What is the difference between the Old and New Testaments?
Christians read one Bible in two parts, and the two parts do not read alike: the first moves toward a promised Person, the second announces He has come. The differences are real — law and grace, shadow and substance, an earthly people and a heavenly one — yet commentators insist the two volumes are one book, held together by one Person.
One Book, One Centre
The distinction between the Testaments is not a break between two religions. What was dim in the earlier volume becomes clear in the later, because the light itself arrived.
William KellyHere what was once relatively obscure is set in the light, for Christ is the true light. He who was once dimly discerned now stands fully revealed, and so He lights up what once seemed dark... There is the Old Testament; there is also what is called the New Testament... Together they make up the Bible, whose unity turns on Christ — once promised, now come, and, after finishing His work on earth, exalted at God's right hand in heaven.
Picture and Reality
Much of the Old Testament works by image — sacrifices, a tabernacle, a priesthood — and those images are not decoration. They are drawings of something that later arrives in person.
C. KnappThe Old Testament is like a great picture book. In the New Testament we have the living realities of all those pictures. It is a book of types and shadows. The New Testament contains the fulfilment and substance of these types and shadows. So what is folded up in the Old Testament is unfolded in the New.
That means the reading runs both ways. One writer points out that the later volume is what lets you interpret the earlier one properly:
W. T. P. WolstonYou will find that the Old Testament Scriptures are in full agreement with what we call the New Testament, while the New Testament throws great light on the Old. The New Testament, rightly understood, throws a wonderful light on what God has given us in figure, type, and shadow in the Old Testament.
Government and Grace — and God Himself Revealed
The deepest difference is not in subject matter but in how near God comes. In the first volume God sends messages; in the second He steps out from behind the curtain.
Walter ScottThe Old Testament is the record of God's actions in government; the New Testament unfolds God's ways in grace. In the Old we have revelations from God; in the New we have God Himself revealed. In the Old the veil is unrent — that is, God in light and man in darkness, morally apart; in the New the veil is torn — that is, God is revealed, and man is brought near to God... the higher title of Father brings us into a closeness and communion with God completely unknown to the saints, patriarchs, or prophets of old.
That shift also changes what sin is shown to cost. One writer notes that Israel's story mostly displays God's dealings within history, while the later volume opens up something further:
F. B. HoleThe New Testament brings into view the eternal consequences of sin, and the way every individual soul is subject to God's judgment and to wrath from heaven. From that wrath we are saved.
Demand and Supply
The old covenant and the new are not two versions of the same arrangement. They rest on opposite foundations — one on what man owes, the other on what God gives.
Greg QuailThe new covenant is set in contrast with the old. It is set in contrast with the law. The law — the old covenant — was based on two words: "You shall." The new covenant is also based on two words: "I will." Under the old covenant it was demand. Under the new it is supply.
Commentators are careful here about who the new covenant was actually promised to. Its wording names Israel, yet Christians are said to stand on its ground:
J. Wilson SmithThe old was legal, and dealt with man on the ground of responsibility; the new is of grace, and takes up man's cause as he is — guilty and without strength... although the new covenant is not in fact made with Christians, yet the old covenant, as a compact, has passed away, and we stand before God on the ground of the new — that is, on the ground of grace.
Two Different People in View
Finally, the two volumes look at different companies. This is why so much of the Old Testament concerns one nation, land, and throne.
William KellyThe Old Testament looks at man in the flesh — the Jew and the Gentile. The New Testament looks at those called out from Jew and Gentile — the church of God.
Summary
- One Book. The two Testaments are not rivals; their "unity turns on Christ — once promised, now come."
- Folded, then unfolded. The Old gives pictures, types and shadows; the New gives the living realities they pointed to.
- Distance, then nearness. In the Old the veil hangs unrent and God sends revelations; in the New the veil is torn and God Himself is revealed as Father.
- Demand, then supply. The old covenant says "You shall"; the new says "I will" — responsibility replaced by grace to the guilty and helpless.
- A nation, then a called-out people. The Old views man in the flesh, Jew and Gentile; the New views those called out of both into the church of God.