P. Ivan Hrůša, O.Carm.
There are many differences in the image of God presented by the Old and New Testament. Many arise from the fact that each part of Christian Scripture was written at a different time and for somewhat different groups of readers or listeners. The writings of the Old Testament were initially addressed to the Israelites living in an ancient Oriental, polytheistic culture, in which each tribe or nation understood its deity primarily as "a god only for us," that is, not for other nations; in contrast, the New Testament addresses people for whom it was—due to the culture in which they grew up—much easier to accept the idea that there is only one God who is equally a good God and a giver of life to all people.
At the same time, careful reading of Scripture shows that Israel came to a deeper knowledge of God gradually, thanks to the growing and deepening experience over the ages, so that later biblical writings may speak of God differently than older texts. Despite all differences, however, it holds true that the God of the Old and New Testaments is the same. For example, it cannot be simply stated that in the Old Testament God is stricter, whereas in the New Testament God is more merciful.
Nevertheless, the New Testament brings something that cannot be found anywhere in the Old Testament and that creates a fundamental difference in the faith of the Old Testament and New Testament people of God: the New Testament reveals God's incarnation. This difference between the two parts of Scripture is reflected in the New Testament's conception of God, in the approach of humans to God, and in practical spiritual life. This is clearly evident in biblical images:
- in the Old Testament the Lord is a vine-grower, Israel is the vineyard; in the New Testament the Father is the vine-grower, Jesus is the vine, we are the branches;
- in the Old Testament God is a shepherd, we are sheep; in the New Testament Christ is the shepherd and at the same time the sheep, the Lamb.
If the New Testament reveals that God became a man (John 1:14), it has far-reaching consequences. To go to God, therefore, does not mean to reject what is human, but to be permeated by the Spirit:
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:14–19)
What is human in us is not a negative contrast to the divine; it is not to be removed but transformed. Because in Christ “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col 2:9 – literal translation), corporeality does not obstruct divinity, but both are to permeate each other. Only sin must be removed, which, however, is not something positively human, but rather harms and destroys humanity.
To set body against spirit does not correspond to biblical thinking. Heaven and earth are not to perish but to be made new (Rev 21:5). God's material creation is therefore not destined for decay but for transformation. In the confession of faith, we pray: “I believe in the resurrection of the body.” Due to Christ's incarnation, spiritual does not mean suppressing the material, and spiritual life should not replace or substitute the natural life.
The bodily aspect of a person has often been undervalued in Christianity. Some passages from the New Testament may provide a reason for this, in which the body is associated with sin and death, even being labeled as the seat of sin (e.g., Rom 7:14–24). However, “body” in such New Testament texts cannot be automatically understood as the physical shell of a person. “Body” here refers to everything in a person that is detached from God, and therefore subject to death (which then visibly manifests itself in the physical body). Primarily, this includes desires and attitudes of the mind that turn against God, but also all sinful human actions, as clarified, for instance, in the letter to the Colossians: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed... anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” (Col 3:5–8). As another verse from the letter indicates, “earthly members” refers to the “old self” (Col 3:9), that is, a person (still) turned away from God, and not the human corporeality in today's sense. Misunderstanding similar passages of Scripture can easily lead to the belief that the bodily is inferior to the spiritual and inherently sinful. This disparagement is particularly pronounced in attitudes towards sexuality, despite the deep sentiment and beauty with which the Song of Songs celebrates love between a man and a woman. However, negative evaluations of corporeality cannot be justified by God's word.
Undervaluing the incarnation also means underestimating human support in life, underestimating the need for human love. As if one who loves God no longer needed love from a human, or as if human love were even set against love for God. In Scripture, however, love for God does not diminish love for human beings unless attachment to another person poses a threat to faith and leads to the rejection of God (cf. Deut 7:1–5; Luke 14:25–27). The Gospels show that the Son of God fully integrated into the world of human relationships through incarnation: born as a child completely reliant on human love; loved Lazarus, Martha, and Mary (John 11:5); the Gospel of John speaks of “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (e.g., John 13:23). Jesus' relationships, therefore, were not impersonal and the same towards all. It is also evident from Jesus' plea to the disciples in Gethsemane that Jesus needed human support: “Stay here and keep watch with me” (Matt 26:38). We also cannot go further than Christ went. We cannot do without people and regard the love of others as something unspiritual.
“Human” is to be permeated with the Spirit. In 1 Cor 15:44, Saint Paul speaks of the body that will rise at the resurrection as a “spiritual body” (sóma pneumatikon), that is, a body permeated by the Holy Spirit, in contrast to a “natural body” (sóma psychikon), which means the earthly living being.1 In such a spiritual body, the risen Christ rose, true God and true man, and in such a body dwells the fullness of deity for all eternity!
Thanks to Christ's incarnation, Christian mysticism and Christian spiritual life are not an escape from the body or a cancellation of the material, corporeal, but its transformation. It means permeating the material with God's Spirit. Spiritual life is not our prayers and efforts, but Christ's life, the Holy Spirit, in us. A life that is more Christ's than ours, and that more literally than in a transferred sense. “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). This sentence is often understood in such a way that Saint Paul has gone very far on his spiritual path and that he has completely surrendered himself to Christ. However, in the context of the letter to the Galatians, it is clear that it is not about a level of spiritual perfection, but rather about the fundamental principle of Christian life. Paul is dead in himself because he is (Moses') law convicted of sin and condemned to death – he has no life within him, but death. Physically, however, Christ was killed in the place of Paul due to sin. But “God raised him, death could not hold him in its power” (Acts 2:24) and the life, which he has from the Father and which does not succumb to death, Jesus places into Paul through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Paul's “spiritual life” is not Paul's achievement and the result of his spiritual striving. It is a manifestation and fruit of Jesus’ living presence in Paul himself. In Christ “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), so that a person could “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19).
