At the beginning of the next couple months or so, I'll be posting the written assignments I composed for my Elements of Bible Study course. I'll also post the questions that I was required to answer in my assignment, so you can see what I'm answering. Hope it blesses you in some way! Feel free to ask questions in the comments. :)
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1. Is the Old Testament still relevant for Christians today? Explain.
2. What did Jesus mean when he said that there were things written about him in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:44)? Explain.
3. How does an understanding of the “big picture” of the Bible help us to understand smaller sections of the Bible (individual verses, paragraphs, stories, books)? Explain.
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The Old Testament is indeed relevant for Christians today.
Without it, we would not have two-thirds of our Bible, but more importantly, we
would not have the promises, symbols, and pictures of salvation to point us to
the fulfillment of the New Testament in Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament provides the structure of Levitical law, the promise of
redemption, and the necessity of resurrection. It also demonstrates through
history the impossibility of man’s atonement through repeated sacrifices, but
points to a future Savior who would fulfill His covenant through Abraham’s
offspring. The OT is necessary and relevant today as a foundation for the
history of the Israelites and of the world, and it also gives us the shadows
and “types” which find their fulfillment in Christ.
Without the OT, we would have the fulfillment of Christ without the former
prophecy, His death and resurrection without a complete explanation, and the
Messiah without the whole knowledge of sin’s consequences, and the Last Adam
without the first Adam. The theology of the OT covenant is vital for an
accurate understanding of the New Covenant.
In Luke 22:24, Jesus says that everything written about Him in
the Law, Prophets, and Psalms had to be fulfilled. The Jews recognized these
categories as the divisions of OT Scripture.
Jesus refers to these when talking to the disciples who couldn’t quite grasp
what He was talking about. Taking them back to Scripture, Jesus uses His own
previous words, as well as those from OT Scripture to show the disciples that
He was the fulfillment of OT prophecy. The promises of a Redeemer or a Savior
or a Sacrificial Lamb come from books like Zechariah, Micah, Isaiah and many
more. These all point towards the NT fulfillment in Christ. Through the
covenants made with the patriarchs and the curses on sin, the OT points toward
a one-time Sacrifice who would take the sting out of death. Job and David speak
of a Redeemer who would die on the cross, but yet stand on the earth one day.
The Law, commandments of God which show us our sin, points to a perfect Man who
could be our Priest. Many of the events and people were “types” of something
Greater yet to come. The disciples would have known the Scriptures, and so
Jesus used their previous knowledge to pull their minds back to the covenants
created thousands of years before by God. The words written in the Law,
Prophets, and Psalms were enough to direct people’s attention to the Son of God
and the Son of Man.
The big picture of the Bible is the work of Christ. Everything
and everyone points to Him, His death, His resurrection, and/or His glory. We
understand this big picture by the smaller pictures, types, events, and verses.
For instance, the story of Isaac is a type of Christ in his sacrifice as a
lamb. His story represents the Sacrificial Son of Man, but also the promise of
a Savior who would come through the offspring of Abraham. David was an earthly
king, but he also represents the eternal kingship that would come through his
line. The laws of the Pentateuch, the wisdom of the Proverbs, the poems and
songs, and the prophetic visions are all smaller parts of the bigger story.
In loving the one and only true God as the commandments required and obeying
the wisdom for daily life from Proverbs, we gain the spiritual walk that was
fulfilled by Christ in even more depth. The Mosaic law controlled the external;
the fulfillment of Christ guided the internal. Israel as a covenant nation
represented the larger covenant people who would be gathered together at the
end of the age. The ark of the covenant symbolized God’s presence with His
people; instead of the ark today, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling our hearts
with all the presence of deity. Therefore, in understanding the big picture of
Scripture, we are led to a more complete understanding of the smaller details
of Scripture.
