Most Christians have never read the bible. At best they have a cursory understanding of a few verses. Many Christians believe and quote things that aren’t even in the bible. Many Christians accept only the parts of the Bible that agree with their politics.
“God helps those who help themselves”
Poor Richard’s Almanac……..not the Bible.
In all fairness, the Bible is a big and complicated book. It is intimidating…….especially the old testament. So…….I am going to take the liberty of simplifying it. We have the old testament and the new testament. They are very different…….so much so that they seem like two different religions. I used to think of the old testament as plan A…….which failed and the new testament as God trying something new…….plan B. The problem is that this implies that God screwed up. This is hard to reconcile with a God who is independent of time……..who sees both past and future.
What was God thinking?
The Old Testament
I’ll start by cooking the old testament down to its essence. It contains a lot of history……looking back. It contains a lot of prophesy…….looking forward. In terms of how we should live…….it contains detailed instructions…….mind numbingly detailed instructions. Rule after rule after rule. And it says, bluntly, in black and white, that we can’t live up to them. So…..in terms of living our lives………what is the old testament saying?
The Cliff notes version:
You walked away from me, your God, and you are not capable of making your way back.
This is a critical lesson for us today. We cannot solve the big problem. Fact is, we cannot even solve most of the little problems.
The New Testament
Our only purpose is relationship……..specifically, relationship with God, our creator. That is the reason why we were created………the only reason. And the old testament spends over 1,000 pages telling us that we can’t pull it off. This is disheartening to say the least. So what does the new testament add? I used to think that it was a continuation of the same story…..a patch…….plan B. But now I see it as a contrasting plan………an entirely different plan. In the old testament, God showed us a plan……..a plan that was futile………and he knew it. I believe that he set the old testament up as a stark contrast to prepare us for the new testament. He gave us a good long hard look at failure…….our failure…….so that we would appreciate the success that was coming……his success.
The Cliff notes version:
You can do this……..accept me…….love me……and I will bring you home…….to me…….where you have always belonged.
The old testament…………you can’t.
The new testament………..God can.
So……..let him.
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Paul, ESV
I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Paul, ESV
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Paul, ESV