The New Testament

The New Testament begins with a bang of the four Gospels telling about the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus from the dead! The Book of Acts follows with the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit and the first acts of the believers in Jesus. Then there are the fourteen Pauline Epistles and the seven General Epistles concluding with the grand finale of the Book of Revelation. 

We regard these 27 books as the God-inspired canon of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul was an extremely formidable figure in the New Testament, being a Holy Spirit inspired author of fourteen letters of the New Testament. Actually thirteen bear his name and one, the Book of Hebrews, is assumedly written by Paul because it follows his literary structural pattern – in classic Pauline style.

The New Testament is, by and large, the short hand of the long hand narrative of the Old Testament – it interprets and reveals the real deal, behind the type and shadows! The Apostle Paul taught us the difference between the Old and New Covenant, but he would looked at you kind of funny if you referred to the Tanakh as the Old Testament – he would of simply referred to it as the Scriptures! To be clear, Paul did not teach against the Old Testament, he revealed the New Covenant promised in the Old Testament – big difference!

The Apostle Paul wrote, …to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the

Kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses

and the Prophets (Tenakh), from morning till evening. Acts 28:23

The same guy wrote, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having

become a curse for us.” Gal 3:13

The same guy wrote, Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and

just and good. Rom 7:12

The same guy wrote, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Rom 10:4

The same guy wrote, “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures (Tenakh), which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture (Tenakh) is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Tim 3:14-17

Was Paul confused or did he flip-flop back and forth on his position? Nope, if we read his writing in context, all the way through, we see that he was a masterful teacher. It is our lack of understanding of Old Testament types that lend to the propensity of polarizing Paul’s teaching – Paul did not teach legalism or inordinate grace.

In the diluted evolution of the Gentile-centric Church, we have domesticated, theorized and minimized the radical teachings of Jesus, justifying it by “our higher enlightened understanding of the interpretation of Paul’s writings.”

Just reading that sentence should make us want to throw up! Though painful to admit, a majority of the Gentile Church era has done just that! Be assured, Jesus is the boss of Paul and not Paul the boss of Jesus – Paul is not changing what he thinks Jesus meant. The Lord says what He means and means what He says! The Apostle Paul was wholly submitted to revealing the very heart and intent of Jesus and what Jesus achieved through His life, death and resurrection. The Apostle Paul went to extremes to build pathways of understanding so that we could follow Jesus on the right path!

The Apostle Paul did not teach goofy stuff or some new religion but the awe-inspiring fulfillment of what God had been promising since Genesis! Mind you, Paul had no easy task to illustrate and articulate that Almighty God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself and that our old man could be born again as a new man to become part of the collective Israel of God, the One New Man made up of both Jew and Gentile. But that is exactly what he did. He constructs very thorough explanations and descriptions to teach how that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of these type and shadows and the new man and One New Man are the Lord’s cherished Bride of Christ!