"The Old Testament for the Life of the Church" by Richard E. Averbeck. A Review

 

If I’ve heard it said once, I’ve heard it said hundreds of times, “Nothing in the Old Testament applies to us Christians, except what is specifically restated in the New.” Therefore, I was excited to see the recently published 400-page softback “The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church: Reading the Torah in the Light of Christ”. This manual was put together by Richard E. Averbeck, professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. It is an easily readable work that takes Christians, step-by-step, into the ongoing value of the Hebrew Scriptures for New Covenant people. Rightly does Averbeck state that to “ignore the Old Testament is to misunderstand the New Testament” (5). Thus, the author sticks to his purpose throughout the book, and that purpose is to show how “the whole law was and still is good and profitable for the Christian and applies to the life of the Christian today in a new covenant way” (21).

 

Averbeck builds a whole, sturdy structure around three concepts: (1) The law is good; (2) the law is weak; (3) the law is a unified whole (14). And then he develops how we’re to hold all three together all the time and at the same time “because all three correspond to significant statements about the law in both the Old Testament and the New” (14). Toward this end, the author breaks the book down into three parts. First is covenant and context, where he elaborates on the interconnections of all the covenants from Noah to the New, and how all the previous covenants come into the New Covenant. Then, Averbeck shows the Old Covenant in its context, laying out the redemptive setting of the law, the parallel collections of the law, etc. The final section is on the Old Testament in the New.

 

There were three perspectives I was delighted in as I read through the book. These were conclusions I had come to years ago. First, something I have been saying to my congregation for years, is that the Old Testament is God’s Word for God’s people in every age. Averbeck makes this crystal clear. Second, I have also been teaching my congregation that everything in the Old Testament applies in the New, except where changed. Again, the author develops this model with a beautiful clarity. Finally, because Jesus taught his disciples how to read the Hebrew Scriptures (Luke 24:25-27, 44-45), then the apostles took our Lord’s model and worked from that base in the New Testament Scriptures. This is one reason why the apostles drew from the Old Testament with ease and simplicity. And Averbeck explains this perspective in gentle and gracious detail.

 

It is important to note, in passing, an area where I would disagree with the author. He denies that there is any validity to the three categories of law: ceremonial, civil, and moral (316). I recognize that the sacred Scripture never mentions or uses these three categories, and they are rarely clear-cut (sometimes moral laws are in the same sleeping bag with ceremonial, etc.), but I think they are useful tools, with a long history in Christian thinking, which should slow down our haste in throwing them out. Averbeck is correct, though, when he writes, “even if we accept the threefold division of the law, still the New Testament cites all three “divisions” and applies them to the Christian life” (316). Yes sir! This whole volume masterfully makes this case. There are one or two other places I would quibble with him, but none of these are show-stoppers.

 

“The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church” is a breath of fresh air in the smoggy, stilted atmosphere of North American Christianity. This work will help clear up the haze for many and enable others to breath easier at night. Not only should this book be in college, university, and seminary libraries, but it ought to be the primary textbook for any academic classes surveying or introducing the Old Testament. Further, for anyone desiring to get their head around the relationship of the Old Testament and the New, here’s your book! I highly, and happily, recommend it.

 

My thanks to IVP Academic. I requested a review copy and they promptly sent one, which is what I used for this evaluation. And, oh happy day! They made no requirements or demands on me; no hostages were taken, and no ransom demanded. Therefore, this appraisal is freely made and freely given.