But the Lord Jesus Christ not only knew the Old Testament – He always demanded its fulfillment. Having healed the leper, He demands that he go and show himself to the priest and offer a sacrifice for purification, as was decreed by the law of Moses (Matt. VIII, 4, cf. Lev. XIV, 3-4).

When a young man turns to Him with a request to teach him how to inherit eternal life, He first of all requires him to fulfill the commandments of the Old Testament (Mk. X, 19).

When the time of the Passover comes, He instructs His disciples to prepare everything necessary for the feast, as required by the law of Moses (Lk. XXII, 8).

Many examples could be cited to show the respect with which the Lord treated the Old Testament. Undoubtedly, He considered it not only useful and necessary for spiritual life, but also obligatory for man as the Word of God.

Here we can emphasize in passing a lesson that follows for us: if the Lord found the books of the Old Testament necessary and useful, then they obviously have the same meaning for us, although we use the highest form of Divine Revelation – the New Testament. What is necessary for Christ is necessary for us. Therefore, the disdain and distrust that is sometimes noticed among some Christians in relation to the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament is completely unfounded.

But recognizing and revering the books of the Old Testament as Divine Revelation, the Lord treats them much more freely and completely differently than the Pharisees. Deeply honoring the basic principles here carried out as the fruit of the illumination of the Holy Spirit, He considers the Old Testament forms of their practical implementation in life to be quite amenable of change, and, never departing from the spirit of the Holy Scriptures, He nevertheless does not bind Himself or His followers to the formal precepts of the ancient law. Life changes, its conditions change, as in a kaleidoscope, and those rites, customs, and norms of external behavior that were practical and suitable several centuries ago become completely unsuitable and even unworkable at the moment.

But the spirit, this eternal absolute and living spirit, constantly acting in man, in his life, in his history, the spirit of goodness, truth, truth – must always be the same, manifesting itself only in different manifestations depending on the epoch. Thus, for example, the ancient law of Moses commanded that he who bought a slave from among his countrymen should keep him in slavery for no more than six years, and in the seventh year he should set him free, and at the same time he added: "When you set him free, you shall not let him go empty-handed, but provide him from your flocks, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress: give him what the Lord your God has blessed you with (Deut. XV, 13-14). In this decree the spirit of mercy, the spirit of love for one's neighbor is expressed, but can we fulfill this rule? Of course not, since slavery is no longer sold in our country and the very institution of slavery has long been destroyed, so the spirit of mercy must now seek its expression in other, modern forms of charity.

Another example: for unwitting murderers, that is, those who committed murder unintentionally, through negligence, the Mosaic Law set aside three cities where they could seek refuge from the revenge of the relatives of the murdered. The spirit of justice spoke here, for a person guilty only of negligence is of course unjust to be punished as for premeditated murder.

But we have neither cities of refuge nor tribal vengeance, and this rule falls away of itself. The spirit of justice finds expression in other forms. It is clear that the forms of human behavior and life, which express the dictates of the religious spirit, cannot be forever the same, frozen, dead, and to demand this immutability of form means to impose luboks on a living organ.

The result will always be the same: the weakening of the living force of religion and the deadening of the tissues of the soul.

Moreover, if religious forms are always kept pedantically unchanged, without taking into account the needs of the spiritually developing man, then these forms will either cripple spiritual life, give it an ugly development, or completely stop its growth. If the child is constantly kept in diapers, without removing them and without weakening them, then he will not be able to grow. Chinese women, in order to have small legs, which is required by fashion, keep them always tightly bandaged from childhood. This preserves the childish size of the leg, stopping its growth, but terribly disfigures it and is accompanied by severe pain.

This is always the case where there is a living organic force of life and growth. So it is in religion: as the spirit of God, the spirit of goodness and truth, is more and more fully and perfectly embodied in the life of man, the old forms, like baby diapers, become more and more crowded for him, and he inevitably, though often gradually and imperceptibly, changes them. Life itself, in so far as it develops and is imbued with a new spirit, outgrows the old frames, does not fit into them, and naturally strives to expand them, and if, regardless of this growth, these limits are left in their former form, without any changes, then life will simply break them, just as the rising spring water in a river breaks the ice that binds it. It is this law of spiritual life that the Lord expressed in the words: "No one pours new wine into old skins: otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine will leak out, and the skins will be lost; but new wine must be poured into new skins (Mk. II, 22).

The Lord, by His teaching, by His life and death, raised religion to such a tremendous height, in such fullness communicated to those who believed in Him the spirit of truth and grace, that not only did the forms of external worship become obsolete, but the very rules of life and behavior had to be expanded and deepened in order to reflect this spirit of the new spirit. Hence a number of antitheses that naturally arise when comparing the new teaching with the old rules:

You have heard that it was said to them of old time, "Thou shalt not kill, but whoever kills shall be liable to judgment" (Exod. XX, 13). But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment (Matt. V, 21-22).