This past Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching at our church again. My text was Ezekiel 47:1-12 and the theme was living water. I had so much fun exploring the biblical theological theme of life-giving water. My sermon borrowed from the ideas I gleaned from G.K. Beale on how Jesus in both John 4 and John 7, alludes to Ezekiel’s eschatological temple and specifically chapter 47, where the river of life flows from the center of the temple. See an earlier post with relevant excerpts from Beale.
Ezekiel is not often the focus of a sermon, so I took time to introduce the book and situate the hearers to the context of chapter 47, particularly. John 7:37-39 provided the application and somehow I managed to get this all done in about 50 minutes! I am thankful for the opportunity and for how the Lord helped my scattered thoughts make sense. There was a good reception of the message and I pray it continues to bless those who hear it. Grasping the beauty of biblical theology has the potential to be truly transformative (it has been for me).
I’m sharing the sermon here, and you can find all my recent sermons from The Heights Church, St. Paul, here.
If you don’t have time to listen to the entire sermon (52 minutes), please do look over my notes.
As we think on Christ’s resurrection, this Easter, I wanted to bring attention to the fact that we are not mere bystanders, watching Christ’s resurrection. We are not just waiting to be resurrected only in the future. Christ’s resurrection does and should have a big impact in our lives now.
G.K. Beale in his massive New Testament biblical theology, argues that resurrection is perhaps the key theme in the New Testament. Resurrection involves a new-creation, and is simultaneous with Christ’s kingdom. His kingdom brings new creation, undoing the sin and brokenness of our lives and all of this world we live in. Believers have begun to experience new creation life and kingdom living, but one day we will experience it far more fully than now — physically as well as spiritually — in the ultimate New Kingdom of Christ Jesus.
Let me quote Beale on the importance the Resurrection should have for Christian living:
In Romans, Christ’s resurrection is sometimes viewed as the basis for believers’ resurrection existence that begins in this life (6:4-5, 8-9, which could be taken to indicate the saints’ future resurrection). That present resurrection existence is in mind is apparent, since in 6:11, 13 Paul understands the references in 6:4-10 to form the basis for concluding that believers presently should be “alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11) and should “present [themselves] to God as those alive from the dead” (6:13).
Consequently, Paul’s affirmation of believers’ possession of “eternal life” (6:22-23) is likely an already-not yet reality. Hence, saints are not merely like resurrected beings; rather, they actually have begun to experience the end-time resurrection that Christ experienced because they are identified with him by faith…
That [Paul] intends to refer to literal resurrection is apparent from observing that he parallels it with being in “the likeness of his death” in 6:5a, which refers to real identification with his death, such that “our old man was crucified with Him” (6:6) and believers have really “died” (6:7-8). Paul does not refer to identification with Christ’s death in a metaphorical manner. So likewise believers are in the “likeness” of Christ’s resurrection because they actually have begun to be identified with it and participate in it…
If saints are only like Christ’s resurrection, then Paul’s exhortation to them to live as resurrected beings is emptied of its force: if Christians have begun to be end-time resurrected creatures, then they have resurrection power not to “let sin reign in [their mortal bodies]… but present [themselves] to God as those alive from the dead” (6:12-13).
The relation of the “indicative” to the “imperative” in Paul’s writings has been an issue of some debate. But if the above is a correct analysis of the saints’ resurrection life, then the basis of Paul issuing commands to people is that such people have the ability to obey the commands because they have been raised from the dead, are regenerated, and are new creatures who have the power to obey. In fact, in 6:4 Paul refers to this resurrection life with new-creational language: “newness [kainotes] of life” ( or “new life”), a cognate of the word kainos found in 2 Cor. 5:17: Gal. 6:15 in the well-known inaugurated eschatological expression “new creation,” where in both cases it refers to resurrection life….
Thus, Paul does not give commands to live righteously to those outside the community of faith. This is because they do not have this power of the inbreaking age of the new creation, but are still part of the old age (the “old man” [6:6]), in which they are dominated by sin, Satan, and the influence of the world (so Eph. 2:1-3).
