What is New Testament theology?

Christianity essentially consists in the revelation of a divine person, who was man withal as truly as He was God, and who, suffering on the cross, wrought the mighty work of redemption. This alone conciliates perfect light with perfect love, a sin-hating and a sinner-pitying God who deigns out of His own pure grace to save guilty man by faith, and yet so as not only to justify, but to glorify His own character in the very righteousness which justifies the believer. This (though not this only) is revealed in the New Testament. It is not the law merely but the truth; and the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven is the power both of enjoying and of testifying this admirable display of our God and Father in Christ the Lord. The Old Testament prepared the way for this new thing which was to fill up the interval between God's rejection of the earthly people Israel till they repent and own the Messiah whom they rejected, and then the old hopes of the chosen nation (sown in a generation to come born of God) shall revive, and Israel shall come forward, under Messiah and the new covenant, and inherit the land long promised to their fathers, and thus shall they be a blessing to all families of the earth, instead of a curse, as their unbelief has proved far and wide to Gentiles for eighteen centuries at least.

It is the distinctive character of the N.T. to reveal in Christ God come down to earth, and later Man in Him ascended up to heaven. The O.T. in its brightest aspect is predictive in type and shadow, in promise and prophecy. The N.T. starts with the Promised One come (Matt. 1.) and in Luke 4 proclaiming, Today is this scripture [Isa. 61, as far as He read] fulfilled in your ears. His death in rejection led to the Light shining brighter far in His resurrection. It was life abundantly to those who had it already, bound to tell others of life eternal. But the Holy Spirit, both in His action on believers and in oral teaching as well as the inspired writings which followed, wrought as the Spirit not merely of prophecy but of present communion, a fountain within springing up, and rivers of living water flowing out. As He sealed the Son of man, He sealed the believers; and this not merely as having life and light but in virtue of Christ's work. In Him is the Yea; wherefore through Him is the Amen for glory to God by us. But it is the unbelieving rejection of this present power and fulness of blessing in Christ, which alike denies the actual possession of life eternal and the unspeakable value of the scriptures, especially of the N.T. so called. It is accomplishment we have now, not merely "promise"; it is the thing promised before the world began, brought to light by the gospel and enjoyed in the power of the Spirit

We have thus, in this rapid and partial summary, gathered a few of the salient teachings of the four Gospels as to the great outlines of doctrine. We find that they are particularly rich in setting forth God and the person of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ; that the way of salvation is made plain, and the future, both for the saved and the unsaved, is clearly stated. When we compare these truths with those of the Old Testament we see an immense advance in every particular. All that went before was partial. God dwelt in the thick darkness, revealing Himself, as we have it in the epistle to the Hebrews, "in many parts and in many ways." There is unquestionably a theology of the Old Testament, and from the very beginning, we could not fail to recognize God as a Being of infinite power, holiness, righteousness and goodness; but all things were pointing forward, and we have not the truth as it is in Jesus made known in the Old Testament.

The New Testament is the manifestation of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ come in flesh; and it declares redemption accomplished in Him, rejected by men, notably by the Jews, but risen from the dead and glorified Head over all things to the church His body. Consequently the kingdom, pledged in the Old Testament, assumes, while Christ is on high, a character of "mystery" (Matt. 13:11; Mark 4:11), or the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens; till He, having caught up the risen saints to the Father's house, returns in displayed power to enforce the rights of God, and bring in the long expected times of refreshing for Israel, the nations, and all creation. The cross of Christ, being as it was the rejection of God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, gave occasion to Christian blessing in the gospel, and in the church united to its exalted Head; which is wholly distinct from the things to come. Yet the apostle, in Romans 16:26, designates the divine word which reveals this new and heavenly secret, "prophetic scriptures." From everlasting, silence had been kept about that mystery; a statement inapplicable to "the prophets," and yet more evidently to their scriptures in the Old Testament. But now it was manifested, and by prophetic scriptures, according to the eternal God's commandment, made known for obedience of faith to all the nations. In thus making it known, the Epistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossians, with those to the Corinthians and others, have a primary place. And thus the saints are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone. The instruments of this special teaching are hence shown to be exclusively the New Testament apostles and prophets, as a joint class for this inspired work. But the New Testament in no way lacks the richest testimony on things to come, as the Lord promised (John 16:13). Witness Matt. 24; 25; Mark 13; Luke 21; to speak only of the fuller predictions in the Synoptic Gospels, and in 2 Peter and Jude, but especially 2 Thess. 2; 1 Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3; with the Revelation, the most abundant, systematic, and profound of all prophecies.

