"As I Have Loved You"
Chapter Two
The Rightful Focus of the Old Testament:
The Person and Work of Christ
Almost all Christians would formally admit that Christ is the focus of the Old Testament. But the implications of it have not been thought through by either the Dispensationalist or Reformed camps. How do Christ and the apostles view the Old Testament? Do they see it primarily as containing commandments ("law") to be expounded in "preparation" for preaching Christ ("gospel") to sinners? Do they see it as a body of "case-law," possessing abiding validity in exhaustive detail, which is to be applied to all areas of societal life? Do they see it as relating primarily to Israel and the future earthly purpose of God for this chosen nation? By examining some representative Scriptures we will see that the Old Testament is viewed as a preparatory revelation of the person and work of Christ. This basic point will then correct the misdirected emphases prominent in our day.
Search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify to me (v. 39) . . . . For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me: for he wrote of me (v. 46).
"Scriptures" in verse 39 obviously refers to the whole body Of old Testament writings, with particular focus on the Mosaic books (vv. 45-47). This corpus of literature, Jesus says, "testifies" (stands as a witness) to His person. Thus, according to Jesus, to read the Old Testament without reference to Christ is to miss entirely its stated purpose. In II Cor. 3:14-16, Paul reflects on this when he indicates that Jews read the Old covenant in blindness until they saw Christ in these writings, and then the veil was taken away.
In verse 45, Jesus states that Moses accuses people. The Puritan Samuel Bolton refers this accusing function of Moses to the law when "its sentence and curse take hold of us."1 But this is not a correct handling of the passage, for Christ does not refer the accusing action of Moses to a conviction brought about by preaching the Ten Commandments to sinners. Rather, He refers to the fact that Moses wrote about His person, and yet they did not believe in Him. This passage, then, teaches clearly that the Old Testament writings converge on the person of Jesus Christ -- they are Christocentric in nature and purpose. To view them otherwise will lead to various errors. R.C.H. Lenski summarizes this important truth thusly:
Jesus says, "Moses wrote of me" (John 5:46), which means that he did so, not in a few direct promises, but in all that he wrote, not a line of which would have been penned save for Christ and the things Christ would be and bring.2
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself . . . .These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled concerning me, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms.
Again, the Old Testament in its entirety is in view. Our Lord gives His authoritative perspective concerning the Old Testament. He sees this literature as focusing on His suffering, resurrection (glory) and the universal proclamation of the gospel during this age (vv. 46-47). Our Lord does not view the Old Testament as a "law-word" but as an anticipatory Messiah-centered Work.
This writer thinks it is very significant that this use of the Old Testament by our Lord comes after His glorification in the resurrection. This understanding, then, is to be reflected in the use of it by the apostles and all servants of the New Covenant. And indeed it was, for in the Book of Acts we find the apostles and prophets employing the Old Testament to proclaim the person and work of Christ (Acts 17:2-3). Therefore, we greatly err if we use the Old Testament as social "case-law" to be applied in culture, as commandments to be preached as "law-work," or as future promises to be realized in Israel's earthly kingdom. The resurrected Lord Jesus' statements in these verses inform us as to how the Old Testament should be viewed in the new era--"things concerning Himself." As Herman Ridderbos put it:
That which was revealed in the Old Testament, of a provisional and passing glory, was already the glory of Christ, and the Old Testament must now be read from the present perspective of its fulfillment in Christ.3
Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come to you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them pointed when he testified beforehand about the sufferings of Christ and the glory (resurrection) that should follow. To them it was revealed, that not to themselves but to us they did minister the things which are now reported among you by those who have preached the gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
In Luke 24:46 we saw that Christ viewed the Old Testament as speaking of the general two-fold division of His work: suffering and glory. This passage in I Peter also indicates that the Spirit of Christ in the old era spoke in the covenant documents about the Messiah's suffering and glory. Peter tells those who are under the New Covenant that the Old Testament writers wrote about this age--,'the day of salvation" (II Cor. 6:2). In terms of service accomplished by these former authors, the ultimate focus was not on those to whom they wrote then, but "to us" in the new era (I Pet. 1:12). The Old Testament documents were inscripturated primarily for us "upon whom the fulfillment of the ages has come" (I Cor. 10:11).
This passage strikes at the heart of Dispensationalist teaching. The Old Testament is gospel-centered, and speaks concerning the blessings of this New Covenant age. The Old Testament does not "skip over" the "church dispensation" and focus on a separate earthly purpose of God for the Jewish nation after the church is "raptured."
