"The Old Testament way of life doesn't apply to us anymore. When Jesus came he ushered in a new way to live. God is also different between the OT and NT; you can see him being more loving, because of Jesus dying for our sins."
This isn't all that true. This is our perspective for the most part, because this has been the general feel from pastors to seasoned christians, however, each one of those statements falls short.
Church Socialist gets its tune from Acts, but also from Deuteronomy. It gets its heart from the life Jesus lived, but also very much inspired from Isaiah. This is because the Old Testament shapes the New Testament; we need both. "Old" shouldn't be seen in the context of "obsolete" with "New" meaning "replacement,"although, the New Testament does thankfully replace a lot, but it should be interpreted as "1st part and 2nd part."
Pre-New Testament Early Church
When it comes to the Old Testament I know I personally can get caught up and bored with the lineages, laws, really deep history, and what feels like stories that have no point other than being a story. What's interesting to think about, though, is Jesus tried to show the scriptures in a different light to the people and, obviously, the New Testament wasn't around yet so all his teaching that we love, actually, comes from the OT. When Jesus was crucified, resurrected, ate with the disciples, then ascended, and left them the Spirit, they didn't have the NT letters yet to get encouragement. They couldn't look over 1 Peter and Galatians to see what Jesus meant or get direction from Romans and James, they had what they learned from Jesus, the Spirit, and the Old Testament.
If we only focus on the New Testament we'll see how Jesus and the church lived and we can try to imitate them, but we won't understand God's overall redemptive plan without the Old. It'll be like buying furniture for a house without ever knowing the layout or in sports when you only know your role and don't understand how it fits in the whole play. The New Testament doesn't push out the OT out of the way, but fits inside of it; if we don't look at the 2nd part through the 1st part then we'll only know the climax to the story without understanding how it got there.
In a Gospel Coalition article, author Matt Smethurst, brings up the difference between looking for Jesus in the Old Testament vs comparing Jesus and Old Testament heroes: "Jesus is YHWH (John 1:23; Rom. 10:13, etc.). Therefore, he’s not merely a Moses figure, but the one in whose name Moses spoke throughout Deuteronomy and who inspired all his utterances." Why this matters is because it shows that Jesus isn't separate from the OT and becoming man doesn't bring an end to the OT narrative, but adds to it. The heart of Jesus can be seen all throughout the old books, because he essentially wrote them and the New Testament is he himself living it out to help us with a visual. (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/slow-down-a-different-perspective-on-christ-in-the-old-testament/)
However, I don't only believe it's vital that we see that the Old Testament is necessary to properly read the New Testament, but that we also see how it applies to us today. In the Old Testament, especially Deuteronomy, we can find the blueprint for how the church can live as a society, foreshadowing the coming city of God.
God's Blueprints
The USA goes back and forth on whether it was a Christian nation or not (a lot) and it's a good argument, but when the Founders constructed our government and tried placing some foundation down for society and culture they didn't only use the Greek and Roman concept of a Republic or different political philosophers like John Locke and Rousseau, but also the book of Deuteronomy; the book of Deuteronomy breaks down how Israel was to live as an organized people group. The overall vision for Israel in the book of Deuteronomy, and the whole Old Testament, is supposed to be a nation that stands out to the world, because of the way they are living. And when someone asks why they are thriving or surviving their answer is: "the God of Israel." Even when they didn't have their own land to call theirs, they were to still live within God's code--similar to the church.
We know that Jesus came to fulfill the law, not abolish it, but we live like "fulfills" means abolish. What Jesus did was more than just stand in for us and take our sins, in fact that's only a piece of why Jesus died. Our obsession with our individual sins being forgiven has consumed our entire view of the gospel, causing western christianity to limp along. Jesus didn't only die for us, but he lived out for us. Yes, we do have WWJD to help us think how would Jesus live, but similar to the crucifixion, we're trapped in an individualistic perspective so we only think how can I, only myself, live like Jesus. God doesn't only love it when we individually live out what he asks, but he loves when his people function as a whole too.
Through the Old Testament we see how a society is supposed to live and when Jesus came he showed how each of us can do our part in that kingdom-culture. In a Crossway article pastor Matthew Patton mentions how the book Deuteronomy gives us "guidance for how to live in light of our new redeemed identity" and "the largest section of Deuteronomy (Deut. 12–26) gives unparalleled wisdom about how to love God and neighbor with all that we are." (https://www.crossway.org/articles/why-study-the-book-of-deuteronomy/)
If we want to transform our neighborhoods and cities the best we can, we need to share both the gospels and the Old Testament blueprint.
More Reading: All For One
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