Week 2 – Why Study the Old Testament – The Bible is incomplete Without It

• 1. The Bible is incomplete without it.
  a.  The New Testament is given to complete the story, not replace it.
  i. The Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern. Read introductory statement.
  ii. Martin Luther – understand the context of the setting in which he lived. Read highlighted text. These statement are horrific on this side of the Holocaust, but what is Luther’s context? What do we do with Hitler using Luther for justification of his treatment of the Jews? Does Westboro Baptist Church accurately represent Christianity as you understand it? Why not? What about the Roman Catholic understanding that salvation is only found within the Church? What about infant baptism?
  iii. How does this relate to the Scriptures being incomplete without the Old                                 Testament?
  iv. If we toss out the Old Testament because we have the New, how are we to  properly understand the redemptive storyline that does not find its origins in the New Testament but the Old.
  v. I want you to put on your philosophical hats for a moment. Without the OT, we have no place to start. This is similar to the concept of the impossibility of an eternal universe. The idea that the universe has always existed. If the universe has no beginning, we would never get to this current moment. This is the idea of an infinite regress. If there are infinite moments in time going backwards,                        we would never get to right now because there is no place to start. This is like trying to jump out of a bottomless pit. No place to start. If Jesus just shows up without any previous revelation of why he needs to come, how are people to understand their need for him to die for their sins? What are sins? Every false religion present the nature of man as not so bad, as being able to, in some way, obtain salvation, nirvana, or paradise.
  b. The curse comes upon humanity in Gen. 3:14-19. The curse is removed in Rev. 22:3. Completing God’s redemptive work.
  i. So why did Jesus come? Gen. 3:15. In fact, all of Genesis 3 is a profound example of God’s mercy. Jesus begins his public ministry in a rather profound way. In Luke 4:16-30, Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1-2 and then states that this Scripture has         been fulfilled in your hearing, then in his rebuke of the doubters provides them         with two references of mercy being poured out to Gentiles in the OT. The widow       at Zerephath and Naaman the Syrian.
  ii. The OT is able to make one wise for salvation. 2 Tim. 3:14-17.
  iii. The OT initiates what the NT continues.
  1. Matt. 22:36-40; cf. Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18 – commandments
  2. Lev. 19:18; cf. Rom. 13:8-10 – loving your neighbor
  3. Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:26-27; cf. 2 Cor. 3:1-18; Heb. 8:7-12 – a new heart
  4. Rom. 12:20; cf. Deut. 32:35; Prov. 25:21-22 – treatment of your enemies
  5. 1 Peter 2:9-10; cf. Exod. 19:5-6; Hosea 1:8-9 – chosen race, God’s people
  iv. The OT is re-actualized in the NT in order to complete it
  1. Typology – Jesus “tabernacled” with us (John 1:14); His body is the Temple                             (John 2:19-22); He was lifted up as the serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14-15) focusing on God’s common call to faith
  v. The NT authors do not bring some new fantastic teaching, but they more fully explain the true meaning of the OT.
  c. God’s character is the same throughout.
  i. In the OT, we learn of God’s abounding love, compassion, and grace towards a stubborn people.
  ii. We see him pursue, plead, forgive, punish, get angry, and forgive again a stiff-necked people.
  d. It instructs us in godly living.
  i. According to Steven Cole, “The historical sections of the OT show us how people succeeded through faith and obedience or failed through unbelief and          disobedience. The wisdom books (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) show us how to          think and live rightly. The Psalms teach us to worship God and cry out to him in        prayer in all our trials. The prophets warn us of the devastating consequences        sin and the threat of God’s judgment if we do not repent. They also encourage us      with the truth that God will judge those who persist in evil and he will reward the    righteous.”
  ii. “written for our instruction”
  1. Rom. 15:4
  2. 2 Tim. 3:16-17
  3. 1 Cor. 10:11
  4. Heb. 11:13, 39-40; 12:1-2