It's Old
My final job title at a global ministry was "Innovator." Each month, I wrote a report for the managers at our headquarters to share emerging trends and prepare us for what was next. I'm fascinated by the newest technological advances. Paul started Romans by talking about what is old.
Long before the Roman Empire existed or Jesus was born as a human being, God committed himself to do good for us. A few centuries after Paul wrote this letter, an anonymous commentator in Rome, known today as Ambrosiaster, said, "For nobody uses great forerunners to announce some minor thing." If Moses and Isaiah were needed to prepare us for what God was going to do, then we are anticipating God acting in an unprecedented way. As Paul explained to the Corinthians, "For every one of God’s promises is 'Yes' in [Jesus]" (2 Cor 1:20). How does God make promises to us? I suppose God could have rearranged the clouds or organized seashells on the beach to say "I love you!" Actually, the clouds and seashells do communicate God's love for us in their own ways. But because God is personal, he reveals his will to us through persons. God communicates his words to people who share those words with us. If the prophet has faithfully represented what God said, then we have heard from God. Sometimes I wonder if the Old Testament prophets represented God. As a skeptically minded person, I'd like more evidence. But when Jesus was walking with two disciples after he rose from the dead, he began "with Moses and all the Prophets" and "interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures" (Luke 24:27). As the first disciples listened to the risen Jesus, he convinced them that God's prophets had him in mind. It's the same idea at the start of Mark: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet..." (Mark 1:1-2). When Paul talks about the Holy Scriptures, it reminds me of a thick, leather-bound, KJV bible sitting on a hard wooden pew. But it confirms that about twenty-five years after Jesus died and rose, the early church thought of itself as anchored to what we call the Old Testament. Paul will quote these holy Scriptures more often in Romans than in all his other letters combined. All the trend reports I wrote are outdated. Even I wouldn't want to read them again. But what God promised through his prophets was fulfilled when he raised Jesus from the dead. It sounds nice to say, "I'm a New Testament kind of Christian," but Paul says God promised the gospel in the Holy Scriptures he had already written down.
What does it tell us about God that he promised to raise Jesus from the dead more than a thousand years before he did it?
What parts of the Old Testament do you tend to skip?
How do you handle waiting for God to act?
God's prophets announced God's promises even though they never saw them completely fulfilled, nor did they get to see all the people who would be helped by their faithfulness in doing what God asked. Before you go to the next thing on your schedule, pray this in your own words: "Jesus, I don't always understand how serving you will make a difference. Help me to trust that what you're doing in my life will accomplish your purposes."
Source:
Gerald Bray, ed., Romans, rev. ed., Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament 6 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005)