Our New Covenant Old Testament

We should love the “Old” Testament because it reveals new covenant truth.

Mar 15, 2024

Dear friends and supporters:

This Facebook post naturally captured my attention:

No Facebook post should be judged as a comprehensive statement on any topic. No post can fully avoid misunderstanding or convey all necessary nuance. In screenshotting this post, therefore, I am not so much criticizing the author as using this statement as a launching pad for a too-little-considered viewpoint about interpreting the Bible.

For most of my ministry I’ve argued for the substantial unity of the Bible, the canonical covenants, faith and obedience, Gospel and Law, and OT Israel and the NT church. The post above strikingly exemplifies one reason I've been compelled to embrace this unity. Think of the irony. No new covenant preacher or writer actually living in the NT era could have appealed to any written revelation except the OT. The first new covenant preachers were always preaching out of the OT. For them it was the Bible.

The “Old” and “New” Testament

The nomenclature of Old Testament and New Testament contributes to the irony. These are not biblical designations. The Bible speaks of the old (Mosaic) covenant and the new covenant (in Christ’s blood) but does not describe Genesis through Malachi as the Old Testament and Matthew through Revelation as the New Testament. A more accurate designation would be the Hebrew Scriptures (with a smattering of Aramaic) and Greek Scriptures. Jesus’ designation of the first 39 books is the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets (Lk. 24:44). There is no precise nomenclature for the Greek Scriptures since they were written after the events they record and original message they recount.

Because the word testament is used to designate the Hebrew Scriptures as Old and the Greek Scriptures as New, and because many Christians think testament is synonymous with covenant (it isn’t), they believe the OT is about the old covenant, and the NT is about the new covenant.

This is a seriously mistaken assumption that can easily lead to mistaken biblical interpretations and mistaken doctrine and living. A new covenant is prophesied to Israel and Judah on several occasions in the Hebrew Scriptures. Here’s a typical one in Jeremiah 31:31–34:

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

A little thinking will alert us that several provisions of this projected new covenant were already at times a reality in the Hebrew Scriptures. The psalmist declared God’s law was in his heart — he wasn’t waiting for the new covenant for this to happen (Ps. 37:31; 40:8). Isaiah, likewise, commended the faithful “Old” Testament saints:

“Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
You people in whose heart is My law:
Do not fear the reproach of men,
Nor be afraid of their insults. (51:7)

In addition, the promise that God would be a God to Israel and that they would be his people was hardly delayed until the new covenant era. The entire Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 17:4–8) and old covenant (Ex. 6:7; Jer. 7:22–23) are premised on it. There’s nothing new in the pledge that Israel would be God’s people and he would be their God, even though this was a promise of the impending new covenant.

Moreover, we read in Isaiah 43:25 this promise within the old covenant era that was also a provision of the new covenant:

“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake;
And I will not remember your sins.

There was certainly nothing unprecedented in the new covenant era about God’s forgiving and putting away and not remembering the sins of his people. That was just as true in the old covenant era.

What, then, is exactly new about the new covenant?

What’s New?

The book of Hebrews provides the answer. The new covenant provisions exhibited during the old covenant era were all pointers toward and down payments on the one final, enduring covenant in Christ’s atoning blood:

But this Man (Jesus Christ), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. (Heb. 10:12–17)

We are “sanctified” and “perfected” in the new covenant era by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, which subordinates all our sins and all powers and all enemies. The new covenant realities in the old covenant era were every bit as genuine as ours today, but they were all provisional and preparatory for the final fulfillment of the new covenant in Christ's sacrificial death.

The language of new covenant is often misunderstood. “New” in this sense doesn't mean “brand new,” unprecedented, a clean slate. Rather, it means renewed, as in “new moon.” Every monthly new moon God doesn’t create an actual new moon to replace the present one. New moon is a new phase of the existing moon.

In the same way, the new covenant is the new (and final) phase of the old covenant. The old Mosaic covenant has been rescinded in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and it was always meant to be rescinded, since it contained a built-in expiration date. It was designed from its inception to be provisional. The new covenant is not God’s panicky rush plan to cover for the apostasy of old covenant Israel. All along God had planned to phase out the old covenant and phase in the new covenant.

The Law-Gospel Controversy

These days we are hearing more and more about the Law-Gospel distinction. We are informed that the Bible consists of two foundational “words” or messages — Law and Gospel. We are told that the entire Bible can be divided into these two messages. We are led to believe that these two messages, though each is God’s Word, are antithetical to each other. We are apprised that the Law-Gospel distinction is the standard, historic Protestant view. We are warned that to mix Law and Gospel is to undermine salvation by grace and diminish God’s ethical standards for man. We are given to understand, to put it most starkly, that to deny the Law-Gospel distinction will lead to “a blasphemous assault of the religious integrity of Jesus himself.”

