Why This Matters
When we turn from Malachi to Matthew, we may feel as though we have opened a different book. The prophets give way to accounts of Jesus, Rome has entered the picture, and people are speaking about Pharisees, Sadducees, and the kingdom of heaven. If we are uncertain how these pages connect, we may leave the Old Testament behind and begin reading the New Testament as a separate story.
Yet Matthew begins by identifying Jesus through Abraham and David. Luke introduces families waiting for Israel’s consolation and Jerusalem’s redemption. John reaches back to the beginning and announces the coming of the Word in the flesh. Each opening asks us to remember what we have already been reading.
The story of faith continues across that change of page. The God who gave humanity life in His presence, who judged rebellion and promised blessing, now brings His saving purposes to fulfillment through His Son. From paradise given, through paradise lost, toward paradise regained, the Bible follows His faithful work to restore His people to fellowship with Himself.
Understanding that continuity changes how we approach these twenty-seven books. We come with the questions the earlier story has taught us to ask. How will God deal with sin? Who can bring us near to Him? Will death keep its hold on the people He made for life? The New Testament leads us to Jesus and calls us to entrust ourselves to the King through whom God answers those needs.
What We Are Reading
The New Testament contains four Gospels, Acts, twenty-one letters, and Revelation. Written in Greek, these documents address people in Judea and Galilee, communities across the Mediterranean, and individuals entrusted with responsibilities among the churches. Conservative scholarship generally places their composition within the first century, in the world of the Roman Empire.
The word testament, as used in these titles, means covenant. The name New Testament directs us to the covenant Jesus established through His death, the covenant Jeremiah had announced centuries earlier (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Luke 22:20). These books bear witness to its Mediator and teach His people how to live within that relationship. The name itself asks us to remember a promise already present in the Old Testament.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John recount Jesus’ ministry, teaching, death, and resurrection. Their accounts have much in common with ancient biography, selecting and arranging events to help us understand the person whose life they describe. Each deserves to be heard in its own voice. When we listen to their differing emphases, we learn more of the same Jesus and understand more clearly why following Him changes our lives.
Acts continues Luke’s account by following the apostles’ witness and the work of the Holy Spirit as the gospel spreads. The letters address actual needs: division, confusion about resurrection, questions about Jewish and Gentile belonging, false teaching, suffering, and everyday conduct. Hebrews has the character of an extended exhortation, while Revelation brings prophecy and symbolic visions within a message addressed to seven churches.
The arrangement is useful, but it is not the order in which every document was written. Some of Paul’s letters preceded the written Gospels. The events described and the writing of their accounts also belong to different moments. Dates and some questions of authorship remain debated, and we will consider those matters as we reach the individual books.
These writings first circulated separately and in smaller collections. Churches received the apostolic witness and shared documents that instructed their worship, corrected their conduct, and strengthened their hope. They came to recognize the collection we now hold, with some books discussed longer than others. Surviving copies help us study that history, although the date of a manuscript is distinct from the date of the writing it preserves.
The world had also changed since the Persian period familiar from the later Old Testament books. Alexander’s conquests brought Greek rule, followed by the kingdoms of his successors. The Maccabean revolt led to a period of Jewish rule under the Hasmoneans before Roman intervention. By the time of Jesus, a family paying taxes or living under a ruler’s decisions felt the reach of Rome in ordinary life. Israel’s hope endured within that world of foreign power.
Greek was widely used, while Hebrew and Aramaic remained part of Jewish life. Worshipers traveled to the Jerusalem temple, communities gathered in synagogues, and Jewish families beyond the homeland maintained their identity among other peoples. Pharisees and Sadducees represented differing concerns about religious life and authority. Understanding those differences helps us hear the questions people brought to Jesus and the disagreements His teaching exposed.
We can still see tangible evidence of that world. A stone inscription found at Caesarea names Pontius Pilate and identifies his office as prefect of Judea. The ruler who appears in the accounts of Jesus’ trial belonged to an actual system of Roman administration. Historical study helps us understand the pressures surrounding these events and remember that God worked among people whose choices carried consequences for their neighbors.
