Testaments and God's word.

Testaments and God's word.
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Some people think that it is enough to read the New Testament  to know God fully. 

They forget that at time of Jesus,  Scripture referred only to the  Old Testament.

Jesus is the Hero of the Bible,  which includes both the Testaments.

At the time of Jesus the New Testament was yet to be written, to be written after His ascension into Heaven.

As it deals with the life and teachings of Jesus it had to be written after His death. 

As Jesus is our Saviour and as we have to live by His teaching we read the New Testament, leaving the Old to Bible scholars.

But we should not forget that Old Testament also is  the word of God as is the  New.

When Jesus said, "The words of scripture have binding force." (John. 10:35),  He referred to the  Old Testament.

He insisted that the Scripture, by which He meant Old Testament, spoke about Himself.

  “You search the Scriptures,” He told the Pharisees, “because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me”(John. 5:39).

The importance He gave to Old Testament can be inferred from His conversation  with His disciples who were going to 'Emmaus' after His death, without knowing that He had risen to life.

He began “with Moses and all the prophets” and “interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Lk. 24:27).

Old Testament was a preparation for the New Testament.

It  testified  to Jesus.

So, faith in the Old Testament goes hand-in-hand with faith in Jesus.

The New and the  Old are so interrelated that one explains the other.

Jesus is the God of both the New and Old Testaments.

At one time Jesus said to the  Jews, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am!”

Here  Abraham is Old Testament person.

'I am' refers God.

Here Jesus indicates that He is the God of both the Testaments.

Jesus Himself  is  the God who revealed Himself to Moses, to be “YHWH,” the God of the Old Testament.

In the New Testament,  God became man and speaks to us directly.

Jesus' disciples carried His word throughout the world.

In the Old Testament God speaks to us through His prophets.

Whether spoken directly or through His prophets, what is spoken is the word of God.

So let us read both the Testaments to know God fully.

Lourdu Selvam.