THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
SPREADING THE SOUL-SAVING MESSAGE OF JESUs
“The Value of the Old Testament”
Introduction by narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Spreading the soul-saving message of Jesus. And now, Ben Bailey.
“Whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). Welcome to our series of lessons on Old Testament Studies. This series is designed to help us learn valuable lessons from the Old Testament, including people’s lives and God’s teachings that never change regarding His nature and His relationship with man. Ultimately, these lessons are intended to help us live holier lives so that one day we can realize the hope of which Romans 15:4 speaks. Many times people think that the Old Testament is a book that was written to the Jews, and that has nothing to do with us. This is not true. The Old Testament is God’s inspired Word (2 Tim. 3:16). It is valuable for our lives. And, as the New Testament says, it can give us patience and comfort, and ultimately obtain us realize the hope of heaven.
However, let us also realize that people sometimes go too far to the opposite extreme, and believe that the Old Testament is an absolute guide in all things. Yes, the Old Testament is valuable. And yes, it has a place in the live of the Christian’s life. But there are definite boundaries set in place, beyond which the Old Testament cannot go. For example, we know that the Old Testament is not intended to be our guide today. The major purpose of the Old Testament was to help get us to Christ and Christianity. According to Galatians 3:24, the Old Testament is the school master or tutor that brings us to the point where we can obtain faith in Christ. Galatians 3:24ff. says that when we achieve that faith, then we no longer need the school master as our guide.
Today, let us think once more about Romans 15:4, which is the premier passage that establishes for us the value of the Old Testament. “Whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The things that were “written before” are indeed valuable because they help us to have patience and comfort, and to persevere. Ultimately, they help us realize the wonderful hope around which Christianity is centered. To say that Matthew through Revelation is all we need is not correct. But to say that Genesis through Malachi is our ultimate guide also is not correct. The Old Testament was a temporal law for the Israelites. It is not our guide today. We are not Israelites. God was not speaking directly to us when He gave the Old Law to its original recipients. Jeremiah 31:31-34 teaches, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord,’ when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.’” The context makes it clear that something new is coming, “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke.” The Old Testament itself proclaims that a New Covenant would be coming. Today we must realize that we are under that New Covenant of Christ today. We need to understand that the Old Covenant has been done away with as any type of guide or judge for us on the Day of Judgment.
In Hebrews 8:13 we read, “In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:31, and says that when God said that “a new covenant” would be coming, He made it clear that the first covenant would become obsolete. At that very time, the first covenant was “ready to vanish away.” Think of things that are obsolete—like a horse-drawn carriage or buggy for transportation, or a washboard instead of a washing machine. We would not want to use those things any more. The same is true concerning the Old Testament. It is not our guide today.
We need to recognize some things for which the Old Testament is not useful or valuable. It is not our law or judge today. When people who lived during the Age of Christianity stand before God, they will not be judged by the words of Moses. In John 12:48 Jesus said, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.” Jesus did not say that on the Day of Judgment, people who have refused to believe in Him will be judged by the words of Moses. He said that the words He spoke while on Earth would be our ultimate judge. Jesus has broken down the middle wall of separation. According to Colossians 2:14, He nailed the Old Law to the cross. Thus, the Old Law is no longer applicable to us today.
The Old Testament also is not valuable for the purpose of making peace between Jews and Gentiles. The Old Testament was given to the Jews (the Israelites, the Hebrew nation). There was always a wall of separation (Eph. 2:14-15). But Jesus and His law broke down that wall of separation so that all people can be one through the Gospel as a part of God’s family.
