THE UNITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

THE UNITY OF THE BIBLE: NEW TESTAMENT

            We have seen that the Old Testament in its entirety and unity is a revelation of human need, and that the New Testament is a revelation of divine supply. As Augustine said long ago, Christ is hidden in the Old Testament, obvious in the New. In our last article we said that in the first movement, that of the Pentateuch, we heard the sigh after a Priest; and in the second movement, from Joshua to Nehemiah, we heard the cry for a King; and, taking all the rest of the Old Testament literature, both the poetic and didactic portions, we were conscious of the quest for a Prophet who should say the final word from God to man. But neither was the Priest, King, nor Prophet found. That is not to undervalue the stories in the Old Testament. A priest is there, Aaron, and the tribe of Levi. A king is there. That is the tragic part of the story. Saul, David, and Solomon, forty years each, but no perfect kingship; and from that time on, ruin! The prophets are there, the most wonderful part of the literature in certain ways, their voices sounding even yet, for they spoke of eternal principles as applied to temporal necessities. And yet the last word was not said.

            Then we turn to the New Testament, and the answer is discovered; the need is met. The King is found. The Priest is found. The Prophet is found. All humanity's need is answered in Christ.

            We will now survey the New Testament in three sections, not following the exact sequence of the epistles as found in our Bible. There is first the historic section, contained in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Acts, the Pentateuch of the New Testament. Then there is a section that we may accurately describe as didactic, or teaching, consist­ing of twenty-one letters or pamphlets, all of them having a teaching value. The last division consists of one book, which is apocalyptic literature, or the literature of Revelation.

            We then rapidly survey first the historic section from Matthew to Acts. Here we have the account of human history lasting about two generations, using the term generation as referring to thirty years or thereabouts. The first section, the four. Gospels, tells the story of Jesus. The second section, beginning immediately at the close of the first period, covers about the same time, thirty three years. That is the Acts of the Apostles.

            As we study these what do we find? In the Gospels a Person is seen, and a fourfold presentation of that Person. It was Origen who said long ago, there are not four Gospels, there is a four-formed Gospel. That is a very important distinction. We still speak of  "The Gospel of Matthew," "The Gospel of Mark," "The Gospel of Luke," and "The Gospel of John." In the Old Version it was printed so. Now there is a very slight difference made in the Revised, but it is far more accurate: "The Gospel according to St. Matthew," and so on in each case. It is the same story, the same Gospel, but according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

            What is the difference between these four nar­ratives? It is impossible finally for anyone to compile an accurate chronological story of the life of Jesus. That may be a very dogmatic statement; but after studying the sequences and harmonies of the Gospels, I never found one yet that satisfied me except one, and that was one I made myself, and it brought me to the conviction that it cannot be finally done at some points in the story. But the general scheme presented by the four is the same, so we can dismiss apparent discrepancies in the matter of time and place at which some things were done and said.

            Take the first. Read Matthew through. Read it through twice, and there will be no harm if it be read through fifty times. When that has been done, what is found? A Person who is presented as a King. Matthew wrote from that standpoint. He was the King's historian. He was accustomed to keeping accounts in the interest of the Roman Empire as a publican, and, as the Spirit of God al­ways does, He fitted a man for doing his special work on the basis of his natural ability. We can write across the Gospel according to Matthew, "Behold, the King." The dividing lines are clearly marked in chapter 4 and again in the 16th. First the Person of the King is seen. Who is He? In four and a half chapters we are told.

            Then beginning with the words, "From that time began Jesus to preach" (4:17), and running right on to Caesarea Philippi, Matthew tells the story of the propaganda of the King, of His teaching, of His illustrating by the wonders that He wrought, of the greatness and beneficence of His Kingdom. We have the ethical enunciation and the supernatural power in dealing with every form of human dereliction.

            In the 16:21 we read the same sentence, "From that time began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer . . . and be killed . . . and be raised up." From there to the end of the nar­rative we are observing the Passion of the King. Behold the King, His Person, His Propaganda, and His Passion. We heard the cry for a king in the historic movement of the Old Testament. Behold the King! So Matthew.

            Pass on to Mark's record, and what is found? He plunges into his story at once, showing how this same Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet." The Gospel of Isaiah is the Gospel of the Servant of the Lord. Go through his Gospel, and that is the emphasis. It is the same Person. There is no mistaking the identity with the Person seen in Matthew as King. But now He is seen stripped of all royalty and dignity, and every suggestion of Kingship with which we were made familiar in Matthew. Now, all the way He is the Servant of the Lord. He is first sanctified to His service, set apart. Then He is seen serving through public ministry, and finally we see Him culminating His service in sacrifice; and be­hold, He is the Priest, the One who mediates between God and man.

            In Luke we have the same Person, the same great movement generally with certain details of differ­ence, not contradictory, but explanatory and com­plementary. How does Luke present the Person? First of all he shows the perfect Personality in the early movement, as to who He is. Luke's last name for Jesus is Tou Logou, the inflected form of Ho Logos which is John's title for Him, but we should remem­ber that Luke uses that title more often than John does, "the Word." He tells us thus who He is; How He came into human history, and shows the perfect Person in the most matchless way. He then begins the same story of ministry, and shows how this perfect One, the perfect Instrument, was per­fected through suffering and through service.

            It may be objected, how can a perfect One be perfected? I have often used an illustration from this side of the Atlantic. Long years ago the Brooklyn Bridge was erected, uniting New York to Brooklyn. When it was finished, the great archi­tect was very weak, but he was conveyed on a boat, and was taken underneath the great bridge. He looked up for a long time, and then, holding the hand of his wife who sat by his side, he said, "Thank. God, it is perfect." And it was, a perfect piece of work. But it has been perfected as it has fulfilled the function for which it was made. The traffic, men and women, horses, and motor cars, and railway trains have beaten over it for a century, and it has stood the test. Jesus is demonstrated perfect by all He did and all He said.

            Then at Luke, chapter 9, there came an hour when Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. It is the same dividing line as in Matthew and Mark, but stated differently. From there we follow Him on the via dolorosa through the last six months of His ministry in which He was approaching the Cross, and talking of it. Now we see Him doing the work by which He is perfecting others. Behold the Man, perfect in Personality, perfected through processes, perfecting, and making possible the perfecting of those who have fallen by the way. There He is seen as the great Prophet, in all His teaching and in His life. He uttered forth the truth to man about God and about man. The whole incarnate story is one of a full and final prophetic utterance, as to what man is ideally, what He has become through sin, what He may become through the mighty work of Jesus. We have found the King, the Priest, and the Prophet.

            But there is yet another book, and it is a corollary to the other three, at no point contradictory. It was written from another standpoint. When we have read the first three records, and seen the King, the Servant-Priest, the perfect Man, expressing to man the Word of God, the whole truth of God, we may well ask, Who is He? To answer that question we turn to John. He shows that this King, this Priest, this Prophet is none other than God incarnate, Himself answering humanity's need in Kingly authority, in Priestly function, and in Prophetic utterance. That is a very rapid summary; but at any rate we may have caught anew the harmony, the unity of that fourfold presentation of Jesus Christ.

            Then in the Acts we have an unfinished fragment, unfinished because the story it started to tell is not completed yet. It is the story of a new race of men and women who are seen proceeding from Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria, and toward the uttermost part of the earth; and the movement is still going on. Who are they? They are kings, they are priests, they are prophets. They are those who share the very nature and life of the King and the Priest and the Prophet who has been seen in the Gospel. In other words it is the same Christ, no longer limited and straitened by the circumstances of time and geographical environment, but moving out and on; and behold, they are kings and priests unto God, and they are witnesses, prophets, pro­claiming the Word of the Lord as it had been focused in the Son of God. We leave the historic section where it is left in the Acts, Paul, in his own hired dwelling, for two years, receiving all who went to him, and on and on the movement has been run­ning ever since.

            Take next a rapid survey of those twenty-one little letters, the didactic section. Not taking them in the order that we find them in our Bible; we find first a group of letters I will call fundamental; that is, specifically devoted to doctrine, to the statement of the facts of the Christian faith. In the second place we have a group of writings that I shall call experi­mental, those illustrating the experience of Christ­ianity in the lives of men and women. There is yet another section, vocational letters, dealing with the calling of the Church.

            All these letters were written to members of the Christian Church. There is not a letter addressed to the outside world, and they were written in every case for a purpose. There was a local background, and a reason for the letter. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians there were conditions that made him write. That is perfectly self-evident. Again, when Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he did not write about himself, or in pious platitudes, woven together. It was a definite letter, written under definite condi­tions. Remember, too, that when these men wrote the letters, they had not got the New Testament, and did not know there was going to be a New Testament. The New Testament is a fact, is the work of the Holy Spirit afterwards, in gathering together these writings. There can be no mistake that they were of divine origin, for their divinity is impressed upon them. I am not entering here into the question of the canon, though that is also involved.

