You Can't Understand the New Testament Without the Old Testament
It's a problem when people say that the Old Testament is irrelevant due to the fact we're in the New Testament. But what's really ignored is this that how can you understand the Old Testament without the New Testament? You can't! Even when you read the New Testament, passages of the Old Testament are still being read whenever there's the phrase, "It is written." Jesus blasted Satan off with the Old Testament Scriptures, He quoted from the Old Testament Scriptures to show prophecies were fulfilled in the New Testament.
The Old Testament also has the prophecies about the Messiah which were fulfilled in the New Testament. It wouldn't make any sense to study anything in the New Testament without analyzing what was said in the Old Testament. When Peter preached his first sermon in Acts 2, he was quoting from the Old Testament to point to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. It led some Jews who were involved in the crowd of crying, "Crucify Him!" to repent and receive forgiveness. In Acts 8:26-40 you read that Philip was talking to an Ethiopian servant. You can see Isaiah 53:7 mentioned there. That's still Old Testament mentioned so the person can understand the New Testament. One can see that there's the atonement that points to Christ before one can truly understand Christ's atonement, one needs to see the Old Testament was a ministry of condemnation before one can understand the New Testament is a ministry of reconciliation.
Even if the ceremonial law is over but the moral law of the Old Testament is still relevant today. The Old Testament Law is a mirror of what sinful man is. Deuteronomy 31:26 says, "Take this Book of the Law, and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." In the New Testament, Galatians 3:24-25 says, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." It shows that the purpose of the Law is to be the schoolmaster that teaches us our sin and our need for Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The New Testament is all about fulfilling the Law by faith (Romans 3:31). The Law was a burden at first but now it's the delight of the Christian as Paul says in Romans 7:22, "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:"
Hebrews shows the differences yet it doesn't diminish the overall importance of understanding the Old Testament. Hebrews 9 talks about blood atonement and how the Old Testament blood sacrifices couldn't remove sins yet it was a reminder of what the price of sin was. Hebrews 9:11-15 says:
Besides, doesn't the Old Testament still provide useful advice when it comes to the moral law itself? It's hypocritical for anyone to say that it's irrelevant because it's Old Testament all the while quoting verses from it to justify the Roman Catholic priesthood. If the Old Testament moral law were obsolete then why talk about the Ten Commandments? While Christians certainly can now eat bacon and shrimp but homosexuality is still abhorrent. The Old Testament helps us understand the moral law and it's the basis to why the dietary laws were soon removed (Acts 10:12-16) but the moral law stays the same. Nobody can say that the Old Testament is irrelevant because Jesus didn't come to abolish but to fulfill the Law as Matthew 5:17 says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill."
See also:
The Old Testament also has the prophecies about the Messiah which were fulfilled in the New Testament. It wouldn't make any sense to study anything in the New Testament without analyzing what was said in the Old Testament. When Peter preached his first sermon in Acts 2, he was quoting from the Old Testament to point to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. It led some Jews who were involved in the crowd of crying, "Crucify Him!" to repent and receive forgiveness. In Acts 8:26-40 you read that Philip was talking to an Ethiopian servant. You can see Isaiah 53:7 mentioned there. That's still Old Testament mentioned so the person can understand the New Testament. One can see that there's the atonement that points to Christ before one can truly understand Christ's atonement, one needs to see the Old Testament was a ministry of condemnation before one can understand the New Testament is a ministry of reconciliation.Even if the ceremonial law is over but the moral law of the Old Testament is still relevant today. The Old Testament Law is a mirror of what sinful man is. Deuteronomy 31:26 says, "Take this Book of the Law, and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." In the New Testament, Galatians 3:24-25 says, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." It shows that the purpose of the Law is to be the schoolmaster that teaches us our sin and our need for Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The New Testament is all about fulfilling the Law by faith (Romans 3:31). The Law was a burden at first but now it's the delight of the Christian as Paul says in Romans 7:22, "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:"
Hebrews shows the differences yet it doesn't diminish the overall importance of understanding the Old Testament. Hebrews 9 talks about blood atonement and how the Old Testament blood sacrifices couldn't remove sins yet it was a reminder of what the price of sin was. Hebrews 9:11-15 says:
"But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."
Besides, doesn't the Old Testament still provide useful advice when it comes to the moral law itself? It's hypocritical for anyone to say that it's irrelevant because it's Old Testament all the while quoting verses from it to justify the Roman Catholic priesthood. If the Old Testament moral law were obsolete then why talk about the Ten Commandments? While Christians certainly can now eat bacon and shrimp but homosexuality is still abhorrent. The Old Testament helps us understand the moral law and it's the basis to why the dietary laws were soon removed (Acts 10:12-16) but the moral law stays the same. Nobody can say that the Old Testament is irrelevant because Jesus didn't come to abolish but to fulfill the Law as Matthew 5:17 says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill."
See also: