LWPT | What did say about the OT? Have you not read? What Jesus said, believed, and taught about the Old Testament

If our salvation is based on the finished work of Christ on the cross, should we still preach the Old Testament? Isn’t the Old Testament unsuited to modern congregations? Isn’t it just too hard? As a binary choice, the New Testament is favoured over the Old from most pulpits. Yet as disciples of Jesus who seek to pattern our lives after his, what Jesus said, believed and taught about the Old Testament should inform what we believe and teach too. Jesus: knowing the Hebrew Scriptures T he portrait of Jesus depicted by the gospels is of a man steeped in scripture. As a twelve-year-old he displayed an understanding beyond his years [Luke 2:47-8], and by adulthood he was well versed in all three major sections of the Hebrew Bible (the Law, the Prophets and the Writings), quoting from them effortlessly when teaching. He frequently answered questions by reference to scripture, asking simply ‘Have you not read?’ He used scripture to insult the Pharisees, calling them snakes and vipers [Matthew 23:33], referring perhaps to the snakes and vipers accompanying the lying scribes in Jeremiah 8. More than knowing what scripture said, he revered it as the inerrant Word of God. He spoke about events such as the Flood and Jonah’s encounter with the whale as factual events because, in his words, ‘Scripture cannot be broken’ [John 10:35]. Scripture was so ingrained in his heart, it formed his involuntary response at the most critical times of his life: during his testing in the wilderness, his responses were taken from Deuteronomy [Luke 4]. Walking to Calvary, he quoted Hosea [Luke 23:30]. Even in agony on the cross, his cries were meditations on the psalms [Matthew 27:46, Luke 23:46 quoting Psalms 22 and 31]. The overflow of Jesus’ heart came from the Godbreathed words of scripture.

Issue 46 - Exodus

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What did say about the OT? Have you not read? What Jesus said, believed, and taught about the Old Testament

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