All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 2 Tim 3:16-17
Paul tells Timothy that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for our usage to become mature people of God. When Paul wrote these words in about 65 AD, the only Scripture known universally to the church was the Old Testament. Of the New Testament, only the Epistle of James and the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke would have had any circulation and it would not have been widespread yet. Paul’s definition of “Scripture” in this verse was what we call the Old Testament.
When John the Baptist, Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James, Jude, Paul and the writer of Hebrews quoted from the bible, they quoted almost exclusively the Old Testament. When they spoke of the “Scriptures,” they were usually speaking of the Old Testament. That is why it is hard for me to hear people imply or outright say that the Old Testament is no longer valid or is somehow of lesser value than the New Testament.
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, one of the church fathers and a major expositor of the Bible in the 6th century AD said, “The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed
and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.” What he meant was that both testaments are embedded in each other and it is almost impossible to fully understand one without the other.
The modern day western Christian’s chronic and widespread spiritual anemia is due largely to the fact that they have a Biblical diet that is woefully lacking in Old Testament study. It is like a boy being raised by a mother without having a father figure. It often leaves them soft in their character, insecure in their manhood and feminized in their approach to life.
Mathew’s Gospel written to the Jews sometime between 45 and 60 AD quoted almost 130 Old Testament prophecies that are fulfilled in the life of Jesus proving him to be the Messiah. All other New Testament writers quote the Old Testament as being authoritative, including Jesus and Paul.
When Jesus was a boy and trying to understand the plan of God for His life, He had only the Old Testament to guide Him. The same was true for all of the other people we read about in the New Testament.
The first person who seriously challenged the validity of the Old Testament was Marcion, the bishop of Sinope, in about 144 AD. Marcion taught that the God of the Old Testament
was a Jewish created “demiurge” (lesser god) given to harsh punishments, not the Father of Jesus who was benevolent, loving and forgiving. This dualism reflects itself today in some respects in the teachings of the Mormons and the Muslims.
Marcion’s Bible was limited to the Gospel of Luke and 10 letters of Paul. He was widely and openly treated by the church fathers of his day as a heretic and his anti-Old Testament teaching is just as heretical today.
Why does this confusion prevail in our modern Biblical thinking? Part of the confusion for some people is in their failure to understand that some things in the Old Testament are no longer needed only because they were fulfilled in the New Testament. No longer needed does not render them invalid. Part of it comes from a failure to understand types and shadows, and part of it comes because some things were just plain changed. Let’s look at some examples of all three of these things.
Many things in the Old Testament were prophetic in nature, promised beforehand and
fulfilled in the New Testament. One hundred and fifty-seven times we are told in the New Testament that certain events are fulfillments of Old Testament promises. Fulfillment is neither the end of something nor the negation of it.
The prophecy in Micah that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem was fulfilled when God directed Joseph and Mary to go there from Nazareth at the time of the census of Quirinius. Jesus’ birth there in that stable fulfilled the prophecy of Micah.
The prophecy was no longer germane because it had come to pass, but it was still true and valid Scripture. Last year’s newspapers are no longer needed but they still contain valid truth, and if we go back and look at them, we can often gain better insight of present reality.
Chief among these “no longer needed but fulfilled” items are the Torah Laws of the Mosaic Covenant. Contrary to popular opinion, nothing in the Torah Law was ever abolished as Jesus plainly tells us.
Matt 5:17-20 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. 18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. 19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. NASB
The Pharisees taught that the way to please God was to keep the Torah Law. Jesus said, “Yes, but one must do more than that. One must surpass the Pharisees in right relationship to God and to neighbor. One must keep the spirit of the Law, not just the letter of it. The letter of the Law kills us, Paul said, but the Spirit of the Law gives us life.
