The books of the Old Testament and the New Testament were written by different human authors over a long span of time. But they share profound unities.
•Every book in the Bible has God as the divine author, who inspired each human author. All of Scripture is the very Word of God.
•All of the Bible is Trinitarian communication to us. God the Father speaks all of the words through the Son, the eternal Word (John 1:1), and God speaks in the power and means of the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21).
•All of the Bible is Christ-centered. Christ is the central subject and focus of the Bible. This focus is obvious in the New Testament, but it is present in the Old Testament also (Luke 24:25–27, 44–47; John 5:39–40, 45–47; 1 Pet. 1:10–12).
•The Bible reveals how God redeems his people. Its focus is salvation as it applies to individuals and also to God’s people as a corporate unity.
•The Bible bears a unified message of salvation. The fall of Adam (Gen. 3:6–7) resulted in sinfulness coming to the whole human race, Christ excepted. There is only one way of rescue, namely, Christ himself: “Jesus said . . . , ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6). People cannot make up for their sins by accumulating good works, because God is perfectly holy, and sins must receive judgment by the Father, who is just. Only Christ, who was also perfectly holy, can bear the burden of the penalty for sins (1 Pet. 2:24).
•This principle that salvation comes only in Christ is obvious in the New Testament but found in the Old Testament also. Before Christ came, sins were forgiven for the sake of Christ’s future work (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 10:4, 10). Saved people in the Old Testament believed in God’s promise of a Redeemer and enjoyed communion with God. He applied to them beforehand benefits based on what Christ would accomplish.
Adapted from the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible
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