What did Jesus say about the Old Testament?

What shall we do with the 39 books (Genesis-Malachi) of the Old Testament (OT)? Burn them all as rubbish? Take scissors and cut out the parts we don't like? Decide that the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament (NT)? Honor it as the inspired, true, reliable and authoritative word of God? This question has vast implications for the way we live our lives and even where we will spend eternity.¹ Yet to answer such a question we need look no further than the GOD-man Jesus Christ.²

Why Jesus? Because He is God. And what He says is true. The most compelling evidence for the truthfulness of Jesus is that He predicted His own death and resurrection at least six times³, and then just as He foretold He was raised from the dead, to never die again. For evidence of His resurrection, take the evidence of the radical change in the disciples' lives. Because of His resurrection (and the power of the Holy Spirit), His disciples, who previously had their doors locked out of fear (John 20:19) were filled with such zeal and boldness that they publicly preached His resurrection in Jerusalem, the very same city where He was publicly crucified. Many disciples even died because of their continual preaching of the resurrection (Acts 12:1-3, etc.). Because of their bold witness for Jesus they “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Jesus surely is alive, as evidenced by the historically accurate NT accounts, the changed lives of the disciples, etc. Because He predicted his own death and resurrection as it actually happened, surely we can trust everything else He said.

So, how did Jesus treat the OT? According to Matthew 4, after getting baptized by John the Baptist, He goes into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. While confronting the most wicked being in the universe, He needs to pull out His most powerful weapon. Just as a man would use his most powerful weapon to shoot a charging rhino about to take his life, Jesus pulls out the “big guns”. The OT! What does He quote? Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13, & 16, words which Moses wrote over 1400 years earlier.⁴ He demonstrates that the Scripture is the most powerful weapon against Satan, that it is trustworthy, true and is spiritually powerful. If Jesus trusted the OT in the face of Satan, we too can trust it when facing adversity.

“But wait!” You might ask. Isn't the OT historically inaccurate, though there may be some positive spiritual truth? Not possible! Jesus doesn't give us the option to think that. He talks about many characters from the OT as though they were completely historical and never once questioned their reality. Jonah and the great fish, Noah, Elijah, Daniel, the places Sodom and Gomorrah, etc. are declared by Jesus to be as real as you and me. He even tells about the very first man and woman to ever exist, named Adam and Eve.⁵ According to Jesus, the OT is also historically accurate as well as spiritually powerful.

Because of these reasons and much more, I agree with Jono Hall, teacher of OT survey at IHOPU: “It is... impossible to believe in Jesus as Son of God and not believe the events of the Old Testament. If we are to believe Jesus’ truthfulness, we must believe his statements about the Old Testament.” Jesus is the Son of God and if He said it, we should believe it. The OT is the inspired, true, reliable and authoritative word of God.

1 While I do affirm that salvation is through faith in Christ alone (Eph 2:8-9, etc.), true biblical faith necessitates that we believe and agree with everything Jesus actually said. If He said the OT was the inspired, true word of God and we don't agree with Him, we've made Him a liar and therefore don't have the biblical faith that leads to salvation. Faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26), and our supposed faith in Jesus that includes a rejection of His view of the OT is not true saving faith.

2 The Bible clearly declares that Jesus is God. While there are many more verses, here are the most basic verses often used to support His divinity: Philippians 2:6-11; John 1:1-2, 20:28; Mark 2:5-12.

3 From the Gospel of Matthew alone: 12:38-40; 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19, 26:32

4 Jesus affirmed the long standing tradition that Moses wrote Genesis-Deuteronomy (see John 5:46 , etc.), and the dating comes from 1 Kings 6:1, that states the Exodus happened 480 years after Solomon started building the temple. Scholars date this event at 966 BC, placing the Exodus at about 1446 BC. Deuteronomy was written after the 40 wilderness experience, at about 1406 BC (Deuteronomy 1:3)

5 Jonah (and the great fish sometimes): Matthew 12:39-41, 16:4; Luke 11:29-32

Noah: Matthew 24:37-38, Luke 17:26-27

Elijah: Matthew 11:14, 17:11-12; Mark 9:12-13; Luke 4:25-26

Daniel: Matthew 24:15

Sodom and Gomorrah: Matthew 10:15, 11:23-24, Luke 10:12, 17:29

Adam and Eve: Matthew 19:4-6