The Old Testament is not valuable for teaching a person how to become a Christian. We cannot look from Genesis through Malachi in order to learn how to become a Christian. We do not look to the Old Testament and ask, “What must I do to be saved?” The New Testament is where we learn how to become Christians. In Matthew 26:28 Jesus said as He instituted the Lord’s Supper, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Christ’s New Covenant is where forgiveness will be found. Thus, Peter said in Acts 4:12, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
The Old Testament is not the place where we must look to learn how to worship God today. We are not to worship God the way that people worshiped Him under the Old Testament. We no longer have Levitical high priests. Hebrews 7:12 says that if there has been a change in the priesthood, then there also is of necessity a change in the law. We do not worship God today through high priests who are men. Christ is our High Priest. We do not offer animal sacrifices. We not keep the Sabbath. We do none of those things because the Old Testament is not our guide for worshiping God. Colossians 3:17 says, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” We are to worship God “in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:24). Thus, the Old Testament is not the way we learn how to worship God today.
So, for what is the Old Testament valuable? One of the greatest values in the Old Testament lies in the fact that it answers some of life’s most important questions. For example, it answers the questions, “Who am I?,” “How did I get here?,” “What is life all about?,” and “What am I doing here?” Those are questions with which every person struggles, and to which every person needs correct answers. The Old Testament answers the question, “Who am I?” In Genesis 1:26 and 2:7 we read,
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth….’ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
Did humans evolve from apes millions of years ago? Did our ancestors—millions of years ago—arise from a cesspool of some sort? No! The Scripture says that humans are the pinnacle of God’s creation. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” Humans are a creation of God that are made in His spiritual image. The Bible teaches us that God breathed into man the breath of life so that he became “a living soul.” We are different from animals in that we are made in God’s image, and in that we have a soul that will live somewhere forever based on how well we follow Christ’s teachings.
The Old Testament also answers the question, “Where am I?” We are not here as a result of evolution. We are a creation of God, and are here on the Earth that God created as a place for man to get right with God. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Creation is the way by which the world in which we live came into existence. The creation is a vale for soul making. This Earth is man’s one and only opportunity to get right with God.
The Old Testament also answers the question, “Why am I here?” So many people move through life without purpose or meaning, and they have no clue about why they are here or where they are going. What is life all about? Why are we here? The Bible teaches us that we are here to glorify God, and to ultimately go to Heaven. King Solomon sought the meaning of life. He tried to find meaning in building things, in pleasure, in lust, and in accomplishments. But he never found true meaning until he factored God into his life. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14,
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
We are not here to fulfill our own lusts, to see how much we can accomplish, or to see how much money we can gain. We are here to fear God and serve Him. Isaiah 43:7 says, “Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” We have been created in the image of God so that we can give Him honor and glory, and ultimately make it Heaven to live with God.
The Old Testament also answers the question, “Who is God?” The Bible teaches that God is a Spirit (Jn. 4:24). It also teaches that God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament—all the way back to the days of creation—we learn that the idea of God includes more than just one personality or Spirit being. In Genesis 1:26 did God say, “Let Me make man in My image?” No. He said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Did you notice the plural personal pronouns? God is “Us”—the Father (Heb. 12:9), the Son Jesus Christ Who was in the beginning with God and Who is God (Jn. 1:1), and the eternal Holy Spirit (Heb. 9:12-14). From the Bible, we learn Who God is.
Another important question that is answered in the Old Testament is “How long will we be here?” How long will our lives last? Will we live here forever? Is life simply a game that is fun and that we can enjoy forever? No. The Old Testament teaches us in Psalm 90:10 that if we are fortunate, we might have perhaps seventy or eighty years here on Earth. James 4:14 complements that idea when it asks, “What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” Life is brief. We will not be here very long. Thus, we must make sure that we get right with God while we have an opportunity to do so.
If this life is so brief, that naturally leads us to another question that the Old Testament asks, yet does not answer as clearly as the New Testament does. Job asked, “If a man dies, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). From the Old Testament we learn about God, death, and our purpose. But we really begin to see the clarity of what happens on the other side when we read the New Testament. Jesus said in Matthew 25:46 that the righteous will go away into eternal life, while the unrighteous will go into eternal death. Jesus taught us that the grave is not the end. In John 11:25-26 Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” In John 5:28-29 Jesus said, “All who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” We learn clearly from God’s Word that we are His creation. We are here because of God speaking the world into existence. This Earth provides us with our one chance to get right with God. And we do not have very long to ensure that we will live eternally with Him forever.
