New Testament

In this program we will find our own identity and purpose in the truth and salvation that comes through Jesus Christ alone. As we track together through each podcast, we will learn how to read the New Testament faithfully, powerfully, and carefully—learning to interpret Scripture through Scripture when things seem initially unclear in the Bible. Not settling for disconnected, decontextualised individualistic answers that suit our contemporary sensibilities, but rather experiencing a soul-satisfying, Spirit-inspired scriptural coherence that builds our faith and trust in God and God’s Word alone. We’ll discover that the Old was not an inferior grace-less religion, but rather a covenant characterised by grace, yearning for its completion in Christ Jesus. That the Old is not the negative foil for the New; but that the New is the fulfillment of the Old. That the God of grace has been fighting for us from the beginning, running into the fray with us, so that the saving grace of the gospel could extend to all nations through Jesus Christ and through his body, the Church.

Part 1: The Incredibly Reliable (but literally unbelievable) New Testament

Part 2: From Reasonable Wretch to Senseless Saint: How the Foolish Story of Jesus puts the Wisdom of the World to Shame

Part 3: You Shouldn’t Go to Church: New Testament Reflections on What it Means to Be the Church

Part 4: The End of the World as I Know it: Come as I am, Leave as God Made me to Be

Part 5: The End of the World Full Stop: God Completing (not destroying) what God Started

John is lecturer in New Testament and Greek at Trinity College Queensland. He has lectured across three continents (the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia) and has published several books on the topics of worship, theology, and the New Testament and early Christianity. John’s teaching and writing emphases that the Old Covenant is like a gripping, powerful epic movie eternally set on pause without its climax and culmination in the Christ. And, the New Covenant is incomprehensible apart from what preceded it. Or, as the theologian Augustine once said: “The Old is in the New Revealed, the New is in the Old Concealed.”

In addition to the set reading for each class (about 100 pages in total), the assessment for this subject is a 1500 word book review or essay. The Lay Preacher candidate may review 100 pages from a set text, or write an essay on one of three set topics. For further information, please contact the course lecturer.