Connecting the Old & New Testament
In order to understand the importance of the Bible’s message, we need to understand how the Old and New Testament are connected.
Did you know that the Bible is one unified story? Across every page, the Old Testament sets the stage for the grand finale of the New Testament’s message. In fact, a lot of what Jesus said in the Gospels, and what the apostles mentioned in their New Testament letters, referenced the Old Testament. We get a hint of this as we see thousands of cross references in most Bibles pointing between the Old and New Testaments!
Take a look at how the Old Testament sets up the story that is ultimately fulfilled through Jesus in the New Testament. At the heart of it all, you’ll see a love story unfold of a God that wants to be in relationship with humanity and at the center of the story is our Savior… Jesus.
How the Old & New Testament Connect
| OLD TESTAMENT | NEW TESTAMENT | |
| CREATION | God created a perfect world for humanity so they could share in His love (Genesis 1-2) | God reveals the way He will restore the perfect world and humanity’s community with Him (Revelation 22) |
| SIN | Humanity was separated from God through sin (Gen 3) | A right relationship with God can be restored through belief in Jesus (Romans 3-6) |
| ADAM | Death entered the world through the sin of Adam (Gen 1-3) | Death was overcome through the last Adam/Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45, Revelation 21:3-7) |
| GOD | God established Himself as the great “I AM” - the one true God who’s name should be known from generation to generation (Exodus 3) | Jesus stated that “before Abraham was born, I AM” where He proclaimed He was God (John 8:58-59) |
| MESSIAH | Prophets predicted a Messiah - a Savior/Redeemer - (Isaiah 43-53) and His established Kingdom (Isaiah 26) | Jesus is revealed as the Messiah (John 4:25-26) and we learn how to live our lives in response for all He has done for us (Romans-Jude) |
| LAW | The Law was given by God in order to have right standing with Him (Exodus 19-24) | Jesus fulfilled the law (Matthew 5:17, Hebrews 10:9) which was meant to show humanity their need of salvation and was never intended to be the means of salvation (Romans 3:19-20) |
| COVENANTS | OLD COVENANTS | NEW COVENANT |
| Predicted the coming of a New Covenant that will restore God and humanity’s relationship (Jeremiah 31:31-34) | Jesus claimed that He is the New Covenant (Luke 22:20) and the book of Hebrews shines more light on what that means (Hebrews 8-10) | |
| Because sin introduced death into the world, a blood sacrifice from an animal was required to cover humanity's sin (Passover Lamb-Exodus 12; Ezra 6:20) | Jesus became the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world through the shedding of His blood (John 1:29) | |
| Multiple sacrifices were needed repeatedly, since sin was only covered temporarily (Leviticus 16:34) | One sacrifice from Jesus was all that was needed to cover our sins in totality (Hebrews 7, 9-10) | |
| A High Priest was needed as a mediator to God (Leviticus 16:32-33) | Jesus is the true High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16) | |
| High Priests were imperfect, in need of forgiveness first before conducting atonement for others (Leviticus 16:11) | Jesus was perfect, holy, blameless, unstained from sin (Hebrews 7:26-28) | |
| BLESSINGS | The Israelites were promised physical blessings under the Old Covenant (Deuteronomy 29:9) | All that choose to follow Christ are promised spiritual blessings under the New Covenant (Ephesians 1:3) |
| GOD’S PURPOSE | God communicated His purpose for His chosen people, the Israelites (Deuteronomy 29-30) | God communicated His purpose for His church, which includes anyone that believes in Jesus (Matthew 16:18) |
| Across the Old and New Testament God reveals His love for us and reveals how faith brings our right standing with Him (Genesis 15:6; Ephesians 2:8). | ||
THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT CONNECTION
While it’s easier, in hindsight, for us to see the connection between the Old and New Testament today, that hasn’t always been the case. Jesus took multiple opportunities with His disciples to make the connection between the Old and New Testament. He shared how to understand the Old Testament (Luke 24), how all Scripture points to Him (John 5:39), and how Jesus fulfilled everything spoken of in the Old Testament.
You see, many Jews in the New Testament weren’t expecting the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah to play out the way that they did and it was often fulfilled in a way no one expected (1 Peter 1:10-12). For example, many Jews were convinced that the Messiah was to be a strong warrior that would conquer Rome as King (John 6:14-15, Luke 24:21), but Jesus didn’t come to free the Jews from physical bondage, but to free all people from spiritual bondage through His humble death (Philippians 2:8).
Jesus continually explained who He was and His purpose through Scripture (the Old Testament). When we miss how Jesus connected Himself to the Old Testament we’ll end up misunderstanding Jesus and His claims. This can lead us to misinterpret His plan to save us through His grace as explained in Ephesians 2:8, “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God'' - and what a precious gift it is!
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