Someone inquires, “What is the importance of the Old Testament.” Truly, where should I begin?
As the Bible opens with the Book of Genesis, one learns about the creation of the universe and everything in it, with a special notice of the origin of the human race. The very first verse of the Bible introduces God as the source of everything except Himself.
From the Old Testament we learn about the existence of divine law and the consequences of disobeying it. We have in the Old Testament the history of the human race for about the first 4,000 years. The blood-red strand woven throughout the Old Testament and in to the New Testament pertains to the blood-sacrifice of the second person of the Godhead for the redemption of sinful mortals. Particularly in the Old Testament one finds hundreds of prophecies concerning that Redeemer – better known to us as Jesus Christ; all of those prophecies were fulfilled in the first century, and we can read about their fulfillment in Jesus Christ upon the pages of the New Testament.
The Old Testament details a preparatory time during two divinely-given law systems (i.e., Patriarchy and Judaism, Galatians 3:23-25; Ephesians 3:3-4). Finally, at just the right time in God’s master plan for redeeming mankind, God sent Jesus Christ into the world (Galatians 4:4-5). We would understand little to none of all the preparing of mankind God did throughout the ages or that our Lord was the precise fulfillment of all those Old Testament prophecies; prophecy and fulfillment is a crucial proof of the identity of Jesus Christ as the instrument of man’s salvation.
The Old Testament is the foundation on which the New Testament superstructure rests. So much of the New Testament corresponds to, refers to or quotes from the Old Testament that if the Old Testament references were removed from the New Testament, not much of the New Testament would remain, and certainly what did remain would be unintelligible.
The Old Testament is no longer the law of God to which mankind turns today for instruction (Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14; Romans 7:6-7), but it is invaluable to we who live under Christianity today. “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4 NKJV).
