Old Testament - abolished or fulfilled?

The Old Testament and the Old Covenant are not the same thing. The Old Testament contains the old covenant, but the Old Testament is not only the old covenant. The Old Testament contains the creation story, the protoevangelium, or the declaration of grace in the Garden of Eden, the story of Noah and the covenant with him, promising a common grace to all humans, the election of Abraham, the covenant of grace with him, the history of Israel and the Jews, the prophecies about Israel and the Jews, and the new covenant that would be instituted by the death of Jesus and the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament contains more than one covenant. One of them is the Mosaic Covenant, which we often call the Old Covenant.

 

So, when we discuss whether the Old Covenant has passed away, we are not meaning in any way that the Old Testament is cancelled. The Old Testament as well as the New Testament are the scriptures of God. All scriptures are God’s infallible and inerrant word. So, they are the final authority on all matters that concern God’s redemptive plan and purpose. All the Old Testament scriptures are progressive divine revelations, and they are pedagogical for believers in Jesus Christ.

Old Testament and the New Testament

The Christian Bible is one book that has two parts. These two parts are called the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word "testament" comes from the Latin word "testamentum,"  which means "covenant" or "agreement." In the Bible, it refers to the covenant between God and man. The Old Testament is the first part of the Bible and is made up of 39 books. The New Testament is the second part of the Bible and is made up of 27 books. Together, these two testaments contain 66 books and are a literary unity.

 

The unity of the Bible is that it has a single storyline and a unified and cohesive plot. The whole story is about the redemption of humankind, progressively revealed through three stages: the fall, redemption, and consummation.

 

Old Testament

 

The Old Testament, which is the sacred scriptures of the Jewish faith, is traditionally divided into three different sections: the Torah, the Nevi’im, and the Ketuvim. They are the law or pentateuch, prophets, and writings.