The Old Testament is valuable because it details man’s relationship with God since creation. How has the relationship between man and God been since creation? Have they lived in perfect harmony? What happened to cause sin to come into the world? We learn in Genesis 2 that God created humans as free moral agents, and that He put man and woman into the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:7 says that “God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” The knowledge that we are created in God’s image, and that we each have a soul, gives us choices to make in this life. Joshua 24:15 clearly teaches that we are free moral agents, and that we have choices to make. Joshua said,
“If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
What does the Bible tell us about man’s relationship with God? Man was created with choices to make. In the Garden of Eden he made a bad choice. Genesis 2:16-17 tells us that God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, and gave one command: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam and Eve both made an incorrect choice. They ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, which God had commanded them not to eat. As a result, death came to humankind. God gave them one command, which was not to eat of that fruit. But they did eat it. When the devil tempted Adam and Eve to sin in Genesis 3, something very bad happened: sin entered into the world. Romans 5:12 comments on this idea when it says that “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Adam and Eve opened the door of sin. Death walked through that door, and became a part of man’s existence. Romans 3:23 thus tells us, “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” All people must face the consequences of making bad choices. Ever since the first opening of the door of sin, God has been working to get us back to Him and to the tree of life. The Old Testament presents a story about a journey that is intended to bring us to Christ and Christianity. The Old Testament contains many laws and teachings. But its major purpose is to bring Christ into the world. Someone said, “If you miss Christ in the Old Testament, you will have missed the major point.” The major point of the Old Testament is this: Christ is coming; get ready! In Genesis 3:15 we see Christ coming “in promise.” There we see the initial promise that speaks of how “the seed of woman” will crush the head of Satan. This ultimately was fulfilled in Jesus’ death on the cross. We also see the promise made to Abraham, “In your seed, all nations of the Earth will be blessed.” Galatians 3:15-17 tells us that Christ is that seed, and is for Jew and Greek, slave and free, and male and female. The promise made to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-14 was that of his seed, One would sit upon the throne, and that of His kingdom there would be no end. In Luke 1:32-33 we see that Jesus is the seed of David, and that of His kingdom there will be no end. Ultimately, the forgiveness and hope we have in Christ is seen in promise, prophecy, and preparation in the Old Testament, which details our relationship with God. It shows how man opened the door of sin, but it also tells us that from that time forward, God has been working to bring salvation into the world.
One of the powerful lessons that we learn from the Old Testament comes from the real-life examples regarding how we are, and are not, to live. It shows us how people made bad choices, and how God expects us to learn from those lessons so that we do not make the same bad choices. For example, in Genesis 4 we see two sons—Cain and Abel. Cain became jealous of Abel, and murdered him. From that, we learn that God was not at all pleased with what Cain had done. We thus learn that jealousy and murder are not things in which God wants His people to engage. There is a valuable life lesson to be learned there. We cannot allow ourselves to get caught up in jealousy, family struggles, or quibbles. We need to be sure that we strive for peace. In Exodus 20 God said as part of the Ten Commandments, “You shall not murder.” Jesus also taught us that murder is wrong (Mt. 5). But He made it a little stronger. He said that if we do not love our brother, we already have slain him in our hearts. So, we learn life lessons from real people.
