The New Testament Versus The Old
Hi Mike,
I was reading through the Law paper again, and I had a thought on some of these differences. My observation is that I see clearer and clearer just how different the two laws are. My question is this. When you read through the laws and concepts of the Old, you always read stuff like: ‘You will blessed for your obedience and cursed for disobedience.’ People who had leprosy were usually counted as smitten of God for some reason. When you get to the new and read the parables of the good Samaritan or Lazarus and the rich man, the complete opposite concept is being taught. Here is a person that needs help and the Pharisee walks right by. I know the parable means to view everyone as your neighbor, and in Lazarus and the rich man it means the kingdom will be taken from you and given to the Gentiles. The part I am having trouble with is the concept of the rich man going to hades and the poor man going to Abraham. This is a completely different concept from the old testament by being blessed and increased in wealth for obedience. I really could not place any blame on the Pharisees for not understanding this. The whole old testament law says just the opposite of what Jesus was saying in these parables. What is the meaning behind that? I mean it’s like when Jesus returns is he going to change everything we know and are taught now to something else? If he is I would probably be as dumb- founded as the Pharisees are. Imagine that when Christ returns he is actually preaching a different message than what we know. Would it not be hard to accept that? Isn’t this the same concept that Israel went through when he reformed their law? I hope you understand my point.
God Bless,
M____
Hi M____,
It is good that you are taking the time to read that law paper again.
Thank you for your questions.
You ask:
The whole Old Testament law says just the opposite of what Jesus was saying in these parables. What is the meaning behind that?
You also ask,
If [ Christ is going to change everything we have been taught], I would probably be as dumb- founded as the Pharisees are. Imagine that when Christ returns he is actually preaching a different message than what we know. Wouldn’t it not be hard to accept that? Isn’t this the same concept that Israel went through when He reformed their law?
Yes, that is exactly what Israel went through when He reformed their law, and yes, Christ will certainly be “preaching a different message than what we know” if we are orthodox Christians. But it is not a different message than the one that was taught from the very beginning.
Israel was told that God intended to send them a reformer like Moses. What Moses did was just as radical for that time as what Christ did in His time. What was lawful before Moses was not lawful after Moses. Abraham and any of the patriarchs could build an altar and offer an offering anywhere. After Moses, that was illegal and the offerings all had to be done through the priests at the tabernacle and the temple respectively. That is but one of many changes which Moses made, and God told Israel plainly that another reformer was coming.
Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
From the beginning God told Eve that her desire would be against her husband, but her husband would rule over her. In the very next chapter Christ is telling Cain that sin is at the door, but Cain will in the end rule over sin.
Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [ Hebrew, against] thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Gen 4:6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto [ Hebrew, against] thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Here we have, for those with eyes that see and ears that hear, the promise of universal salvation at the very beginning. Eve’s submission to Christ, and sin’s submission to Cain, are both symbols of the deliverance of us all from the rebellion against our Creator into which we are born.
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make [ it].
The calling of Seth’s children before the flood, culminating in the few (“eight souls”) who were saved by the ark, and the calling of Abraham’s seed, Israel, after the flood, culminating in merely 120 people being in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, and very few being chosen out of every generation since Christ, all tells us that God is choosing very few in this life, and that He will use those few to bring to him very many in the next life.
Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
While it is true that Christ chastened the Pharisees for their blindness, and while it is true that we will all “reap what we sow,” and “give an accounting of our stewardship, it is nevertheless true that God never intended for the multitudes who came to Christ to see and hear the Truth. It was their calling to crucify Him. They were never intended to believe in Him. They were intended by God Himself to reject and kill Him so you and I could have a savior. It was all by God’s hand and by God’s counsel.
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Act 4:25 Who [ God] by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Act 4:29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
Verses 25-26 in Act 4 are quoted out of Psa 2:1-2.
Psa 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psa 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, [ saying],
Now look at what Christ told the men on the road to Emmaus:
Luk 24:25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
Luk 24:26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
Luk 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
“Moses and all the prophets” is all of the scriptures. They are all expounding “the things concerning Christ” for those whose eyes are opened to know Him.
Luk 24:30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed [ it], and brake, and gave to them.
Luk 24:31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
Luk 24:32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
No one will ever know Christ without first “sitting at meat with Him” and spending time in His Word and learning from Him how to rightly divide His Word. That is how “He opens to us the scriptures.”
2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Until that day arrives, we can be walking with Christ and His Christ and not recognize Him until the appointed time for us to see and know Him.
Luk 24:16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
When we do finally come to know Him, only then will we realize that He is still here with us “in the flesh” of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are faithful to and obedient to His Words.
Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.
1Jn 4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
1Jn 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
The entire orthodox Christian world fails to see what is being said in these two verses of God’s Word. John is saying here what Paul said in Act 2:28. Those who fail to see Christ in “the least of these my brothers,” do not know Christ.
Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth [ his] sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [ thee]? or thirsty, and gave [ thee] drink?
Mat 25:38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took [ thee] in? or naked, and clothed [ thee]?
Mat 25:39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Mat 25:42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
Mat 25:43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Mat 25:44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did [ it] not to one of the least of these, ye did [ it] not to me.
Mat 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
“The least of these my brothers” is “specially them that believe”, but it is also “all men… the whole world.” “The least of these my brothers” is all who we ever meet or with whom we are placed in contact. God’s elect consider all men to be their neighbors, their brothers and sons of God.
Gal 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
None of this is familiar to the modern day Pharisees for the reason given in this verse of Isaiah.
Isa 3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
The Old Testament Law says the exact opposite of the New Testament only in letter, and yet that is what it was to those who lived in Old Testament times. When God said “Leave nothing alive that breatheth” that was what He physically meant at that time. But when Christ came and opened our eyes to be able to “compare spiritual things with spiritual, what was “said of old time” was changed. Now we understand that “the kingdom of God is within you.” and “Leave nothing alive that breathes” in that kingdom is also within. We no longer hate our outward enemy, but we “Leave nothing alive that breaths” within.
I hope this helps you to understand why the Pharisees of Christ’s time could not see the things of the spirit.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [ them], because they are spiritually discerned.
Christ deliberately “spoke in words which man’s wisdom could not understand.” “There is a change also of the Law”, but that reformation was ordained and prophesied from thebeginning by our Lord who had both dispensations planned from the beginning. He blinds mankind to what He is doing, but He never does change.
Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Rom 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
It is all for this reason:
Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
And so we, with Paul can exclaim:
Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom [ be] glory for ever. Amen.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike
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