God's New Covenant: Fulfilling the Old Testament's Promise - Paper Example

The New Testament stipulates and relates the Old Testament’s prophesies and promises, thus serves as their fulfillment. Most of the sections of the New Testament records the new covenant of God as manifested through the life and death of Christ. Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament who comes to fulfill God’s promise for the salvation of humankind, as revealed in the relationship between him, God, and Christians in the New Testament. A critical examination of the variety of writings contained in the New Testament gives an understanding of the birth, general life, ministry, death and resurrection of Christ, the works and missions of the early church, and the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The New Testament has a collection of 27 books in total. Among these books are the four books of the gospel. They include Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, and offer the recollections of the gospel of Christ Jesus, including his life, acts, teachings, and saying (Schreiner, 2010). The biographies of Christ Jesus offer an extensive recount of his person and lessons. The depiction of the person of Jesus is clear through the synoptic gospel that provides the general recount of the missions of Jesus. Following the books of the gospel is the presentation of the historical perspective and narrative of the early church, primarily during the first years of its establishment. The history of the early years of the Christian church is recorded in the New Testament in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Additionally, the New Testament, in the Epistle, offers advisory, instructional, exhortation, and admonition through the writings of letters addressed to the local churches and Christians (Schreiner, 2010). Epistle Paul examines the numerous challenges that the early church had to endure after the death and resurrection of Christ. Following the books of the New Testament that attribute to Apostle Paul, Hebrews, and other writers is the apocalyptic book of revelation that offers a vivid description of events and the intervention of God.

The New Testament offers the logical narrative of events starting with the life and teachings of Jesus as recorded in the gospel, the work and mission of the followers of Christ as stipulated in the Acts, the detailed teachings on the meaning and spiritual implication of Christian faith as recorded in the Epistles and finally, the prophesies of the future events as well as the culmination of the ultimate divine goal as recorded in Revelations (Schreiner, 2010). A critical analysis of the books of the New Testament reveals that their primary goal is to bear witness to the actions and might of God through the activities and events that they carry.

The Epistles constitute twenty-one books of the New Testament after Acts. They are books containing messages to different churches around the world. Fourteen out of these are the letters that apostle Paul dedicates to the early church. They include the Catholic Epistles addressing the entire church communities. All these books of have different themes, mainly discussing the faith and conducts of Christians in the early church. Summing up, the New Testament is the Revelation to John that focuses on apocalyptic. It describes the vision of the end of times. It primarily revolves around the apocalyptic genre of the four horsemen (Schreiner, 2010).

In a nutshell, the books of the New Testament offer the fulfillment of the promises of God to Christians in the Old Testament. The prophecies regarding the Messiah who would deliver humanity is evident in the life and teachings of Jesus through the books of the gospel. The New Testament also strengthens Christian’s faith through the teachings on the book of Epistles. The teachings include the conduct and behaviors of the Christians in the early church. The Epistles also examines some of the challenges that the early Christians had to endure under the Roman leadership after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The New Testament closes with the Revelation of John that focuses on the apocalyptic themes through the narration of the four horsemen.

References

Schreiner, T. R. (2010). Magnifying God in Christ: a summary of New Testament theology. Baker Academic.