Not taking seriously enough the resurrection language applied to the Christian’s present experience to designate real reschatological resurrection existence, albeit on the spiritual level, has unintentionally eviscerated the ethical power of church teaching and preaching, since Christians must be aware that they presently have resurrection power to please and obey God. This is why in Rom. 6 and elsewhere Paul employs Christ’s latter-day resurrection as the basis for believers’ resurrection identity and for his exhortation that they rule over sin. (G.K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New, [Baker Academic, 2011], p. 250-251)
Book Details:
• Editor: Gregory K. Beale
• Category: Biblical Theology
• Publisher: Baker Academic (2011)
• Format: hardcover
• Page Count: 1072
• ISBN#: 9780801026973
• List Price: $54.99
• Rating: Must Read
Review:
Christians today are blessed with a wide variety of resources for studying the Bible. In America, it seems that every few months some must-read theology book hits the press and promises to revolutionize our understanding of God’s Word. And many of these books truly are helpful. We really have no excuse for not understanding Scripture more and being more conformed into the likeness of Christ, given the endless resources meant to help us do just this.
At the same time, however, this abundance of resources can serve to puzzle us and leave us lost in an ever expanding maze of theological conundrums. The specialization in biblical studies doesn’t help. Specialists write on the Gospels, or on Paul’s letters, to the virtual exclusion of the input from other New Testament, or Old Testament books. OT specialists develop their understanding and grow in their study completely apart from their NT counterparts. And with the study of God’s Word being so cranial, simple insights and the role of the Holy Spirit’s illumination tend to be ignored. And then today’s scholars often ignore the insights of previous generations, who found Christ throughout the Old Testament, but weren’t versed in the latest scientific insights from form and redaction criticism or literary theory. Many have seen this widening gap, between academia and the church pew, and yearned for scholarship that matters: academic insight for average individuals. And some have hoped for a whole-Bible, biblical theology that would span the differing worlds of OT and NT scholarship and put the entire Bible back together again.
G. K. Beale may have given us just this. His magnum opus is an ambitious project that seeks to integrate the storylines of the Old and New Testaments, and unfold how the New Testament unpacks the promise of the Old as it unfolds for us the glories of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New, Beale displays a masterful grasp on the academy as well as an expert understanding of the second temple Judaistic literature, Ancient Near Eastern writings, and the latest scholarship on both biblical testaments. He is a humble servant of the church, however, and seeks to answer questions the average churchgoer will face and remains ever practical even as he explores a wide array of various topics. And while his book requires careful and (at times) strenuous reading, it truly integrates the entire canon of Scripture in a way that has promise to bring together Old and New Testament scholarship for the service of the church.
The Storyline of the New Testament
The task Beale sets out for himself is huge, and his book is too. With over 960 readable pages, this book will take the average reader some time to conquer. It took me about a year to wade my way through it, although admittedly I tend to be a fickle reader and so left the book for seasons at a time. Beale sets out to explore the unifying center of the New Testament and finds this in a storyline. Each part of the following storyline gets developed in detail and by the end of the book he has adequately proven his thesis. Here is Beale’s NT storyline:
Jesus’s life, trials, death for sinners, and especially resurrection by the Spirit have launched the fulfillment of the eschatological already-not yet new-creational reign, bestowed by grace through faith and resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to advance this new-creational reign and resulting in judgment for the unbelieving, unto the triune God’s glory. (p. 958, italics and underlining removed)
Recapping the Old Testament
One of my favorite sections in Beale’s work was his few chapters spent detailing the Old Testament’s own storyline. He uses the first three chapters of Genesis as a key for unlocking the story of the entire Old Testament. Adam was to be a vice-regent of God, extending His rule throughout the world. But Adam failed, and was exiled from the Edenic paradise of fellowship with God in a garden-temple. From this wilderness, God called out his people Israel, referred to as God’s firstborn son, and they received an Adamic calling to be vice-regents of God extending the glory of His name as a beacon of light to the nations, centered in their garden-like promised land of paradise – where God would have His name dwell. But they too failed, and were exiled from their special place of fellowship with God. For those unfamiliar with Beale’s extensive work on developing the theme of the Temple throughout the Scripture (cf. Beale’s The Temple and the Church’s Mission, IVP 2004), it is touched on in this section and more fully developed later as Beale turns to the New Testament.
The Role of Eschatology
Beale’s emphasis on the already-not yet, new-creational kingdom, has led many to dismiss his book as one long extensive defense of amillennialism. I would contend that such a dismissal is short-sighted and a biased misreading of his work. His eschatology doesn’t neatly fit into any one theological system, and he prefers the description “inaugurated eschatology.” His discussion of the key terms for “the end times” in both the Old and New Testaments goes a long way toward proving his contention that “in order to understand the NT in its full richness, we must have a keen acquaintance with how the biblical authors viewed the ‘end times'” (p. 16). He argues that the New Testament sees the end times as here in one sense, but not yet fully here. And that the entire New Testament cannot be understood apart from realizing the role eschatology plays. The NT authors understand themselves to be living in the last days, in the beginning fulfillment of what the Old Testament foretold.
New-Creation and Kingdom
Perhaps Beale’s most distinctive contribution to NT biblical theology is his emphasis on the role new-creation plays both in how one understands the kingdom, and in how one understands everything from justification to judgment in the New Testament. Christ’s resurrection was the promise and presence of the new creation, invading our world of space and time. The uncreating of evil has begun, and the recreation of a new world has commenced – and our very spiritual lives with the progress we make in sanctification, is part of God’s making all things new (2 Cor. 5:17, Rev. 21:5).
The Church as End-Time Israel
This is where many people will stumble over Beale’s approach. Some will point to his embrace of the Sabbath and paedo-baptism as errors flowing from his fundamental misunderstanding of the distinction between Israel and the church. I would ask those who will differ fundamentally here to take time to read Beale as there is still much to be gained from his work. But I am convinced his unpacking of the biblical development of the church as end-time Israel is worth the price of the book. He continues his approach of reading Scripture from a grammatical, historical approach – treating the books as the original recipients would have, understanding the genre and tracing out the history of intertestamental biblical interpretation (as an insight into possible ways the NT authors would have understood OT Scripture), and methodically builds an air-tight case for the NT as presenting the church as the heir of the promises made to OT Israel. At this point, I’d like to take some extra time to restate his case for the sake of my readers. And to be clear, Beale is not claiming the church replaces Israel, but that it actually is “the transformed and restored eschatalogical Israel,” being made up of Jew and gentile believers, alike.
Beale finds a “presuppositional basis” for the church being true Israel in some of the hermeneutical presuppositions he claims underlie the exegetical approach of the NT authors. Chief among these is the concept of “the one and the many.” In the OT we often find kings, prophets, or family heads representing their families, or nations who will receive blessing or judgment because of the actions of the “one” representing “the many.” Rom. 5 and 1 Cor. 15 make a similar argument with Christ and Adam. Secondly, Jesus is presented in Scripture as “the true Israel.” And He thus represents the church. Beale elaborates:
Those who identify by faith with Christ, whether Jew or gentile, become identified with him and his identity as true eschatological Israel…. people are identified by faith with Jesus as God’s Son, and so they become “adopted sons of God.” …people become identified by faith with Christ as being in the eschatological image of God, so they begin to regain that image. (p. 652)
And since Israel was a corporate Adam — God’s firstborn — living in its own “garden of Eden,” tasked to do what Adam had failed to do, it follows that Christ as the Second Adam, actually fulfilled what both Adam and Israel was meant to do. Christ as such, is the New Israel – and Beale shows how numerous themes in the New Testament attest to this fact. Then Beale shows how repeatedly throughout the Old Testament, Gentiles were included in Israel and her mission — and now with Christ’s bringing the end-times upon us, the identifying marks required to be a part of Israel of old (circumcision) have been replaced by that of spiritual circumcision and spiritual unity of Christ — who is the head of the church. Beale points out that it is thus the “legal representative” or “corporate” hermeneutic which under-girds this identification of the church as true Israel, rather than an “allegorical or spiritualizing hermeneutic” (p. 655). What Beale then goes on to systematically demonstrate, is that the Old Testament prophecies that Gentiles will become part of the Latter-Day True Israel, using such passages as Is. 49, Ps. 87, Is. 19, Is. 56, Is. 66 and others. Then he shows how the New Testament repeatedly claims that it is in the church that specific prophesies about the restoration of Latter-Day Israel are coming to pass. I appreciate also how he delineates the variety of specific names and descriptors of Israel from the Old Testament are applied to the church – and with so many OT descriptors of Israel given to the church, it is not surprising to see the actual term Israel bestowed on it as well, in Gal. 6:17.
