!
We today have a privilege that the Jews long ago didn’t have; we get to read and understand the Scriptures in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every story points either to our desperate need for a savior, or the desperately needed savior himself. Although they may be hard to understand or apply, they are neither outdated nor meant only for certain people; they are the beginning of the gospel, and of God’s holy, inspired Word. Just as Paul did, let us increase in our hope in God for the resurrection which his Word promises!
