Not one Iota

Often, I hear people give reasons why we should consider the Old Testament just as valid as the New Testament, but one seems to come up more often than others.

 In Chapters 5-7, Matthew gives the account of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, which reads like the greatest Sermon ever given. In it, Jesus admonishes us, corrects us, and gives us hope while telling us not only how to act, but how to think and pray. Jesus, in this sermon, is giving us an entirely new attitude towards life. Getting back to the original point of this post though, one verse seems to be quoted particularly in respect to the debate over whether or not to accept blindly the Old Testament.

In 5:17-18, Jesus says "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled."

To me, it is a shame to take any verse out of the context of this sermon, even if these verses seem pretty clear. Indeed, even if we read a little further down, we see that Jesus says that anyone who breaks the least of the commandments will be called least in the Kingdom of God. This is serious stuff. We cannot simply overlook something like this.

OK, but lets put this section in the proper context now. In the previous section, Jesus tells us to be the salt and the light of the world. He tells us both not to lose our saltiness, but neither should we stay hidden. We should be both influentially different from the world, yet still a part of it.

At this point, if I was in Jesus' original audience, I am sure I'd be confused. I'm told to be different from the world, but I'm not supposed to be seperate from the world. How am I supposed to do that? How can I accomplish two things that seem so contradictory?

Jesus follows this up with the section already described. He says the Law will not disappear. He has come to fulfill what the Law and the Prophets have said. He also says this: "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

So now we see how to be the salt that does not lose our saltiness. Jesus says that we should follow the morality laid out for us by God. Yet, Jesus goes beyond this. He follows this section with section after section after section ripping apart the traditions and misinterpretations of the Law. Instead of simply not murdering, he says we should not even insult each other in anger. Instead of simply not commiting adultery, we are to keep our minds entirely clean. Instead of simply following the rules of divorce, we are to deem marriage as holy and sacred. Instead of merely keeping our word under oath, we should keep our word all the time. Instead of "and eye for an eye", we should "give to the one that asks you". Instead of simply loving our neighbors, we should love our enemies too. Jesus over and over emphasizes this attitude toward morality, and in doing so gives us an incredibly thorough view of how to live our lives. In effect, he is showing us how to be the light that is not hidden.

So the point of Jesus saying that the Law was to stay intact was not to say that everything in the Old Testament was perfect and hunky-dory. What he was saying was that the morality that people had come to know at that time would not be loosened by Jesus' coming. It would not get one iota easier. In fact, Jesus goes on to say that the Law is not the deciding factor. What is moral is the deciding factor. This implies some sort of Moral Law above the Old Testament.

So where does that leave us in regards to the Old Testament. Well, in effect, we should realize that the Old Testament was an inperfect approximation of the Moral Law. Isn't that the obvious interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus says the Ancient Hebrews didn't get it all right, or even very close by the sounds of it. So instead of following the morality of the Old Testament, shouldn't we be attempting instead to follow the real Moral Law, God's will?

This is not a plug for moral relativism. If Jesus, and His Sermon on the Mount, tells us anything, is that there is in fact Truth and a Right and Wrong way to live. More than anything, he not only tells us there is a Right way, but we're doing it the Wrong way. Morality isn't merely about actions, because good works for the wrong reason is merely prideful and self righteous. Morality is about the attitudes and desires of the heart, and when those are aligned with God's, the actions will follow.

If we are to believe in an absolute, unchanging Morality, though, which we do if we believe in an absolute God with an unchangingly good character and believe that morality comes down directly from that character, then we have to realize that much of the Old Testament is in direct conflict with morality, whether it's always been like that or years of oral tradition, written mistakes, and mistranslation are the cause. Maybe the Bible was perfect once, but with our modern understanding of it, translation of it, and study of it, we as Christians cannot condone the Old Testament acts of murder and genocide. We cannot believe that a god that sends evil spirits among men is a just or good god, and I do not capitalize this because I do not believe God could be this god. Furthermore, can we believe God would tell us He is the bringer of good and evil alike (Isaiah 45:7)? Is God really suprised by mankind's transgressions in the story of Noah or is He really threatened by the feeble attempts of man in the story of Babel? Is the god who condones the murder of the Cananites the same as the Jesus who says to love your enemies? Is the god who hardens hearts the same as the God who is just and merciful? I will not be ashamed to give a resounding No to these questions. I know the God I trust, and He is Loving, Merciful, Just, Holy, Totally Blameless, Omnipotent, Self-sacrificial, and Good! The god of the Old Testament is few of these traits at one time.

It is important that we make a decision on this important topic. Not because of the possibility for relativism, but because it totally alters which God we worship. I choose the Triune God that Jesus Christ describes and is.