What is the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament?

Ishmael LaBiosa: Welcome to the You Ask Podcast, where the goal is to answer common questions about Christianity. Let's listen in as Pastor Rusty answers today's question. Today's question is what is the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament? Well, now that's a big question. Actually, that question was so important to me that that particular question led me. To PhD studies in the New Testament, and especially in the relationship of the Old to the New Testament in a very obscure field called biblical theology. So it is pretty daunting for me to try to summarize what sent me about on a seven-year journey in a brief podcast, but let me give it a try. There's going to be a lot that I could say that I won't be able to say. But I want to paint some contours for you and make you think about why this question matters, the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. I start with the famous quote that is widely attributed to St. Augustine, a early church father. And the quote is the new is the old concealed, and the old is the new revealed. He was trying to summarize. The relationship between the testaments and the New Testament is the Old Testament concealed and the Old Testament is the New Revealed. Well, that's helpful, I guess, to some degree, but it still raises a lot of questions. I've also tried to tease this question by asking people, what do you think is more important? The Old Testament or the New Testament? And I think When I typically ask that question, most people say the New Testament. And then I just push back a bit and say, Well, let me give you some terms. And if you have the New Testament alone, tell me what they mean: Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah, Son of Abraham, Son of David. If you just had the New Testament, well, I guess you could somewhat figure out what those Terms and titles mean, but a lot of those are found in their fullness in the Old Testament, and then they're applied to Jesus. So in some ways, the New Testament, its historical background being connected to Old Testament Israel, the terms and titles, the appeals to Old Testament ideas like a temple and a priesthood and a sacrifice. All of those ideas are the backdrop to make the New Testament understandable. And so that really elevates, doesn't it? The importance of the Old Testament. But then when you have the Old Testament by itself, well, there's many things you still need to know. If you just had the Old Testament alone, you certainly would not understand the fullness of Jesus, his death on the cross, his resurrection for you. And the birth and ministry of the church. So it's hard to call it. They're both important. Old and New Testaments are important, and they both together form the Christian Bible. Now, often the relationship between the testaments is seen through the lens of promise fulfillment. There are promises in the Old Testament that come to fulfillment in the New Testament. And there are different ways that this happens. Sometimes there are direct prophecies. I think about the prophet Micah who told us that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. That's a very direct prophecy. But then there are other times what the prophets say isn't as direct. It's more less of a prophecy. And more of kind of a promise, and the promises then being fulfilled. And then sometimes there's this big word called typology. And that is future events start to take on the shape of past events. And one of the events that it looms large in the mind of the New Testament authors is actually the exodus out of Egypt. And oftentimes Jesus' new salvation event. Is cast not as a physical, literal exodus out of Egypt, but a spiritual liberation from sin, death, hell in the grave. And so you have prediction fulfillment, you have promise fulfillment, and then you have this kind of what we call typological connection that events in the future are explained and understood in the garb and the shape of the past. It really has been vexing for theologians to try to understand the relationship of the testaments. And I would say there was a somewhat of a breakthrough in scholarship when they noticed that one key organizing principle of the Bible is, wait for it, covenants. Actually, the word testament, old testament, new testament. The word testament actually means covenant. And there are many biblical covenants in the Bible. In some ways, rather than dividing the Bible book by book, you could divide the Bible covenant by covenant. And that's interesting indeed. The completely agreed upon covenants in the Bible, there's one covenant we'll tell you about at the end that there's a little bit of a disagreement. But here's the ones everybody agrees on the covenant made with Noah, Genesis 8 and 9. And God promised in this particular covenant, it was what we call an unconditional covenant, that he would never again destroy the earth with a flood. The second biblical covenant is the Abrahamic covenant found in Genesis 12, 15, and 17. Again, another unconditional covenant where God promises Abraham to make his name great and through him to bless all the nations. Of the earth. Then you have the Mosaic covenant, or sometimes called the Sinai covenant, found in Exodus 19 through 24. And there's debate here. Is this an unconditional covenant? I say no. It seems to be a conditional covenant. So it seems to be different than the Noahic and the Abrahamic before it, because God told Israel, You do this, you get blessed, you do this, you get cursed. The next biblical covenant is the Davidic covenant. God promises David. That one would set on his throne forever, Second Samuel seven, again, I think an unconditional covenant. And then interestingly, even though the New Testament, which stands for New Covenant, is the kind of the title of the twenty seven books of the New Testament, actually the New Covenant is found in the Old Testament. That's strange to many people. Jeremiah thirty one, thirty one through thirty-four, Ezekiel