“In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13).
In every Bible I have ever checked there is a page right before Matthew which says: “The New Testament”. In at least three ways it is a very important page in the Bible.
First, it accurately recognizes a divine distinction communicated by God in writing (Jeremiah 31:31-34). As the verse above indicates, “He”/God is the one who has declared that the 39 books of Genesis to Malachi are correctly classified as books of the Old Testament. The 27 books after this page in your Bible are new in the sense of quality and time (see last Friday’s post).
Second, when God promised the coming of the new covenant, He intentionally implied the old covenant would become obsolete and be replaced. There would come a day in human history in which it would not be the governing authority for God’s people. That day did in fact come almost 2,000 years ago.
Third, God’s purpose for making the old covenant obsolete was so He could replace it with the new testament. Just as the first frost of fall signals inevitable decay and the ultimate termination of a tomato plant, Jeremiah’s prophecy began the old covenant’s inevitable decline and abolition. Today, not a single commandment given in the Old Testament is authoritative for anyone.
To rightly divide God’s word (2 Timothy 2:15) so to learn what you must do to please God today, it is essential to know the significance and importance of “The New Testament” page in your Bible.