We must do what the Law requires in our hearts. Even if we no longer keep to the letter of a Law, the Spirit of the Law is still required of us, because the intent of the Law was always meant to be upheld, and it was never done away with. It is analogous to wooden concrete forms used when building a sidewalk of a foundation. Eventually you pullout some of the wooden form boards, but you are in high hopes that the sidewalk or the foundation (the intent) will remain intact.
2 Cor 3:5-6 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. NASB
Take circumcision as a prime example. It was given as a Law to signify (typify) our unique, personal and intimate relationship with God. (Believe me, ladies, it does not get any more intimate or personal than that ?.) Once the Holy Spirit comes and enables us to actually be intimate and personal with God, the symbol is no longer required, but that does not make circumcision invalid or bad in any way.
Paul tells the Romans that the Torah Law has great value still IF one is keeping the Spirit of it through relationship. It still functions as a powerful teacher of the requirement for personal intimacy with God. How personal and how intimate do you want me to become, Lord? OHHH, THAT personal and THAT intimate. I got it!
Rom 2:25-29 For indeed circumcision is of value, if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 If therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 And will not he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. NASB
The prophets told Israel that in time that God would replace physical circumcision with circumcision of the heart, representing the cutting away of excess flesh. Jeremiah quotes God as saying that real circumcision is circumcision of the heart.
Deut 30:6-7 Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live. NASB
Jer 9:25-26 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised — 26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.” NASB
Ezek 36:24-27 “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. 25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 “And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. NASB
Biblically speaking, relationship with God is compared in both Old and New Testaments to marriage. Unfaithfulness to God is compared to adultery and the emotional intimacy of lovers is often the biblical metaphor for praise and worship.
Let’s talk about types and shadows, a theological term for metaphors that are given before they happen. If I tell you my wife’s disposition is “like a sunny day,” I am comparing her to something you have already seen and understand in order to give you a good picture of her. That is a metaphor.
But if I tell you that my wife disposition is typical of the way angels act in Heaven, I am comparing it to something you have not yet seen so you can understand how angels will behave when you eventually meet them. That is a type or a shadow of something that is yet to come. Paul says that this can include Sabbath, feast days and certain food laws. We no longer practice them because they are types and shadows fulfilled.
Col 2:16-17 Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day — 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. NASB
For reasons only God knows, it was not appropriate for the Messiah to come until forty-four centuries after the fall of Adam and Eve. Jesus came, we are told, “in the fulness of time,” at the appropriate time to fulfill the plan of God. But God predicted the coming of the Messiah as early as Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve had just fallen. He began to require animal sacrifice, the shedding of blood, as an atonement for sin. Cain tried to offer some perfectly good fruits and vegetables from his garden, but God insisted on the death of a lamb as the only valid sacrifice.
The shedding of the blood of the lamb was a type or a shadow of the shedding of the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, forty-four centuries later. Throughout the Old Testament, God required the shedding of the blood of lambs as atonement for sin. Then Jesus was slain on the cross “like a lamb led to slaughter” and the type or shadow was fulfilled.
Hebrews tells us that Jesus’ shed blood was a “once and for all times” sacrifice, no longer needed ever again. So we stopped shedding animal blood for the purpose of atonement. The type or shadow of the slain lamb was no longer necessary because that which it typified in the future has now arrived, but it was still true and valid Scripture. It has not been invalidated nor made wrong. It has just been fulfilled. As a training metaphor, it is no longer necessary, but as an explanatory metaphor it still has great value.
Let’s take a look at the explanation of types and shadows given us in the Book of Hebrews. When persecution of Christians began to be a serious issue, many Jewish converts to Christianity decided to abandon Christianity and go back to Judaism. This was a mistake that would give them a temporary respite from persecution but would cost them their salvation.
The writer of Hebrews wanted the people of Israel to understand that they were leaving the real and fulfilled call of God and returning to types and shadows. In chapters 8-10 he explains why many things from the Old Testament were no longer necessary. They had been types and shadows (advanced copies) of things which were now fulfilled.
