The whole Bible is God's message about His Son, the Saviour. God's chief purpose in writing His Book was to reveal Christ. The Old Testament is the preparation for Christ, the New Testament is the manifestation of Christ.
The Scriptures reveal Christ from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus said to the Jews of His day
Search the Scriptures, for in them you have eternal life, and they testify of me." John 5:39
The entire Scriptures find their meaning in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the origin, the substance and the object of all divine revelation.
History is really HIS-STORY and begins in the first verse of Genesis, for He was there in the beginning. But it is not until the fall of man, that the Son of the virgin is promised. The one who will overcome Satan and deliver His captives. The story of Christ then continues through the entire Old Testament in numerous types and prophecies. The New Testament records the fulfilment of those prophecies through His birth, life, death, ascension and present glory. The story of Christ, as told in the Gospels, is the sequel to the Old Testament.
The Gospel of Matthew opens with the story of the birth of Christ, not as the beginning of the story, but as the fulfilment and consummation of all that was written previously. Matthew connects the story of Christ with Abraham to whom God had given the promise "in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Genesis 12:3 This, and all the other promises given to Abraham, were to be fulfilled through his Seed, ".... which is Christ" Galations 3:16.
The Gospel of Mark launches almost directly into the life of Christ, but Mark is careful nonetheless to remind his readers that this story is not the beginning, but the fulfilment of what which was "written in the prophets" (Mark 1:2)
Like traces the geneology of Jesus to Adam. By doing this Luke shows us the story which he wrote cannot be understood only of Mary and Joseph, or Jesus, born as a baby in Bethlehem. To clearly understand Luke's Gospel, we must be aware of Adam's part as the first man in the historical drama of the Bible.
John's Gospel tells the ongoing story of the Word. The story of the Word begins in eternity. It continues in the Words creation of all things and then in His incarnation (John 1:1-3). The future story of the Word is told in the Revelation, where He is described as being "clothed in a vesture, dipped in blood" Revelation 19:13.
When Jesus saw the need to put two sadly disallusioned men straight on the necessity of His death, He turned back to the Old Testament. "and beginning with Moses (Genesis to Dueteronomy) and all the prophets (the remainder of the scriptures) he explained to them in all of the scriptures the things concerning himself" Luke 24:27.
Because the Christ-Story cannot be clearly taught or understood apart from it's God-given beginnings found only in the Old Testament, any reader of the New Testament must understand the teaching of the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, God has given types and analogies to prepare people to understand the New Testament story of Christ.
The redemptive analogies were given by God to Israel for the entire world. It was Israel's responsibility to tell them to the world. God chose to reveal Himself and His plan of salvation through the cultural, geographical and historical framework of Israel.
The promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, was fulfilled through Christ and seen in the Scriptures, and was entrusted to Israel as the only revelation of God to the world.
The Bible alone is God's revelation to the world. It is one Book... complete and whole written over thousands of years, directed by the Holy Spirit. Men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. It's miracle is that though written over thousands of years it is one unique and unifed story.. each part explaining the rest.
Regardless of what is said about it's so called contradictions and corruptions the truth is that it's remarkableness is seen in that in 66 Books, Out of over 15,000 lines in the New Testament only 40 are in some doubt. All others are established above all reasonable doubt. And no Christian doctrine depends on any of the doubtful lines. Christian scholars honestly admit that there are some doubts about the text of the New Testament.
But taking a fair view at the data we have, it is clear that the massive information from the many manuscripts of the New Testament is a far more reliable witness to the faithful transmission of the Bible from the earliest manuscripts to those we have available today.
Next post I will look at the plan of salvation in depth.
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