We also learn from the Old Testament certain lessons about the wrath of God. In Genesis 6 God said, in essence, “That’s it! I’ve had enough of this creation. I’ve tried to help them, and tried to make things right with them. But they continually have evil in their hearts.” God then said to Noah, “You have found grace in My sight. You prepare your family, because there is about to come a day of reckoning.” God then caused the Flood to come upon the Earth, and all but eight souls were destroyed because of sin and wickedness. Yes, we know that God is a loving God. But we also must realize that God is angry every day with the wicked (Ps. 7:11). One day the wrath of God will be unleashed against the ungodly (Rom. 1:18), who will suffer eternal death if they have not obeyed God—just as people suffered in the days of Noah and the Flood.
From people like David and Bathsheba, we learn that there are certain lusts and pleasures that we must control. David was a great man of God—a man “after God’s own heart.” Yet David saw Bathsheba bathing, was tempted to lust after her, took her and had sexual relations with her, and eventually had her husband murdered. The son who was conceived in Bathsheba’s womb dies, and there is always trouble in David’s family afterward because of his sins. What can we learn from this Old Testament example of David and Bathsheba? We must control our passions, desires, and lusts. There are real-life examples in the Old Testament of how to live pleasingly before God (like Noah and his family). And there are examples (like Cain, David, and Bathsheba) of how people lived displeasingly before God. The Old Testament is a very valuable book to which we must give credence.
Now there is one last passage that I want us to consider. It is found in Leviticus 11:44. One of the things that the Old Testament establishes is the holiness of God, Who said,
“I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
The Old Testament is trying to help people understand the holiness of God so that when Christ comes to the world, we can learn how to be holy like God is holy. Did the Old Testament fulfill that perfectly? Hebrews 10:3-4 says that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. But Christ’s blood could take away sin. Hebrews 10:12 says, “This Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” In 1 Peter 1:15 Peter wrote, “As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” Because of what the Old Testament promised and prophesied, Jesus came into the world. Through Him we can be holy and have the hope of going to Heaven.
Today I want to ask you if you have obeyed the Gospel. Are you a part of God’s family? If not, you can become part of that family by hearing God’s Word (Rom. 10:17), believing in Jesus (Jn. 8:24), repenting of your sins (Lk. 13:3), confessing the name of Jesus before men (Rom. 10:10), and being baptized in water for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus Himself said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk. 16:16). Yes, the Old Testament is valuable. But if we are going to be saved, we must look to the New Testament. Are you a New Testament Christian? Are you sure you are right with God? If not, won’t you get right with Him today before it is everlastingly too late?
Narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
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“The Value of the Old Testament”
1. According to Romans 15:4, what is one reason why the things in the Old Testament were recorded for people to read in later years?
2. According to Galatians 3:24, what is one purpose that the Old Testament serves for us today?
3. What did the Old Testament itself predict (in Jeremiah 31:31-34) that would arrive at some point in the future?
4. According to Hebrews 8:13, what was about to happen during the first century?
5. In John 12:48 Jesus explained in very clear terms what would serve as the standard of judgment for those people who live during the Christian Dispensation. What is that standard?
6. According to Colossians 2:14, what did Jesus do to the Old Law?
7. According to Ephesians 2:14, what existed between Jews and Gentiles in Old Testament times?
8. According to Ephesians 2:15, what did Jesus do about the situation mentioned in question #7 above?
9. In Matthew 26:28, as Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, to what did He refer in regard to the topic of “testaments”?
10. This lesson mentions several important “questions of life” that are answered in the Old Testament. List four of those questions.
11. According to Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, what should humans do while here on Earth?
12. According to Isaiah 43:7, why were people created?
13. Who is the “Us” mentioned in Genesis 1:26?
14. According to the material discussed in this lesson, what important concept is taught in Joshua 24:15?
15. According to the apostle Paul’s comments in Romans 5:12, what happened when Adam and Eve sinned?
16. Considering passages such as 1 Kings 8:46 and Romans 3:23, have those of us who followed Adam and Eve done a much better job of obeying God than they did?
17. In 2 Samuel 7:12-14 a promise was made to King David that someone of his seed would sit upon his throne forever, and that there would be no end to his kingdom. Of whom is that prophecy speaking?
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