He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Luke 24:44 NIV
In Matthew 5:17, Jesus told his disciples that he had not come to abolish the Law and Prophets, but to fulfill them. Frequently throughout the rest of Matthew, we see Jesus fulfilling something that was foretold by one of the prophets. And here, after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, he reminds them again that he had come to fulfill the Law and Prophets. That his atoning death and resurrection had been foretold in the Scripture.
Today, our Bibles are neatly divided into two distinct parts. There is an Old Testament that primarily records God’s dealing with the people of Israel under the covenant established at Mt. Sinai. Following this is the New Testament, telling us about the life of Jesus and the early church. It is tempting to minimize the value of the Old Testament, seeing it as being replaced by the New.
A Consistent Story
But the Old Testament is not telling a different story than the New. And it was not replaced. Instead, the whole of the Bible tells us a consistent story from beginning to end. The Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms make up the entirety of the Jewish Scriptures. What Christians call the Old Testament. And they look forward to Jesus, what he did, and what he is yet to do. If you take the time to read the Old Testament, especially the Prophets, in light of Jesus’ fulfillment, they take on a whole new meaning. And it is much easier to see the consistent story that flows throughout all the pages of Scripture.
