Get a Handle on the Canon: The New Testament

This is a continuation of a short series designed to give a quick look at the canon of Scripture (not the kind that go "boom"). We have briefly looked at the Old Testament and (Why not) the Apocrypha. Today I want to look at the New Testament. 

The New Testament (NT)

As NT times began (around the life of Jesus), there was already a body of authoritative “Scriptures” (the OT) that governed the life of God’s people (Luke 24:27, John 5:39, Acts 17:2, Rom. 5:14). 

When Jesus comes, he comes as an authority (Matt. 7:28-29) and as the one who perfectly reveals God (John 1:1,15; Heb. 1:1-2). He comes to fulfill the promises made in the OT and to bring in the promised New Covenant (or Testament). This was not "out of the blue", but rather had been foretold in the OT. 

The question, then, is, how will those living in Jesus' time and the following generations know this new message of the gospel and how it is to be lived out? The answer is an expansion of the OT canon. God's people expected he will write out his promises and commands just as he had done in the OT. With movement forward in redemptive history comes the need for new Scriptures to be written by God. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to teach and remind his Apostles of his message (John 14:24-26), and their message serves as the foundation of the church:  

the household of God [ie. the church], built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone (Eph. 2:19-20). 

This foundation is laid as the Apostles, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote new Scripture about the new covenant work Jesus did. 

And I [the Apostle Peter] will make every effort so that after my departure [death] you may be able at any time to recall these things [truth of the gospel see 1:3-14]. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,”  we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.  And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:15-21)

Later in that same letter, the Apostle Peter explicitly acknowledges the Apostle Paul’s writings as being Scripture: 

just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures (2 Peter 3:15-16).

So the NT is inspired by God to record the gospel message (the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah) and how God's people should live while they await his return. 

Next time we will look at how the NT books were recognized by the church and added to the canon of Scripture.