thirty-six, twenty-four through twenty-eight, God says, I'll make a new covenant with my people. And this is the unconditional nature of the covenant. God will forgive their sins, he'll write their law, not on stone tablets, but write God's law on their hearts, that He'll give personal knowledge of everyone to believers, and the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all believers. Now, while the new covenant is mentioned in the Old Testament, it is inaugurated in Jesus and then is realized. I would say in the power of the Holy Spirit, and ultimately the fullness of the new covenant waits for the new heavens and new earth. Now, I want to make one other statement here near the end. I don't want to make this an overly long podcast, but you kind of have a default position about the relationship of the testaments. And here is how this goes. You either see, listen carefully, the testaments. As more contiguous, or meaning they have more continuity with one another, or you see the testaments having more discontinuity with one another. And you say, Well, Rusty, I see that there's continuity and discontinuity. I understand. But the question becomes your understanding of the relationship of the testaments, either you see the old testament is. Generally the same as the New Testament or the Old Testament is generally different than the New Testament. And that will land you in a theological camp. Now, again, I want to try to make the complex simple, and I'm gonna make this pretty simple for you. At least I'm gonna try to. This question about the relationship of the testaments often also has to deal with the relationship of. Israel and the church. And this is another huge issue in biblical scholarship. Because if you say, I I think that God kind of has one plan across the testaments, and the testaments are more contiguous than they are discontiguous or discontinuity, then there are groups of people, these are called covenant theologians. Some Baptists are covenant theologians. Most Presbyterians are covenant theologians. But basically, they say that Israel as a nation, listen carefully, the promises made to Israel as a nation are fulfilled, are fulfilled in the New Testament church. So this is how this goes. God promises Israel that they are to be a blessing to all nations. Israel as the nation fails. But Jesus, Israel's Messiah, comes and does for Israel what Israel could not do for themselves. So Jesus forms a new community of Jew Gentile, and this is indeed per covenant theologians, the Israel of God, the new Israel, and that there is no future plan for ethnic Israel, because the church, this mixed community of Jew and Gentile, is the real fulfillment of Israel's destiny. You understand that they see that there's kind of one plan of God for one people of God, the end. That's called covenant theologians. There's another group called dispensationalists, and they say, well, yeah, there is in some ways God always saves people by faith. Yes, that's the case. But at different times and in different ways, God has done things differently. And that there was a plan for national, ethnic Israel. And then in the New Testament, there is a plan for the New Testament church, which is in some sense distinct. From Old Testament Israel. And this becomes really important when one starts thinking about one's doctrine of the future. Because if this is the case that God had a plan for Israel in the Old Testament, many of the promises made directly to Israel, like the land promises and one seating on David's throne forever, those promises, if those were not fulfilled. And that they are not fulfilled in the New Testament Church because the New Testament Church is not one and the same to Old Testament Israel, then if that's the case, then there is a future plan for Israel in the future. I actually do believe this. This is my opinion, and that God still has He still has promises that need to be fulfilled to ethnic Israel. Now I'd make one more caveat here, since I've already gone down into so many thick weeds. That while I love the Jewish people, the Jewish people in the land right now, in the land of Israel, are for the most part not believers in the Messiah. I certainly know quite a few Jewish Christians, but the nation of Israel as large, the modern day state of Israel, does not believe in the Messiah. And the Bible says that when the promises are fulfilled to ethnic Jewish people, That they would be fulfilled to ethnic Jewish people when they are in belief. And so while there is a modern state of Israel today, unfortunately, the state of Israel that is there are not, by and large, believers. And it seems to be very clear to me in the Bible that the future plan of God for Israel will not only be a nation in the land, but in the land in belief. So this question. The relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament is complex. The other thing I would just say is I do think there is a way to read the Old Testament better. And not only should you read the Old Testament on its own terms, you should just read it and see what it says and learn the stories and the characters. You also ought to have a very keen eye, and this is what I spent, well, a long time in a PhD program doing this. Keep a keen eye. How do the New Testament authors read the Old Testament? And that reading of the Old Testament could unlock how to read the Old Testament in light of Jesus as a Two Testament Bible, Old and New Testament that bears witness to Jesus. I think about Jesus on the road to Emmaus at the end of his earthly ministry after his resurrection. It says he opened up the Old Testament. There in the end of Luke, and he disclosed himself and expounded the scriptures to show that the Old Testament was actually about him. I think when we read the Old Testament well, we see the ultimate message of the Old Testament and the new is it's all about Jesus. Thank you for listening to the You Ask Podcast. This is a ministry of Liberty Baptist Church, and we pray this podcast enables you. more faithfully live out your Christian life.