This booklet is written to show that properly understood, law and gospel are fully compatible and that the traditional Law-Gospel distinction cannot pass serious biblical muster.

Get the hard copy and digital copy here.

The Old Covenant for a New People

You might have noticed the OT pledges the future new covenant to Israel and Judah, the Jews. But when we actually get to the NT, we discover that the new covenant is fulfilled with all the people of God who trust Christ, both Jews and Gentiles. Paul designates himself the “minister of the new covenant” (2 Cor. 2:6), and his specific audience was the Gentiles (Rom. 15:16). To those who know the OT, this expansion of the people of God should come as no surprise.

Isaiah had already prophesied that when the Lord restores his people (new covenant), he will equally include Gentile nations. In fact, not only include them, but place them on even spiritual par with the Jews. Specifically the Egyptians and Assyrians, traditional enemies of the Jews, will be brought into the true faith and will constitute 2/3 of the people of God. The metaphorical point is that the people of God will include more than just Jews:

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.
In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria — a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” (Is. 19:23–25)

All who savingly trust in Jesus Christ are members and recipients of the promises of the new covenant, not just Christian Jews.

This also explains the new covenant promise that “they [Jews] all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.” This might seem perplexing, since every individual within the visible people of God in the new covenant era is no more converted than in the old covenant era. But this perplexity is lessened if we understand that the newness of the new covenant based in Christ’s final atoning work breaks down the middle wall dividing Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:11–22). All will know the Lord, not just Jews. “All” in this context means all the people of God — the unity of Jew and Gentile that God intended from the beginning.

“Old” Testament Truth for the New Covenant Era

All this leads to certain practical consequences and benefits. For one thing, because the OT contains new covenant realities, it is an entirely suitable revelation for the new covenant era, even today. Paul makes this point abundantly plain when he writes famously to Timothy:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16–17)

The only Scripture to which Paul and Timothy had access was the Hebrew Scriptures, and it was this “Old” Testament that was “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Timothy was to learn his doctrine for the new covenant era by examining the “Old” Testament. He was to reprove and correct the church from the text of the “Old” Testament. He was to learn how to live righteously by reading and heeding the “Old” Testament. This is possible only because the “Old” Testament contains new covenant realities.

For another thing, the “Old” Testament, even seemingly obscure passages, speaks authoritatively to new covenant saints. Paul exhort the Corinthians that he and other faithful ministers are worthy of getting paid for their ministry. And he invokes Deuteronomy 25:4 to prove his point. He uses the Jewish version of argumentum a fortiori (from mild to severe): if we pay oxen for their work in the form of food, we certainly should pay ministers for their work:

Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? (1 Cor. 9:8–11)

For our interest, however, observe Paul doesn't say Deuteronomy 25:4 is an old covenant truth from which we can learn “practical application,” a frequent way the OT is appropriated by many interpreters today. No, he asserts this old covenant passage was written specifically for our sakes. In other words, Deuteronomy 25:4 is a truth God inspired for the very purpose not only that oxen would be remunerated but also that the new covenant church would pay its faithful ministers. How is this possible? It is possible because the “Old” Testament contains new covenant realities.

Conclusion

We should love the “Old” Testament and should never tire of new covenant preachers expounding it in Sunday worship or at other times. Nor should we tire of theologians exegeting it to discover doctrine in the new covenant era. Nor should we tire of parents mining it for divine information on how to rear their children. Nor should we tire of legislators examining it to learn the basic moral truth for law and politics.

The old covenant has been rescinded by the new covenant in Christ’s blood. But provisional realities within the old covenant transcend — and were always meant to transcend — the Mosaic covenant itself. The new covenant is actually the renewed covenant which God fully accomplishes in the multi-national, multi-ethnic church of Jesus Christ.

We should never tire of the “Old” Testament, because it contains the truth for us new covenant people of God.

Personal

I hope you friends in Birmingham and northern Alabama will join Sharon and me for an evening dinner event and talk next Thursday, March 21. Please contact me privately for specifics.

Please pray that we'll be able to release the following works later this year: John Frame’s collected sermons Widen Your Hearts. The reprint of my New Flesh, New Earth: The Life-Changing Power of the Resurrection, and The Sanctified State: Politics in the Christian Worldview.

I am deeply grateful for your friendship and persevering prayer and persistent support.

Yours for the King,

Founder & President, Center for Cultural Leadership

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