“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” – 2 Peter 3:8-9
What is the Old Testament of the Bible? Is it just the illustration of God’s judgement for those who do not believe in Him? How does the Old Testament relate to the New Testament of the Bible? Do we simply ignore the Old Testament since it is boring, and just focus on the New Testament as it is interesting and it has much application to our lives? Many are likely to face these questions at some stage of their lives, especially with believers who want to know what gospel message of Jesus Christ is all about.
The Old Testament is part of God’s word as it is in the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 states the importance of the Bible to our lives. 2 Timothy 3:16 in New International Version begins a sentence with “All Scripture is God-breathed…” One of the theological dictionaries refers ‘Scripture, authority of’ as “In the Christian view, the conviction that the writings of the OT and NT have a unique status in being and/or conveying God’s self-revelation. They are thus to be recognised as such and obeyed as reliable guides for Christian living.”
I agree with Hawthorne when He declares that the Bible is a love story and needs to be read the entire message of the Bible. To put this simply, the Bible is about completely understanding how God loves people and how they could love him. With this perspective in mind, we should consider God’s judgement in the Old Testament as how He hates evil, due to our reconciliation with God under Jesus Christ. God’s kindness was clearly shown to us by sending Christ to sacrifice His life for people’s wrongdoings and this leads to repentance.
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)
Due to everyone has different approaches of reading the Bible, I don’t really have the answer on how the Bible should be read. Nonetheless, I suggest you divide the Bible reading times between one of the Gospel books and Old Testament books. The reason for this is that people might find readings confusing if different stories are to be read at once. I find it confusing. The Gospel of Luke is the best gospel to start off with as this gospel gives people certainty about Christianity. Although the Bible is not chronologically-based, you could read the Old Testament books in order as this is one of the simplest ways to comprehend what Christianity is all about. You also may find them amazing as they illustrate what God is like and how they connect with New Testament and in the context of today. However, if you need more help in understanding the Bible, try to read one of the online devotionals. My top three devotionals are ‘Strength for the Journey’ (https://getmorestrength.org), ‘Our Daily Bread’ (https://odb.org) and ‘Our Daily Journey’ (https://www.ourdailyjourney.org).
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