Completing the Story

The Bible begins and ends with a garden.

And it’s the Old Testament that sets that up and the New Testament that pays it off.

Paradise Lost

Many of us are already familiar with the story.

God creates the world, then humanity, Adam and Eve, placing them in a beautiful garden called Eden.

All is well until Adam and Eve are tempted by a mysterious serpent and disobey God, introducing sin into the world.

Sin infects the planet, forcing Adam and Eve out of Eden and into a world that gets progressively worse.

But God’s not about to abandon them, and the Old Testament shows Him working out a redemptive plan to set things right.

We see this as God and His prophets speak of a coming figure who will face sin head on and break its power over humanity.

But the Old Testament ends and… nothing.

Then the New Testament steps in.

Paradise Regained

The New Testament is pretty quick in telling us that Jesus is this long-prophesied figure.

And it’s hard to argue against it.

He fulfills many of the prophecies, lives a perfect life, and has a pretty clear confrontation with sin on the Cross.

The stories of Him in the Gospel show how He fulfills the Old Testament’s hope.

What follows in the book of Acts is the next stage in the journey - i.e., what happens in this new community built upon Jesus’ work (the Church).

The Epistles advise the Church on how to live, all with the hopeful expectation of Jesus’ Second Coming.

Then the book of Revelation enters the picture, pointing us to hope in the risen Christ and telling us what we can look ahead to when Jesus does indeed return.

And what is that exactly?

Well, as we see in Revelation 21-22, many fixtures of the Garden of Eden are back. Only, this time, they are combined with a “Garden City” as pastor and writer John Mark Comer calls it.

Here, all the nastiness of sin has been completely expunged by Jesus.

The work talked about throughout the Old Testament has come to pass, and humanity, those who follow Jesus, find themselves securely in Eden for eternity to come.

It’s through the New Testament that we’re led to this.

Everything from the Gospels to Acts to the Epistles and Revelation shows us this trajectory.

The New Testament solidifies the hope of the Old and shows us the One who leads us there.

Not so bad for eleven percent of the Bible, eh?

But that’s just the beauty of God’s handiwork, I guess.

Thanks so much for reading, guys, and we’ll see you next week for another of Aaron’s series.

For now, be blessed.

Jon,

Theophilus Newsletter