With the land promise, Beale once again unpacks how the Old Testament itself leads us to expect that the land is typological, pointing to a greater reality, and that it will become greatly expanded and universalized. And the New Testament shows us just this, as it also brings the church in to the recipients of that very promise (see Rom. 4:13, Matt. 5:5 and others).
Additional Themes
Beale’s work covers a host of additional themes my review cannot cover in detail. He highlights how the expected tribulation of Israel was being experienced by the New Testament church, and still is in most parts of the world today. He gives space to the new-creational marks of the church such as Sabbath observance (although his view on this finds it radically altered through Christ’s work), worship, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, church office and the NT Canon. He looks at the work of the Spirit as part of the inaugurated end-time new creation as a chief theme in the NT story. He also gives space to the Temple and to idolatry and the image of God being restored. He also explores questions such as how much the Old Testament saints would have enjoyed this same experience we do in the NT. And he concludes his book focusing on the glory of God as the purpose for the very storyline itself.
Evaluation
I was told that you don’t pick up a book like this and read through it. You just use it as a resource. And for many that is going to be how they will encounter Beale’s work. Thankfully, it is organized in a very clear way with helpful indexes and a detailed table of contents that is sure to help such a reader. Those who want a taste of Beale’s work could read the first few chapters, and chapter 27 – which recaps the entire work giving each theme a brief yet fairly detailed overview. Others might find it more useful to read through Beale’s section on resurrection or justification, or the question of Israel and the church as they study that topic out further. The footnotes will point you to other important discussions in the book so that you won’t miss something you need in getting Beale’s take on a given subject.
I differ with Beale on a few matters, most notably baptism, but I found the exercise of plodding my way through his work to be immensely helpful. My copy of the book has numerous notes, underlines, and countless dog-eared pages. I have already turned back to parts of this book for the second or even third time now, and know I’ll be returning to this book for many more years in the future. This truly is a monumental work, and one that even a layman like me can appreciate. Granted, I have had some theological training, and at times this book does go deep. But for the most part, Beale’s work is accessible and has takeaways that pastors and teachers as well as students, will benefit from. More importantly, Beale helps one find a compass through the maze of the two testaments of Scripture. And his work is detailed enough to stand the test of time. It carefully explains how the New Testament authors arrived at the conclusions they did, and follows their thoughts after them, reading the Old Testament in a careful and ultimately Christ-centered way. I encourage you to find some space on your shelf for Beale’s A NT Biblical Theology. Dip your toe in, get wet, then take the plunge and bask in the beauty of a fully developed Biblical Theology. You won’t regret it.
Author Info: G. K. Belae (PhD, University of Cambridge) is professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the coeditor of the Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament and the author of numerous books, including the Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament and commentaries on Revelation and 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
I’m almost finished making my way through G.K. Beale’s A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New (Baker Academic, 2011). It has truly been a rewarding experience in so many ways. Some may question the sanity of reading through a 1,000 page theology book. I have found Beale’s work, however, to be not only intellectually stimulating but also spiritually moving. He unpacks the soul-thrilling message of both testaments of Scripture and like a master jeweler, brings out the innate beauty of the Gem of the Bible in all its brilliance and power. Reading Beale is reading the big picture of Scripture.
Beale also repeatedly brings application and pastoral concerns to bear. He is a theologian with a pastor’s heart, and he never fails to provide the takeaways and connect the dots from theology to Christian living. A perfect example of this is his treatment of assurance. The graphic pictured below is my attempt to reproduce a drawing on pg. 867, in an excursus on assurance, which I found incredibly helpful. I hope my readers will as well.
[Since] Christians do not reach perfection and they sin to varying degrees and in varying ways, and even the most righteous saints become increasingly aware of how sinful they are, how can they be assured that they have a true saving relationship with God? There is no simple answer to this, but there is what may be understood as a cumulative answer that comes from different angles of consideration. We may view the believer’s assurance from three angles, with each angle contributing to an aspect of assurance.
Each point of the [above] triangle represents a truth about how a Christian receives assurance.
