(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Focus Question:
How did Jesus promise the New Testament?
Intro:
The Holy Spirit makes a significant appearance in the book of John, and very broadly speaking in terms of role, He is both Comforter and Counselor. Today, however, we get to an important verse which is key to answering today’s Focus Question: How did Jesus promise the New Testament?
You don’t have to look too hard to see Jesus affirm the Old Testament — both in whole when he used a phrase like “the law and the prophets,” and specifically when he affirmed the veracity of stories like Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, Jonah and the overstuffed minnow, Sodom and Gomorrah, and many prophets by name. Oh, and directly quoted from 24 of the 39 books.
But the New Testament? Wasn’t that written after Jesus’ death and resurrection? I’m glad you asked!
New Testament segment:
Passage: John 14
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 31
Words: ~666
Old Testament segment:
Today’s a big day in Lamentations…we’re going to finish it up.
Passage: Lamentations 4-5
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 66
Words: ~1393
Lamentations says that there is no place like home, especially when it is gone. It shows the honest face of prayer in the midst of tragedy. It frees God’s people to question and still experience His presence. It shows that the road to hope is paved with honesty and questioning, mixed with praise. Faith grows in the midst of crisis when God’s people take their troubles to Him.(1)
The bottom line:
Let’s begin with one premise. God can’t make an error. Jesus is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, so they can’t make an error. What God says is true, right?
So did Jesus ever say, “Yo, gonna be some dudes who write this stuff down in biographies and letters and such?” No, of course not. But we the best explanation of the historical evidence is not only that he rose from the dead, demonstrating his deity, but the NT (and gospels in particular) are the best attested, most reliable documents from the ancient near east.
And as we heard him say today to the apostles in the red words,
25 “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you. Jn 14:25–26, CSB
So…
Jesus told His disciples that “the Counselor, [which is] the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). He added, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). As a matter of fact, the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). And the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42), which was recorded for us in the pages of the New Testament and was considered “Scripture” along with the Old Testament (cf. 2 Peter 3:15–16; 1 Tim. 5:18).(1)
Put another way,
The third person of the Trinity is called “the Spirit of truth” (John 16:13), who cannot err (cf. 1 John 4:6).
(1) He who is the Source of truth cannot be in error.
(2) The Bible is an utterance of the Spirit of truth.
(3) Therefore, the Bible cannot be in error.
The authors of Scripture were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20–21), and they uttered God-breathed writings (2 Tim. 3:16) that are said to have come “from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Remember what David said: “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue” (2 Sam. 23:2). But if this is the case, then the Bible can no more utter an untruth than can the Spirit of truth Himself.(1)
Jesus didn’t directly promise the New Testament, but he promised it’s divine authority through the apostles. That’s one reason why, despite all the writings of other people during that time, apostolic authorship was one (but not the only) of the factors by which early church fathers recognized what was authentic scripture.
So if that’s true, let me leave you with a few more red words from Luke 10:16:
16 Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” Lk 10:16, CSB
Remember these words: You can say with confidence that God used men and their voices to author the Bible, but He is the ultimate author. He doesn’t make mistakes. And just because human beings do make mistakes sometimes, it doesn’t me that everything they do is a mistake. In short, God made sure we could trust our Bibles.
Love you!
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(0) David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 430.
(1) Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume One: Introduction, Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2002), 237.
(2) Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume One: Introduction, Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2002), 248–249.