Does The Old Testament Contradict The New Testament?

Does the Old Testament contradict the teachings of the New Testament as some claim?

Jesus on the Old Testament

If the Old Testament contradicts the New Testament then why did Jesus quote out of it so much? Jesus often quoted the Book of Isaiah, Psalms, and even Genesis. In one place Jesus said “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt 5:17-18). If He were to amend the Old Testament then that would have been His chance to say it but instead He said He came to fulfill it, not abolish it. He said not even the smallest letter or stroke would pass away from it. Further, He warned “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:19) and “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 7:12). You cannot separate the Word of God from the law of God for they are one and the same. The psalmist wrote “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7).

Paul on the Law of the Old Testament

We have to remember that the apostles didn’t have the New Testament to quote out of as it was not yet written. All they had access to and all they quoted came straight from the Old Testament so not only didn’t Jesus abolish or do away with the Old Testament, James, Peter, and Paul quoted it. Paul wrote “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law” (Rom 3:31) and in fact he quoted the Old Testament 105 times! If the Old Testament contradicted the New Testament, then Paul could have easily contradicted his New Testament teachings since he quoted the Old Testament so much but he never once did! In Romans 4:3 Paul wrote “For what say the scripture? Abraham believed and it was counted unto him for righteousness” which is what Genesis 15:6 “And he believed in the LORD; and he God, and counted it to him for righteousness.” Romans 1:17 and Habakkuk 2:4 both say “the just shall live by faith.”

Are there Contradictions?

Any apparent contradictions in God’s Word that we see or think we see are only the natural spiritual blindness of the natural carnal mind that doesn’t have “spiritual truth” revealed to it. Paul wrote “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (2nd Cor 2:14). Jesus says about “the Spirit of Truth [that] The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). That’s why “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” (1st Cor 1:18). Anyone that says that the Old Testament contradicts the New Testament must realize that it takes the Spirit of God to reveal the meaning of Scripture, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1st Cor 2:11).

All Scripture is True

Jesus has already assured the believer that “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35) and naturally He was speaking about the Old Testament as this was the context of His comment. The idea behind saying the “Scripture cannot be broken” is that it isn’t broke…it does not contradict itself; it must be fulfilled and Jesus was referring to the Old Testament when He said that. Remember that the only times where Paul quoted something it was the Old Testament and he said that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2nd Tim 3:16) and Peter says that “no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2nd Pet 1:20-21). The word “Scripture” was referring to the Old Testament since that is all they had access to at the time even though Peter did once refer to Paul’s writings as Scripture (2nd Pet 3:15-16). If the Old Testament contradicted the New Testament, then why in the world would they quote it so many times?

Conclusion

The Old Testament supports the New Testament and they are not diametrically opposed to one another; neither do they conflict with one another. Jesus applied the spiritual or internal applications of the Old Testament law (Matt 5), not doing away with it. In other words, there are not contradictions but they are just deeper New Testament elaborations of the Old Testament. If you have the Holy Spirit of God then you would come to understand that these differences are not contradictions but they are like the biblical concept of having two witnesses to have a thing be established as true. One witness was not enough, even in the Old Testament (Duet 17:6; 19:15) but “every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Matt 18:16). Paul also concluded that “Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses” (2nd Cor 13:1) and so the Old Testament supports and validates the New Testament and since many in the New Testament quoted out of the Old Testament, it validates the Old, therefore there is no contradiction between the two whatsoever.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon.