According to Van Ruler "the Old Testament is and remains the true Bible. In it God has made known himself and the secret that he has with the world. All goodness and also all truth and beauty -the fully redemptive knowledge of being - shines out before us in this book. It is the book of humanity."4.82
This must be understood in terms of W. Vischer's thesis that the Old Testament tells us what the Christ is and the New Testament tells us who He is.4.83 In other words the New Testament tells us that there is salvation in Jesus and the Old Testament tells us what this salvation is. There is a dialectical relationship between the two testaments. The Old Testament is the legitimation of Jesus as the Christ and Jesus Christ is the foundation of everything that is at issue in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the legitimation of Jesus as the Christ by showing that everything He does and everything that takes place in him is in harmony with the structure of God's relation to his people and his dealings with them. "In particular, when he makes the sacrifice of atonement, Jesus is in agreement with that upon which the Old Testament progressively focuses things."4.84 The Old Testament has received its foundation in Jesus Christ because all the promises of God are Yea and Amen in him. He is the substance of all the shadows and in his sacrifice the kingdom of God has acquired a firm place on earth.4.85
This emphasizes the fact that the church has one canon made up of the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament did not come in place of the Old, nor is it added to the Old as a second canon. The New Testament is simply added to the Old as a part of the one canon. The New Testament is the proclamation, interpretation, conclusion and validation of the Old Testament as the Word of God. Therefore Van Ruler understands the New Testament as an explanatory glossary that has been added at the end of the Old Testament. "Explanatory in the two fold sense of interpretation and validation, yet obviously also in the sense that this interpretation and endorsement of the canon is, for its part, also recognized as canon."4.86
The Old Testament cannot be proved to be revelation4.87 but the christian church has accepted the Old Testament as Canon on the basis of faith and this faith is not arbitrary, it is supported by the authority of Jesus Christ, who proclaimed the fulfilment of the Old Testament in his person. Thus the church cannot believe in Jesus without also receiving the Old Testament. We have already seen the dialectical relation between the Old Testament and Jesus Christ.
Although scholarship cannot prove the Old Testament to be the revealed Word of God it can tell us what this revelation is. "Theological scholarship can show phenomenologically that the structure of the biblical understanding of being is radically different from that of the nonbiblical understanding."4.88 Before we look at the material content of this revelation it is important to note this fact that the revelation (of the Old Testament) is radically different to paganism. By this confession that the God of the Old Testament, in the particularity of his revelation is also the God of the New Testament; that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of the Old Testament and therefore that the Old Testament testifies to the Messiah Jesus alone, the christian church has separated itself from paganism. "Het Oude Testament is de grens rondom de christelijke kerk, welke haar vrijwaart voor heidendom."4.89
The christian church accepts the Old Testament in faith and thus recognizes it as revelation. Within this context it is the task of scholarly exegesis to get through to this revelation.4.90According to Van Ruler this means that there must be "exegesis alone, exegesis `without epithet', the kind of exegesis that is not an expert and more or less mysterious art..., it [also] means commitment to an exegesis without limits, for this is an exegesis that goes to the heart of what is at issue in the words."4.91 In other words exegesis must not replace the Word with its word and it must take into account the inner intentions of the primary author (God). We can clarify this by enlarging on these two ideas: In the first place the Reformation has always rejected the allegorical method of exegesis, and with good reason. The allegorical method arbitrarily chooses a word or thought in an Old Testament text which, purely by association, contains Christ. This word is then used as the key to the text, which now appears to be full of Christ on the basis of this word. This implies that the Old Testament itself is allegorical by divine intention. Thus God really means something different to what he says. The historical relation of the Old Testament story to this earth is irrelevant and therefore the full reality of revelation itself, as a historical reality, is dissolved.4.92 The scholarly, historico-critical and philological work of exegesis cannot move away from the literal to an allegorical sense of the words. God has expressed his innermost intentions in outer words and therefore the meaning must be found in the literal sense of the words.4.93
But, and this is the second point, exegesis must also `go to the heart of what is at issue in the words' and thus take into account the purpose, meaning and intention that is in `the heart' of God. We have already seen that God expressed his innermost intentions in outer words but merely repeating and retelling the words and facts of the Bible does not express this inner intention or `concealed, spiritual meaning' of Scripture. Thus scholarship is not enough. In order to properly understand Scripture "the most essential requisite is faith and life in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit."4.94 True exegesis is only possible in and by the Holy Spirit and if exegesis "takes place by and in the Holy Spirit, [it] will make radical references to the letter and the literal sense."4.95
There is also the question of the typological exegesis of the Old Testament. Typological exegesis seeks foreshadowings, analogies and parallels of later (New Testament) happenings in earlier (Old Testament) occurrences and this is not to be understood as mere recurrence. "Generally speaking types are things which impinge upon the senses, ordered by God, to represent to the mind by some similitude a thing of greater moment pertaining to religion."4.96Thus there is the element of the continuation and completion of God's dealings inasmuch as the words and acts of God are always greater and more complete. There is nothing wrong with this sort of typological exegesis but two things must be kept in mind. In the first place the Reformed rule that we are to treat as types only those things that God himself has shown to be such.4.97 If this is not kept in mind and typological connections are sought in every detail the same criticisms arise which we have discussed regarding allegorical exegesis. This leads to the second consideration, namely that the infralapsarian structure of revelation must be taken seriously. Jesus Christ is not `the final end of all the ways of God' (K. Barth). Jesus Christ is an emergency measure that God postponed for as long as possible. This does not mean that there are no typological connections between Jesus Christ and the Old Testament - it could not mean this considering that the entire Old Testament has been fulfilled in Christ. It also does not mean that the New Testament occurrences did not exist in the eternal council of God. What it does mean is that the a posteriori character of typological connections must be recognized. The Old Testament speaks about Jesus because it is fulfilled in him and not vice versa. Therefore the Old Testament is important, not because of everything that can be typologically related to Christ, but because everything in it is Yea and Amen in Him. "Jezus de Christus is geen Leseprinzip, doch Lesefrucht van de thora."4.98The concern is not with Christ but with everything that is revealed in the Old Testament. With this we can, at last, consider the material content of Old Testament Revelation and what the significance of this revelation is.
