In the next few posts, we will be discussing the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. We are still covering principles of Bible interpretation, so I have not really started a new series. Consider this Season 2, Episode 1 of Reading the Bible in Context. The Old Testament (OT), for the Christian, is interpreted by the New Testament. Then, again, the New Testament (NT) cannot be understood without the Old.
When we read from either the Old or New Testament, we must keep the other Testament in mind. And this we generally do without thinking about it. We turn to Isaiah 53 where it says, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities" and we understand this as referring to the cross of Christ. But we should realize that Jewish rabbis, as a whole, reject this interpretation. It seems obvious to us, but that's because we understand the New Testament. On the other hand, we understand a lot about the cross by reading Isaiah 53. We must know that the OT enriches our understanding of the NT.
What OT laws must the Christian obey today?
This is one of the most difficult subjects to deal with in regards to understanding the OT in particular. There are 613 laws in the OT of which less than 300 could even possibly be obeyed today. That is because most of the laws have to do with the temple and sacrifices. Since the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, those laws cannot be followed at all. Additionally, the NT teaches that Christ fulfilled those sacrificial laws by sacrificing Himself. By accepting Christ and His sacrifice, we are considered to have fulfilled all of that.
But let's look at some other OT laws. How about the kosher laws about what can be eaten or not. Leviticus 11:2-3 reads,
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth: Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud—that you may eat.
What follows is a list of criteria of what can and cannot be eaten. Must we eat like this today? I know of Christians who say that we do. But what does the NT say? Are Christians ever told to eat kosher? Are they ever rebuked for not doing so, or exhorted to do so.
Not at all. In fact, Jesus tells us that it is irrelevant to us if our hearts are pure. "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:11). Later Paul would write to Timothy, "Food [which] God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer" (1 Timothy 4:2-4).
We have made some progress! We have determined that some laws - sacrificial laws and kosher laws - do not apply to the Church.
Now let's look at some other laws and what some have said about them. We are told by some (so-called?) Christians that since the aforementioned laws, the sacrificial and kosher laws, are in the book of Leviticus, mainly, then we should not have to obey any of the laws in Leviticus which are supposedly "out-of-date". Why do they say this? Well, it just so happens that the prohibitions against homosexuality are in Leviticus 18 and they approve of that. They want it removed from the list of sins. Of course, what they fail to mention is that the prohibitions against incest and bestiality are in that chapter as well.
So, what can we say to this? Quite simply, we look at the New Testament and see what it says. Paul writing Romans 1:27 condemns homosexuality outright. "men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due." I could quote other NT passages including statements by Jesus, that condemns that and similar sexual sins that we find were condemned in Leviticus.
Now we have established a principle that if an OT law is repeated in the NT, the OT law is still to be followed. In fact, sometimes the OT law contains more detail than the NT "version" of it, but we should still apply the parts of that OT law that do not appear in the NT.
There is one more area that remains: what about the laws that are not specifically done away with in the NT, like the kosher laws, but are not repeated in the NT. The biggest of these are the sabbath laws. Exodus 20:8 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work." This is one of the Ten Commandments and, yet, Christians disagree as to whether or not to keep it. Some Christians, Seventh-Day Adventists, keep a Saturday sabbath. Many other Christians keep a Sunday sabbath. They say it was changed to the first day of the week. Their reason is that Jesus arose on a Sunday and we now commemorate that day of the week as "the Lord's Day".
I must say that I find the reasoning behind changing the day of the week as very weak. It "makes sense" in some ways but we find no such reasoning in the NT. Now it does seem that the church met on Sundays, but nowhere is it even implied that it was a new sabbath day. If you want to keep it as a day of rest and do it to honor the Lord, then that is fine. But if not, then that is fine, too. Nowhere in the NT are Christians rebuked for not keeping a sabbath day. Nowhere are Christians specifically enjoined to keep a sabbath day. This is telling. I am convinced that if Christians were to keep a sabbath, it would have been put in the NT somewhere! I cannot believe that no church ever needed to be reminded or exhorted to keep a sabbath day as we find it in the OT if, in fact, Christians were supposed to keep it. They had to be reminded about everything else!
My conclusion is this: If an OT law is repeated in the NT, then we must keep that law. If not, then we need not do so.
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