THE NEW TESTAMENT AS A WHOLE
WE are to study the books of the New Testament. It is the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It is well, at the very beginning, to know what that phrase, the "New Testament," means. The words are taken from the institution of the Supper. It is there that we first find them. Our old version reads: "This is my blood of the New Testament, which was shed for many for the remission of sins." If you look into the Revised Version, you will see that the translation is changed; and now we have: "This is my blood of the new covenant, which was shed for many for the remission of sins." The word "testament" means "covenant." It often is so translated; and we now have to study together the New Covenant between God and sinful man.
Of course this suggests at once the relation between the new covenant and the old covenant. A covenant is an agreement, an agreement between God and man. Provisionally there was an agreement that men should be saved if they could only present to God perfect works of obedience. This was a trial or test; intended to show the real condition of man. God never expected any human being under the old covenant to present such works of perfect obedience; he only intended to demonstrate the fact that human nature was helpless, and that it could not be saved in this way. Therefore, for many, many generations there was going on