That’s a bold claim, but I’m convinced it’s true.

Now…

Most Christians would claim, “I would never ‘strike’ anything from the Old Testament.”

Most Christians insist all of the Bible is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Few Christians would ever advocate for literally striking out portions of the Old Testament.

That’s good. That’s correct.

But does our use of the Old Testament reflect our verbal commitment to it?

Or, do we effectively “strike” out parts of the Old Testament by never interacting with it?

I spend a good bit of time thinking about these questions.

Throughout my adult life, I have either worked in the local church or studied the Bible, especially the Old Testament, in academic settings.

I love the Church.

And I love the Old Testament.

I just wish the two were on better terms.

As I think back over my years in ministry and my life as a regular church-attender, I recognize a tendency.

The overwhelming majority of sermons come from the New Testament.

Don’t get me wrong…

The New Testament is wonderful and needs to be preached from as well.

I’m just convinced that our proportions are all wrong.

If I had to guess, I would estimate that 60-70% of all sermons I have heard focused on a New Testament passage.

(That’s a conservative estimate, too!)

When a sermon did focus on the Old Testament, one of two things were usually true.

1. The passage was one of the well-known portions (Psalm 23, Genesis 1, etc.)
2. the Old Testament served as a launching pad for a sermon primarily about New Testament issues.

What was the result?

I was hardly ever exposed to the Old Testament in sermons and discipleship groups.

I ended up with an abbreviated Bible that was mostly missing parts from the first 75%.

(That’s right. The Old Testament is roughly 75% of the Bible.)

And as our friend Wilhelm Vischer suggested, my Christian knowledge was defective.

This is when I should remind you that I am a nerd.

In addition to serving as a pastor, I have spent years studying the Bible academically. Most of that time has been focused on the Old Testament.

The longer I study the Old Testament, the more I become convinced that our churches need to recover the whole Bible.

It’s not enough to leave our Bible’s physically whole, if we effectively ignore 75% of it.

So, here are three reasons I think every Christian needs to (re)explore the Old Testament.

Reason 1: The Old Testament is indispensable to understanding the New Testament.

I know this isn’t a new sentiment. Statements like this are heard frequently in Christian communities.

It’s truer than most people realize, though.

It’s like when you have a child and your whole world changes.

You see everything from a different perspective.

You suddenly understand the struggles your parents faced in a new way.

In the same way, the more familiar you become with the Old Testament, the more you will understand the New Testament.

I mean think about it…

• Why does the New Testament start with a genealogy filled with Old Testament figures?

• Why does Paul quote Old Testament passages so frequently?

• Why is Revelation so weird?

(Ok, that last one is more complicated!)

My point is that the New Testament authors assumed their readers would be intimately familiar with the Old Testament.

Reason 2: The Old Testament isn’t as different from the New Testament as people suspect.

This lesson flies in the face of popular opinion.

One of the main critiques of Christianity is that the Jesus of the New Testament is incompatible with the God of the Old Testament.

That argument goes back to the second century after Jesus, by the way.

Many sermons will unintentionally teach people that the New Testament is radically different from the Old Testament.

Conversations about law and grace do this all the time.

But, if we take Jesus’s words seriously, we can’t maintain this perspective.

Jesus said he came to fulfill the law—not abolish it (Matthew 5:17).

In a famous scene at the end of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus explained how all of the Scriptures spoke of him (Luke 24:27).

Yes, Jesus turned many things on their head and inside out.

But he claimed that his ministry was what the Old Testament was always pointing toward.

Why would we avoid the very books that Jesus said pointed toward him?

Lesson 3: The Old Testament is captivating.

I realize this last point isn’t objective, but hear me out.

I once told my professor that people didn’t find the Old Testament that interesting.

She was offended.

For the next few minutes, she explained how she never had that experience if she just opened the Old Testament with people and started asking questions.

She suggested that we embrace the “issues” that push people away from the Old Testament, because, ironically, that is how people fall in love with it.

I’ve come to agree with her.

The more I have explored the stories and complexities of the Old Testament, the more fascinated I am.

It’s written in a way that invites you deeper and deeper into its world.

And whenever I invite people to explore the Old Testament and embrace their questions, they get wide-eyed.

It’s like they’ve discovered their Bibles again for the first time.

I hope you can see how passionate I am about the Old Testament.

I’m convinced that studying it is the key to deepening your knowledge of the Christian faith.

At the same time, I know it’s a daunting challenge.

The Bible is a massive book. Suggesting that you should (re)explore the first 75% of it is a big ask.

It can be confusing.

That’s why I made a program called Quiz Through the Bible.

It’s designed to introduce you to the main storyline of the Bible.

By the end of that program, you will have a strong foundation in how the different parts of the Bible fit together.

Summary

Before you go, I wanted to give you a quick summary.

The Old Testament is too important for us to keep ignoring it.

We effectively cut out 75% of our Bible’s by not studying, preaching, and teaching from the Old Testament.

Here are 3 reasons you should get to know the Old Testament better.

1) It’s indispensable for understanding the New Testament.

2) It’s not as different from the New Testament as you might think.

3) It’s captivating.

Thanks for reading!

Talk to you soon,

Tyler S. Fulcher