Overview: New Testament

The New Testament If you open the Bible and its contents, you will see that it consists of two large collections of the Old and New Testaments. The word "Law" refers to the covenant association that both collections deal with. Both parts describe an epic and complex story. History of God's covenant with Israel and with all humanity, the Old Testament is called "TaNak" in Jewish tradition. It is a unified collection of scrolls of 39 Israeli texts that were created over a period of more than a thousand years. In contrast, the 27 books of the New Testament were written over a period of 30 to 40 years.

And they were written by the first generations of followers of Jesus. Christian communities began collecting these early period texts and reading them alongside the Old Testament as a unified story leading to Jesus. The New Testament begins with four narrative books, collectively called the "Gospel." They tell the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, as an announcement of the Good News. They are followed by a fifth story, called "The Acts of the Apostles." Here the resurrected Jesus commissions the apostles, a word that means "sent." They are designated representatives of Jesus who spread the Good News about him throughout the ancient world.

After Acts comes a collection of letters from the apostles. They were written to provide instruction and guidance to local communities of followers of Jesus, called "congregations." There are 13 such letters associated with the apostle Paul. They are not ordered according to when they were written. But rather from the longest to the shortest. Then there is the letter to the Hebrews written by a close but anonymous companion of the apostles. Then there are the letters of James, Jude, Peter and John. Two were brothers of Jesus and two were among his first followers. The last Book of the New Testament is the Apocalypse, the letter to the seven churches, which reveals a prophetic word that is a comfort to all followers of Jesus.

So those are the books of the New Testament, but what are they about? And how do they connect with the Old Testament to form a unified story? Think of it this way: the Bible is one long epic story with multiple acts or actions. The Old Testament tells the first series of events that provide man with everything he needs to understand the meaning of the story that follows. The basic themes and plot of the conflict are organized into building patterns. Then, in the New Testament, all of them are taken up and presented to culminate in the story of Jesus Christ.

Let me show you better what I mean. The first act is about God and all humanity. God provides a sweet garden temple for people who were created to be God's partners in the government of the world. But people are stupid. They give in to dark temptation and rebel against the wisdom of God. They are then banished to the desert where they begin to kill each other. They build cities to expand their selfishness and oppression, which leads them to a great fallen city called Babylon. But God loves the world and the fools in it. Then he initiates a rescue plan promising the arrival of a New Man who will destroy the evil that leads us to self-destruction.

The next act of the biblical story is about God and Israel. Develop the themes and patterns of the first act. God is calling a new humanity from Babylon to the land of the sweet garden: Abraham, Sarah and her descendants, or the Israelites. God promises that through them God's blessing will be restored to all nations. Surely these are the new people we are waiting for. But the Israelites repeat humanity's rebellion against God, building their own violent cities that lead to self-destruction and further exile to Babylon. But God keeps his promise that the new man will come from the lineage of Abraham.

He will be the Royal Priest who will now have to save Israel and humanity from Babylon to restore God's blessing to the world. Now notice how these two acts are designed according to the same pattern. The second act is a longer and more violent version of the first. Together they explore the tragic conditions of humanity. But they also emphasize the promise of God, which is further developed in the action of the following: the prophets and poets of the Old Testament. The prophets blamed Israel and all nations for their wickedness. They announced that one day God himself would come to bring the day of the Lord closer and free the world from Babylon.

He will do so through the promised Royal Priest who will suffer as a slave and die for the sins of Israel and all humanity. But then he will be exalted as King over the nations. He will call others to leave Babylon and join the new Covenant People who will share with God the government of the New Jerusalem. That is, about the New Creation. Thus the Old Testament ends anticipating a new event in history. When you look at the New Testament, it is the same story that is now conveyed in Jesus. Let's see how. The four gospel accounts present Jesus of Nazareth as the promised son of Abraham who will restore God's blessing to the nations and also as the New Man who will defeat evil and restore humanity's partnership with God.

So Jesus is portrayed as a man and more! He walked through the countryside announcing the coming of the promised Kingdom of God. He spoke and acted as if he were the Divine King of Israel. But instead of calling Himself “King,” Jesus referred to Himself as “Son of Man.” This is a person who will act as a servant. The Gospels affirm that in Jesus, the God of Israel became a faithful Israelite and the true man that we were all created to be, but cannot be. Jesus' mission was to oppose the dark evil that lies beneath the evil of humanity, which leads us to selfishness, violence and death.

But how can such evil be defeated? The surprising answer in the Gospels is that Jesus defeated our evil by allowing evil to kill itself, Jesus, on his paradoxical throne was the cross where Jesus died for the evil and sin of humanity. And it was there that he lived what he taught: that nonviolence, forgiveness, and self-sacrificing love are the most powerful things in the universe. Because God's love for his world is stronger than evil or death, Jesus was resurrected to new life as the prototype of the New Humanity. This brings us to the story in the book of Acts, through the Spirit, God empowers the followers of Jesus to spread the life and love of Jesus to the world and invite other people to leave their old humanity and join the multiethnic family of Jesus. : the New Humanity.

This is where the apostles' letters fit into the story. Here the apostles address the first Christian communities. They show how the Good News of the Risen King, who is Jesus, is changing history and should reshape every part of our lives. They also explain the Good News by constantly connecting the stories of the Old Testament and the stories of Christ, showing us how to see our own life stories as part of the epic story of the Bible. So all of humanity is trapped in Babylonian exile, but Jesus has come to make a new home. We all live in different types of Egyptian slavery to selfishness and sin.

But Jesus died like a lamb to free us and lead us to the promised land. Our old humanity is headed for the dust of death, but the resurrection of Jesus has opened a new future for the New Humanity. We live here in the current evil age, but through Jesus and the Spirit, a New Creation has been opened here and now. This brings us to the book of Revelation, where all of biblical history is brought together in powerful symbolism and imagery. Jesus is depicted as a slain blood lamb who is exalted as the Divine King of the world.

He leads his people out of slavery and exile in Babylon. As they resist Babylon's influence, they may have to suffer alongside their slain leader. But when one follows the Risen King, not even death can prevent the dawn of the New Creation described here as the Garden Temple of the New Jerusalem, the true home of humanity after the long exile. Thus, on the last page of the Bible, heaven and earth meet. The new people assume the tasks that have been assigned to them from the first page of the Bible: to govern the world together in the love and power of God.

The New Testament is a remarkable collection of documents. They represent the testimony of the apostles, who direct us to the Risen Jesus himself. By the Spirit of God these human words speak, the Divine Word of hope, from the 1st century to the 21st century. Each book shows how God, through Jesus and the Spirit, is leading our world toward his ultimate goal of Renewed Creation. So the end of a story is actually the beginning of a new story yet to be told. That's what the New Testament is about.