Getting to know and to use the Bible in our lives is essential to living in the way of Jesus. This is why, in the First Steps resources to help new Christians, there will eventually be a number of posts about the Bible (most will be shorter than this one). In the accompanying post to this one, I provided a simple overview of the Old Testament (OT). This post aims to do the same with the New Testament (NT), and then provide a signpost to further resources to help you discover more.

The New Testament

In the first post of this two-part resource, we said that the OT develops the promise of a new King (or Messiah) and his Kingdom, and of a new covenant. The NT is about the fulfilment of that promise. Just as we did with the OT, we are going to divide the NT into four main parts.

1. Gospels

The word gospel simply means ‘good news’ and the four gospels are complementary accounts of the life and mission of Jesus Christ. He starts his mission by declaring that the promised kingdom of God was now within the reach of people. We have already been given the hint that this was going to be a different kingdom – and Jesus a different kind of king – by the stories surrounding his birth in a stable. His life, teachings and miracles recorded in the gospels show the reality and nature of this kingdom but the gospels are not biographies in the normal sense. The focus is actually on his death and resurrection at the end of the gospels because they are at the heart of understanding the Christian message. The forgiveness of sins, the hope of new and eternal life, and of an ultimate new creation, come through these events. The resurrection also shows the power of the kingdom as Jesus defeats the final enemy of death. But the crucifixion shows that the nature of his kingdom is different from the kingdoms of this world. He is a king who lays down his life even for his enemies. It is significant that the first part we have identified in the NT corresponds with the first part of the OT – the Torah or Law. In the gospels we see the first signs of the new covenant where God’s laws will be written on our hearts and the Spirit given to enable us to obey God. It will be based not on what we manage to do for God but on what God does for us in giving us his Son, Jesus Christ.

2. History – the book of Acts

The second part of the OT that we looked at was the History books, and in the NT the main book of history is the book of Acts. The gospels certainly also included history – the story of Jesus Christ. Acts, written by the same author of the gospel of Luke, now tells how Jesus continued to work through his Church as it was empowered by the Holy Spirit. This empowering by the Spirit occupies the first chapters of Acts and is one aspect of the OT promise being fulfilled. Just as the OT told the story of Israel, the NT tells the story of Christ and his Church. The Church is called the body of Christ and it is the means by which he continues his mission in the world to this day. The Israelites had been just one ethnic group but the next section of Acts (and some of the Letters) show how God is now bringing together into his Body, the Church, both Jew and Gentile (any non-Jewish person). This is the fulfilment of the OT promise that God’s kingdom and the blessings of the covenant would reach to all nations. The rest of the book of Acts is about the missionary journeys made by key Christian leaders as they seek to take this new message about Jesus and his kingdom to the ends of the earth. New local communities of Christians called churches are planted in the different places the gospel is preached. They are little communities of this new, different kingdom where they learn together how to live the way of Jesus. Acts records honestly the internal conflicts among these early Christian communities as well as the external opposition and persecution. One of the early religious persecutors, Saul, is converted to the way of Jesus and becomes Paul, one of the greatest Christian leaders and teachers who wrote many of the letters in the NT. Let’s now consider them.

3. Letters

A major part of the NT is made up of the letters written by early Christian leaders (such as Paul, Peter and John) to some of the early church communities we read about in Acts. They are often best read alongside their stories in Acts. There are also a few written to individual leaders. As well as giving us insight into the experiences and challenges of the early Christians, they are used to unpack the truth about the Christian message, the gospel. This truth provides the basis for the way of Jesus that we are called to follow. One of the major themes to this truth is that, as part of the promised new covenant, we are made right with God no longer by keeping Jewish laws and rituals, or from our own moral achievement in following God’s law. We are made right with God by the grace of God through what Jesus Christ did for us by dying on the cross. And we are empowered to live right with God by the power of the Spirit within us. There is still a way of life for us to follow but we are now enabled to do so by the Holy Spirit working powerfully within us. Writers like Paul seldom use the terms kingdom and covenant and prefer to use words like salvation to cover the fulfilment of the promises contained in those earlier words. These letters also address some of the struggles the churches faced in learning to live the way of love – rightly understood, this is the way of Jesus and is what the OT (sometimes referred to as the law and the prophets) is ultimately all about. The letters also address the need to hold on to and guard the truth of the gospel, not allowing it to be diluted or distorted. This is important as this gospel truth is the foundation for the Christian life and faith, and for the ultimate fulfilment of God’s plan for our world.