Where It Fits
To understand why Jesus’ coming matters, we need to remember what was lost in Eden. God made human beings in His image and gave them life within His good creation. The garden was a place of provision and responsibility, where life was received from Him. Paradise given begins with His generosity, before humanity has done anything to deserve it.
Rebellion changed that relationship. Adam and Eve hid from God, were driven from the garden, and were barred from the tree of life. The following chapters show sin spreading through families into violence and the misuse of power. Paradise lost concerns fellowship with God, but also the damage that distrust and disobedience bring into the world He made. Our need for redemption begins there, before Israel becomes a nation.
God’s promise to Abraham carries hope for all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3). His rescue of Israel from Egypt reveals His power to deliver and form a people for Himself. Through the tabernacle, and later the temple, He dwells among them. The boundaries, priesthood, and sacrifices teach them that His presence is holy and that sinners must approach Him through the provision He gives. The God from whom humanity has become estranged graciously makes a way for His people to draw near.
God’s promise to David brings the royal line into focus (2 Samuel 7:12–16). The prophets later speak of renewed hearts, forgiveness, a new covenant, and righteous rule (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Ezekiel 36:25–27). Return from Babylon brings real restoration, but the people still struggle with sin and live under foreign powers. The deeper need for reconciliation and life remains.
The New Testament announces fulfillment within that continuing purpose. Jesus comes as Abraham’s descendant and David’s promised heir. John describes the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14). In Jesus, the Son comes among the people who need His rescue. His sacrifice addresses their sin, His resurrection brings victory over death, and His reign gives assurance that God’s purpose for His creation will reach completion.
We can follow this concern for God’s presence through the whole story. Humanity loses fellowship in Eden; God dwells among Israel; the Son comes in the flesh; and believers are joined together as a dwelling place for God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:19–22). The final vision of new creation brings that purpose to its fullness. These connections help us recognize how the earlier pages prepare us to understand what God accomplishes through Jesus.
This continuity does not make every covenant identical. Christians live under the new covenant established through Jesus, and we do not offer the sacrifices required of Israel’s priests. Yet those earlier writings remain God’s word. They teach us what holiness, deliverance, mediation, and belonging mean, and help us understand the sufficiency of what Christ has accomplished.
We should also resist separating the Testaments into a harsh God followed by a loving God. Mercy and patient rescue run through Israel’s Scriptures; judgment and accountability remain clear in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. Across both collections, the holy and faithful God calls people to trust Him and return to Him.
How the New Testament Story Moves
The Gospels bring us into the coming of Jesus, His ministry among Israel, and His announcement of God’s kingdom. He heals, forgives, confronts evil, and welcomes people whom others have pushed aside. His teaching searches the heart and calls people to repentance. Those who follow Him begin learning a way of life shaped by His authority and mercy.
As opposition grows, Jesus moves toward the cross. His death occurs through human betrayal, injustice, and Roman execution, yet Scripture also presents His willing gift of Himself for our sins. At the last supper, He connects His approaching death with the new covenant. The promises of forgiveness now meet the sacrifice through which God provides reconciliation.
God raises Jesus from the dead. The disciples encounter the risen Lord, and Jesus opens their understanding of the Scriptures that spoke concerning His suffering and resurrection. Their commission carries that fulfillment outward: repentance and forgiveness are to be proclaimed in His name to the nations (Luke 24:44–49).
The story continues into His ascension. Jesus is exalted to the Father’s right hand and reigns as Lord. His departure from the disciples’ sight leads into the exercise of His heavenly authority, the sending of the Spirit, and the spread of their witness. They carry the good news into the world as servants of the King whom God has raised and enthroned.
At Pentecost, Peter proclaims the crucified and risen Jesus as Lord and Christ. Those who receive the message are called to repent and be baptized, and they begin sharing life through the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, worship, and care for one another (Acts 2:36–47). The gospel forms a community whose life is ordered around the reigning Jesus.
Acts follows the witness from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria and onward among the nations. Gentile inclusion raises questions about identity and belonging that become important in the letters. God’s blessing reaches beyond Israel without abandoning the promises through which that blessing was announced.
As churches take shape, the letters teach them how to live together under Jesus. A congregation must confront its divisions. A believer must learn faithfulness in a household or workplace. A suffering community must endure without surrendering its hope. These instructions show what the gospel means amid the unresolved difficulties of ordinary life.
Revelation addresses churches facing pressure, temptation, and suffering, calling them to remain faithful to the Lamb. Its closing vision brings us to a new heaven and new earth where God dwells with His people. The tree of life appears again, the curse is removed, and death and grief end (Revelation 21–22). What began with humanity driven from the garden ends with God’s servants seeing His face. Paradise regained brings creation’s story to the fullness of life under God’s reign.
Major Themes
First, God’s faithfulness gives the story its continuity. The New Testament repeatedly turns to Israel’s Scriptures to explain what has happened through Jesus. Matthew identifies fulfillment, Paul connects the blessing of Abraham with Christ, and Hebrews explains priesthood and sacrifice through Him. These connections teach us to recognize the same faithful God carrying His purposes forward.
Second, salvation restores relationship and belonging. Jesus provides the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Forgiveness comes through His saving work, and those reconciled to God are also called into a people learning to love one another. Ephesians describes Jews and Gentiles brought near through Christ and made members of God’s household (Ephesians 2:11–22).
That communal life matters. A divided church at Corinth could affirm truths about Jesus while humiliating poorer believers when it gathered. Paul’s correction reaches into their treatment of one another (1 Corinthians 11:17–34). Belonging to Christ must become visible in the way His people receive, honor, and serve their brothers and sisters.
Third, faith calls for allegiance to King Jesus. Believing the gospel is essential, and trust rests in His faithfulness and saving work. Acknowledging Him as Lord also calls us to place our lives under His authority. Matthew Bates’s work helps us attend to this connection between faith and loyalty to the reigning Christ. The One we trust for rescue is also the One whose direction we follow.
This faithful response runs through both Testaments. Abraham’s trust led him to leave his home when God called him, and Hebrews describes that obedience as an expression of faith (Hebrews 11:8). God delivered Israel and then taught them how to live as His people. As the story reaches Jesus, we see more fully who the promised King is and what He has done for us. Faith continues to involve entrusting our lives to God and responding to His word.
Paul connects his mission with the obedience of faith among the nations, while James exposes the emptiness of belief that leaves a neighbor hungry and unclothed (Romans 1:5; James 2:14–19). Allegiance becomes visible when obeying Jesus challenges something we want. We may believe everything a passage says while resisting the generosity, repentance, or forgiveness it requires. The question reaches into the loyalties that actually govern our choices.
This response depends on grace. Ephesians places salvation as God’s gift alongside the good works for which He creates His people in Christ (Ephesians 2:8–10). We cannot earn rescue or make Jesus indebted to us. We receive His mercy and learn to live faithfully because we belong to Him.
Finally, the Spirit forms a people who live in hope. He strengthens believers for witness, holiness, and love while they await resurrection and the completion of God’s purposes. Their future hope gives courage for present faithfulness. The King who has conquered death will bring His people into the fullness of life with God.
How It Reveals King Jesus
The title Christ means Messiah, the Anointed One. Calling Jesus the Christ identifies Him with the promised King. The Gospels teach us who He is through His words and actions, His obedience to the Father, and His saving death and resurrection. We need all of that history to understand the Lord to whom we give our allegiance.
The ascension brings that history to its royal climax. In Daniel’s vision, one like a son of man comes with the clouds to the Ancient of Days and receives dominion, glory, and a kingdom (Daniel 7:13–14). The direction of that movement matters: he approaches God to receive authority. Read alongside the New Testament’s account of Jesus’ exaltation, the vision helps us understand His reception of the kingdom at the Father’s throne.
Psalm 110 gives another part of the picture: the Lord’s appointed ruler sits at His right hand while His enemies are made His footstool. At Pentecost, Peter draws on that psalm after proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection and exaltation. He explains that the exalted Jesus has poured out the Spirit, then brings his message to this conclusion:
“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36 ESV).
