Parish Magazine Item for The Diocesan Years Of...

 

From The Rectory

 

In 2023, the Diocese of Chichester focused on the Old Testament. This year we are thinking about the New Testament. And 2024 will be a Year of Faith to mark 1700 years since The Council of Nicaea and 950 years of Christian mission based in Chichester, the home of our diocesan cathedral.

 

The relationship between Old and New Testaments and Christian doctrine is often misunderstood. Clearly there are differences between them, but what is much more remarkable is the unity of Testaments and Christian confession.

 

It is quite common to hear someone say that they are more of a New Testament Christian than an Old Testament person. They mean they are nice and kind and not keen on war etc. But, if I may say so, this involves rather misleading caricatures about the Bible.  

 

It is very hard to make any sense of the New Testament without the Old. As Christians have often said, the New is in the Old concealed and the Old is in the New revealed. But actually the Old Testament is often pretty obviously looking for a New Testament fulfilment. Jesus’ identity as Israel’s Messiah (the Christ, the Anointed One, the long-promised rescuer king) is only comprehensible based on expectations going back to the book of Genesis itself and the promise of a Serpent-Crusher who will defeat evil and undo the curse on sin. We could wax lyrical about all the patterns and pictures which Jesus, the prophet, priest and king fulfils.  

 

Arguably, the Trinity, atonement, resurrection and many other Christian themes are all clearly present in the Old Testament. They are not hiding if we have eyes to see them.

 

The commands to love God and neighbour come in the Old Testament. Old Testament religion was a matter of love.

 

When the New Testament itself comes to sum up the teaching of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles, it does so in almost the opposite way that we might expect. According to Saint Peter in Acts chapter 10, “All the [Old Testament] prophets testify about him [Jesus] that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Whereas the New Testament apostles proclaim a message of coming judgement: that he, the risen Lord Jesus, “is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.” The Old Testament speaks of forgiveness; the New Testament speaks of judgement. Old Testament bad and horrible; New Testament nice and lovely obviously misses the mark.

 

Christian teaching is not merely a repetition of what the Bible says, but the Bible remains true, clear, necessary and sufficient. All that we need to know for salvation and godliness is taught well enough in the Bible, if we will only seek to understand it prayerfully together. The task of Christian doctrine is to study more deeply what the Bible teaches and to articulate it afresh in each generation, applying it to new situations using all the help which tradition, reason and experience can give. In a sense it might be claimed that The Nicene Creed is just an attempt to summarise what the Bible teaches and what all Christians everywhere has always believed, even if it uses some technical terms not found in the Bible itself. It aims to expound and apply, to show the meaning and implications of the Bible, not to pour in alien ideas.

 

Over this three-year period, let’s pray for a deeper appreciation of the Bible and the Christian faith. And in particular, let us pray that we get beyond an academic interest in these things or a merely intellectual understanding. We aim not only to stuff our heads with more understanding but we ask that God might move our hearts, wills and hands with these great truths: that we might see what they mean for us and how they make a difference on a rainy Wednesday afternoon.    

 

The Revd Marc Lloyd