Of course, the riches that God has already made available to us are the riches of His kingdom, the riches of His Word, the riches of His eternal life in a never-ending relationship with Him. But God will indeed give anyone hundreds, thousands, and even millions of dollars--if it serves His purpose and if that person knows Him well enough.

George Müller, as one example among thousands, was a well-known man of prayer and the founder of the world-famous Bristol Orphanages in England. Müller knew God so well that God gave him millions of dollars--money which that good and faithful servant wisely invested in young lives and in building the kingdom of God.

Knowing God is the key. He wants to be your friend. He wants to pour out the riches of heaven upon your life--"good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over," as Luke 6:38 tells us. But you must get to know Him. And the way you get to know Him is through the pages of Scripture, as interpreted to us by the Holy Spirit.

Notice that all-important linkage: the Scriptures and the Spirit--you can't separate the two. The Bible without the Spirit leads to dullness, boredom, and dead, institutional Christianity. The Spirit without the Bible leads to fanaticism and wildfire. We need both the Spirit, and the Word.

Moreover, we need the entire Bible. For example, the story of humanity before the Fall is necessary that we might know what God made the human race to be and that we might understand the kind of relationship God had in mind when He created the first man and the first woman. The pure, pristine relationship that existed before sin entered the world is precisely the kind of relationship He wants to restore us to now!

We also need to know the lives of the men and women of faith throughout the Bible in order to see how God works in specific situations. What an encouragement these lives are to us! As we read these stories, we see that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Ruth, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Mary, Peter, Stephen, Paul, Barnabas, John, and all the others went through the same experiences we do--and they drew upon the same supernatural strength and power that is available to us! We learn that God placed these people in the crossroads of their own times, recording their actions and reactions, so that we might see God's purpose in our own time and so that our actions and reactions might be guided by the lessons of those who went before us. Viewed in this way, the Bible becomes not merely a "religious book," but a practical, relevant guidebook for daily living!

We need to understand the Prophets in order to see how God is working through human history, from beginning to end. As we study what Paul calls "God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began" (1 Cor. 2:7), we begin to know God's thoughts, which are not our thoughts, and God's ways, which are far higher than our ways. As our Lord put it, "You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children" (Matt. 11:25).

We need to know the Gospels in order to see the perfect life of Jesus Christ--His unique wisdom, His divine power, His human pain, His extraordinary personality, His unparalleled character, and His extravagant love for people. In the Scriptures, we discover the many-faceted richness and depth in the human being who was uniquely the Son of Man.

We need to know the Epistles in order to apply the great truths we learn in the Gospels. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the writers of the New Testament letters have translated His truths into principles for the most practical daily situations.

Finally, we need to know the book of Revelation, because this world is approaching the hour of crisis. As individuals and as a believing community we need the assurance that this present darkness shall pass, that the futility and the horrors will be ended, that our bondage will cease, and that Jesus Christ will be manifested in this universe, and He shall reign.

The story of how the Bible came into being is the fascinating story of a miracle of God. In 2 Peter 1:21, the apostle Peter tells us that the Bible was written by men who were moved by the Holy Spirit:

Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible clearly transcends all human documents; it is far greater than anything human beings could produce. Despite the tremendous diversity of human authorship and the vast span of time over which it was written, this Book has one message, tells one story, moves to one point and directs our attention to one person. It would simply be impossible to take at random any collection of books from literature, put them together under one cover, and have any remotely related theme develop. Such a collection is possible only if behind its many human authors there is one transcendent Author. As Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Tim. 3:16-17):

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Bible is not only the story of God and of His Son Jesus Christ. It is also the story of your life and of my life, as well as the story of our race. The Bible explains what we are and how we came to be this way. It illuminates the human condition. It instructs us, exhorts us, admonishes us, corrects us, strengthens us, and teaches us. In this book, God has incorporated all the truths we need to know about ourselves.

How did ordinary human beings some from the most common callings of life capture the thoughts and attitudes of God? How did the Holy Spirit lead them in recording the Word of God rather than the mere opinions of human beings? It is a miracle beyond our understanding.

But this we do know: The more we study the truth of the Bible, the more thrilling and compelling it becomes. Like a scientist with a passion for uncovering the secrets of the universe, I am captivated by an intense drive to unfold the wonders of God's Word. After decades of study, I have found that increasing familiarity with this book has only caused it to grow more fascinating, more mysterious more profound, and more marvelous in its implications and applications to my life.

This book has survived countless attempts to suppress it and destroy it. It has been preserved and defended for us through the centuries in ways that can only be called providential. Again and again its pages have been stained by the blood, sweat, and tears of martyrs who have spent their very lives to save this book for later generations.

Why has this book been so important to God and His people? What is the Bible's ultimate purpose? What does God want to accomplish by giving us this Book and by sending the Holy Spirit to interpret it and make it real in our lives? The Bible itself gives us the answer. In Ephesians 1:9-12, one of God's human writers, the apostle Paul, makes this amazing Spirit-inspired statement about God's revelation to us in Scripture:

He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

Astounding! The Creator of the universe, the Lord of space and time, the great starsmith who has fashioned a billion galaxies and thousands of billions of stars, has a purpose for your life and mine, and He has unveiled that purpose in His Word, the Bible! In Ephesians 3:8-12, Paul extends this soul-stirring thought:

Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Probably the clearest declaration of God's eternal purpose for our lives is found in Ephesians 4:11-13, where Paul states that the Lord Jesus, having finished His work on earth through the cross and the resurrection, ascended to heaven and gave gifts to human beings:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

That is God's purpose: to bring us to maturity. God wants us to become mature by becoming like Christ. All that God has done in human history, all of His works recorded in Scripture, and the entire universe in its physical and moral dimensions have occurred so that you and I might become mature in Jesus Christ. God's purpose for the human race is not some vague, distant, far-off, impersonal goal; it is here, it is now, it is personal, it is clear, and it is profoundly intertwined with our everyday lives. Everything that exists has been brought into being so that you and might fulfill God's amazing potential and possibilities for us.

And the measure of that humanity is the measure of the stature the fullness of Jesus Christ.

I used to meet regularly with five high-school-age men. On one occasion I asked them, "Fellows, what is your image of a real he-man?"

"A guy who's really pumped up," said one. "A guy with a lot of muscles."

I knew of one athlete at this young man's school, a fellow with lots of rippling muscles on his body--plus a fair amount of muscle between his ears! "Oh," I said, "you mean like So-and-so?"

Startled, this young man said, "No, of course not! He spends a lot of time on the weight machine, and he has arms and legs like tree trunks--but he's not much of a man."

"Okay," I said, "then I guess muscles aren't a very reliable standard of manhood. So what is it? What do the rest of you think it takes to be a man? Let's make a list."

They all thought some more, then another replied, "Well, I think a real he-man is a guy with guts."

So we wrote down courage on our list. The young men did some more thinking and came up with some additional qualities that we added to our list: consideration, kindness, integrity, purpose, and so on. Soon, we had quite a long list.

Finally, I said, "You know, fellows, this is amazing! Think of it! You could go anywhere in the world and ask any man, and it wouldn't matter whether he was rich or poor, high or low, black or white or any shade in between. Ask him, 'What does it mean to be a man?' and you would get the same answers you have given on this list! Because all men everywhere want to he-men. All women want to be women. The ideal they hold in their hearts is largely the same. There may be small variations in detail but not in the general form. The virtues we have listed are admired everywhere."

The young men nodded thoughtfully, and I continued, "Now, can you name one person who has fulfilled this list of ideals? How about you? Are you fulfilling these ideals?”

"I think I make it about thirty percent of the time," said one,

"No way!" said another. "You wouldn't even make it five percent--and neither do I!"

"Do you know anybody who has accomplished these ideals a hundred percent of the time?" I asked.

Silence and blank expressions. Suddenly, their faces lit up and they said, "Of course! Jesus!"

And they were right. Jesus is God's perfect man, the most flawless and complete expression of manhood and humanity ever to walk the face of the earth.

That is God's ideal for our lives! That is what Ephesians 4:13 tells us: God has planned for us to "become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." The steps toward that goal are twofold.

The first step that brings us to this goal is found in the phrase "until we all reach unity in the faith" (Eph. 4:13). Faith is the operative word. Faith is always the way by which we actually experience all that God has made available.

The second step that brings us to this goal is "the knowledge of the Son of God"--the accurate and full knowledge of the Son of God. We cannot achieve maturity in Christ as God intended if we don't know His Son. By knowledge, God does not only mean biblical information, but personal experience of Jesus Christ. It is faith, the first step, that leads to knowledge, the second step.

The apostle is careful to make clear that it isn't just my faith or your faith but our faith--what he calls "unity in the faith--that brings us to this knowledge. In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that we may come to know with all the saints how high and broad and long and deep is the love of Christ. This means that unless you are in touch with other saints you can't possibly develop as you ought to as a Christian. It is impossible to move to maturity unless we are ready to share truth with each other. We need each other in the body of Christ, and as we fellowship together, share together, worship together, and study God's Word together, we grow together in maturity and in the experiential knowledge of the Son of God.

We will investigate this Book, the Bible, together to learn what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As we shall see, the Bible is not merely a collection of sixty-six books written by more than forty human authors over a span of fifteen centuries. It is a single book with a unified theme, a coherent message, and an astonishing relevance to our everyday lives here at the end of the twentieth century.

This one-volume "divine library" is a book of wonderful variety. Its beautiful love stories reflect the tenderest and most delicate of human passions. Its stories of political intrigue and maneuvering rival anything we might read about in today's headlines. Its stories of violence and gore almost make the blood run cold. Its poetic passages soar to the very heights of artistic and emotional expression. It has narratives of intense human drama. Its strange and cryptic passages filled with weird symbols and allegories are difficult to penetrate and comprehend.

Yet one subject dominates and permeates this book: Jesus Christ--Creator, Redeemer, and Lord. We first meet Him as one of the voices at Creation who says, Let us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26). His coming is symbolized and foretold throughout the span of the Old Testament. His life is detailed in quadruplicate through the Gospels, and His character is instilled in us throughout the New Testament epistles. Finally, His kingdom is pictured for us and His second coming is described in the book of Revelation: "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20).

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a book about Jesus Christ. In symbol, in story, in marvelous prophetic vision, in simple narrative account, in history, in poetry, in every aspect and dimension of the book, the focus is always on God's Son. He is the secret, the thesis, the unifying thread of the book. In learning about Him, we learn God's plan and pattern for our own lives. We understand our problems and find the solution to those problems reflected in Him. We understand our needs and find the satisfaction of our needs in Him.

One of the most transforming truths found in this book is the truth Jesus spoke in John 10:10, where He said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." This is not just "good news," it is great news! Jesus wants us to know that not only are our sins forgiven by His shed blood, not only are we as Christians on our way to heaven, but we can experience fulfillment, joy, peace, and satisfaction, right here and right now! We don't have to merely struggle through this life making the best of a bad situation, muddling through, falling and failing, doubting and despairing, discouraged and defeated, barely hanging on through life until we finally cross over to the other side and find the release we crave. That's not good news!

The good news God reveals to us in this book is that we don't have to wait until eternity to find eternal life. The wonderful, abundant, eternal life that burned so brightly within Jesus is in our reach right now! We can have what He had, we can possess what He is, right here, right now! As Ian Thomas once said, "We must have what He is in order to be what He was." Once we attain that ideal and become mature in our Christlikeness, then God's purpose for our lives will be fulfilled.

Think of it! Who was this man Jesus? He was the perfect human being. He was God's ideal for humanity. For thirty-three years He lived among us on this pain-wracked sin-drenched planet in the very circumstances and under the same pressures we face every day of our lives. It was under these adverse circumstances that the godly perfection of His character shone with such brilliance and power.

"But," you may say, "I can't do that! I can't become what He was! I can't live a perfect life like the one He lived."

Of course not. But then, in the last analysis, it doesn't really depend on us. We will be what Jesus was when we allow Him to come live His life again through us, when--by simple faith--we take Him at His Word. If we dare to believe Him, moment-by-moment and day-by-day, we can allow Him to be what He is in us and through us. This is the good news!

But to do this, we need the Word of Gods revelation. We don't come to the knowledge of the Son of God without a learning process, without a conscious commitment to an ever-increasing understanding of His truth. That is why we are adventuring together through this amazing Book.

What is the "right" way to look at the world?

Most of the time, we see the world with the naked eye. Physicists, however, use expensive particle accelerators to see the world one atom or one electron at a time. Astronauts go out into orbit and look down on the world from a distance, seeing the entire sphere of the world with its continents, seas, and swirling weather patterns. Who has the "correct" view of the world: the physicist, the astronaut, or the naked-eye observer?

Answer: They all do. Each sees the world at a different scale, from a different perspective; each view is valid for its own purpose and in its own way.

Now consider this: What is the "right" way to look at the Bible? Should it be examined minutely, phrase by phrase and verse by verse? Or is a book study--an exhaustive examination of Nehemiah or Ephesians, for example--the right way? Or should we step back and take a wider, more panoramic view, the astronaut's view, surveying the great themes and historical flow of the Bible as if from orbit?

Answer: Each method is equally valid, each offers a different perspective, each serves a different purpose. Our purpose in Adventuring through the Bible is to take the wide-angle perspective, the aerial view of the Scriptures. Our survey of the Bible is divided into nine parts:

Part One: A Panorama of the Scriptures

An overview of the Bible, Genesis through Revelation

Part Two: Five Steps to Maturity

The books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy

Part Three: The Message of History

Applying the historical books, Joshua through Esther

Part Four: Music to Live By

Old Testament poetry, Job through the Song of Songs

Part Five: The Promises of God

The prophetic books, Isaiah through Malachi

Part Six: Jesus: The Focus of Both Testaments

Jesus and His Church, Matthew through Acts

Part Seven: Letters from the Lord

Letters to the church, Romans through Philemon

Part Eight: Keeping the Faith

All about faith, Hebrews through Jude

Part Nine: Signs of the Times

The end--and a new beginning, Revelation

With this as our outline, we will journey through all sixty-six books of the Bible, examining its great themes and following the threads of those themes from their beginnings in Genesis to their triumphant conclusion in Revelation. We will probe the grand design of God's revealed Word and discover how each part of the Bible fits together with every other part. We will see the dynamic flow of God's profound revelation to humanity and detect the hand of God's untying divine authorship behind each book and each human writer.

I encourage you to read through these books of the Bible as we go along. This book is not a substitute for Bible study. In fact, I would rather that you take this book and throw it on a bonfire than use it as a substitute for actually reading and studying God's Word! This book is intended to be opened alongside of, not in place of, the Scriptures.

So join me in the adventure of a lifetime, an adventure of grand discoveries and exciting breakthroughs. Join me as we adventure together through the greatest book of all time!

Chapter Two: The Old Testament

God Spoke in Times Past

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on November 22, 1963? Virtually every American who was alive that day can recall with clarity and sadness the moment he or she heard that President Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas. If you are too young to recall that day, the nearest equivalent might be January 28, 1986, the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded nine miles above the earth killing seven brave astronauts. The emotional aftermath of such an event is one of shock, dismay, and abysmal sorrow. It is as if the sun were suddenly blotted out, and the entire landscape went dark.

If you could magnify that emotional intensity several times over, you might begin to understand how the disciples of Jesus felt in the aftermath of the crucifixion. Luke 24 contains a story of two such disciples walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Whenever I read this story I feel a tug inside, a strong wish that I could have been present to witness this event with my own eyes. Even though I believe that since the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost Christ is more real and available to believers now than when He physically walked the earth, I still would love to have been there to watch what was to take place in the lives of these two downhearted disciples.

It was the day of the resurrection of our Lord, and the countryside was already exploding with the incredible news that Jesus had risen--but few would believe it. Indeed, these two disciples were filled with sorrow and despair. Jesus' death had blotted the sun out of their sky and they had no idea which way to turn or what to do. As they walked, they talked about their grief. They were intent on their own conversation, and a stranger drew near and began walking with them. The stranger asked, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" (Luke 24:17).

They stopped and looked at the stranger in amazement. "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days…Jesus of Nazareth…was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see" (Luke 24:18-24).

When they had finished speaking, the stranger said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" (Luke 24:25). Then, Luke tells us, "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets," the stranger--the risen Lord Jesus Himself--"explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). Later on, as they were thinking back over the events of that wonderful incident, they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32).

What was it that caused this wonderful, strange, awe-inspiring sensation of holy heartburn, this divine glow of anticipation that lit again the smoldering fires of faith in their hearts? And don't you just wish that you could have an experience like that? I certainly do!

Well, the source of that strangely warmed experience on the Emmaus road was nothing more nor less than the exposition of the Old Testament in the power and clarity of the Holy Spirit: "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." This is what the Old Testament does: It points to Christ! The Old Testament prepares our hearts to receive the One who truly satisfies. That is the discovery made by the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus is not just the object of the New Testament but of the Old Testament as well.

As Jesus once said to the Jewish leaders who opposed Him, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me" (John 5:39).

In the previous chapter we found that God's purpose in revealing His truth to us through the Bible is to bring us all to maturity as followers of Christ, that maturity being "the whole measure of the fullness of Christ," the complete expression of Jesus Christ in the world. It takes the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments, to accomplish this, and it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to open our understanding of Scripture.

In this chapter we will examine the contribution that the Old Testament makes to our maturity in Christ--not in detail, but in an "orbital view" survey. We will gain an overview of the major thrust of the Old Testament so that we can have clear in our minds the part it plays in producing Christlike maturity within each of us.

The Old Testament is deliberately an incomplete book; it never was intended by God to be His last word to the human race. Dr. W H. Griffith Thomas has suggested that if we were to approach the Old Testament as though we had never read it before and take note of all the remarkable predictions of someone who is coming afterward, we would find that this series of predictions begins in the early chapters of Genesis. As the text moves along, the predictions of this person grow in detail and degree of anticipation until, in the Prophets, they break out in glowing and marvelously brilliant colors, describing in breathtaking terms the One who is to come. And yet, after completing Malachi, the last Old Testament book, we would still not know who this person is. Thus, the Old Testament is a book of unfulfilled prophecy.

But the mystery of the Old Testament does not end there. Read through the first thirty-nine books of the Bible again and you will notice that an astounding, strange, disturbing stream of blood springs forth in Genesis and flows in increasing volume throughout the remainder this Testament. It is the blood of sacrifices--thousands and thousands of animals whose blood was poured out in a surging tide across the history of Israel. Again and again, the message is hammered home: without sacrifice, there is no forgiveness, no reconciliation. When we close the book again at the end of Malachi, we realize that it is not only a book of unfulfilled prophecies, but of unexplained sacrifices as well.

If we read through the Old Testament a third time, yet another dimension becomes clear: The great Old Testament men and women of God seem to express, again and again, a longing for something more than life offered them, something transcendent, something eternal. For example, Abraham sets out to find the city whose builder and maker is God. The people of Israel were on a pilgrim journey throughout the books of the Old Testament. In Job, in the Psalms, in the books of Solomon, there is the continual cry of thirsty souls longing for something that has not yet been realized. So, at the conclusion of this third reading of the Old Testament, we could nor help but realize that it is not only a book of unfulfilled prophecies and unexplained sacrifices, but also of unsatisfied longings.

But something wonderful takes place the moment you cross over from the Old to the New Testament. As you open the pages of Matthew, the first words you read are, "A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ." It is Jesus arid Jesus alone who fulfills the prophecies, who explains the sacrifices, who satisfies the longings. The New Testament fulfills the promise of the Old, and we have to acknowledge that we cannot fully appreciate the profound meaning of the New Testament until we have first been awakened by the message of the Old.

Clearly, the Old Testament is a book intended to prepare us for something. The New Testament letter to the Hebrews, of course, ties in closely with the Old Testament themes, and the first two verses of Hebrews catch this idea very beautifully:

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.

There you have the two testaments side by side: "In the past God spoke to our forefathers . . . at many times and in various ways" (the Old Testament), and "In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" (the New Testament). The completion of the Old is found in the New.

The way the writer to the Hebrews describes the Old Testament is significant: "God spoke at many times and in various ways." Just think of the many times and various ways in which God spoke in the Old Testament. Beginning with Genesis, we have the simple but majestic account of the story of creation, the fall of humanity, and the flood--an account never equaled in all of literature for power and simplicity of expression. Next comes the straightforward narrative of the lives of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We find the thunderings of the law in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; the true drama of the historical books; the sweet hymns and sorrowful laments of the Psalms; the practical homespun wisdom of Proverbs; the exalted language of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah; the touching human tenderness of Ruth, Esther, and the Song of Songs; the vivid, visionary mysteries of Daniel and Ezekiel; and on and on--many and various books, many and various ways of expressing the truth of God.

And still it is not complete! Nothing in the Old Testament can stand complete in and of itself. It is all intended as preparation.

As a first year college student, I was inducted into an organization you may have joined yourself. It is an organization with many members, and it is called The Ancient Order of Siam. Looking as ridiculous as possible in our little green skullcaps, a group of us were led into a room where we were subjected to an assortment of indignities. A number of sophomores stood around with paddles in their hands, ready to enforce their commands. We were lined up in a row, and one fellow stood before us and ordered us to follow him in repeating this chant:

Oh wah!…Tah goo!…Siam!

We dutifully repeated the chant. "Again!" he barked, so we all said it faster. Then again, still faster. Then again, and again. Suddenly, we all realized what we were chanting:

Oh, what a goose I am!

Then we were members of the Order of Siam.

Sometimes, the meaning of a thing doesn't emerge until you put it all together. In a far less ridiculous way, a similar experience takes place as we gain the big picture of the Old Testament. Each book of the Old Testament might be likened to a phrase or a syllable. Each book makes its own sound, but it is an incomplete sound. Only by merging all the phrases and syllables together does the overall meaning become clear. A marvelous expression emerges into view--an expression of the fullness of God's Son.

And where do all the phrases and syllables of the Old Testament come together? In the New Testament! That's where all the many Old Testament voices merge into one voice, the voice of the Son of God. At the very end of the New Testament, in the Revelation, the apostle John writes that he saw the Lamb and he heard a voice like the voice of many waters. That voice booms forth, gathering itself out of all the thousands of rivers flowing together in one great symphony of sound: the voice of the Son!

In its incompleteness, the Old Testament is like a collection of syllables and phrases spoken to us by God--wonderful phrases, rich syllables, yet never quite connected and complete. But in the New Testament, these syllables and phrases become one expressive discourse focused on the reality of the Son of God.

You may think, "Why should I spend time on all this preparatory material? Why not skip the Old Testament entirely and go straight to the New Testament, the final voice of the Son? I don't need the Old Testament at all." That would be a big mistake! Why? Because you cannot really grasp the fullness and richness of the New Testament without being prepared by the Old. Does that sound like a radical statement? Perhaps, but I don't think it can be successfully challenged. While much of the New Testament is very easy to understand, much of it is built on a foundation of the Old Testament. We will never understand all God has for us in the New Testament until we are prepared by exposure to the Old.

Every successful process requires adequate preparation. Why does a farmer take time and trouble to plow his field for planting? Why doesn't he just take the seed out and sprinkle it over the ground? Some of that seed is bound to find a place in which to take root and thrive. Does the farmer really need to spend all that extra time preparing the soil? Yes! Every farmer knows that though the seed is the most important single item in raising a crop, most of it will never rake root unless the soil has been adequately prepared!

Why do schoolteachers always start with the ABCs instead of charging right in and teaching Shakespeare? Wouldn't it save a lot of time, money, and effort to simply take the nation's five-year-olds and send them straight to college? Obviously, we cannot educate students this way. Why? Because that's not the way students learn! Without adequate preparation, all the great knowledge in the world, dispensed by the greatest teachers in the world, would wash uselessly over them, leaving them unchanged.

As Paul says in Galatians 3:24, "the law [of the Old Testament] was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." Something is lacking in our lives if we try to grasp the reality of Christ without fully grasping the reality of the Ten Commandments. We will never be able to lay hold of all that is in Him unless, like Paul, we have wrestled with the demands of a rigid, unyielding law that makes us say with him, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7:24).

For many years I read and taught the book of Romans, including the great liberating, delivering themes of chapters 6 through 8, without truly grasping the core truths of the book. I failed to experience the mighty, liberating power of Romans in my own heart until I had spent some time with the children of Israel in the Old Testament, living out in the wilderness, on the back side of the desert, with the burning desert heat beating down on me, and the pain of a barren, defeated existence throbbing in my soul. After I had seen what God accomplished in the lives of the Old Testament people by delivering them, I was able to understand--for the first time--what God is trying to tell is in Romans 6, 7, and 8. The "soil" of my heart needed the preparation of--the Old Testament in order to receive the "seed" of the New Testament word.

Dr. H. A. Ironside told me a story from his early years of ministry when he was still an officer in the Salvation Army. He was holding evangelistic meetings in a large hall in a major city, and a great number of people were coming every night to hear him. One night, he noticed an alert young man sitting in the rear, leaning forward and listening attentively to everything Dr. Ironside said. The young man returned night after night, and Dr. Ironside wanted to meet him. He tried to catch him before he left the building, but each time the meeting was dismissed, the young man would melt into the crowd and disappear.

One night the young man came in a little late, and the only two seats left in the auditorium were right in the front row. He came down the aisle rather self-consciously and slipped into one of the front-row seats. Dr. Ironside thought to himself, Ha! You won't escape tonight, my young friend.

Sure enough, when the meeting was over, the young man turned to go, but the aisle was full. Ironside stepped forward, tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Would you mind if we just sit down here and talk?"

They sat down and Dr. Ironside said, "Are you a Christian?"

"No," said the young man, "I don't think I could call myself a Christian."

"Well, what are you?"

"I really couldn't say. There was a time when I think I would have called myself an atheist. But of late, I just don't think I could say with assurance that God doesn't exist. I guess you could call mean agnostic."

"Well," said Dr. Ironside, "what has produced this change in your thinking?"

The young man pointed to an older man sitting a few seats away. "It's the change in that man right over there."

Dr. Ironside looked and recognized the older man as Al Oakley, who had been part owner of a popular saloon in that city--that is, before he became his own best customer, ending up a skid-row drunk. But Al had experienced an amazing conversion in a Salvation Army jail service, and his life had completely turned around.

"I've known Al Oakley for years," said the young man, "and I know he hasn't any more backbone than a jellyfish. He tried to quit drinking many times but was never able to. Whatever turned his life around must be the real thing. So I've been reading the Bible lately. I can't seem to get anything at all out of the New Testament. But recently I've been reading the book of Isaiah. I've always been an admirer of oratory, and I think Isaiah slings the language better than anyone! If I could become a Christian by believing Isaiah, I think I would."

So Ironside opened his Bible and said, "I'd like to read you a short chapter from the book of Isaiah. It is about someone who is unnamed in the passage--but when I finish reading, I believe you'll he able to fill in the name."

"I don't know the Bible that well," said the young man."

"I don't think you'll have any problem," said Dr. Ironside. He turned to Isaiah 53 and read:

Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground,

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Dr. Ironside continued reading to the end of the chapter, then he turned to the young man and said, "Now, tell me, who was I reading about?”

The young man said, "Let me read it for myself.” He took the book and began to read rapidly through the whole chapter. Then he suddenly dropped the Bible in Dr. Ironside’s hands, and dashed down the aisle and out the door without another word. Not knowing what else to do for the young man, Dr. Ironside simply prayed for him.

The young man didn't return for two nights. Then, on the third night, Dr. Ironside was relieved to see him return. This time there was a different expression on the young man's face as he came up the aisle. Clearly, something had changed in his life. He took a seat in the front row, and when a time of sharing testimonies was announced, the young man stood and told his story.

I was raised in an unbelieving, atheistic family," he said. "In my school years, I read all the critics and was convinced there was absolutely nothing to this 'Christian' business. But while I was in Palestine, working for the British government, I was exposed to a number of influences that suggested to me that the Bible might be true.

"In Jerusalem, I joined a tourist group that went to visit 'Gordon's Calvary,' the site outside the Damascus Gate where General Charles Gordon believed he had found Golgotha, the skull-shaped hill with the garden tomb nearby. I went up there with this group. We climbed to the top, and while we were there, the guide explained that this was the place where the Christian faith began. It came home to me that this was the spot where, in my mind, the Christian deception began. It made me so angry I began to curse and blaspheme. The people ran in terror down the slope, afraid that God was going to strike me dead for blasphemy in such a sacred spot."

At this point, the young man broke down in tears. "You know, friends," he continued, "these last few nights I have learned that the one I cursed on Calvary was the one who was wounded for my transgressions and by whose wounds I am healed."

It took an Old Testament prophecy to prepare this young man's heart for the good news of the New Testament. His experience is a beautiful demonstration of the purpose and power of the Old Testament. The Old Testament was written to set our hearts aflame, to cause our hearts to burn within us in anticipation and longing for the Christ of the New Testament. Truly, the Lord Jesus Christ supplies all our needs, but the Old Testament awakens our hearts to the reality of our need of Him.

No book in all the New Testament asks the kind of deep, soul-searching questions you find in the Old Testament--questions that continue to plague the hearts of men and women today. No place in the New Testament will you find the earnest searchings of the human heart expressed all the pain, anguish, and confusion that afflict the modern soul: Why is there injustice? Why do the wicked prosper? What is our place in the cosmic scheme? How can we find meaning and purpose? Do we just live, laugh, suffer, then die and return to dust? Are we loved? Are we valuable? Or is everything ultimately futile?

The Old Testament is designed to articulate our deep spiritual hunger, to put life into terms we can see and express, to define the thirst of the soul, so that we can put a finger on our pain, our need, and our desire. How can we recognize the One who satisfies if we haven't identified the sources of our dissatisfaction?

Until we have seen ourselves reflected in the pages of the Old Testament, all we can really know is that we wake up each morning with a hazy sense of emptiness and incompleteness. As a result, we vainly try this and that and the other thing, hoping that something will satisfy, and always feel disappointed in the end. So life becomes a continual merry-go-round of pleasure-seeking or money-seeking or relationship-seeking or drug-seeking, which ends only in despair, emptiness, loneliness, or addiction.

For thousands of years, right up to the present moment, people of all cultures and backgrounds have turned to the Old Testament, have read its precious, powerful words, and have said, "That's it! That's me! That's exactly how I feel!" And they have gone on to find the answer for their pain and problems in those pages as well. The Old Testament is the book of human experience. It is designed to graphically, realistically portray us as we are. In the mirror of the Old Testament we see ourselves clearly, and this reflection of ourselves prepares us to listen to the Holy Spirit as He speaks to us through the New Testament.

How poverty-stricken we would be without the Old Testament, yet many Christians, tragically, choose to be poor! They ignore the marvelous, preparatory revelation God has given in the Old Testament, so that the rich truths of the New Testament might come alive in our hearts. As we move from the Old to the New Testament in this introductory section of our adventure together, my hope is that you will be challenged and changed in your approach to this great book and that in the years to come, the pages of the first thirty-nine books of your Bible will become as worn, underlined, and treasured as the pages of your favorite New Testament books.

The Old Testament is a living book, a fascinating book, guiding us toward maturity in Christ, preparing our hearts for the good news of the New Testament, May God immerse our hearts in its truths and use it to draw us deeper, ever deeper, into the living reality of His Son.

There are four divisions of the Old Testament, and each of these four divisions is especially designed to prepare us for a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. From the story of humanity's origins to the history of Israel to the great Old Testament poetry to the thundering books of prophecy, each section of the Old Testament lays its own foundation of truth. Each division touches our hearts in a subtly different way. Each helps present the coming ministry and person of Jesus in a subtly different light--so that when He is finally revealed at the critical moment in history, we see Him and we say, Yes! This is the One we have always heard about and read about in the Old Testament!"

Here is a thumbnail guide to the four divisions of the Old Testament:

Fives Steps to Maturity--The Books of Moses. These five books take us from our racial babyhood--the origin of the universe and the origin of humanity--and lead us toward maturity through the introduction of sin (and the first gleaming of the plan of salvation), the first judgment of humankind through the Great Flood, the stories of the heroes of faith Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph), the beginnings of the nation of Israel, the captivity and exodus, the leadership of Moses, the introduction of the Law, the wandering in the desert, and right up to the very borders of the Land of Promise.

Genesis means "beginnings," and the book of Genesis opens with the greatest mystery of our existence: our relationship to the universe and to the Creator of our universe. In its stories, we see reflection after reflection of our own human need. Adam and Eve needed a covering for their sins. Noah needed a boat to save him from the waters of judgment. Abraham continually needed God to intervene, to deliver him and supply him with things he lacked. Isaac needed God to prod him to action. Jacob needed a Savior to get him out of the messes he continually made in his life. Joseph needed a deliverer from the pit, from prison, from life's unfairness. The message of Genesis is the message of God's answer to our human need.

Exodus is the story of God's response to our human need. It is the marvelous lesson of His redemptive power in our lives--the story of the first Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, the lawgiving at Sinai. It is the story of human oppression in the land of Pharaoh--and the story of miraculous redemption and deliverance from bondage. The Israelites did nothing to bring about their own salvation. God did it all. That is still how He works in our lives today.

Leviticus is a book of detailed instruction. It is designed to make God accessible to us so that we will be available to God. It begins with the story of the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God. The tabernacle, of course, is a symbol of our lives, the place God ultimately chooses to dwell.

Numbers is the book of the wilderness of failure. The book begins at Kadesh-barnea, at the very edge of the Land of Promise. The people of Israel wander away from that place, losing sight of God's promise to them for forty years. After wandering in barrenness, loneliness, unbearable heat, and blistering sand, haunted mile after mile by defeat, they finally arrive at the same place where Numbers began--Kadesh-barnea. Numbers is a record of failure--and a warning for our own lives.

Deuteronomy means "second law." It is the story of the re-giving of the Law--and the people's recommitment of themselves to follow it. The book closes with the disclosure of the marvelous blessings that await those who pattern their lives after the revealed will of God. So the thread that winds through these five books, beginning with Genesis and leading all the way to the end of Deuteronomy, is that we are advancing, step by step, book by book, toward maturity, toward a living relationship with the living God of the universe.

The Message of History--Joshua through Esther. The historical books also make a unique contribution to the preparatory work of the Old Testament. While the first five books of the Old Testament gave us the pattern of God's working in the human race, the next twelve books of history present us with the perils that confront us as we daily walk the walk of faith. These books trace the history of one nation, a peculiar nation with a special ministry--the ministry of representing God to the world and of perpetuating the lineage of the One who will be born the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. In the pressures, perils, and failures of Israel, we see the pressures, perils, and failures that beset us today as believers. And in God's loving discipline and His gracious redemption of Israel, we see His work of sanctifying and saving us from our own sin and failure.

The books of history lead us through the battles of Joshua as Joshua seeks to obey His Lord and take the Land of Promise. We see the in intimidating forces of Jericho, followed by God's miraculous victory. We see the failure of the flesh at Ai and the deception of the Gibeonites. Through it all, we see that Joshua steadily marches onward, relentlessly fighting the battle of faith, never quitting or turning aside from the mission God has assigned him.

In Judges, we see the cycles of spiritual success and spiritual defeat--and we see God's use of seven special people, the judges of Israel, to bring deliverance to Israel. In Ruth we have a wonderful story of faithfulness, set against the backdrop of the failures of Judges. Ruth, an alien woman in the land of Israel, hears the voice of God, obeys, and joins herself to the people of Israel. It is a beautiful story of romance--and of faith.

The books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles tell of the glory years of Israel as a mighty kingdom--and of the tragedies that result when human kings do not obey the King of kings and Lord of lords. These books tell us the stories of King Saul, King David, King Solomon, and on and on--kings who were strong, kings who were weak, wise kings and foolish, righteous kings and evil, great kings and small. Always, it seems, whenever a bad king has led Israel into destruction and disgrace, the Lord lifts up a man like Hezekiah or Josiah to cleanse the temple, rediscover the book of the Law, and turn Israel back to God.

The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther deal with Israel's captivity and restoration. God is always at work in our lives--even in our bondage and pain. He lifts us out of defeat and discouragement and helps us to rebuild the walls of our lives, even as Nehemiah led the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. He enables us to shout in triumph, even amid seemingly hopeless circumstances, just as Queen Esther was able to triumph over her impossible odds. In these twelve books of history, we find yet another facet of God's preparation of our hearts for the long-awaited arrival of the Messiah.

Music to Live By--Job through Song of Songs. These are the poetical books that express both the praise and protest of the human heart. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs expose our hearts to God, honestly expressing our pain and our longing for God. There is not a single emotion we experience in life that is not explored and expressed in these books. If you want to understand your own experience in life and find a reflection of your own soul in the Scriptures, then turn to these beautiful, powerful Old Testament books.

The Promises of God--Isaiah through Malachi. These are the books where God says what He will do. There are seventeen of these books, commonly divided between the "major" prophets and "minor" prophets. They are not major or minor in importance--only in length, the "minor" prophets being much shorter books than the "majors." Whether long or short, all of these books contain powerful, major truths for our lives.

Isaiah is a book of incredible glory and majesty. It promises and predicts in startling detail the life, ministry, and sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus. Isaiah is a book of grace. It tells the story of how we have destroyed ourselves through sin--and how God has intervened and given us the promise of a new beginning. Jeremiah and Lamentations, by contrast, warn of the absence of God from our lives if we turn our backs on Him. Ezekiel begins with a cascading, transcendent vision of God and leads us on a tout of future history, revealing God's promise of intervention in worldwide human events. Daniel shows us God's protective power to give us boldness, even when we are in captivity in a hostile, rapidly changing world; Daniel goes on to reveal what God is planning to do through the nations of the world down through the course of history, even beyond our own day.

Hosea is one of the most beautiful books in the Bible, a picture of God's unconditional love toward erring, sinful human beings; it is the promise of God's persistence in pursuing us to bring us redemption. Joel is the promise that God can even weave national and individual tragedies and catastrophes into His eternal plan. Amos is the promise that God never relaxes His standards; He continually seeks to bring us to perfection in Him. Obadiah is a promise of spiritual victory, as seen in the contrast between Jacob and Esau, spirit and flesh. Jonah is the promise of God's patience, and His gracious second chance, as revealed in both the life of Jonah and the repentance of Nineveh.

Micah is the promise of God's pardon, echoing (in shorter form) the themes of Isaiah. Nahum promises the destruction of Nineveh; it comes after the story of Jonah and the repentance of Nineveh by a hundred years and demonstrates that God does not change. If we repent once, then lapse back into complacency or disobedience, we can expect to feel the disciplining judgment of God. Habakkuk promises that God will ultimately answer our questions and cries for justice in an unjust world. Zephaniah is a dark book that promises judgment in "the Day of the LORD."

Haggai promises material restoration if we turn our hearts to God. Zechariah is "the Apocalypse of the Old Testament," promising God's management of future events and His preservation of God's people through the time of judgment. Malachi promises that God will respond to our need and send us a Savior; it predicts the first coming of Jesus (preceded by John the Baptist), then skips over to the second coming of Jesus, the dawning of the Sun of righteousness.

In a few strokes of the pen, we have sketched the outlines of the Old Testament. In the pages that follow, we will look at some of the details and subtler shadings of God's grand Book of preparation for our lives.

Chapter Three: The New Testament

God Has Spoken in These Last Days

There are two ways of learning truth: reason and revelation. People are brevet asking which is more important. That is like asking which blade of a pair of scissors is more important or which leg of a pair of trousers is more important. It takes both. In the same way, it is impossible to gather the full, balanced body of biblical knowledge together without relying on both reason and revelation.

Some people throw out reason and attempt to rely on revelation alone. The result is fanaticism. If we decide that our God-given faculty of reason has no value at all, then we will find ourselves behaving irrationally.

I once read of a man who decided that the solution to every problem could be found in the Bible. When gophers began eating the vegetables in his garden, he took his Bible out in the yard and read the gospel of John in the four corners of his property. Somehow, he figured this would solve his gopher problem. It didn't. Reason would suggest that the best way to rid one's garden of gophers would be to set out gopher traps. By attempting to rely solely on revelation without the application of reason and common sense, this man ended up behaving irrationally.

If we throw out revelation and rely on reason alone, the result is equally disastrous. Reason has given us many scientific insights and technological advances, but reason alone has never shown us how to change the human heart; how to end war; or how to eliminate crime, poverty, drug abuse, or racism. In fact, our technological advances have actually rendered the future more dark and frightening. We can never even make a dent in our social and human problems as long as we set aside God’s revelation and focus exclusively on reason.

What is revelation?

Revelation is, simply, truth that we cannot know by reason. It is what Paul called "God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden" (1 Cor. 2:7). He continued, "None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (2:8). When he spoke of the rulers of this age, he was not talking about kings and princes, necessarily. He was talking about leaders of human thought in every realm. And he said there is a body of knowledge--a secret, hidden wisdom--that is imparted by God to human beings, but only on certain terms, which none of the rulers with all their cleverness and wisdom could understand. Had they known this, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory.

The religious rulers who demanded the crucifixion of our lord were a body of learned, clever people who boasted that they, more than anyone else, could recognize truth when they saw it. But when incarnate Truth stood before them, when the Son of God Himself spoke to them, they neither recognized Him nor received His word. They crucified Him because they had thrown out revelation and were clinging only to the power of their own reasoning.

Revelation, in the fullest sense, is really Scripture interpreted by the Holy Spirit. We have this Book, which was given to us by God, as Paul declared to Timothy: "All Scripture is God-breathed" (2 Tim. 3:16). Scripture did not originate with human beings. Rather, human beings were the channel through whom God delivered His Word. As Peter wrote, "Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet. 1:21). The writers of the New Testament sat down and wrote letters just as we would write them today, expressing their feelings, their attitudes, and their ideas in the most natural and uncomplicated manner. But in the process, a strange mystery took place: the Holy Spirit worked through the New Testament writers to guide, direct, and inspire. In fact, the Spirit chose the very words that would express God's thoughts to human beings.

The marvelous hidden wisdom of God cannot be discovered in a laboratory experiment, yet it is absolutely essential to the kind of life God has always intended us to have. This wisdom is revealed in the Bible--yet it is a wisdom that is inaccessible and worthless to us if we are not instructed by the Holy Spirit. It is possible to know the Bible from cover to cover and to get absolutely nothing from it. You can go to any bookstore and find dozens of books filled with extensive information about the historical, archaeological, and literary content of the Bible; yet the authors of these books are hardened atheists.

So revelation is not found merely by reading the Bible. The Bible must be illuminated, interpreted, and authenticated in our lives by the Holy Spirit. The Word and the Spirit must act together to bring us to a saving experiential knowledge of God.

Did you ever wonder why Jesus came to the Jews? Why didn't He come to the Aztecs? or the Chinese? or the Eskimos? There is a simple, common sense answer to this question: He came to the Jews because they were the nation that had the Old Testament. The Jews, for this reason, were uniquely prepared to receive what God was offering in Christ. Certainly, not all Jews received Him. But for the first few years of its existence, the early church was overwhelmingly a Jewish church. The Jewish nation was qualified to receive the Messiah because it was prepared by the Old Testament to lay hold of Jesus, who was the way to life, truth, and light.

I believe this is why many people today who read only the New Testament can go only so far in grasping the fullness of Jesus Christ. Their hearts are not adequately prepared. Our lives are always shallow and limited if we are trying to grasp something for which we are not quite ready. This is why we need so deeply and continuously the ministry of the Old Testament.

If the Old Testament prepares, then the New Testament fulfills. God designed the New Testament to meet the needs stirred up and expressed by the Old Testament. How does the New Testament meet these needs? By revealing to us the one who is the answer to all our needs. Jesus said, "If anyone is thirst; let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37). "If anyone eats of this bread [referring to Himself], he will live forever" (John 6:5 1). "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). All the needs of the human heart are met in Him.

The New Testament is to be a channel by which the Holy Spirit makes the living Jesus Christ teal to our hearts. As we saw, in the previous chapter, the New testament letter to the Hebrews opens with the statement, "in the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways." In other words, the Old Testament has given us an incomplete message, not the final word. "But in these last days," the passage continues, "he [God] has spoken to us by his Son." The New Testament is the answer to all the yearning that the Old Testament stirs within us.

Another verse in Hebrews sums up the whole New Testament in one brief phrase. In Hebrews 2, the writer states that all the earth was to be subjected to humankind, and that God gave humankind dominion over it. We read in verse 8:

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.

That is an accurate assessment of the present situation. As we look around, we do not yet see much of anything in subjection to humanity. This is the problem, isn't it? Why don't things work out the way we think they should? Why is there always a fly in the ointment? Why is it that even our fondest dreams, when they are realized, are never as glorious as we anticipated? Because "at present we do not see everything subject to him." The stamp of rebellion and futility is upon everything we touch. This is the present situation. But the writer goes on:

We see Jesus… (Heb. 2:9).

There is the answer! We see Jesus! That is the New Testament, the summary of its message to our hearts. We do not yet see everything in subjection. But the story is not ended. The whole tale has not been told. What we do see is the One who will make it possible. We see Jesus. And in the New Testament, He stands out on every page.

Every division of the New Testament is particularly designed to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the answer to the needs of our lives.

The Gospels are the biographical section of the New Testament. There we learn who Jesus is and what He did. Who is Jesus, as presented in the Gospels? He is the Son of God become human for us. What did He do for us? He submitted to being sacrificed upon the cross. He burst forth from the tomb in resurrection power. He saved us from the penalty for our sins. In the Gospels we discover the mighty secret that the Son of God manifested among human beings, a secret that is nothing less than the most radical principle ever disclosed. I don't hesitate to put it in such strong terms.

There was a time when, in the fullness of my ignorance upon graduating from seminary, I thought the Gospels were hardly worth reading! I had heard that the Gospels were merely the story of the life of Jesus. I knew there was some value in them, but I believed that the most important parts of the New Testament were Paul's epistles. In fact, some of my seminary instructors unwisely reinforced this notion, instructing me to give my attention almost exclusively to the Epistles. They promised that if I would grasp the Epistles, I would be complete and perfect, and I would astonish everyone, including myself.

In time, I found I couldn't grasp the Epistles without the Gospels. I desperately needed the Gospels, for as I turned to them and read the life of Jesus Christ and saw Him portrayed in the four magnificent dimensions I finally discovered the secret that has transformed my own life and ministry. The most radical, revolutionary statement ever presented to the human mind is revealed in the life of Jesus Christ, as recorded in the Gospels. Jesus stated it Himself over and over again in variety of ways.

For example, Jesus said, "I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me" (John 6:57). This statement explains the life of Christ--the miracles He wrought, the words He spoke, the power He exercised among human beings. It is the explanation for everything He accomplished, up to and including the cross and the resurrection.

Acts gives us the account of the beginning of the church. And the church is nothing more nor less than the body of Jesus Christ today, through which He intends to keep on being who He is, doing what He did. He poured out His physical life in order that He might pour it into a body of people who would express that life throughout the entire planet Earth. The book of Acts is but the simple, straightforward account of how this body began, how it was filled with the Holy Spirit, and how it began to launch out from Jerusalem, out into Judea and Samaria, and far beyond, to the uttermost parts of the earth, setting forth the glory of the life of the Son of God.

The ministry that belonged to Jesus during His earthly life now belongs to His body, the body of believers. It is our task as His followers to open the eyes of the blind, to set at liberty those who are held captive, to comfort those who need comfort, to be conduits for God's transforming, life-changing power in the lives of men and women everywhere.

The Epistles are a series of letters written to individuals and churches in artless, uncomplicated language conveying profound practical truths for Christian living. These letters are amazingly revealing--because, as you know, nothing is as revealing as a personal letter. If I wanted to know what people were like without actually sitting down and talking with them face-to-face, I would try to get some of their letters. These are letters written by human beings--and, through direct inspiration, by God. In them, we find revealed both the personalities of their human writers and of their divine Author.

The Epistles represent a wonderfully varied array of viewpoints. We find God's truth emerging through the personalities of the human writers of these letters. There is Peter the fisherman, always casting his net for the human soul. There is Paul the tentmaker and church builder, always laying foundations and constructing. There is John the net mender; that is what he was doing when Christ first found him. And John's ministry is one of repairing, restoring, and bringing us back to God's original pattern.

In the letters of the New Testament, we discover the nuts and bolts of the Christian life, and we learn how to allow Jesus Christ to live His life through us. These letters are almost all composed in the same simple pattern. The first part is doctrinal, the second part is practical. The first part sets forth truth, the second part applies that truth to real life.

Truth must he applied. Revelation must he made relevant and real. As the Lord Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). Until we begin to learn who He is and what He does and then apply it in the specific activities of our own lives and hearts