How important are the books of the Old Testament to believers?

How important are the books of the Old Testament to we who are under the new covenant of Grace in Christ Jesus? So important that our Saviour Jesus Christ taught from these books of “Moses and all the Prophets” on the same day of His resurrection! Remember the two despondent disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 - Cleopas and possibly Mrs. Cleopas? Their land was under Roman occupation. They were living under oppression. They were depressed because they thought that “the One about to deliver Israel” was gone forever. They did not know that the risen Christ was the One they were complaining to! Here's what Christ did as He walked with them:

“27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

The New Testament did not exist at this time. The Old Testament is filled with faith pictures that have as their substance our Saviour Jesus Christ and our life in Him. Christ expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Check out the result on Cleopas and his companion in verse 32: "And they said to one another, “Were not our hearts greatly moved and burning within us while He was talking with us on the road and as He opened and explained to us [the sense of] the Scriptures?"”

See how hearing Christ lifts one out of depression, building our faith aka “evidence of things not seen.” Remember “Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ.” The formerly despondent disciples came alive, no longer depressed, even though they were still under the oppressive regime of the Romans. Their outward circumstances had not changed yet, but their depression was no more, all from Christ expounding things about Himself from the Old Testament!

Christ took bread, “blessed and broke and gave it to them”(communion!) and THEN they recognized Him - another story on the power of communion here.🙂 They were strengthened to travel back all the way to Jerusalem on the same evening to share their experience with the other disciples. Jesus appeared to them there; check out what He did in verse 45 (MSG)-

“He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way.”

Seeing Christ in the Scriptures (Old Testament) sets our hearts on fire for Him. In the OT, we get to see how our love story with our Saviour begins and continues forever and how our salvation is entirely by Grace through faith. For example, see Christ in the love story of Isaac (a picture of Christ) and Rebekah (a picture of you and I in Christ, aka the bride of Christ.) Abraham (a picture of Almighty God, our Abba Father) sent his servant Eliezer (a picture of the Holy Spirit) to find and bring home a bride, Rebekah, for Isaac. It is no coincidence that the name of Abraham’s servant “Eliezer” means “My God is Help.” Christ describes the Holy Spirit as our Helper.

Also see our Saviour Jesus Christ in the story of Elijah praying down fire from heaven in 1 Kings 18. The fire of God’s judgment fell on the ox (a picture of Christ) and not on the people who had sinned and deserved to die. “All have sinned” and the wages of sin is death. The fiery anger of God’s wrath fell on Christ at the cross and not us who deserved it. Our sins were punished in His body, not ours. “He used His servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way.” 1 Peter 2:24 (MSG)

Also see another faith picture in the story of Abraham (a picture of Almighty God, our Abba Father) who was going to sacrifice his “only son” Isaac (a picture of Christ) as a burnt offering in Genesis 22. I grew up believing that the moral of this story is that we ought to be able to sacrifice anything for God but this story isn’t about us proving our love to God by human effort. It’s about how God so loved us that He gave His own Son as an atonement for our sins, as it is written in John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,...”

Verse 6 of the same chapter says “Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife.” This is a picture of our Saviour Jesus Christ carrying the cross all the way to Calvary where He became our burnt offering. God Almighty held nothing back. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says of Him “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

It’s no coincidence that Genesis 22 ends with an announcement of the birth of Rebekah, the bride of Isaac, aka the birth of the church after the death and resurrection of our Saviour Jesus. 

So many faith pictures depicting our Saviour Jesus and His love for us, from the love story of Ruth and Boaz to David slaying Goliath, one of my favorites.

Remember what Jesus did with the disciples in Luke 24:45- “He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way.” All from the Old Testament because the New Testament had not written. When you read your Bible, read through the lens of His grace. Every demand made by the law He has justified us from (Acts 13:38-39.) Every curse, even generational curses, He reversed when He hung on the cross for us (Gal. 3:13.) With His stripes that He bore, He paid in full the price for our wholeness.

He paid the price of our salvation in full. We can add nothing to it. 

Only believe