There is a version of Christianity floating around that has quietly decided the Old Testament is optional.
You've probably heard the argument in some form. Jesus is what matters. The red letters are the real word. The New Testament is where we live. Don't drag me back into the Old Testament with all its laws and wars and difficult passages.
I understand the instinct. The Old Testament is complicated. But Jesus Himself addresses this directly in Matthew 5:17, and what He says is the opposite of what that version of Christianity assumes.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
And then He goes further. Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.
When He says least stroke of a pen, He is reaching for the most granular possible unit of the written law. In the original language, the word refers to the tiny marks that distinguish one letter from another. The difference between a P and an R. The dot above a lowercase i. He is saying: all of it counts. All of it still matters. All of it is still in play.
So what does that mean for us as New Testament believers? It's a genuinely important question, and there are five serious theological positions Christians have held in response to it.
The first says everything in the Old Testament applies directly, including all the laws. The second says only what is repeated in the New Testament applies to Christians. The third says everything applies unless the New Testament specifically cancels it. The fourth says only the moral law of God — not the civil or ceremonial law — applies to us today. And the fifth says the Old Testament gives us wisdom about God but is not directly applicable to our lives.
There are careful, thoughtful Christians who hold each of these positions. This is not a settled debate.
My view is the fourth. And here's why.
The moral law of God flows from the moral character of God. And God's moral character does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Which means the moral standard He held His people to in the days of Moses, in the days of David, in the days of the exile — that standard is the same one that applies to us today. Not because we are under the old covenant, but because the King hasn't changed.
The civil law of ancient Israel was tied to a specific nation, a specific land, a specific moment in redemptive history. I don't need to reference Old Testament property law to settle a fence dispute with my neighbor. But do not murder, do not commit adultery, walk humbly and justly with your God — those aren't national laws. They're moral realities that flow from who God is.
Here is the point Jesus is making when He plants this at the beginning of His teaching on Kingdom citizenship. You cannot be a citizen of His kingdom and treat His word as a menu where you only order what sounds good today.
The red letters do not outweigh the black letters. It is all the word of God. And a King who takes the least stroke of a pen seriously is a King whose entire word deserves to be taken seriously.