Before the New Testament, there was a covenant. Before the cross, there was a law. Before the church, there was a people. The old covenant is not a discarded chapter of the Bible — it is the necessary first half of the single story that ends at Calvary. At Grace Fellowship Church in Sarasota, we preach the Old Testament the way Jesus and the apostles preached it: as the Word of God, still breathing, still pointing to Christ.
“Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” — Galatians 3:24
At Mount Sinai, after He had rescued Israel from Egypt, God entered into a formal covenant with His people through Moses. He gave them the Ten Commandments, the ceremonial law, the sacrificial system, the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the promise: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). This was not a religion Israel invented. It was a covenant God initiated — binding, detailed, enforced.
The old covenant was good. Paul insists on this: “The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). It revealed God’s character. It exposed human sin. It set Israel apart from the nations. It gave the world a moral vocabulary that the modern world still cannot escape.
And yet the old covenant, by design, could not save. It could diagnose the disease, but it could not cure it. It could cover sins for a year with the blood of bulls and goats, but it could never take them away (Hebrews 10:4). It was the scaffolding, not the building. The first act, not the whole play.
“By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). The commandments did not make people sinful — they revealed that they already were. Every Israelite who took the law seriously learned the same thing: I cannot keep this. The law was a merciful diagnosis before the cure.
God chose one family, one nation, one line — not because they were greater (Deuteronomy 7:7), but because from that line the Savior of the world would be born. The old covenant kept Israel distinct through centuries of pressure so that, in the fullness of time, the Son of David could step onto the stage of history.
Jesus said the Scriptures testify of Him (John 5:39). Every sacrifice was a shadow of the Lamb of God. Every priest pointed to the Great High Priest. Every king hinted at the King of kings. The old covenant was never the destination — it was the road sign, the rehearsal, the long pregnancy before the birth.
Christians are not under the old covenant (Galatians 3:25; Hebrews 8:13). The ceremonial laws — sacrifices, food laws, feast days, priesthood — have been fulfilled in Christ and are not binding on the church. The civil laws given to national Israel are not the constitution of any modern state. But the moral character of God behind the law has not changed, because God has not changed.
When Jesus summarized the law as loving God and loving neighbor (Matthew 22:37–40), He was not abolishing the Old Testament — He was reading it as it was always meant to be read. The Ten Commandments still describe what love for God and neighbor looks like in real life. The Psalms still pray the prayers of God’s people. The prophets still thunder against injustice and idolatry. The Old Testament is the Word of God, and the church cannot thrive without it.
The apostle Paul said it plainly: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). When Paul said “all Scripture,” he meant the Old Testament — the only Bible the first church had.
“In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” — Hebrews 8:13
At Grace Fellowship Church in Sarasota, we preach Genesis to Revelation, and we read every page through the risen Christ. We do not preach Old Testament moralism — “be brave like David, be patient like Job, be pure like Joseph.” We preach that every story is pointing to the Savior the whole Bible is about. The Old Testament is not a storage closet of illustrations. It is the long, holy setup for the one in whom the law finds its fulfillment.
If you grew up thinking the Old Testament is outdated, or scary, or somebody else’s book — come hear it preached as the Word of God. You will meet the same Lord in Genesis that you meet at the cross. He has always been for His people. He has always been heading toward Calvary. The old covenant was the road. The new covenant is the home.
— Sundays at 10:00 AM · 4350 17th Street, Sarasota, FL.