Don Stewart :: What Value Does the New Testament Have?

What Value Does the New Testament Have?

Why the Bible Is So Special – Question 6

The Old Testament has much value for believers today. However, the Old Testament is incomplete. God gave humanity a “new” testament, or covenant. There is immense value in studying this New Testament. We will highlight a few reasons. They are as follows:

1. The New Testament Records the Fulfillment of the Old Testament Predictions about the Messiah

The Old Testament gives the predictions, or promises, of the coming Messiah, while the New Testament records their fulfillment. The Old Testament writers looked forward to the day when the Christ would appear, while the New Testament records the testimony of those who saw and heard Him. Without the New Testament, we would assume humanity is still waiting for God to fulfill these promises.

2. It Explains How God Became a Human Being

The New Testament informs us that God became a human being in the Person of Jesus Christ. The key verse of the New Testament reads as follows:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John 1:14 RSV)

The living God became a human being and lived among humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ. We only know about this from the New Testament. Nowhere else.

3. It Gives the Plan of Salvation to Lost Sinners

The reason for the coming of Christ to earth was to provide salvation for lost sinners. Jesus made clear His purpose. He said:

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10 HCSB)

He is the only way in which a person can have a relationship with the one God. We read the following in John’s gospel:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NKJV)

This is only revealed in the New Testament.

4. It Tells Us What Will Happen in This Present Age

We are now in an interval between the two comings of Christ. Jesus Christ is currently building His church on the earth. The church is not a physical building, but rather a group of people who have believed in Him. Nothing will stop the building of the church. Jesus made this promise:

Now I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. (Matthew 16:18 NLT)

God’s work will continue through His people, the Church, until Christ comes back.

5. It Informs Us What Will Happen in the Future

The New Testament also tells us about God’s coming kingdom. It adds details that are not found in the Old Testament. It supplements our knowledge about how God will bring His everlasting kingdom through the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. The Bible says:

Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. (Revelation 1:7 NRSV)

We now know what the future holds because of the teaching of the New Testament.

6. It Tells Us How to Live the Christian Life

Once a person believes in Jesus Christ, there are instructions given as to what he or she should do next. These are found exclusively in the New Testament. For example, Paul wrote to the Galatians:

Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2 HCSB)

Commandments like these inform believers in Jesus Christ how they are to behave. We know how we are to conduct our lives because it is revealed to us in the New Testament.

Therefore, along with the Old Testament, the New Testament should be our source of serious study about God and His plans for the world. There are many reasons as to why this is so.

Summary – Question 6
What Value Does the New Testament Have?

As was true with the Old Testament, the New Testament is an absolutely essential document for study. In it we find the fulfillment of the promises that were recorded in the Old Testament. We discover that God did indeed send the Messiah; Jesus of Nazareth. In addition, we find that Jesus was more than a mere human being; He was actually the eternal God who became human on our behalf. The purpose of His coming is also outlined in the New Testament.

We know that He came to die for the sins of the world. Once a person trusts what Jesus did on their behalf, they go about living the Christian life. The New Testament instructs them concerning how they should live it. The New Testament also lets us know what will happen in the future. We know that Jesus Christ will come to the earth a second time and set up His eternal Kingdom. All these truths, along with many more, are found only in the New Testament.

Therefore, it is necessary that both testaments of Scripture be given serious study by those who want to know God’s truth.