In 1 Samuel 15, The Lord’s prophet rebukes Saul for only partially destroying the Amalekites-enemies of God’s people. In the New Testament, no passage asks for the destruction of an entire people group. David, regarded as a man after God’s heart, was a great warrior in the old. Yet, Jesus, in the New, would not fight and would not allow his disciples to do so. He decided to die instead.
Why is the Old Testament so different from the New? Did God change in the silent years? No, God’s character remains constant. Both are stories of God reaching into creation and working with his people. Rahab and Ruth are two examples of outsiders who received salvation in the old. The centurion was the first of many outsiders to receive it in the New Testament.
Both testaments serve as God’s guide for us to follow his ways, to be set apart, and to live on a level above mere beasts. So, if God has not changed, what has? The battlefield has shifted. In the Old Testament, the battle against evil was fought on the surface of this earth with implications for the soul and spirit. The same battle is still being fought in the New Testament, but it is now taking place in the soul with repercussions on the body.
This difference in location makes such a big difference in the stories. For example, when the goal was to eliminate the evil of Amalek in the Old Testament, that involved eliminating the physical bodies of the people. By taking their bodies away, they no longer could do evil. When the goal was to eradicate the evil in Corinth in the New Testament, what was done? Converts were made, a church was planted, and soul reformation was performed. You can see by reading the Corinthian letters that it was a prolonged work.
What is the soul, the battleground of this profound New Testament struggle? It is the center ground of two extremes. An excellent way to understand how a human works is to think of him/her as having three parts. The body, the soul, and the spirit. The body is the physical apparatus that allows us to interact with the world. It requires little explanation, for we see and use it daily.
The spirit is the unseen center that has to do with identity. It is putting an identity signal out into the soul. That identity comes from our formation. If a little child were raised by an angry dad who kept telling him he was worthless, the child most likely would grow up with a spirit that tells his soul that he is of little value and deserves to be yelled at unless there is an intervention, and a new identity is given. The beauty of conversion for the Christian is that the Holy Spirit gives a new identity to the young man with the worthless identity. His new identity is “child of God.” This new identity is a fact; the only question remains whether the soul is paying attention.
The soul is the vast middle between the spirit and the body. It informs both and gets information from both. We find our heart, feelings, thoughts, and will within the soul. When the mistreated young man from above enters a strange new space, the “worthless” identity signal from the spirit enters his soul through his feelings. The soul tells the body to keep it together, to attract no attention or disturbance, not to be a bother, so the body’s jaw seizes up, and the arms lock close to his sides; the man does little and says little. When the man hears the “child of God” signal, he acts like his true self, his personality shines, interacts with others, and is a joy to be around. When a person comes around with a distasteful personality, i.e., a hot temper or just someone who is not polite enough to allow others to talk, we are looking at a personality that is not the person’s true self; the true self is the person God has created him to be, a person who is listening to the accurate identity signal, “child of God.” The distasteful personality comes only by listening to a false identity signal.
A reaction is when something unkind is done to the person’s body that re-ignites a false identity signal. So, if someone calls our example above a nincompoop, he will hear this with his body; it goes through to his soul and meets the “I’m worthless” identity signal. The man might erupt in rage to drive away the unwelcome reminder, or he might feel despondent and withdraw from the “threat.” If the correct identity signal is brought in, he might say, “Well, no, I’m not, but tell me why you feel that way.”
These false identity signals can be our selfish desires, our religious upbringing, and many other things. Anything that shapes your identity that is not from God is false and, therefore, will be apt to impress on your soul a desire to act incorrectly. If it’s too powerful, it can ultimately be our false god. We have or had false identity signals that seem to have permanently corrupted our souls, causing us to behave in ways we ought not; what will we do about it?
There is hope; the New Testament is a new day dawning. The battle for the soul has been fought and won by the saints of the New Testament. We can also enter the new day and win the war in the soul. We only need to leave behind any baggage that prevents us from being honest with what Jesus said and, with that pure baggage free heart, look at and apply the text literally to our lives.
What I want to do about it is march through the New Testament to learn the story and learn my orthopraxy (Christian lifestyle) from it. Everything I need to know to act like a Christian should act is in there. What about the Old Testament? It’s a valuable resource to help us understand the New Testament. Some passages of the New may only be possible to comprehend with the old. As I go along and learn, I will be applying things to my life, and over time, I will begin to act more like what I am—God’s child. Stay tuned for the next post on Matthew 1.