HOW DOES A CHRISTIAN APPLY THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THEIR LIFE? – PART 1
The difference between how our LORD deal with His children in the New Testament and how He dealt with Israel in the Old Testament
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Hoe pas ‘n Christen die Ou Testament in sy/haar lewe toe?”
Someone put the question to me, namely which criteria or standard one can use to know what a Christian may apply in his/her life from the Old Testament.
I wrote in my answer that firstly the indisputable fact is this:
There are two Testaments. An Old Testament and a New Testament and whatever I want to apply to a Christian from the Old Testament, must be 100% endorsed by the New Testament. It may not even almost differ with the New Testament – which applies to the Christian.
Here then is part 1 of my answer to the person as I understand it from our LORD's Word:
Some people do not know where to see the difference; where our Lord share with, and only with Israel – and with Christians – the heirs with Christ.
They confuse how God dealt with Israel and how He deal with Christians.
We must never, (and unfortunately this is exactly what people do with the Old Testament and Israel) mix the two: The way our Lord dealt with Israel and the way He deal with Christians – for whom His Son went to hang on the cross. We do not mix the two, or use them as examples of how our Lord deal with us, His co-heirs with Christ .
First, I must remember that our Lord shared with Israel through the Mosaic Law and the simplest way to explain what this entails and why our Lord did it this way is to quote my great hero Paul who write through the guidance of the Holy Spirit:
GAL 3:24-27
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
For me, a Christian, follower of Christ Jesus, our Lord's New Testament applies – and as the Mosaic Law in the 10 commandments is a summary or review of the Mosaic Law for the Old Testament time, so is Christ's Law of Love the summary, or review for us His followers.
For example, we read about this summary in Matthew 22:37 and the verses further on:
MAT 22:37-40
37 And he (Jesus) said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
That is why my great hero Paulus could also write on occasion:
ROM 13:8-10
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Let me now use two examples to show you why I must be very careful before I simply apply something from the Old Testament, so to speak, benevolently or deliberately to people or to myself.
While I must also fully realize and be aware of this: That if I apply something to myself from the Mosaic Law, which was not placed there in Jesus' New Testament for His followers, I must remember:
GAL 5:3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. (or wants to keep any other Mosaic law)
GAL 5:4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.JAMES 2:10-12
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
11 For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
As mentioned, I only use one example from the Mosaic Law each time and then compare it with what Jesus' New Testament Law show to His children how the Law of Love works.
I use clearly obvious examples, so that you can evidently see that I must pray and then look very carefully, to what I want to apply to myself or someone else.
First, what the Old Testament say about a woman in the following situation must be obeyed to the letter and of course this also applies to a man – and you can read about the man yourself in Leviticus 15:2 and further – but now, just read here in relation to a woman:
LEV 15:19-23
19 "When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
20 And everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean.
21 And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.
22 And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.
23 Whether it is the bed or anything on which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening.
Now we look in connection with this kind of circumstances in one's life in the New Testament.
We read:
MARK 5:25-31
25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years,
26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.
28 For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well."
29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?"
31 And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'"
If one were to look at this woman through the Old Testament Mosaic Law point of view, you could say that she was, to say the least, very inconsiderate.
She knew that she was unclean according to the Law under which she and the people around her were suffering – and that everyone who touches her and whom she touches is unclean, and then she nevertheless touches Jesus ' hem of his garment! – But she was not inconsiderate. She was desperate in her faith about Jesus and Jesus, to put it this way, do not become impure. No, but divine power with divine love goes out from Him to her.
You see –
According to Jesus' New Testament Love Commandment, you are not unclean for 7 or how many days if you come to Him.
If you go to Him in sincerity in your heart, you are immediately clean of whatever you went to Him about.
Now my second example:
We read, and it occurs three times in the Old Testament:
EXO 21:23-25
23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Now Jesus come in His New Testament with His Law of Love which He has drawn up for us and He say:
MAT 5:38-41
38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
What Jesus is saying to us His children is this:
If someone is rude to you, you must really do your utmost (bend over) to let him, so to say, see Jesus in you.
You see this very clearly in the last passage that I just quoted to you.
There was a Law at the time:
For example, if a Roman soldier met you from the front of the road, he could ask you to walk with him and you had to, as it is translated here, walk a mile with him back on your way and carry the pack or whatever for him.
Now Jesus say that if you have walked the forced mile with him back on your way, and he wants to take his pack back to walk further, you must say:
"No, I'll just carry it another mile for you."
Then to conclude:
If you find something in the Old Testament and you wonder if you should apply it to yourself:
Pray for guidance first. Then you seek to find it in the New Testament – and if you don't find it or something similar in the New Testament, then you leave it and go on with your life – with your eyes in the spirit fixed on JESUS, while you remember:
GAL 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
How does the Law of Christ read?
MAT 22:36-40 ( I quote from the Amplified Bible)
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 And Jesus replied to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for others].’ 40 The whole Law and the [writings of the] Prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Then Jesus come and underline what you have just read, as His Holy Spirit lead Paul to write:
ROM 13:9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Part 2 follows hereafter.
Greetings,
Sakkie