The New Testament
The Gospels: “Christ is here!”
The theme of the Old Testament, as we have discussed, is “Christ is coming”—a Savior was needed because a perfectly created world (Genesis 1-2) was ruined by man’s sin (Genesis 3). So, the rest of the Old Testament recounts the activities of a loving God, working through history and the Jewish people, to bring that Savior into the world. Men didn’t obey Him very often, but they never have and never will. That’s true today, too, of course. And God IS just as well as loving.
In the Old Testament, God did everything He could to help men; the one thing He will NOT do is force people to obey Him. The Old Testament tells us what people the Messiah would come through (Genesis 12:1-3), where He would be born (Micah 5:2), when He would be born (Daniel 2:44), the EXACT YEAR He would die (Daniel 9:24-27), some of the things He would do when He was on earth (Isaiah 42:1ff; Isaiah 53; Zechariah 9:9), His crucifixion (Psalm 22) and resurrection (Psalm 16:10), and a whole host of other things, either direct prophesies or in typology. Those who understand what I’ve written about the purpose of the Bible understand these prophecies and to Whom they point. If one doesn’t understand the purpose of the Bible, he/she cannot grasp the significance of anything the Bible says and only views it as a collection of fairy tales.
So, the Old Testament tells us that the Christ is coming. The four gospels tell us He had arrived. Jesus said, in Luke 18:31, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.” He repeated the same thing in Luke 24:44-46. He did what He came to do. He did what the Old Testament SAID He was going to do. He established His kingdom (Colossians 1:13), and now reigns as “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (I Timothy 6:15). That most people don’t obey Him doesn’t change His authority; governments usually have masses of people who don’t like them and who disobey their laws. America is full of people like that now. But Jesus’s words will determine eternal destinies (John 12:48).
He is the Savior of Jew and Gentile alike. The Jews played their role, a great honor that God gave to them to be the people through whom the Messiah would come, and through whom He would give His first set of oracles. The Jews weren’t satisfied with that; they wanted more. So, they killed the Son of God. And they still reject Him. They have no more part to play in God’s plan for mankind. Read Luke 18:31 and 24:44-46 again.
The gospels. The Savior, promised all the way back in Genesis 3:15, arrived on earth. He did what He came to do—provide a possibility for man to be saved from the sins we all commit. He went back to heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father on high.
But there are 23 books left in the Bible. Guess what they say?