Do Christians Have to Follow the Old Testament?

By Mark W. Christy, PhD, Pastor of MBC in Channelview, TX

Often times, people will ask about the application of the Old Testament to the life of the Christian today? Typically, they are speaking about the Mosaic Law in general and the Ten Commandments in particular. Before the time of Moses, no codified law was given after the initial fall of Adam and Eve who were given a specific command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17).

After Adam and Eve sinned, Paul declares that humanity was plunged into a state of utter sinfulness whereby their minds were darkened and they became unable to embrace the truth of God which can be found within their persons and exhibited throughout creation:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Rom 1:18-23).[i]

Given this state of humanity, God certainly could have simply chosen to annihilate the human race together with the rest of the created order. Instead (and as he had planned from the beginning) before even the first day mentioned in Genesis 1, He instituted a plan to redeem humanity from their fallenness (cf. Matt 25:34; Eph 1:4). His passion for the deliverance of fallen humanity is first witness in his confrontation of both Adam and Eve in the garden. During this moment, God sought out His offenders and lovingly confronted them. Then, He made clothes for them to cover their shameful nakedness. Finally, he pronounced a curse upon humanity (and Satan) that included (though vaguely) His divine plan of redemption:

“Because you {Satan} have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall [d]bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen 3:14-15).

This initial prophecy of the coming of Christ was followed by many others throughout the Old Testament. As time went on, the increasing number of prophecies gave an increasingly detailed view of the coming messiah.

Long before the coming of the promised redeemer, God also gives witness to how people are to respond to God so as to be saved. Among the many examples, God’s relationship with Abraham offers perhaps the most in-depth information on this subject. In this relationship, God Himself initiated the discourse and promised to greatly bless Abraham with many descendants despite his being childless in his old age. Despite the apparent absurdity of such a promise from a purely human perspective, Abraham believed God, and Scripture records that this act alone was credited to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6). His state of righteousness was achieved simply by his willingness to trust God.

While Abraham’s faithful response led to God’s saving act whereby He declared Abraham to be righteous and therefore saved from eternal separation from God, Abraham’s sin still remained unaddressed, and God, being absolutely holy, could not satiate His divine wrath against sin simply through a gracious declaration of forgiveness. Rather, sin had awakened His wrath and that wrath had to be born by humanity since humanity was the guilty party.

To reveal to humanity their state of utter sinfulness, the Lord commissioned Moses to deliver the law of God to the Israelites (cf. Gal 3:19). While the Israelites were blessed to experience many miracles of God especially early on, to receive God’s call to bear the responsibility of writing and keeping His Word, and ultimately with being the people from which the Promised Redeemer would come, they were also cursed when they placed themselves under the Law of Moses.

Under this law, blessings were only ensured so long as perfect obedience was maintained (Deut 27:26; 28:58-68; cf. Gal 3:10; James 2:10). Given the Israelites complete inability to perfectly follow the Mosaic law given their sinful precondition, Paul calls this law a ministry of death and condemnation (2 Cor 3:7-9). To put this another way, God’s blessing upon those who manifest obedience (from the heart) were stifled due to humanity’s persistent disobedience.

Nevertheless, God’s intentions behind the Mosaic law were a necessary part of His salvific revelation. Through this law, God reveals His absolute holiness and humanity corresponding absolute depravity (Rom 3:20). While God proves throughout particular instances in the Old Testament that He can indeed save people (like Abraham), the law makes it clear that no one can save themselves by their own attempts to manifest perfect holiness. By directly dealing with Israel, God also made initial provision for His ultimate saving work to be accomplished through Christ.

Through the work of Christ who perfectly obeyed God even when dying an unjust death, God made provision for a sinner who chooses to respond to Him in faith. Like Abraham, God expects people to respond to His act accomplished by Christ’s work and His call to repentance and faith in Christ. Those who respond in faith, like Abraham and many Old Testament saints (cf. Heb 11), will be saved from eternal death in hell.

Those who remain unrepentant and refuse to trust in Christ will remain in their sinful state whereby they alone will be responsible for their (lack of) holiness. Like the unrepentant Israelites, their only hope will be the false hope of believing that they can, by their own effort, maintain personal holiness so as to merit salvation whether they actively strive to obey the Mosaic law, some other religious law, and even their own personal standard of rightness.

Those who choose to repent and acknowledge their complete inability to be holy and instead put their trust in Christ who alone among men was able to perfectly obey the Father, merit His own salvation, and serve as a repository (upon the cross) for the pent up anger of God against the sinfulness of humanity will be made holy by God apart from the law. In other words, their holiness arises from God’s declaration (just like Abraham) and not by any work done on their part by following the Mosaic law or any other kind of law.

With this in view, Christians are caught up in a personal relationship with God. In a sense, they do not practice their faith by following written law at least in an impersonal sense. Given that the Mosaic law was given specifically to the Israelites for the purposes mentioned before and many of the laws related to temple worship that is no longer needed now that the Messiah has come, Christians have never been and will never be under this law. Rather, they serve under the God whose heart is revealed in this law. Therefore, the moral components of the law are still in effect and indeed can be found throughout the New Testament.

[i]All Scripture references are taken from NASB1995.