As a preparatory covenant, the law has fulfilled its original purpose. We fulfill that purpose by following the Messiah for whom the law prepared. We honor the law’s goodness by obeying its enduring principles that pre- dated Moses and that Christ has brought into His New Covenant.
We fulfill the law’s purpose by following the Messiah.
Like Jesus, the early church revered the entire Old Testament, and so should we. New Testament writers continually quoted from the Old Testament. “The sacred writings” known by Timothy in his childhood were the Old Testament books. They, as the larger portion of “all Scripture” (which in Paul’s and Peter’s letters include New Testament writings), come from God and train for the godly life.
…from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
The Old Testament remains integral to the life of every Christian. What, then, is our relationship to it?