From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
What is the primary function of the Old Testament revelation? Verse 15 tells us that the Scriptures are designed to lead us to "salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." This coincides, for example, with John's stated purpose in his gospel: "But these are written in order that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name" (20:31). The Scriptures are not designed just to stimulate us intellectually, or to present us with an interesting history of redemption for our reading pleasure before we go to bed at night. The Scriptures--if handled rightly--are specifically designed to elicit faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:17).
Genuine faith with regard to Moses and with regard to the law, genuine listening to this revelation, must lead to the acknowledgement of Jesus . . . . Genuine listening to the law leads to faith in Jesus [and] rejection of Jesus is at the same time rebellion against the law.4
Once salvation has come to the heart, these God breathed Scriptures are also profitable with reference to our obedience (v. 16). In this context the emphasis falls on the "man of God" (v. 17) who is to experience this function of Scripture in his own life so that he can be holy in life (v. 17b) and accurately apply the gospel to the lives of others (I Tim. 4:2).
It can be seen from these representative passages that Jesus' person and work stand at the center of the old Testament. The Old Testament was used in the early church to "preach Jesus" (Acts 8:35). In light of the Christ centeredness of the Old Testament, two important implications will be isolated.
The Old Testament is not
Israel-Centered
The Dispensationalists are guilty of exalting Israel as a nation with an earthly purpose which is entirely separate, they say, from the heavenly purpose of God for the church. The Old Testament, in the hands of Dispensationalists, becomes Israel-centered. The "prophetic timetable" revolves around what happens to Israel. The Old Testament promises to Israel cannot be fulfilled until the church is "raptured" out of the earth. The glory of Christ, which in fact commenced with the resurrection, is "postponed" until God's purposes with Israel are again begun. The verses we have studied are fatal to such an approach to the Old Testament. And a Dispensational approach to the Old Testament destroys any possibility of rightly dividing the Word of Truth, for they prolong what God has once and for all abolished--the institutions of Israel.
The Old Testament is
not Law-centered
Indeed, the Mosaic administration was filled with "laws," and therefore was law-centered in terms of its temporary function in the history of redemption (Gal. 3:1726). However, with the coming of the New Covenant, this law-centered Mosaic economy is now viewed as Christ centered. Thus, the name most historically connected with law (John 1:17) has his writings now associated with Christ: "[Moses] wrote of me" (John 5:46). When believers saw the Old Testament in the light of Christ's incarnation and resurrection, they used that body of literature to "show by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ" (Acts 18:24-28).
We are blessed with examples of New Covenant preaching in the Book of Acts, and receive glimpses of the content of apostolic preaching in the Epistles (I Cor. 15:3-4). This writer has searched in vain in this New Testament data to find the "preaching of the law" as presented by the Puritans. Samuel Bolton dogmatically asserts, "we cannot appeal to Christ until first we are found guilty and condemned by Moses."5 By this he means that the Ten Commandments must be preached to sinners as preparation for the reception of Christ. But where in the inspired documents do we find servants of the New Covenant isolating the Old Covenant "moral law," and preaching it to men before and in connection with the proclamation of Christ? Rather, we find them (Luke 24:27, 44) preaching Christ out of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. Much more will be said in this regard when we cover other passages in the New Testament.
Furthermore, nowhere in the New Testament are we taught that the details of the Old Covenant "law-word" are to be used in bringing the socio-political order under the "dominion" of Christ, as reconstructionists like R.J. Rushdoony teach. Such a use of the Old Testament is contrary to the clear function assigned to it by our Lord in the passages we studied. The exhaustive details of the Old Covenant law belong to a past age, and are now designated by Paul as being among the weak and beggarly elements of the world.6
It is interesting to note the centrality of Israel in both Dispensationalism and Reconstruction. Dispensationalists absolutize the nation of Israel, while the Reconstructionists absolutize the law of Moses. Dispensationalism resurrects Israel in the future, while Reconstructionists want to see her law implemented in this age. Jesus Christ, then, and not Israel or her laws, must be our center point in approaching the Old Testament.7
1) Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom (London: Banner of Truth, 1964), p. 38.
2) R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), p. 127.
3) Herman Ridderbos, Paul and Jesus (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1958), p. 60.
4) W. Gutbrod, Law (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1962), pp. 133-134
5) Bolton, p. 34.
6) Gal. 4:9-10; A.J. Bandstra, The Law and the Elements of the World: An Exegetical Study in Aspects of Paul's Theology (Kampen: J.H. Kok, 1964), pp. 3l-72.
7) Norman Geisler, "Christ: The Key to the Interpretation of the Bible," A Popular Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1977). pp. 19-25.