What is the difference between the Old and the New? This is a question I asked the folks who are a part a some of the Bible studies I am involved in. We all have Bibles that are divided between 2 Testaments, the Old and the New. If you are like most who follow Yeshua (Jesus) you spend the bulk of your time in the New and hear messages more frequently from the New than the Old. If you have the opportunity to introduce someone to our Savior you are likely to send them to the New Testament, perhaps John's Gospel or the shorter letters like Philippians or Ephesians. Few would send this new believer to Leviticus. So what is the difference? The responses I received when I asked were "One is about the Old Covenant and the other is about the New Covenant" "The old is about the Law and the New is about Grace" "The Old shows us the God of Wrath and the New the God of Love" "The old is about God the Father and the New about God the Son" "The Old is about the Jews and the New is about the Church" and "The old is history and the New is letters." Yet for most of these there is far more integration than separation, for the Old is full of grace and the New is full of instructions on how we are to live. The Old shows us much of the love of God and the New shows the power of God's wrath, (check out Revelation). The New is about a Jewish savior written by Jewish writers, in a Jewish culture, with a Jewish world view, several written in a Jewish language, drawing and quoting from Jewish Scriptures, dealing with Gentiles being "grafted in" (Romans 11). So it seems, the New is much about Messianic Jews and Gentiles rather than a separate religion called "Christianity".
Perhaps the History vs Letters and the Father vs the Son aspects are the most reasonable. Hebrews 1:1-2 tells us God has revealed Himself to us in a variety of ways but in these last days through His Son. So we have a clearer picture of Messiah in the New Testament writings. However, we need to look at the other key difference, that being history vs letters. Why such a dramatic change? The Old Testament is primarily a text filled with the stories and accounts of history. Specifically Jewish history. God reveals Himself through His relationship with His people. The New has history in the Gospels and Acts, but it is not quite the same as we find in the Old Testament. We find letters filled with instruction in the New. Filled with terms we have come to be familiar with. Terms like love, grace, salvation, forgiveness, patience, repentance, etc. Familiar terms but how do you define them? Take 1 Corinthians 13, for example. The "Love Chapter". The place where God explains what love is and that we should strive to love in this fashion. But what if you don't know what God means by the words He uses. Love is long suffering or patient, it is kind, keeps no record of wrongs, not provoked, to name a few. Where do we find the definitions? We can go to Webster, or Plato, a commentary or Study Bible and they can be a help. They can also be wrong. Where do we go to find a reliable Biblical Definition? We would do well to pay heed to 1 Corinthians 10:11. Here Paul tells us that our fathers of the Old Testament are to be our examples for our instruction so we know how to apply what we see in the instruction given to the new Followers of Messiah. In other words, we need to define the New Testament terms through Old Testament lives. What is long suffering or patience? Check out Job, or Abraham as he waited for the promised son. Keeps no record of wrong; look to Joseph or Daniel. Kindness is on display with Ruth and Boaz. Faith? Try Noah spending 100 years to build an ark because he believed God. Repentance? Jonah and Nineveh. Forgiveness? Hosea. Perhaps the reason the New Testament lacks these stories is because we already have them. The early readers of the New Testament letters knew the Old Testament accounts. Torah, the Writings and the Prophets were all they had so it is what they knew. So when Paul speaks of the faith of Abraham they knew what that meant. If we are to understand the instructions of the New Testament, we must know the definitions lived out in real life in the Old. Without them love becomes how I feel rather than what I do. Happiness supersedes a covenant promise in a marriage vow. Forgiveness is contingent on the other person's reaction. Someone can "make" me angry rather than me taking responsibility and exercising the self control David showed to Saul as he slept in the camp (1 Samuel 26). Ethics becomes situational rather than the example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego (see Daniel chapter 3). Want to know what a New Testament word means? The Biblical definition is on display somewhere in the real life experience of an Old Testament person. It will take a little longer than checking Webster, Plato or your Study Bible note but it will give you an accurate definition through a life you can relate to and see just how that word is applied to real life, not just how you think or feel.
