The shadows or figures of the Old Testament achieve their fulfillment in the Christ of the New Testament. In other words, the Old Testament is an incomplete scripture without the New Testament, and the New Testament would be a Scripture with no beginning without the Old Testament.
It is not biblically possible to separate the New Testament from the Old Testament to pretend to establish a new religion based upon the New Testament only leaving aside the faith of Israel. The New Testament rests upon and has its origins in the Old Testament. To ignore this important detail is a huge mistake that will distort the true message of the Bible. Whoever commits that kind of error is neglecting to see the central truth of the Gospel of the New Testament: Christ fulfills in Him what the Old Testament calls the hope of Israel. In order to confirm our statements, let us consider and analyze the following biblical facts:
The promise of the Savior was made to Abraham (Genesis 22:17). This is the same promise given by God in Eden (Genesis 3:15). These promises were not only made to Israel, but to the whole world. Abraham knew that this promise was about the Messiah or the Savior of the world (John 8:56). Four centuries later, after God confirmed the promise of Christ to Abraham, a great event took place: God gives His laws to Moses. These laws— varied in use and purpose—were subdivided into four categories:
1-God’s moral law
2-Ceremonial laws
3-Hygiene laws
4-Civil laws
We will consider the first who classifications to explain our statements.
It is necessary to see the relationship between these two great events: The promise made to Abraham and the law given to Moses. The apostle Paul outlines two main points to take into consideration on Galatians 3:17-19:
1-The law does not annul the promise made to Abraham.
2-The law appeared because of man’s rebellions
Therefore, we can deduct that salvation will always be by the promise and not by the fulfillment of the law, and that the purpose of the law is to keep our hopes given by the promise—without the law, Israel would wind up in rotten degenerated paganism and would lose every perspective of hope of the promise—. In other words, The Law was given to make Israel conscious of the promise and their need for the Messiah. The law had two ways to achieve this:
1- The inflexible moral requirements were a constant reminder of their sins that will also kept them conscious of their need for blessing.
2- The ceremonial law was a figure of the redemption. For example, all sacrifices in the Temple were a figure of the true offering that Christ was to carry out in history. This is what the apostle wrote about on Hebrews 9:11-15.
Therefore, we can clearly establish that the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. This is why Christ could say to the Pharisees—let us remember that by time of Christ there was no New Testament written—to search the Scriptures because these are which testify of Him. (John 5:39).
Summing up, we have confirmed the way the figures and Symbols of the Old Testament become a reality in the Christ of the New Testament. Both testaments are complementary to each other, therefore, they can never be seen nor understood apart from each other.
