Old / New Testament

A few years ago I wrote a response for a friend of mine (love you!) who asked me why we needed the New Testament when we already had the Old Testament. Today another friend and co-worker requested that I post my response to her here on my blog, so... here you go! :)

There are several reasons why the new testament was written, but first let me explain why the OLD testament was written:

The Old Testament

1. The Old Testament is a historical account and description of man's sin problem. We need to understand that God created us to have a relationship with him. In Genesis, God said "Let us make man in OUR image". This implies that God is tertiary, much the same way that we are. God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Man was created in the same manner. We have a Mind, Body and Soul (or Spirit). Man rebelled against God's will. Through this disobedience, sin and decay entered into man and the world. Sin is a literal term. It comes from Archery. If the Archer missed the bull's-eye, then they said "sin" meaning that they missed the mark. The penalty for sin (singular... not plural) is death. Death didn't mean just physical death, although when you look through Genesis, you begin to see the slow decay of man physically as they began to live shorter and short lives, but it really represents a spiritual death. This is a separation from God our creator who made us for a relationship with Him.

2. The Old Testament detailed what would be necessary for man to re-establish that relationship with God. Unfortunately, that is perfection. Since the bull's-eye is perfection, you can see that all of us miss the mark. Understanding that God is Holy God, he cannot be in the presence of sin. This means that if we have sin in our lives that is not paid for, then we cannot enter into a close relationship with Him. The law was given by God through Moses to show how IMPOSSIBLE it is for man to keep the law and attain this perfection on our own apart from God.

3. The Old Testament foretells / prophesies the coming of a perfect sacrifice that would not just cover sin (as the priests were doing with the blood of their sacrifices), but would completely remove the sins and restore the relationship God originally intended. A good illustration is crayon marks on the walls. The Mosaic law required animal sacrifices to cover the sins of the people. This would be like putting a fresh coat of paint over the crayon marks on the walls. The crayon is still there, but you can't see it. Jesus came as a perfect sacrifice. His sacrifice wouldn't just cover their sins but would Remove them. That was like taking... let's say... a "Magic Eraser" pad and cleaning the crayon from the walls. It's not covered... it's gone.

The New Testament

1. The New Testament is the account of the fulfillment of the Old Testament covenant and the establishment of the New Testament covenant. Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies given in the Old Testament. I love this. Jesus Christ fulfilled 60 major Old Testament prophecies that were made over 400 years before His birth. He fulfilled 29 in ONE DAY. The statistical probability of one man fulfilling just eight of these prophesies are 1 in 10 to the 17th power. I love this so I have to share it.... This would be the same as taking 100,000,000,000,000,000 quadrillion silver dollars and spreading them across the state of Texas, they would fill the entire state of Texas two feet deep. Then take one silver dollar and mark it with an X and toss it in the pile and stir the whole pile thoroughly... then blindfolded, walk the entire width and length of the state stooping down only once to pick up one silver dollar along the way and finding that THAT was the one with the X on it. That's just 8 prophesies fulfilled not the 60 that Jesus did.

2. The New Testament covenant requires the acceptance of the gift of salvation already given to everyone, by Jesus's sacrifice, but not accepted by every one. It's much like an unopened gift. Christ gave the gift of salvation for all, but in order to have it, it has to be accepted. I use an illustration with the youth like this. I take out a $5 bill and ask them if they believe that it is a $5. Obviously it is. I then present it to a teen and say that I am giving the $5 to them as a gift. Before they have a chance to take it, I ask them... does ____ have my gift of $5? No, because they haven't taken it from me. It doesn't make it less real or less of a gift, but it's not theirs yet. It's not until they accept the gift that they can benefit from it.

3. The New Testament foretells the completion of God's original plan which was to have a relationship with His beloved creation. Through Christ, the payment for our sin has been paid. Those that have taken part in the New Testament covenant (since a covenant has two parties... us and God) through the acceptance of Christ's sacrifice have a relationship with Him here on earth and a promise of heaven where we will have uncorrupted relationship with Him.

4. The New Testaments give believers in Christ a mission which is to tell other's about God's gift.
It was weird. The same day that I was asked this question, I got something in the mail and it had this on the back of a bookmark in it:

The New Testament is CONTAINED in the Old Testament
The Old Testament is EXPLAINED in the New Testament
The New Testament is CONCEALED in the Old Testament
The Old Testament is REVEALED in the New Testament
The New Testament AUTHENTICATES the Old Testament
The Old Testament ANTICIPATES the New Testament
The New Testament LIES HIDDEN in the Old Testament
The Old Testament LIES OPEN in the New Testament
The Old Testament PREDICTS a Person
The New Testament PRESENTS that Person

God's SO cool!