It was as if these Christians had arrived at a destination, found it to be temporarily difficult and gone back to Judaism as if it was also a valid destination. Judaism without the shed blood of Christ for atonement and the Resurrection for redemption sits on the moral high ground, but it cannot save us.
Heb 8:1 Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister in the sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. 4 Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; 5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
The writer to the Hebrews tells them that the Mosaic priesthood was an advanced copy, a pattern, a type or shadow of the priesthood of Jesus. He goes on to say that His New Testament ministry is more excellent than the Mosaic priesthood rendering it obsolete, no longer necessary, but fulfilled in Jesus. It is still valid as a teaching tool to help us understand.
He speaks of the tabernacle/temple as a type for the throne of God in Heaven which Jesus re-opened to us by His death on the cross. We no longer need to find God in a house made with hands because He is here in our hearts and available to us in Heaven. Nevertheless, according to Ezekiel chapters 40-48, there will be a functioning Temple in Jerusalem in the Millennial Reign that will serve to assist our memorial celebrations of what God has done among us.
The Tabernacle/Temple was merely a pattern of God’s Heavenly throne and His throne in our hearts, if we are believers. To abandon these thrones and go back to the pattern is like throwing away the dress or suit and attempting to wear the older clothing. The Old Testament is seen also as a pattern of the New Testament.
Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant (testament) had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. 8 For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant (testament) with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; 9 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. 10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. 12 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete (no longer necessary). But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
The writer to the Hebrews tells them that salvation is no longer based on the Old Testament Torah Law with a nation, but in a new covenant involving an intimate relationship between each man and God personally. He will be “in our hearts” and “in our minds” and we will “know Him” personally and intimately.
This makes some of the Mosaic Law obsolete (no longer necessary) because, as a type or shadow of what was to come, it has been fulfilled. But it still remains as a valid and true teaching guide for us. The word “obsolete” here is “palayo” in Greek, and it means “no longer necessary.”
It is like the difference between a permanent road sign and a temporary sign indicating
where a family picnic is being held. The permanent road sign will continue to be needed but the temporary family picnic sign is “obsolete” or no longer necessary once everyone has arrived. It is the circumstances for which it was intended that has rendered it obsolete.
In Hebrews chapter 9, we are told the tabernacle/temple on earth is an advanced copy in symbolic form of the throne of God in Heaven, and that the many rituals surrounding the earthly temple are symbolic forerunners of the things accomplished through the shed blood of Jesus.
Now that Jesus has come, the symbolic rituals (types and shadows) are no longer necessary, but that does not render them invalid as teaching tools. In fact our entire earthly life is still symbolic of our heavenly one, so while we have seen some of the Old Testament fulfilled, it is not yet all fulfilled until we stand face to face with God.
Hebrews 9:8 The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing, 9 which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, 10 since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.
We are told that the temple (and our church buildings) are mere symbols of the place where God dwells but are useful as symbols until we get there. In the same way, the sacrifices were useful as symbols but are no longer necessary now that Jesus has died for us. They are still valid as metaphors for us, but they cannot cleanse us from sin. Truth is, he says, they never really could do that anyway, but only pointed to Jesus’ death in the future.
Heb 9:23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. NASB
The earthly symbols (types or copies of what was really in Heaven) had to be cleansed with a symbolic sacrifice of animals, but the real thing was cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus previously typified or foreshadowed by the slain animals.
Heb 10:1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But, in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. …9 He takes away the first in order to establish the second.
The Torah Law was also a type or a shadow of the expressed will of God that can now be embedded in the hearts of men through intimate personal relationship with God which had not been possible before the death of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit. (It was this Spirit of God that was driven out of Adam and Eve when they fell causing them to die spiritually and, eventually, physically as well.)
The Law and the sacrifices were an older covenant to remind us of our sins year after year. But Jesus took away the older covenant in order to establish the second newer covenant so our sins could be forgiven and forgotten “once and for all.”
