The Old Gospel

The gospel that we believe, that good news that Christ and his apostles proclaimed, was not a new gospel but was old, “promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy scriptures” Rom 1:1. Balaam prophesies that a “star will come out of Jacob; a sceptre will rise out of Israel.” Num 24:17 and in Jeremiah the Lord proclaims “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant…it will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers….because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them…I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people….For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jer 31:31-34. Isiah 53 tells us how this new covenant will come about “ he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,…and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” Isa 53:5-6.

It is worth noting the importance of the old testament scriptures, many of the writers of the new testament refer to the old to give their arguments power; Does this mean that the old testament is more important than the new testament? I would say no, but one thing that can not be said is that the old testament is meaningless since we are under the new covenant of Christ’s blood. Indeed some of Paul’s first words in the book of Romans appeal to the old testament, referring to them as “Holy Scriptures”, to show the foreknowledge and the enduring nature of the love of God.