Jesus and the Old Testament
Jesus doesn’t destroy the Old Testament, but fulfills it (Matthew 5:17). That is, he brings it through to its intended conclusion. The Old Testament is a witness to Jesus, God’s promised Messiah, and finds its completion in him.
The teachings found in the Old point to the New. The dim light of the Old points to the bright Light in the New—for all people. The Old is important as it demonstrates God’s redemptive activity through the people of Israel—a story that finds its completion in God’s promised Messiah-King, Jesus.
To quote Brian Zahnd, “Jesus is what God has to say.”
However, there have been many times when I’ve been confronted with the reality that though we may believe this in principle, we don’t always demonstrate it in practice.
While we may claim that Jesus’ teachings and life have supreme authority over those who follow him, as the statement ‘Jesus is Lord’ communicates, we don’t always allow his Lordship to actually rule over us, particularly in our reading of scripture.
The Bible is not a flat text. That is, every part does not carry equal weight. We do not read, interpret and apply every passage equally.
Old Testament Torah and the writings of the Prophets, as important as they are in their witness to the Messiah, are not to be read and applied in such a way that they usurp Jesus’ authority. They point to the only Word of God and lead us to him as the One in whom, from whom and through whom we exist.
As Brian Zahnd stated in a recent podcast,
Moses is like the sun and the prophets the stars. They point us in the right direction in the midst of a dark world. They illuminate the way forward toward the Light that is to come. But they are not the light. They point to the Light.
Their witness, as important as it was and is, was always incomplete. They witnessed to the Light that was to come, leading people in the right direction, but one day they would have to step aside and allow the Light, the Lord Jesus—God’s promised final Word—to take his proper place.
The Old Testament scriptures are, as the Psalmist wrote, a “lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (Psalm 119:105). That is, they point us in the right direction, leading us forward toward the One who is called the “Light of the world.”
John the Baptist later testified to this Light, but was himself not the Light. He prepared the way for the Light and his words were a witness to it, but his witness had to bow to the Light when he arrived. John said it best when he declared, “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).