The One they crucified now reigns. The gospel announces His saving work and the authority He exercises. Matthew records Jesus’ declaration of authority in heaven and on earth, and Ephesians presents Him seated at God’s right hand above every ruler and power, with all things under His feet (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:20–23).
This present reign does not mean every enemy has already disappeared from our experience. Paul explains that Christ reigns until His enemies are defeated, with death itself the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:24–26). His kingdom is real now, and its final victory gives us hope while suffering and death remain.
The cross, resurrection, and enthronement belong together. The reigning Lord is the One who gave Himself for sinners. Revelation portrays Him as the victorious Lamb who was slain, and its final vision places the throne of God and of the Lamb within the creation where the curse has ended. The authority of King Jesus belongs within the story of restoration. He rules as the Savior who brings His people near and will overcome the death that still wounds their lives.
How to Read It Well
First, keep the Old Testament open beside the New. When a writer refers to Abraham, David, Passover, priesthood, or the temple, return to the earlier passage and hear its setting. We do not need to invent hidden meanings for every detail. Following the connections Scripture makes will show us how the story holds together.
Second, respect each kind of writing. Listen to a Gospel’s particular portrait of Jesus before comparing it with the others. We need time to hear His teaching and notice how people respond to Him. Their fear, resistance, growing trust, and failure may help us recognize struggles in our own discipleship. These accounts continue to form us after we have come to believe their testimony.
Read a letter as a connected argument addressed to people with actual needs. Romans, for example, develops its teaching about salvation alongside questions about Jews, Gentiles, and shared life under Christ. Read Revelation with attention to its first churches and its Old Testament imagery. Its visions call us to faithful endurance under the Lamb’s reign.
Third, examine the assumptions we bring. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes draws attention to cultural habits that can keep us from noticing what an ancient writer communicates. Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes helps us attend particularly to communal identity and relationships. Both encourage us to listen carefully before filling unfamiliar gaps with our own expectations.
For instance, when Ephesians speaks of believers being built into a dwelling place for God, the picture concerns a people joined together (Ephesians 2:19–22). Someone who has been brought near to the Father also belongs among brothers and sisters. That belonging asks something of us when reconciliation is difficult or another person’s needs interrupt our plans. We should ask what a passage requires of our life together as well as what it means for each of us.
Finally, let the passage teach us what faithfulness requires. The words translated faith and belief need to be read in their context; allegiance is not a mechanical replacement for every occurrence. As we learn who Jesus is, we ask what trusting and belonging to Him mean here. A command may require obedience, a warning repentance, or a promise patient confidence. Each book will help us understand that response more clearly.
What We Carry With Us
As we begin Matthew and continue through the New Testament, we can keep one practice before us: follow the connection between what God has done through Jesus and the life He calls His people to live. When we meet an Old Testament reference, give it attention. When a passage reveals Jesus’ authority, consider where our choices need to come under it. Reading with other believers can help us notice what we might overlook alone.
Suppose we have spoken harshly to a brother or sister and damaged the relationship. We may agree that Jesus commands love while waiting for the other person to make the first move. Allegiance reaches the moment when we surrender that demand, acknowledge our own wrong, and seek reconciliation. The conversation may be uncomfortable, and the response may disappoint us. We can still take the faithful step because Jesus has authority over the way we treat one another.
That same allegiance shapes a congregation’s life. When we become aware of someone’s need, we can make room in our time and resources to respond. When division grows, we can examine our contribution to it and pursue peace. Our belonging to Christ gives us responsibility for one another, and His mercy teaches us how to bear it. Such faithfulness lets the good news take visible shape among the people He has brought near.
As we sit with this today, perhaps we can consider where our allegiance to Jesus needs to become more visible, both in our own choices and in the life we share with His people. We can bring those needs to Him honestly and help one another take the next faithful step. The King who calls us has opened the way to the Father. Together, we follow Him in hope of the day when death is ended and we live fully in God’s presence.
If you are willing, share your reflections or questions in the comments so we can learn and walk this journey together.
#TuesdaysWithTony #TheStoryOfFaith #NewTestament #KingJesus #BibleStudy #FaithAndAllegiance