Heb 10:10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I will write them,” He then says, 17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
This is why Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. He goes on to say that just because He has fulfilled the Law is no reason for us to abolish it. The Law is still valid, but functions now in the Spirit, not in ritual. We keep the Law because of our intimate personal relationship with God (and only by the power of the Holy Spirit), not because we will be punished if we do not.
Matt 5:17-20 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. 18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. 19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. NASB
Finally, there are some things that changed because their symbolic nature is no longer needed or they have become culturally unnecessary. Food laws were designed to teach them the difference between “clean and unclean,” to demonstrate that the people of Israel were set apart unto the Lord.
In Acts 10, when God tells Peter that He is going to now make Himself equally available to the Gentiles, He sets aside the food laws as a symbol no longer needed or valid. That is why some things were never required of the Gentiles that were required of the Jews, things like circumcision, which had been required of the Jews simply to show that they were set apart unto the Lord.
In the absence of modern food preservation, the food laws were often helpful and sometimes necessary. In spite of modern hygiene, the practice of circumcision still has some physical validity and usefulness as well.
Then there were laws that were culturally necessary that are not necessary in our culture today. These include things like head coverings for women and dress codes in general. When we go to Africa, women must cover their legs (but not necessarily their cleavage) due to cultural differences. Rules about hair length for men and women and many other things were culturally derived and no longer necessary.
However, it is still biblically necessary to not offend other cultures in our attempts to represent God. When the Old Testament Law was fulfilled or modified as types and shadows, it did not relegate everything in the Old Testament to be invalidated or changed.
And many Old Testament commands predated the giving of the Law of Moses in 1450 BC and/or the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3. These include things like tithing and the definition of marriage. Jesus constantly referred to this when He said,
“You have heard it said that ….,
but I tell you that from the beginning it was not so.”
Consider this: The Mosaic Law (which is often what is meant when people think of the Old Testament) came to us in about 1450 BC. Adam was created about 3000 years earlier. That means that the Old Testament people of God had a relationship with God for 3000 years BEFORE the Mosaic Law was even given. The principles of that pre-Mosaic relationship have NEVER changed.
Abraham (as well as Adam, Noah, Enoch,
Jacob and countless others)believed God
and it was counted to him (them) as righteousness.
Put another way, prior to the Mosaic Law, all salvation was based in relationship with God and all relationship with God was based in trust (belief or faith). The entire Book of Genesis pre-dates the Mosaic Law and the principles revealed there are still fully valid and unchanged. The Hebrew name for Genesis (bereshith) is translated as “in the beginning.” Jesus’ comments that “in the beginning it was not so” are referring to the pre-Mosaic timeframe as represented in Genesis and cover fully 2/3rds of the Old Testament.
There are some things mostly found in the Old Testament that are obviously still binding upon us, such as, the laws concerning fornication which are not mentioned very much in the New Testament (vs. the laws on adultery which are referenced in the New Testament), capital punishment, just war and “faithfulness to the wife of your youth.” It is not valid to infer that because something is only mentioned in the Old Testament and not in the New Testament, it is no longer binding upon us.
There are some things that are not referenced in the Bible at all that are still binding upon us because they are extrapolated from biblical principles. This would include things like speeding laws which go unmentioned in either the Old or New Testament. Our careful study of the Old Testament provides us with perspective, color and an explanation of our present reality like a study of our family’s genealogy. It is hard, if not impossible, to know who we are and why we do what we do without a valid understanding of from where we have come.
In summary, there is no valid separation between the Old and New Testaments, and our requirement is to know and obey them both. Without a firm foundation in the Old Testament we are adrift and unanchored as New Testament Christians. The principles and requirements of the Old Testament are fully incumbent upon us today at least as it relates to the spirit of the Torah Law. Some requirements we obey differently because Old Testament laws, types and shadows have been fulfilled, but it is all “the Scriptures” which Paul told Timothy are
“inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for training in righteousness;
that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”