“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” – Luke 24:25-26
Jesus clearly stated that His earthly ministry was to fulfill all of the Old Testament promises and longings that pointed to Him. Consequently, it is impossible to be a faithful Christian and not fully embrace the Old Testament as God’s Word. Occasionally, someone will claim to be a Christian yet not embrace all of the Old Testament. One example is an ancient heretic (false teacher) named Marcion. He said that the Old Testament was, in fact, a far lesser book than the New Testament and encouraged Christians to remove it from their Bible. Unlike Marcion, however, Jesus clearly accepted and taught the Old Testament as sacred Scripture without reservation. Here are five reasons to trust the Old Testament Scriptures He taught.
First, the parts of the Old Testament that are most commonly rejected as erroneous are also those sections of Scripture that Jesus clearly taught. This includes the literalness of Genesis 1-2 (Matt. 19:4–5; Mark 10:6–8), Cain and the murder of Abel (Matt. 23:35; Luke 11:51), Noah and the flood (Matt. 24:37–39; Luke 17:26–27), Abraham (John 8:56), Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt. 10:15, 11:23–24; Luke 10:12; 17:29), Lot (Luke 17:28–32), Isaac and Jacob (Matt. 8:11; Luke 13:28), the manna (John 6:31, 49, 58), the wilderness serpent (John 3:14), Moses as lawgiver (Matt. 8:4, 19:8; Mark 1:44, 7:10, 10:5, 12:26; Luke 5:14, 20:37; John 5:46, 7:19), the popularity of the false prophets (Luke 6:26), and Jonah in the belly of a great fish (Matt. 12:40).
Second, in matters of controversy, Jesus used the Old Testament as His court of appeals (Matt. 5:17–20, 22:29, 23:23; Mark 12:24). On many occasions, when an Old Testament teaching was questioned, Jesus simply believed the clear teaching of Old Testament Scripture and defended Himself by saying, “It is written” (Matt. 4:4,6,10, 11:10, 21:13, 26:24,31; Mark 1:2, 7:6, 9:12ff., 11:17, 14:21,27; Luke 2:23, 4:4,8,10,17, 7:27, 10:26, 19:46, 22:37; John 2:17, 6:31,45, 8:17, 10:34).
Third, in times of crisis, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament, indicating that it was His source of truth, solace, and defense. For example, when tempted by Satan, Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy (Matt. 4:1–11, cf. Deut. 8:3; Deut. 6:13,16). At the moment of His death, Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 [cf. Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34], saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And breathing His last in Luke 23:46, Jesus quoted Psalm 31:5, saying, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Fourth, Jesus repeatedly taught that Old Testament prophecy had been fulfilled (Matt. 11:10, cf. Luke 7:27; Matt. 26:24,31, cf. Mark 14:27; Matt. 26:53–56, cf. Mark 14:49; Mark 9:12–13, 14:21; Luke 4:21, 18:31–33, 21:22, 22:37, 24:25–27, 24:44–47; John 5:39–47; John 13:18, cf. Ps. 41:9; John 15:25, cf. Ps. 35:19; John 17:12).
Fifth, Jesus named the authors of some Old Testament books. Some of the most common critiques launched at the Old Testament are in regard to authorship. For example, many Old Testament “scholars” boldly claim that Moses did not pen any of the first five books of the Old Testament, or that two or three authors penned Isaiah—none of whom was actually Isaiah. But Jesus taught that Scripture was authored by Moses (Mark 7:10), Isaiah (Matt. 13:14; Mark 7:6), David (Mark 12:36), and Daniel (Matt. 24:15).
Subsequently, we must either accept Rabbi Jesus as our most trustworthy Old Testament teacher or confess that he was a poor Bible teacher who made errors—and in turn elevate some other teacher over Him that we trust more fully. If it isn’t obvious already, I would you say you should side with Rabbi Jesus over any other human teacher.
In tomorrow’s devotional, we will examine how God speaks to us.
Are there parts of the Old Testament that you are hesitant to believe or accept?
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