Old Testament revelation is not to be understood as the communication of teachings but as the "presence of God among his people in a series of acts, a series that forms an ongoing history illumined by the continually new word of promise."4.99 The essence of Old Testament revelation is the active, historical presence of God himself in Israel. We have seen (in chapter two) that revelation cannot be separated from history - revelation creates history. The Old Testament deals with history in the full sense since God and his speaking are the driving factors in it. Therefore the Old Testament revelation reminds us that God is concerned with history and the Old Testament historicizes the Gospel. "Only against the background and in the context of the Old Testament can it be maintained that Jesus Christ is an element in the history of God with Israel and consequently, as God's act an historical fact."4.100 The Old Testament history of revelation is completely concerned with the earthly, concrete things of Israel: possession of the land, the gift of posterity, the increase of the people, an eternal monarchy, a society based on righteousness and love. The soteriological point of view is not in the foreground in the Old Testament4.101 but rather the acts of God in the establishment of his kingdom. The fall puts itself into effect in the history of Israel as a process of refusal and revolt. But God's purpose with Israel must not be exclusively understood in this negative light as if it served only to introduce sin and guilt and to bring them to light. "Israel and the Old Testament are at least to the same degree a mirror of the positive side. They reflect what the living God has in view for man and the world: his kingdom, his image, the law, theocracy."4.102The Old Testament is more obviously concerned with the original and final element in God's intentions, with creation and the kingdom, than the New Testament is. Christ is the `hinge' around which everything revolves and on which everything depends but he is not the concern. The concern is "with the image and the law, with sanctification and humanity, with ethos and culture, with society and marriage, with history and the state."4.103 Considering that precisely these are at issue in the Old Testament, it (the Old Testament) is necessary to the church because it eschatolizes the Gospel. This conveys the fact that "originally and finally, and hence continually, our concern is with God himself and the world in the naked subsistence of things."4.104 In other words the Old Testament tells the church what to do with the earth - it is to go out and sanctify the earth. The Old Testament is, therefore, necessary because it legitimately interprets the Gospel. In the light of the Old Testament we can clearly see that Christ's kingship is purely historical, secular, earthly, theocratic and political in intent. This interpretation also contains an element of supplementation because on the basis of the New Testament alone Christ's kingship as a kingship over the earth could be lost or spiritualized.4.105
The Old Testament not only gives expression to the salvation that we have received in Christ, it also provides the concepts to illustrate this salvation. This not only refers to the necessity of the rich world of the Old Testament imagery in preaching but especially to the fact that Christ (and the Spirit) can only be proclaimed in the `language of Canaan'.4.106
We have seen that the Old Testament revelation is essentially intertwined with concrete, historical and earthly facts - the history of Israel. Therefore any theory regarding the meaning and relevance of revelation is wrong if it does not include the national particularism of Israel (A. Kuyper). This applies not only to the Old Testament, but also to the New. The message of Jesus Christ is the message of the Messiah of Israel. But if this revelation is so absolutely chained to the history of Israel, how does this revelation come to us? There is certainly a leap in tradition when salvation is `handed over' from the Jews into the hands of the Gentiles but this can only take place "under the great presupposition that in the Spirit there is an incidental repetition of Israel...Around Christ and by the Spirit we are appointed and made. For there is a corpus christianum as well as the corpus Christi (Rom. 9:24-29; 11:16-24). In addition to the church, we have the life and world that are to be sanctified and christianized. There is also theocracy."4.107
The New Testament tells us that there is salvation and the Old Testament tells us what that salvation is. Therefore the Torah not only describes the function of the structures created by the Spirit in christianization, it also describes these structures. In other words the content of the Torah also returns in a christianized nation. This is the material significance of the law. We have seen that from the Old Testament we not only know what Jesus Christ is, we also know what man, the cosmos, time and history is. All existence is covered by the Torah: marriage, sex, property, justice, punishment, the state, etc. Therefore if individual and communal life is to be christianized then the mosaic law must be applied and superimposed on this life.4.108 This does not mean that the mosaic law returns to the letter. This law is to be understood in terms of torahand not nomos. It is a living, historical reality that is the presence of the living God himself, it is not a formal authority that must be lived up to. It is this Torah that returns in christian existence. Certainly, something has happened to this law by Christ's fulfilment - new commands have been added and this law has received a new form.4.109The fulfilment of the law means a renewal of the law. But more essentially the fulfilment of the law means that it has received body, substance, content, reality and power.4.110 In his fulfilment of the law, Christ made it powerful and valid for all nations and all times. This means the entire Torah returns in christian existence but in a divine manner.
