For two years, part of my job at Concordia Lutheran Church,
San Antonio, Texas was writing a daily commentary on one or two chapters of the
Old Testament. This commentary was
intended to aid people who were following the “Word for Today” Bible reading
plan on the church’s website. In
addition to being a great challenge, this task also proved to be a great
blessing to me personally in my own faith life.
Naturally, being a pastor I had read and studied the Old Testament both
in the seminary and in the ministry, as I preached and taught Bible
classes. But it had been a long time
since I had poured over the entire Old Testament in such a relatively short
period of time, and I had never done so while charged with the responsibility
of helping other believers understand this sometimes complex, sometimes
confusing collection of sacred writing.
Still, my consideration of the Old Testament might well have ended when
I wrote my final commentary on Malachi chapter 4, had it not been for an
episode in my Interactive Adult Bible Class one Sunday morning.
I was leading my class through the book of Romans and
chapter 3 was the subject of our attention. This is a very familiar section of
Scripture to me, since I had previously coauthored a book based (in part) on Paul’s
letter to the Romans entitled, The Goal
of the Gospel: God’s Purpose in Saving You.
You know what it’s like when you’re reading again a very familiar part
of the Bible. It’s like an old friend,
comfortable and comforting. As you begin
reading, all of the truths you’ve previously acquired from it flood your heart
and mind. You delight in its memorable
treasures, but you really don’t expect to find anything new. Then, just when you least expect it, God
assaults your heart and mind with a new insight that had previously escaped your
attention (or perhaps had been previously learned but long forgotten). That’s what happened to me that day in Bible
class.
Romans 3:21 says: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from
law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.” The righteousness to which Paul refers here
is the righteousness of faith. “This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe”
(Romans 3:22). Paul is highlighting the
central doctrine of the Christian faith, that is, justification by grace
through faith. This most precious truth
teaches us that we are saved from sin not by trying hard to overcome it, but
solely by the grace of God through the saving work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It was He alone who lived a
sinless life in this sinful world. It
was He alone who loved you and me enough to lay down that life as the perfect
sacrifice for all our sins. It is by
faith in Him alone that His righteousness is credited to you and me, and we
become righteous in God’s sight. It is
only by His glorious resurrection victory that His sacrifice is accredited as
all sufficient, and we are allowed to share in His victory over sin, death and
hell. This overwhelming truth about
God’s grace at work to save us is declared over and over again throughout the
New Testament. It is the hope of every
true Christian for life everlasting.
There’s nothing new here, right?
What struck me that
morning in Bible class, however, was not the central truth of the Good News of
salvation by grace. What jumped out and
assaulted me was the phrase, “to which the Law and the Prophets testify.” The words “the Law and the Prophets” are New
Testament shorthand for the complete Old Testament. This expression was Paul’s way of
encompassing God’s entire revelation from Genesis to Malachi in five simple
words. The word “testify” is the Greek
word “martyreo” which means to bear witness to the truth to or to speak
well of someone. Suddenly it occurred to
me that the Old Testament bears witness to the truth of the righteousness of
faith, or salvation by grace. At the
same time, the word “testify” spoke even more powerfully to assure me that the
Old Testament speaks well of the grace of God, and for that matter, of the God
of grace.
This was especially
significant to me because of the interest I have in apologetics. Having read several books by “the New Atheists,”
as they are sometimes referred to, clearly the witness that men like Richard
Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Denning bear against the God of the
Old Testament is anything but positive. In his book, Is God a Moral Monster?
Paul Copan described their testimony in this way: “The New Atheists
commonly raise questions about strange and harsh Old Testament laws, a God of
jealousy and anger, slavery, and the killing of the Canaanites—and that’s just
the beginning of the list.” Just the beginning, indeed! One of Richard Dawkins most famous quotes
describes God in the following terms.
The God of the Old Testament is
arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it;
a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic
cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic,
racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic,
capriciously malevolent bully.
Those venomous words definitely do not speak well of God’s
character, as the prophets who wrote the Old Testament bore witness to it. But it’s not only the New Atheists who
sometimes mischaracterize the nature of God as revealed by the Law and the
Prophets. Many Christians would freely
express their understanding of God’s Word something like this: “The God of the Old Testament is a God of
wrath while the God of the New Testament is a God of love.” This misunderstanding is similar to the error
that befalls many Christians who think the Old Testament equals “Law” while the
New Testament equals “Gospel.”
As I thought about Paul’s words, “to which the Law and the
Prophets testify,” I began to recall various Old Testament verses and accounts
that spoke of God’s grace and the righteousness of faith. Passage after passage flooded my mind, and it
struck me that these verses provided a very different picture of the God of the
Old Testament than the one many people had.
This was not a vengeful, wrath-filled tyrant, but a loving, gracious God
who longed to do good for His people, and to live in close fellowship with
them.
Over the next few months I hope to share some of those grace filled Old Testament passages with you. Please check back regularly to continue this journey through "Prophetic Grace."
Copyright by the Author.
Copyright by the Author.
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