The Old Testament for Christians

There's no doubt that how we, as Christians, are to read and apply the Old Testament (OT) is a difficult issue. Many Christians consider the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20 to be immediately applicable to us today, but they would not apply the laws about servants, personal injury or property in Exodus 21 in this way, and so their use of the OT is inconsistent.

The problem is our misunderstanding of the big picture of the Bible, and of God's plan for his people.
In Galatians, Paul shows us that there was only ever one gospel - the gospel of grace received by faith/trust in God's word of promise. So, 3:6-7,

⁶Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." ⁷Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.

So before the law was given, God gave a promise which had to be believed, or trusted, and as soon as Abraham trusted God's promise, he received the benefit of the promise, i.e. 'righteousness' or 'right-standing with God'. And nothing has changed in God's economy - whoever believes his word of promise inherits the blessings of that promise. Not to believe what God says is not to believe him, to insult him, and to reject the blessings he offers.


So what about the law? Why did God give so many pages & pages of instructions & laws? Paul says that no-one was ever justified (put right with God) by obeying the law because everyone fails to obey all the law. So what's it for?

Well, in Galatians 3:19 Paul asks this very question, and then answers it in v24:

²⁴So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

The law is there to lead us to Christ. God gave the promise, and then gave the law as an interim measure until the promise was fulfilled in Jesus. So when I read about the Passover, I'm reminded that Jesus is the true Passover lamb. When I read about circumcision, I'm reminded that this was an outward sign of the inward reality that Jesus brings - membership of his people. When I read about the tabernacle, I'm reminded of heaven. And so on. Every OT law points to something Jesus has won for us, or something Jesus is to us. This is a consistent use of the OT. It's how the NT uses the OT.

But in Galatia, as in the church today, people could not see this and kept wanting to reinstate OT laws. For the Galatians, it was circumcision that was reinstated in order to ensure God's blessing. Today it's, "I'll be more acceptable to God, and he will really fill me with his Spirit, if I pray more, evangelise more, abstain from this or that, observe the Sabbath properly, keep the church building holy, read my Bible more." And having arrived at this belief for themselves, they try to persuade others that unless they too undergo this kind of discipline, they are not really very spiritual. In so doing they lead people into 'weak and miserable' religious slavery (Gal 4:9). But Paul is quite clear in v25:

²⁵Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

Yes, you read it correctly, 'We are no longer under the supervision of the law'. The OT no longer applies to us in the same way it applied to Israel.  It was an interim measure until Jesus came. In fact, Paul goes further in 3:10-11,

 ¹⁰All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." ¹¹Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith."

You see, if we rely on keeping the Sabbath or reading the Bible or praying or any other religious activity to keep us right with God, we are cursed! Cursed because we will fail to keep the Sabbath perfectly, or read or pray enough or with our full attention and so on.

From the moment God made his first promise to Abraham, all he wanted was for us to believe his promise. When we trust God's word of promise, we receive all that God has promised. We don't have to earn it - God simply wants us to trust what he says, and therefore to trust him.

This truth was so important, so fundamental to our relationship with God, that Paul was prepared to rebuke Peter and the Galatians very, very firmly, "When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong." (2:11); "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?" (3:1). When he wrote to the Colossians, he made the same point, 'do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize.' (Col. 2:16f)

Christ is everything, and so a simple faith in Christ is everything. Trust him, and you receive every blessing of every promise he makes.