Let us trace together the history of the Word of God.
The Old Testament is made up of thirty-nine books. The first five, which are called the Pentateuch, were written by Moses, as we know. Other books were gradually added. Then, after the return from the Babylonian captivity, further books, like Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi were written. Though the date cannot be accurately fixed, from either the fourth or third century B.C. all thirty-nine books were generally recognized by the Jews as their sacred writings. Sometimes, however, the books were grouped together to make a total of twenty-two. In the time of Christ the Old Testament was called the law (John 12:34) and the Scripture (10:35).
The central focus of the Old Testament is the prophecy and the types of Christ. Then Christ Himself came and lived on this earth thirty-three and a half years. His life was actually a speaking, expressing God Himself as the reality to mankind. His living was more than a model or pattern; it spoke forth God to man. In a sense He was held in the flesh for those years, waiting to be processed from the flesh into another form. After His death by crucifixion, He was processed into resurrection. As God, He had taken the step of incarnation to become flesh and was confined in this form until released by crucifixion. Once He was ushered into resurrection, He took a further step and became the life-giving Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ, as the life-giving Spirit, includes God and divinity; man and humanity; the mingling of these two in incarnation; a pattern of the uplifted human living that can satisfy God’s eternal purpose; His precious, all-inclusive death; and His mysterious, all-transcending resurrection and ascension. This One represents God, man, and all His accomplishments.
Though He is so great, He is as available as the air you breathe. When you take Him into you, you are receiving God, the proper humanity, the proper human living, the incarnation, the all-inclusive death, the wonderful resurrection, and the transcendent ascension. By breathing Him in, all His accomplishments become your reality.
It is the New Testament which reveals this to us, though for all these centuries the vision has not been as clear as it is today.
How could we know these marvelous truths if the four Gospels had not been written and printed? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John present a composite picture of this wonderful One, each written from a different side or angle. Without all four, our picture of Him would be incomplete.
The New Testament continues with the Acts. In this book we have the record of how Christ was preached, propagated, and reproduced. Without the Acts, how could we know that this wonderful Person has been propagated into humanity and become the churches?
Without the Epistles from Romans to Jude, how could we know that the churches are His Body, His expression? How could we know how the Christian life and the church life should be?
In Revelation we have the completing of the revelation of Christ and the church. Without this final book, we would not know that the churches today are the lampstands and tomorrow are the New Jerusalem, expressing Him in full.
Home | First | Prev | Next