            What are the letters dealing with fundamental matters of our faith? Romans, the subject of which is salvation. Galatians, where the subject is liberty. Thessalonians I and II, and the subject is the state­ment of the normal things of the life of the Christ­ian: "Ye turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God." That is the essence, and the great theme is that ultimately of the Second Advent in those two letters. Then Hebrews, a pamphlet of fundamental truth, proclaiming the finality of the speech of the Son of God. Finally John I, II, and III, three little letters dealing with the great doctrine of eternal life. Those are all letters written to Christian people who were to be kings, priests, and witnesses, but needing instruction and guidance, and rebuke. These are all found in the great funda­mental letters of the faith.

            Then there is a beautiful little group, Philippians, Philemon, Peter I and II, James and Jude. They deal not so specifically with the doctrines of the Church, though of course those are not neglected or absent; but rather with the experience of Christian souls. They are all experimental.

            Next we have the vocational letters, specifically concerned with the calling of the Church, Cor­inthians I and II, the second being the corollary of the first. In the first letter will be found two verses: "God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1:9). "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord" (15:58). Those are the boundaries of the letter. God is faithful. He will not break down, and He has put us into business partnership with Jesus Christ. Be steadfast, be unmovable, be faithful as God is faithful, and fulfill the function, the calling. Between those boundaries are the things that hinder the Church, and the things of strength to the Church.

            Then there are the letters called pastoral, having to do with the ministry within the Church, I and II Timothy and Titus, a veritable vale mecum for the minister today if he will take the time and let his soul be impregnated with their teaching concerning the marvelous ministry within the Church.

            Lastly we have the twin epistles of Paul that crown his system, Ephesians and Colossians. They both have to do with the eternal vocation of the Church. We find ourselves first in the unutterable glory of the past eternity, but when we have finished our study we find we have been let out into the ages that are to come, and the Church is seen as fulfilling her final vocation. Such are the didactic writings.

            There is one book left, that puzzling book. Do we not find it so? If not, then we have never really studied it. Some people say they know all about it. I do not want to know them! Oh, yes, the real things are sun-clear. There are details with which I am not dealing. It opens, "The Revelation," the Apocalypse, the unveiling. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." That means taking the veil off, re­moving the veil. What is the revelation? Of beasts? Oh, no. They are there, but they are quite incidental. Dragons? Certainly not. We shall meet them and shall not have to wait to read the Revela­tion. We can read our newspapers, and meet them. They are all there. What, then, is the book about? "The revelation of Jesus Christ." As we keep that in mind, we shall be saved from a thousand difficul­ties and snares in our reading. The purpose of the book all through is to show Jesus Christ.

            He is seen first in His glory, as John saw Him in Patmos. Second He is seen in His infinite grace in the letters to the Churches. Then He is seen in His authentic government from the moment that we behold the Throne in heaven to the very end of the book. We see the processes, but do not lose sight of Jesus.

            How is He named? "The Ruler of the kings of the earth," the King. The One "who was dead, and . . . am alive for evermore," the Priest. "The true and faithful Witness," the Prophet. Amid all the mysteries of the Apocalypse is the unveiling of the Son of God, the Word of God, who came as the Gift of God to answer the agonized cry of humanity in its sigh for a priest, and its cry for a king, and its quest for a prophet.

            What does our world need today? Have we outgrown this Book? Has humanity outgrown its revelation? Has it made any advance upon that which is evident here, the sigh for a priest, the cry for a. king, the quest for authority? It is trying to find it today. In some parts of the world it thinks it has found final authority. We know it has not, and however much those who are claiming the authority of dictators may refuse to consider this Person, they are doomed. They cannot live or last. However much a people may be oppressed, there surely comes the moment when the masses will straighten themselves, and fling off false authority. The world is still looking for final authority, though it does not understand it.

            The world is looking for a priest, some mediator, as Job said, for a mediator who will lay his hand upon God and upon man and bring them together.

            Moreover, it utterly needs interpretation of all matters, a prophetic voice that utters the final philosophy, the ultimate in truth. The world's need today is exactly what is revealed in the Old Testament.

            The answer has been given. God has found the King, He has found the Priest, He has found the final Prophet, and the three merging in one, Who is He? God Himself, manifest in flesh, to rule with a final authority, to mediate, so that man may reach the heart of God, and be received; to say the last thing that God has to say. The calling of the Christian Church is that of ever going forth to bear witness to Him, and bringing together the appalling need of humanity, and the amazing supply of the divine grace.