​The Old Testament centers itself around the Old Covenant of works or the law made between God and mankind, which was given through God’s servant Moses (read the story of Moses receiving the Law here in Exodus 24). The word “testament” is actually interchangeable with the word “covenant.”  A covenant is an agreement between two parties which is based on faith and a blood sacrifice.  A covenant is a vow, and is stronger than a contract—for example, in the old testament, God’s law required the blood sacrifice of animals to pay for sins, or the breaking of God’s law.  These animal sacrifices, however, were insufficient and had to be offered over and over again, as a reminder of the sins of the people, according to Hebrews 10:1-4.  So, what is the purpose of this “Old Covenant?”  The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 3:24 that this Old Covenant was like a school teacher or guardian  that kept his students in line and taught them.  God uses this Old Covenant of rules and laws to show us that we cannot live up to God’s righteousness in our own power.  Over and over the people of the Old Testament failed to live up to God’s laws and failed to keep His commandments, and so proved that sinful man could never by his  works  reach God’s righteousness. So then, if mankind can’t keep the law, what is the hope to ever be right in God’s eyes?

​The answer is the New Testament which centers around a New Covenant. This “New Covenant”—we call it grace—is unconditional in that God says, "I will forgive you and I will see you as righteous even though you cannot keep My law (See Ephesians 2:8-9).”  How can this be possible?  Because the New Covenant comes through the sacrificial death of JESUS, the only one who ever lived that could and did keep all of the laws of God.  He fulfilled the Law (Matthew 5:17), and died once for all as the final blood sacrifice--the Lamb of God  (Hebrews 10:10). Jesus' fulfillment of the Law made the Old Testament obsolete, and replaced it with the new covenant of grace (Hebrews 8:13).  He lived as a man but without sin, and through His sinless life, his death, and his resurrection from the dead, we can enter into this New Covenant relationship with God. We can be covered by the righteousness of Jesus and we can be seen as righteous before God even though we fail to keep God’s laws (2 Corinthians 5:21).  That’s called grace!

In the Bible, the one message that everything in God’s Word points toward is JESUS—His life, death, and resurrection from the dead.  Although the majority of the Old Testament’s focus is on God’s chosen people of Israel, and the New Testament’s focus is mainly on the Church which is made up of Christians, the one Person it’s all about is Jesus.

To break the Bible down into even more manageable portions, the Old and New Testaments are recorded for us in several different sections.   Many people become confused by thinking the Bible is written in chronological order when it is not.  So, to read this book one needs to approach it differently than say a novel or a book on history.

The Old Testament is made up of different types of books— books of law, history, poetry, and prophecy. For example, the whole book of Psalms is a record of songs of worship and praise to God. 

The first four books, “the gospels” of the New Testament are made up of a record of the life of Christ on earth. There are many letters written to various churches (and even some letters written to individuals) and those books are called “epistles.”  The New Testament is a record of life after the coming of the Savior and a guide to righteousness for all who will follow the Savior.
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The Old Testament looks forward to the coming of the Savior (Messiah), Jesus Christ through God’s Chosen People, the people of Israel (also referred to as Israelites, Jews, or Hebrews throughout Scripture).  While the New Testament is about Christ coming to make a way for all mankind to be restored to a place of fellowship with God. Salvation is no longer just for God’s Chosen people, but to Gentiles (non-Jewish) people as well. The main character of the New Testament is. of course, JESUS.​

What is the Bible?  I believe that’s a legitimate question every person needs to ask themselves.  What is this book we call the Bible, and why should I care about it, and why should I read it, and why should I study and learn it, and why should I obey it and live according to its teachings?
Wow!  Now that’s a lot of “whys” isn’t it?

Let’s begin with looking at what the Bible is.  The Bible is a collection of 66 documents that have been preserved over thousands of years.  As Christians we hold to the belief these 66 documents were inspired by God; meaning they were given to man to write down as the very words of God for mankind. 2 Timothy 3:16 says it like this,“All Scripture is breathed out by God.” The Bible is a collection of God’s Words for us to base our very existence on.

Now, to pick up a Bible and say,“I’m going to read this book” is a huge undertaking for most people, so let me attempt to break this task down a little and give us hope that we can all read and understand and grow from knowing God’s Words.

The Bible is recorded in 66 books all broken down by chapters and verses.  These chapters and verses were not in the original documents but have been added to make referring to any portion of Scripture easier.  These 66 books are broken down into two large sections called the Old Testament, with 39, books and the New Testament, with 27 books.  The Old Testament begins with the creation of the universe and ends 400 years before the birth of Christ, while the New Testament begins with the birth of Christ and ends with God telling us about the future and eternity.​

With the New Year always comes a desire to do something new with our lives...to make a change.  Many times, for the Christian, this New Year's Resolution involves Bible reading or study.  Lots of times, well-meaning people who aren't used to reading the Bible on a regular basis will take on the goal of adopting a Bible reading plan to read through the Bible, only to get discouraged after several weeks and quit completely.  It's easy to just see the Bible as a large, complex book and become intimidated by the thought of studying it, learning from it, and letting it change our lives.

​Several of our church members have requested a "Bible Basics" course to help them understand a basic overview of the books of the Bible and their themes, along with some suggested readings to help encourage them in their Bible study.  I thought that this blog would be a good way of making this information available, and hopefully providing people with some common sense knowledge of the Bible.  I would encourage you to share this information with anyone who would find it helpful, and I would also hope that you would feel free to comment, have discussions and ask any questions you have, either by commenting here or private messaging or emailing me.

​I hope your New Year brings new life to your relationship with Christ and gives you a new hunger for His Word.  I would pray that the Bible would no longer be a big, intimidating book to you, but rather the living Word of our Father, infusing life and changing you from the inside out.