It’s often said that the Bible is confusing or contradictory. There’s even a common misconception that God was one way in the Old Testament and altogether different in the New Testament. At the root of all these problems is a basic misunderstanding that from the beginning, God has been in the business of instructing us.
Some refer to these lesson plans as covenants, and some call them dispensations. Still others have problems with either term, and so rather than get into a debate over words, I prefer to call them lesson plans. It helps me to think of them in this way because it guides me to focus on the point God was trying to get across in each lesson. And why is this important? This is an important concept because God deals with humanity differently under different lesson plans. Each plan has some unique attributes, and trying to follow the wrong lesson plan will only result in frustration and confusion at best. Under a worst case scenario, this approach can cause some frightening results. Consider the woman who killed her children as a demonstration of her faith in God because she read that God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a test of Abraham’s faith. Hebrews 11:19 makes it clear that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead, so this poor woman reasoned that she should also prove her faith in God in the same way. This is admittedly an extreme example, but those often are the best for illustrating a point. This sad woman was studying under the wrong lesson plan and missed the point that God was trying to teach. There are other obvious examples as well. Except for that group in Kentucky, no one thinks it’s important to build an ark. Do we see the point of the lesson plan? Actually, the example of the ark serves as a great illustration. After the flood, God promised not to flood the earth again, so building an ark is completely unnecessary. In addition, Peter explains the point of the lesson plan involving the ark, bringing out the relevancy of this incident for us. We can learn what God intends to teach without building an ark. This same principle applies to any of the lesson plans found in the Bible. The problem is that while most will agree with the examples of Abraham and Noah very few will apply this concept as a means of understanding the entire Bible. In other words, very few will take the Bible as literally true but then look for the figurative truth. Fortunately, God knew this was going to happen and included multiple examples to help our understanding. He also drew some bright lines between the different lesson plans so that we could tell when one ends and another one begins. This is one reason why lesson plans often begin with a new covenant or other significant change. And what is the biggest change of all? There is no shortage of highly educated scholars who can parse the Bible into different lesson plans, but it seems to me that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the brightest bright line between lesson plans that can possibly exist. Still, many very smart people miss this change and continue thinking that we are still learning under the lesson plan of the law. Some think this way because the lesson plan of the law takes up most of the Bible. From Israel at Mount Sinai to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ covers over 80% of Scripture, and, as has been said, God does not waste ink. In trying to see the lessons of so much of Scripture it’s actually pretty easy to miss the bigger picture. Others miss seeing that Jesus’ death and resurrection started a new lesson plan because Jesus spent a lot a time speaking about the lesson plan of the law. This makes perfect sense. He was Jewish and spent virtually all His time talking to a Jewish audience. Furthermore, He had to correct numerous misinterpretations of the law. Which plan are you following? So, the question really comes down to how you are relating to God. Are you trying to obey the law? That way included animal sacrifice in a building that no longer exists, so that seems a pretty difficult model to follow. Maybe you are trying to pick and choose laws, or distilling them all down to the greatest commandment and trying to love others as you love yourself. I think the only actual Biblical approach is to follow the new lesson plan taught by God to the apostle Paul, summed up in Romans 6:14 with the phrase “you are not under law, but under grace.” This describes an absolutely radical change in lesson plans lost in most Christian teaching. Let’s all strive to learn under the plan of grace so that we can avoid confusion and show it to others.
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November 2019
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