Reading Directionally Discussion

Week 6 - Ashley

Week 6 - Ashley

by Ashley Duval -
Number of replies: 2

Which of the 4 "Do nots" listed at the beginning do you find most people struggle with?

Personally, what I have found is the tendency for people to read the New Testament while discounting the Old Testament. We are an incredibly evangelist church - with the motto to help people discover and love who Jesus is - sometimes it's easy to spend an incredibly amount of time in the New Testament without explaining the culture, context, and importance of the Old Testament. Additionally, I think it's easier as people to preach the grace and love of Jesus - while not knowing how to handle the some of the tougher concepts that exist in the Old Testament - even questions of some of the commandments and law wrote down. Even understanding the statement "the old law doesn't apply to us" - causes people to discount the Old Testament in entirety. 

How does putting Christ as the center of the 2 Testaments change the way you interpret the Bible?

Understanding that Christ came as a response to all the ways that God tried to be united, reconciled, and lived amongst the jewish people is incredibly important to interpretation. Reading through the Old Testament you can see the heart of God for His people but the continued attempts and failures of humanity that spurred the need for Jesus. I don't see it as an ancient text but rather a text that while focuses on the Jewish people - I can consistently relate to in my own faults, failings, and even the desire I had to seek God myself, and understanding that the inkling that this wasn't the way it was supposed to be- and the why behind it. 

In reply to Ashley Duval

Re: Week 6 - Ashley

by Audrey Morris -
Ashley - great responses! I love how you mentioned the OT showing us the flaws of humanity and God's constant pursuit of relationship with them. I think this understanding is so important to why we continue to read the OT. Thank you for sharing your perspective.
In reply to Ashley Duval

Re: Week 6 - Ashley

by Jorden Gemuend -
Hey Ashley, thanks for your writeup. I found myself asking curious when you said "the old law doesn't apply to us," and how that causes people to discount the Old Testament in it's entirety. I agree with you on your point, but I've never really spent time contemplating the juxtaposition of what Jesus says and what Paul says. Jesus explains that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it and not remove a single letter. This would make me think that we still need to live according to the law, as Jesus did in his life. However, Paul explains that the law is no longer a master to us, for it leads to death, whereas faith in Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit leads to life. He then explains how in this freedom, we are to use to to become slaves to Christ and live godly lives. So is Jesus and Paul both saying the same thing? That in Jesus fulfilling the law, we no longer need to, and yet we should still live according to it's principles by our own free will?