Trust in God’s Promise of Salvation through Christ
First, God promises throughout the NT that those who place their faith in Christ and his redemptive work will receive an inner assurance that they have truly benefited from Christ’s work (the top of the triangle). [Beale goes on to discuss 1 John 5:9-15 in support of this point and continues] in this passage from 1 John assurance of true faith comes from (1) the internal witness of the Spirit; (2) the reliability of God’s word that he will give life in the Son to those who believe; (3) the confidence that God hears and answers the faithful prayers of those who ask for salvation in the Son. In fact, the purpose of the entire epistle of 1 John is to give this assurance (v. 13).
Good Works
The role of “good works” is a second angle from which to view the nature of assurance (the bottom left part of the triangle). As we have seen, one who has truly been resurrected (Eph. 2:4-6) and thus becomes a part of the new creation will inevitably and increasingly be characterized by good works (Eph. 2:10) instead of behaving like “dead people” in bondage to “trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1-3). Likewise 2 Pet. 1:3-4 explains that Christians possess God’s “divine power” and reflect God’s image (the “divine nature”), and on this basis they are to grow in the fruits of godliness (vv. 5-8). [Beale goes on to discuss verses 10-11 and concludes that] assurance of one’s “calling and choosing” and final “entrance into the eternal kingdom” increases with growth in doing godly things.
Accordingly, believers’ assurance of truly being part of the new creation comes as they look back at their former life and see the changes that have come about since they became Christian. Those who may have grown up from an early age as a Christian may not have such radical differences between their past and present. Nevertheless, they should not be characterized by the kinds of sins that Paul lists in 1 Cor. 6:9-10. Such people also gain a degree of assurance from this recognition. All Christians, to one degree or another, ought to be able to look back and see that they have progressed in godliness during the course of their Christian lives (recalling also that as such growth occurs, ironically so does increasing awareness of remaining sin). This observation ought to bolster Christians’ confidence that they are genuine.
Given time, if confessing believers have not changed the ungodly lifestyles of their former believing lives, then such people should not be given assurance that they have truly believed. Perhaps they are true Christians, but they should not have affirmation that they are…. Possibly, such a lack of assurance might shock them either into the reality of their faith, so that they change, or shock them into truly believing for the first time.
Conviction by the Spirit
The presence of the conviction of sin within professing Christians is a third angle from which to understand assurance… When Christians think or do unholy things, there should be immediate conflict and dissonance with the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is in the process of causing the believer to reach the goal of complete end-time righteousness. Those who are accordingly convicted about their sin will express repentance and change their sinful ways. Those who have no conviction about indwelling sin should have no conviction that they are genuine saints.
Therefore, faithful, growing Christians should receive multiple assurances from these three angles, which have a cumulative force, enhancing the overall sense of confidence about the reality of their Christian experience. What if a Christian is inconsistent in progressing in good works, and an area of life is not under submission to the Lord of the new creation? Such a person should be under great conviction about this sin, and if so, it is a good sign that the Spirit is really in the person, bringing about conviction. Such a person should not doubt knowing God, unless as time goes on the conviction over sin does not issue into repentance, a turning away from the sin being committed.
However, no confidence should exist in those who profess to believe in Jesus but who reflect no discernible change for the good in their lifestyles and who have no conviction about changing their sinful ways.
Generally, the closer people get to God as faith grows, the more such people will desire to please God by what they do, and the more they will be convicted by the remaining sin in them. As a result, they will have even greater assurance as they progress in their Christian lives. [excerpted from pp. 867-870]
I find Beale’s advice to be both important and encouraging. Even our awareness of failure can encourage us, and the very fight against sin is an evidence of being a legitimate child of God (see my post on Heb. 12 on that point). For more on the Biblical teaching on perseverance see any of the following articles:
I was blessed to be able to fill in for our pastor again this Sunday. I realized later that trying to preach on the NT theme of “Resurrection Life” was probably too much to try to accomplish in one message. But then again, my opportunities to preach are limited and I pack as much in as I can, when given the chance!
This past Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching at our church again. My text was Ezekiel 47:1-12 and the theme was living water. I had so much fun exploring the biblical theological theme of life-giving water. My sermon borrowed from the ideas I gleaned from G.K. Beale on how Jesus in both John 4 and John 7, alludes to Ezekiel’s eschatological temple and specifically chapter 47, where the river of life flows from the center of the temple. See an earlier post with relevant excerpts from Beale.
