What Jesus and the Apostles Believed About the Hebrew Scriptures

This post is part of the series Rediscovering the Old Testament: How the First Testament Shapes Christian Faith.
In this series, we’re exploring how the Old Testament forms the foundation of the gospel, how Jesus fulfilled and reframed it, and why reclaiming it is essential for faith, justice, and mission today.

What do we do with the parts of the Bible we no longer know how to love?

Many people are drawn to Jesus—but struggle with the Old Testament. And for good reason.

They’ve read the stories of war, divine judgment, strange laws, and rigid rituals. They’ve heard verses used to justify violence, patriarchy, nationalism, or religious control. They’ve seen the Old Testament weaponized. Or worse—ignored.

“Is this really the same God Jesus talked about?”
“How could a good God command genocide?”
“If this is where Christianity starts, I’m not sure I want in.”

If you’ve wrestled with those questions, you’re not alone. I have too. And so have many others who take both Scripture and suffering seriously.

So let’s not pretend this is easy.

Let’s be honest: there are hard texts in the Old Testament. And there are real wounds tied to how it’s been misused.

But here’s the invitation: what if, instead of skipping the Old Testament—or silencing our doubts—we slowed down, dug deeper, and let it speak on its own terms?

Jesus Didn't Dismiss the Old Testament—He Embraced It

One of the most surprising things about Jesus is how deeply shaped He was by the Hebrew Scriptures.

He didn’t start a new religion. He stepped into an old story and showed what it had been pointing to all along.

“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.”
—Luke 24:27

Even after the resurrection, Jesus didn’t say, “Forget the Old Testament.” He used it to help people understand who He really was.

In fact, His most famous sermon (the Sermon on the Mount) begins with this stunning line:

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
—Matthew 5:17

Fulfill doesn’t mean erase. It means bring to completion. Jesus is saying: the story you thought was angry, legalistic, or tribal—let me show you what it was really about.

The First Christians Didn’t Have the New Testament

The early church didn’t reject the Old Testament. They read it with new eyes.

When Peter preached at Pentecost in Acts 2, he quoted Joel, Psalms, and 2 Samuel. When Paul explained salvation, he rooted it in Abraham, not a spiritual blank slate.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and useful...” (2 Tim. 3:16)
That was written before the Gospels and Epistles were collected. "Scripture" meant what we now call the Old Testament.

The apostles didn’t throw out the old story. They just realized who the main character really was.

Why So Many Struggle With the Old Testament

Let’s name the most common struggles:

“The God of the OT seems angry and violent.”

Yes—some passages are deeply troubling. But the same Old Testament also reveals a God who hears the cry of the oppressed (Exodus 3), defends the orphan and widow (Deuteronomy 10), and weeps over injustice (Isaiah 1). Jesus didn't appear to replace that God. He came to show us what that God is really like.

“The OT is just a book of laws.”

That’s only part of it. The OT also gives us poems, laments, prophetic protests, and stories of deep faith and failure. It includes wrestling (Jacob), questioning (Job), and longing (Psalms). It's a human book—and a divine one.

“It’s irrelevant to modern life.”

Actually, many of the values we love in Jesus—compassion for the poor, justice for the oppressed, covenant love, forgiveness—have deep roots in the OT. Without that background, we don’t fully understand the radical beauty of what Jesus said and did.

A Word to the Deconstructing Soul

If you’re deconstructing—or reconstructing—don’t skip the Old Testament.

Read it slowly. Read it honestly. Let it confront you, confuse you, surprise you. But don’t read it alone.

Read it with Jesus.

Read it with His voice echoing through the pages—not to erase the hard parts, but to help you see what’s really there.

And read it with others who are willing to be honest, humble, and curious alongside you.

Live Sent Practice

Choose a passage from the Gospels that you love—maybe Jesus calming the storm, or forgiving Peter, or feeding the hungry.

Now ask:
What Old Testament theme or story might be in the background here?
What does Jesus seem to be fulfilling or echoing?

For example:

• Calming the storm? He’s Lord over creation like Yahweh in Psalm 107.
• Feeding the hungry? He’s the new Moses in the wilderness.
• Forgiving Peter? He’s fulfilling Isaiah’s vision of the suffering servant who bears our failures.

Trace the roots—and let the story grow.

Coming Next:

Jesus and the Law – Fulfillment, Not Cancellation
We’ll look at what Jesus really meant when He said He came to fulfill the law—not throw it out—and how that changes how we read commands, rules, and rituals in light of grace.