THE TWO DIVISIONS OF THE BIBLE

“We shall do well to remember that the Old Testament is just as much inspired as the New, and that the religion of both Testaments is…one and the same. The Old Testament is the Gospel in the bud; the New Testament is the Gospel in full flower…The Old Testament saints saw many things through a glass darkly: but they looked to the same Christ by faith and were led by the same Spirit as ourselves. Let us, therefore, never listen to those who sneer at Old Testament arguments. Much infidelity begins with an ignorant contempt of the Old Testament” Bishop J. C. Ryle (ref#167).

“There is no duty imposed upon the Israelite in the Ten Commandments that is not equally incumbent upon all men everywhere” Benjamin B. Warfield (ref#180).

“Here is this great book; we divide it up, and we call it the Old Testament and the New Testament…But…if we were to be strictly accurate we would not describe it in that way. The real division of the Bible is this: first, everything you get from Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 3:14; then everything from Genesis 3:15 to the very end of the Bible. What you have up to Genesis 3:14 is the account of the creation and of God’s original covenant of works with man and of how that failed because man broke it. Beginning with Genesis 3:15 you get the announcement of the Gospel, the covenant of grace, the way of salvation, and that is the whole theme of the Bible until you come to the last verse of the book of Revelation” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189).

Here is the dividing verse. It is cryptic but the meaning is there. GOD is talking to the snake:

“And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen 3:15 NASB).