Dividing the Testaments

...rightly dividing the word of truth. – 2Ti 2:15

If I told you that I had dinner just yesterday with the president, the most natural question that would come next from you would be, “Which president?”

However, if I were the secretary of the Association of Women Metallurgists in Industry (it’s a thing, really), you’re likely to assume I was referring to the “comrade” and not to “his excellency”.

This is an important aspect of scrupulous Bible study. The meaning of a Bible term must be what it means to the person that spoke it. This is most certainly pertinent with respect to the term “Testament.” What our Lord, Paul and the book of Hebrews call “New Testament” (Mat 26:28; 2Co 3:6; Heb 9:15, etc.) was not a collection of books (they were not even in existence at that time); nor was “Old Testament” a reference to a time period that those who preceded them lived in.

“Testament” in Bible usage refers to covenants God had with man; most notably the “old testament” – the one He had with the Jewish people through Moses (Ex 24:3-11; Heb 8:9) – and the “new testament” – the covenant He made with us through the sacrificial death of Christ (Lk 22:20; 1Co 11:25).

Each covenant has its unique requirements, blessings and paradigms and one cannot be used for the other. For example, the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 cannot be applied to a Believer today because those blessings come with a caveat (“If you shall observe and to do all his commandments which I command you this day…”) which the Believer obviously cannot keep. However, Heb 8:6 tells us that Christ is for us “the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. This means that, rather than gawk at the blessings (and curses) given to the Jews under their own covenant in Deuteronomy 28, I should read that same passage to get a fuller appreciation of the blessings I have in Christ. They may be blessed in their “going out and coming in”, I am blessed, period! (Eph 1:3). While the LORD shall command the blessing upon them in their storehouses after they obeyed, the LORD has already commanded the blessing upon me in my storehouses because of the obedience of Christ (Rom 5:19); etc.

While “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” (2Ti 3:16), all scriptures were not written for everyone to apply carte blanche. Rom 3:19 says, “Whatsoever things the law says, it says to them who are under the law.” Conversely, whatsoever is written under the New Testament, were written to you and I who are living under the New Testament  

It’s only in rightly dividing the testaments can we truly get the blessings and power out of the riches that they contain.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN