Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

144 / CORNERSTONE CURRICULUM STUDENT WORKBOOK

CONNECTION

This lesson focuses upon the various motifs and approaches that will allow us to see the Old and New Testaments as fundamentally and intimately connected – through progressive revelation , the promise-fulfillment motif , and the complimentary relationships that the testaments have as they both come to fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. Carefully review the concepts below as a mastery of these themes is essential if you are to adopt exegetical strategies that will enable you to see the unity as well as the diversity of the Old and New Testament literature. • The relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament can be effectively understood through the idea of progressive revelation , which affirms that God has revealed himself progressively and definitively throughout the history of his people, and finally through Jesus Christ. • The concept of progressive revelation includes God’s continuous revelation of himself to us through creation, through specific manifestations and occasions, and in these last days through his Son. The OT explains and reveals the NT through the person of Christ, and both testaments focus upon God’s final and full revelation of himself in Jesus Christ and his kingdom reign. • Augustine’s epigram (saying) nicely summarizes the relationship between the two testaments: “In the OT the NT lies hidden; in the NT the OT stands revealed.” This complementary relationship is seen in how the OT provides an introduction to the NT’s conclusion about Christ, the OT’s anticipation of the person and work of Messiah, and the NT’s identification of Jesus of Nazareth as the climax of that anticipation. Also, the OT serves as the shadow (prefiguring) of the person and work of Christ and the NT as its embodiment, and the OT is seen as the ineffective former revelation of God’s salvation consummated later in the NT revelation of Jesus. Finally, what was particularized to Israel in the OT was universalized to all nations in the NT. • The motif of promise and fulfillment in OT revelation affirms the promise of God for his own chosen One to redeem humankind and to destroy the devil’s work, a promise fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. • The NT provides several central texts which affirm how the OT’s work is to provide compelling and definitive witness to the person of Messiah fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ (cf. Luke

Summary of Key Concepts page 87 & 6

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