Christ fulfilled the whole law but he is especially associated with the ceremonial aspect of the law. His sacrifice on Golgotha is the great ceremony at the center of all christian life. "Christian life is fundamentally structured cultically, inasmuch as it stands in a circle around the great sacrificial work of God at Calvary, where the means of salvation become the fact of salvation, and the cultus became wholly history and history became wholly cultic."4.111 Many other ceremonial aspects also return in christian life. Scripture, for instance, returns; Scripture is one of the most important ceremonial, institutional moments in christian existence - a christianized nation without the Bible is as unimaginable as Israel without the Torah. The sacraments, the church and the sabbath (remembering the sabbath day and keeping it holy (Deut. 5:12) is one of the ceremonial components of the Ten Commandments) return in christian existence. "Niets is gelijk gebleven... Maar alles is wel - op goddelijke wijze - identiek gebleven."4.112
With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which expresses in us the salvation gained for us by Christ, the moral aspect of the law comes to the fore. This moral aspect cannot be `freed' from Old Testament revelation nor from the cross of Christ. The `good works' mentioned in the New Testament are taken directly or implicitly, sometimes in a radicalized way from the mosaic law. The good works were prepared by God beforehand (that is, revealed in his Torah), that we may walk in them (Eph. 2:10).4.113 These `good works' must also be understood in the light of the cross. "Het christelijke ethos van de naastenliefde en de gerechtigheid vloeit voort uit den cultus van het offer van Jezus Christus."4.114
Many other elements from the Old Testament also return in christian existence. The promise returns - we still have salvation in the modality of promise in the New Testament. The Apostolic Word places the `new' nations in the same position as Israel: called out from the nations of the earth and made to a blessing for all people. The flesh, time, man and the cosmos all return in christian existence and therefore the New Testament kerygma is kept within the borders of the Old Testament.4.115
The civil use of the law also returns in christian existence and one of the most important tasks of the apostolate is the proclamation of the law to the government.4.116 Here the eschatological point of view comes to the fore. In its ultimate, eschatological, material realization there will be no duality between the law of God (salvation) and existence. There will only be existence as such before the countenance of God. This is why the law is eternal and the gospel temporal. The promise and command character of the law will come to an end. This does not imply that the Torah will be superseded in the Kingdom of Glory. The Torah will, in all eternity, remain as the presence of God in existence but will no longer have the function of preserving us for the eschatological revelation of the salvation that we have already received. The proclaimed Gospel is inconceivable without this promise and command character of the law, which will fall away in the eschaton when the law is written on the heart of mankind (Jer. 31:33) and God is all in all (1Cor. 15:28). In other words Christ will hand the kingdom back to the Father (1Cor.15:24) and the messianic intermezzo will come to an end. Thus the promise and command character of the law share in the intermezzo character of the Christ.
In the apostolic work of christianization the New Testament is not enough, it leaves us in the lurch in respect of life in society on earth and in time. Here, then, the Old Testament finds its importance in its "visionary faith in the possibility of the sanctification of the earth."4.117 The apostolic work of christianization takes place in a fierce aggression against the basic evil passions of pagan existence but it always ends in a synthesis of revelation and paganism and that is what we call christendom. "Theocratie is, praktisch en principieel, nooit meer dan het theocratische gehalte van een bepaalde situatie, en daarom volstrekt relatief."4.118 It must be remembered that christianization is not a process of world improvement, it is a process of spreading the cultural-symbolical life of revelation in which people are made guilty and saved. "En het wezen van de geschiedenis ligt in de onontwarbare verstrengeling van de schuld en de verzoening."4.119 The last word in all of this is love. "Liefde tot alles wat de levende God op de aarde gesproken en gedaan heeft en daarom liefde tot de gansche werkelijkheid."4.120