The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church by Richard E. Averbeck

Author:Richard E. Averbeck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Old testament law;biblical studies;torah;Pentateuch;biblical theology;does the old testament law apply to Christians;new testament perspective on the law;jewish law;mosaic law;mosaic covenant;law as unified whole;interpret the old testament law;old testament studies;old testament theology;old testament law for Christians today
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2022-06-30T13:34:53+00:00

Eight

JESUS AND THE MOSAIC LAW

THIS CHAPTER MAKES THE SHIFT from the Old Testament focus in part two to the teachings about the Old Testament law in the New Testament in part three. In the Old Testament discussion we looked in some depth at the law in the Old Testament: its background in the ancient Near East, the various collections within the Mosaic law, and how each contributes to our understanding of how God intended the law to function in ancient Israel. We also took a few specific opportunities to look forward into the New Testament from the perspective of the Old Testament law.

The discussion that starts in this chapter will look directly at the major passages in the New Testament that contribute to our understanding of how the Old Testament law comes through into the life of the church and the believer. Admittedly, as an Old Testament scholar, I come at the reading of the New Testament teachings about the Old Testament law through the eyes of the Old Testament. I submit that this is a good way to come at the topic. Jesus came at it this way, and so did the earliest church. Jesus was Jewish and the earliest church was Jewish through and through. Moreover, Jesus’ Bible was the Hebrew Old Testament, and the same was true for the church, although largely in the form of its Greek translation because of the Hellenization of the Near East and Mediterranean world during the intertestamental period (the four hundred years before Christ).

When we start with the New Testament we come at it all backward. The church is largely Gentile today, and it has been for almost two thousand years. We naturally come to the New Testament and the Bible as a whole from that perspective. Yes, there has always been a Jewish remnant in the church (Rom 11:1-7), but by and large the Jewish people rejected their Messiah (Rom 9:1-5). This was a painful reality for Jesus and for Paul, Peter, John, James the half-brother of Jesus, and all the writers of the New Testament.

The point is that looking at the New Testament with the Old Testament as its foundation is historically and theologically cogent. The apostles preached the gospel of Jesus Christ from the Old Testament. These were the only Scriptures they had. Peter started with Joel 2:28-32 on the Day of Pentecost. Even at the end of his life, the apostle Paul had not let go of the Old Testament as Scripture for the church (2 Tim 3:15-17). These were the Scriptures Timothy had been learning since he was an infant. Since then they had been growing gradually to include what we now know as the New Testament. Actually, the term Old Testament is anachronistic. Jesus never called it that, and neither did the apostles. First Testament is hardly better. It was simply the Scriptures, or the Hebrew Bible, or its translation in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek Bible.

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