4. Apocalypse – the book of Revelation

The last book of the Bible is another letter in many ways but it is written in a unique and very strange, ancient type of writing unfamiliar to us. We come across some of this kind of writing in the OT, in parts of Ezekiel and Daniel for example, but we see it most clearly here in Revelation. It is called apocalyptic writing and most people think this means it is about the end of the world. Although Revelation certainly includes that, apocalyptic writing is writing that reveals or ‘unveils’ the true reality of things from God’s perspective. It gives ‘a heavenly perspective on our earthly situation’. And this ‘book’ ( a letter really) is written to Christians who were enduring great suffering and persecution. The heavenly visions warn them, encourage them, and assure them of their ultimate hope no matter how bad it gets. Because of the nature of the writing, with its strange images, symbols and references, it has been open to different interpretations, including some very fanciful ones that can be very misleading. We can’t go into all the details here but there will eventually be posts on this site to help you with it, and see the resources below. A great introduction to how to understand apocalyptic writing can be found here at the Bible Project. Revelation ends with the new creation, a new heavens and new earth joined together and where God lives among people. This is the ultimate fulfilment of the promises made in the OT. That first main part of the Christian Bible starts in a garden, the Garden of Eden. Here, the NT ends in the Garden City of God where God has made all things new. This is our ultimate hope as Christians.

All About Jesus

Jesus explained the OT to his followers and pointed out that it was all about him:

Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

(Luke 24:27)

He is the ultimate fulfilment of all the promises and the NT explains how this is so and the difference it makes. And so the NT is also all about him.

When you are reading the Bible, therefore, keep focused on and keep looking for Jesus in all the Scriptures. Don’t be like some of the religious leaders we read about in the gospels who knew their Bibles (the OT) so well but failed to see Jesus there and so missed him when he was right in front of them (see John 5:39-40). If you keep Jesus as the focus of all your reading of the Bible, you will not go far wrong. The resources below can help you with this.

Further Resources

Bible Project – this fantastic resource provides great short video introductions to all the books of the Bible and its major themes – and lots more besides. To start with, I recommend watching ‘What is the Bible?’ which gives a brief background to the Bible, though from a scholarly and historical angle not covered in this post. ‘The story of the Bible’ is even better at showing you the one unified story of the Bible, and helps you to understand God’s different kingdom.

The Bible Tour – when you are ready for it, here on this site I will help you to read the whole Bible, or one of its main parts, OT or NT, over a year. I provide weekly guides and encouragements for your readings, as well as introductions to each of the books of the Bible and some of its main teachings, and links to short posts on key themes and images.

God’s Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts – a short but very helpful book explaining how all the different parts of the Bible fit together into one great storyline about Jesus and his kingdom. This would be a good resource to go to next for understanding what the Bible is all about.

The Bible by Andrew Ollerton – this is a recent, popular and excellent introduction to the Bible, showing you how its big Story make sense of life and the world. It is longer than Vaughan Roberts’ book above but well worth reading at some point. See my review of it here.

The Bible Course – Andrew Ollerton works for the Bible Society and developed The Bible Course for them. With video teachings, written guides and diagrams, over eight sessions it shows you how all the events, books and characters of the Bible fit together into the one storyline of the Bible. It can be used on your own or in a small group, and is well worth the investment.