The Bible is the perfect word of God. It is alive, and it has power to help us to grow into spiritual maturity. As we read the Bible and obey it, we will be conformed into the image of Jesus. All Christians should prioritize reading and understanding the Bible for their own spiritual health.
In order to understand the Bible correctly, we need to be able to “rightly divide” it (2 Timothy 2:15). To rightly divide the Bible means to separate it out so its sections can be accurately understood.
The Bible is divided into two main sections – the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both of these sections are equally inspired by God and valuable for us today. But they are to be understood differently.
The Old Testament has been blotted out (Colossians 2:14). It’s been abolished (Ephesians 2:14-16). The Old Testament has been made old and obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).
We are not under the Old Testament (OT) any more, but we are under the New Testament (NT). We no longer need to keep all the commands of the OT, because Jesus fulfilled the Law on our behalf and gave us the free gift of righteousness. There are over 600 different commands in the OT, like not wearing a shirt with two types of thread (like cotton and wool mixed together), not planting a garden with two types of crops together (Leviticus 19:19), and handling a bird’s nest properly when encountering it on the road.
We don’t need to keep all these OT commands today.
If the OT has been abolished, then what is the value of the OT to us today?
The OT is full of symbolism to help us understand more about Jesus Christ. It contains types and shadows of NT truth. As we understand these symbols, our revelation of Jesus Christ will increase. And the more we see of Jesus, the better.
The Law has a shadow of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:1). The ministry performed by the OT priests was full of examples and symbols of heavenly things (Hebrews 8:5). The OT temple and its operations are all symbolic for us today, being patterns of heaven and of spiritual realities (Hebrews 9:9, 23).
So when we read the OT, we read about symbols of Christ and about spiritual reality.
For example, one of the most important OT commands was circumcision. On the eighth day a male child had to be circumcised (Leviticus 12:3). But the NT says that literal circumcision is unnecessary for us today (Galatians 6:15). Circumcision is a symbol of when we are born again, representing that our sins have been taken away by faith in the sacrifice of Christ (Romans 2:28-29).
We can learn how to interpret OT commands by seeing how the Holy Spirit interprets these commands in the NT.
Here’s another command from the OT: “Don’t muzzle an ox when it reads out grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4). This command meant that when an ox was threshing grain – separating the grain from the chaff by pulling something heavy over it – the ox should not be prevented from eating the grain.
The NT says that this instruction was written down for the sake of Christians. It is a symbol showing that Christians should support Christian workers. Those who sow the word of God should be materially supported by the church (1 Corinthians 9:9-10). In fact, the NT says that this OT command was written altogether for the sake of Christians, to teach them to support servants of God financially.
Each command of the OT has deep meaning for us. When we read the OT, we need to pray for the Holy Spirit to explain this rich symbolism. We may not understand everything about the OT, but the Holy Spirit will explain more to us as we ask him.
The OT is full of dietary regulations, like don’t eat pork, rabbit, or shellfish (Leviticus 11). Some Christians started following these dietary regulations in the NT, but Paul rebuked them, calling them hypocrites (Galatians 2:12). Christians shouldn’t get ensared in a similar deception today.
Jesus and his apostles gave us many commands in the NT, and we need to literally follow these NT commands. Some OT commands like don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, and don’t steal have been repeated in the NT, and we need to follow these commands literally because they are part of the NT. If an OT command not part of the NT, we have no authority to reintroduce what God has abolished.
Usually when Christians start reintroducing their own commands from the OT, they pick easier commands like not eating pork, but they ignore harder commands like going to Jerusalem three times a year. This is random and pointless. This is man made religion and it has no power to save. We need to stand free in the liberty with which Christ has set us free and not be entangled again with the yoke of religious bondage (Galatians 5:1).
OT holidays are all shadows of Christ, including the Sabbath day. These holidays all represent spiritual truth (Colossians 2:17). Instead of celebrating these holidays literally, let’s learn more about Christ from their rich symbolism.
All the historical events of the OT happened to the Israelites as examples for us, and they are written to teach us spiritual truth (1 Corinthians 10:1-11). We don’t literally follow the examples of the Israelites in the OT, killing nations and setting up an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. Instead, we learn from this symbolism about our war against fallen angels (Ephesians 6:12) and the heavenly land that we dwell in spiritually.
There is a tendency among some groups of Christians today to go back to the OT and pick and choose some commands to follow. This is dangerous. It’s an old error that the apostles had to fight against in the first century. Let’s reject this deception and rightly divide the word of truth.
May God give us grace to do this so that we can see Jesus and be prepared for his coming.
Lincoln House Churches 