Jesus Through the Old Testament: Transform your Bible understanding

Jesus Through the Old Testament: Transform your Bible understanding

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Confident in the Old Testament? Enjoying reading it? Happy to preach from it?


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Title Jesus Through the Old Testament: Transform your Bible understanding
Author Graeme Goldsworthy
Description

Confident in the Old Testament? Enjoying reading it? Happy to preach from it?

In this engaging book, Graeme Goldsworthy reflects with clarity and practical insight on reading and using the Old Testament, showing us how Jesus is central to the Old Testament's message and encouraging us to reinstate it as essential and transformative to our lives, churches and mission in today's world.

The author asks essential questions: Where is Jesus in the whole biblical story-line? How does the kingdom of God relate to him? In what way is he central to the divine revelation?

This is a must-read for those who wish to transform their biblical understanding.

Details
  • Product code: 9780857465672
  • Published: 20 October 2017
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • Dimensions: 130mm wide and 198mm high

Confident in the Old Testament? Enjoying reading it? Happy to preach from it?

In this engaging book, Graeme Goldsworthy reflects with clarity and practical insight on reading and using the Old Testament, showing us how Jesus is central to the Old Testament's message and encouraging us to reinstate it as essential and transformative to our lives, churches and mission in today's world.

The author asks essential questions: Where is Jesus in the whole biblical story-line? How does the kingdom of God relate to him? In what way is he central to the divine revelation?

This is a must-read for those who wish to transform their biblical understanding.

  • Foreword
Part 1 Where's Jesus?
  • Is the Old Testament a Christian book?
  • Getting started: looking for the big picture
  • The storyline of the Bible
  • The kingdom of God as a unifying theme
  • The shape of progressive revelation
Part 2 Working with the texts
  • Some key events in biblical revelation
  • Finding Christ in Genesis
  • Finding Christ in Israel's history
  • Finding Christ in wisdom and psalms
  • Finding Christ in the prophetic books
  • Jesus Christ the fulfiller
  • D.I.Y.

The Old Testament can be confusing or problematic for many readers. But in this book, Graeme Goldsworthy helps the Christian reader join the dots, and so make sense of the Old Testament's big picture. He shows how understanding the Old Testament comes from seeing it as a witness to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Goldsworthy traces the developing idea of the kingdom of God through the Old Testament, neatly summarised by his maxim, 'God's people in God's place under God's rule'. Readers will appreciate his explanation of fulfilment and typology, supporting ideas, his explanation of example texts, and the sense of movement towards Jesus. Rather than focus on details that might overwhelm the beginner, Goldsworthy provides a basic roadmap for how the Old Testament's big ideas, from Genesis to Malachi, find their ultimate meaning in Jesus Christ.
George Athas, Director of Postgraduate Studies, Moore Theological College, Sydney

No one has done more in the past 50 years to contribute to the recovery of Biblical Theology for the church than Graeme Goldsworthy. Now in this crystal-clear, deeply practical and enormously helpful book, Graeme has condensed years of reflection on and teaching of the Bible for the benefit of the church. I can think of no more helpful place to start for anyone who wants to find out how to read, understand and apply the message of the Bible. I pray that this book gets the attention and widespread use that it deserves for the sake of Christ and his kingdom.
Gary Millar, Principal, Queensland Theological College

Review by Phil Heaps, full-time elder, Grace Church Yate

If you rarely venture outside the New Testament (NT) then this little book may be just what you need. In a clear, enthusiastic way, Goldsworthy takes us on a tour through the Old Testament (OT) showing us how it points forward to Christ.

He starts with the importance of the OT to the NT and alerts us to several wrong approaches to the OT. The following chapters then provide a helpful overview of the OT, its storyline, and various key themes. 'The Kingdom of God' is seen as the Bible's overarching theme, without insisting that this is the only way to organise its message.

He shows how OT history initially reveals the kingdom and how, as that history takes a turn for the worse, the prophets point forward to the glorious reality foreshadowed there. Later chapters look in detail at key events, Genesis, the historical books, wisdom literature, and prophets, leading to a chapter on 'Jesus Christ the fulfiller'. The final chapter is very practical and strikes an excellent balance in various ways: start with prayer but study hard; read for the big picture but also examine texts closely; remember that Scripture is firstly 'God's Word about God's deed in bringing in his kingdom', but also make personal and practical applications.

Goldsworthy covers a lot of helpful ground - including many Scripture passages - in a brisk, straightforward manner, with plenty of tips and diagrams. His nine-page summary of the OT storyline is particularly helpful, as well as his treatment of 'the day of the Lord', and the way in which the NT must control our understanding of OT fulfilment. The book reads simply, though its approach is not simplistic but carefully nuanced.

On a few points I found myself disagreeing with Goldsworthy's approach or emphasis (eg there was little sense of Paul's Galatians 3 tension between the Promise and the Law) but it was often on questions of where exactly to get the balance. As an introduction to the Old Testament it is an excellent book, and highly recommended for young Christians, or those who feel they have not yet 'got their arms around' the first two-thirds of God's glorious word.

Review by Phil Heaps, full-time elder, Grace Church Yate