So also is it in the Epistles. Paul's line of things is as distinct from Peter's, as Peter's is from John's, or John's from James'. No two are alike, but all agree. There is no collision, because, like the four Evangelists, each moves in his own appointed orbit, and all revolve round the one common centre. The orbit is distinct, but the centre is one. Paul gives us the great truth of man's relation with God, on the ground of accomplished redemption, together with the counsels of God as to Israel and the Church. Peter gives us the Christian pilgrimage and God's government of the world. James insists upon practical righteousness. John opens up the grand theme of eternal life; first with the Father, then manifested in the Son, communicated to us, and finally displayed in the glorious future.

I trust the reader will not for one instant suppose that there is the slightest want of harmony between the writings of these men of God. A careful study of the Word makes manifest the most perfect concord. But, as I have already indicated, to each one was given the happy service of setting forth a certain aspect or character of the revelation of God, and because of this we are better able to get acquainted with it, until in the end, perhaps, we contemplate it in its own divine and incomparable unity.

In the four Gospels, as we have seen, we have Christ as the central theme. There can be no question as to this. When we remember that the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father hath declared Him, we need not be surprised to find also in the Evangelists a wealth of doctrinal truth, although not presented in a doctrinal or dogmatic way, about the great subjects of God and man, of sin and salvation.

Do we so value the wealth of divine revelation that we persevere in the appreciation and practice of it in the face of mounting opposition? How striking it is to read of these early converts that they persevered. In what did they persevere? First of all, in the apostles' teaching. The outstanding feature of this is the pre-eminence of Christ. In the words of Scripture "Christ is everything and in all" (Colossians 3:11). We cannot envisage a confession of the pre-eminent Christ without bowing in thanksgiving before God, for the full knowledge of God has reached us through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Has He not said, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me"? This adorable Person, to whom we are eternally indebted for wealth of divine revelation, is the focal point of the apostles' teaching.

The gospel is "the gospel of God … concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord;" it is also the gospel "of the glory of the blessed God" (1 Timothy 1:11), and the gospel "of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God." We learn from Ephesians 1 that in the administration of the fullness of time God will head up all things in heaven and earth in Christ. He is the destined centre of the world to come. If we consider the mystery, the revelation of the truth of Christ and the Assembly, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden there. We know that the full truth of all this — Paul's gospel and Paul's doctrine — was not revealed at the time of Acts 2, but we are now favoured with the completion of the Word of God, and it is certainly right to say that the outstanding feature of the apostle's teaching is the pre-eminence of Christ.

We see, on the one hand, how the Old Testament handed on its disciples to the New, and how the New, also, was needed in order to give its full power to the older revelation. Thus, while he says that the sacred Scriptures he had known were able to make Timothy wise unto salvation, he adds: "through faith that is in Christ Jesus." In fact salvation, in all that is implied in it in the New Testament, is plainly something additional to the Old Testament. Men could not speak before Christianity of being saved, in the same way in which now we commonly speak of it. Salvation was, in general, even where we find the word, a deliverance from dangers or from circumstances of trial, from the power of the enemy, no doubt; but scarcely anywhere a proper salvation from sin; yet how important the witness of the old revelation when the new was being announced, and to us, also, to whom it has been announced! Nothing that God has given but has a permanent value which remains for us to all time. "All Scripture is inspired of God, and profitable for doctrine."

Hence the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the Only-begotten Son of God, brought out not only the lost and evil state of man, but that of the Jews more guilty still. For in the cross, which was the deepest proof of their combined iniquity, was accomplished fully by Christ the will of God, in virtue of which we have been and are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 10:10). The gospel of God's grace to all mankind, and the church (the body of Christ in the baptism of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven), are the blessed consequences which required that new revelation of God commonly called the New Testament. This fully confirms the O.T. in every respect as divine, fulfilling it notably in prophecies of Messiah's person, God and man; His unique walk, mission, and service; His death too, not only through man's hatred but in God's atoning grace; His resurrection and ascension; and His return to raise the dead, to restore the kingdom to Israel, to bless the earth and all the nations, having put down the higher or spiritual powers of evil.