New Testament: a book by book overview

The Bible can be overwhelming for new and not so new Christians. So this 10 Minute Teaching series will try to look at the forrest rather than the trees, to get the big picture, the landscape, so that as we read God's inspired Word we might grasp not only the ever present immediate plain sense of the text, but to place the text in the context of the whole Bible and the additional layers of meaning paralleling the plain and simple reading of the words.

The New Testament (NT) records the Good News of God sending His promised Messiah. The Old Testament (OT) draws to a close in Malachi looking for the One to bring God's Kingdom to our world. From the OT we follow the linear narrative, the events beginning from Creation to the Return from Exile, in Genesis through Esther. We learned that if we do what God asks, things will go well; if we don't they won't. We look at the detail in that sequence as we read the Wisdom literature (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Eccesiates, etc.) and the Prophets (God's messengers during the period of the Kings and the Exile). We learned in the Wisdom literature and Prophets that "bad things happen to good people" and we need to look deeper into God's plan of salvation.

The New Testament begins with the Gospels, the good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. This happened at just the right time, the fullness of time. God would at this time remedy the fractured relationship between Himself and Man all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, the Garden of Eden. I will but enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. (Gn 3.15 ESV) God has a plan to restore Man's relationship to Himself. When Man was unable to fulfill the Law, God sent His Son to fulfill the Law for us.


God might have sent His Son at anytime, but this was the "fullness of time," the right time. Why?

1. There was a Common language so the message could be understood throughout the vast Roman Empire. The language was Greek, not Latin, in the 1st century.


2. There was the Pax Romano, the Peace of Rome. With the world at peace, not withstanding some local conflicts, the message could easily be spread throughout the world.



3. There were the Roman Roads. Never before had it been easier to travel quickly throughout the empire and in relative safety.

With this being the right time, God sent His Son, Jesus, to bring about a restoration of the relationship of God and Man that went far beyond what Man could have imagined.