This companion piece to Blomberg’s Jesus and the Gospels surveys the remaining books of the New Testament. While Blomberg does give historical information, he spends the majority of time commenting on the text of Scripture itself, referencing his way through the New Testament canon. Although introductory in nature, Blomberg still manages to achieve a healthy level of depth and asks questions which prompt further study. The end result is a helpful resource for New Testament studies.

The book of Acts also regularly reminds us that the church is not about programs but about people. It is not we who determine the perfect methodology for church growth, but God’s Spirit who regularly works in the most unlikely places among the most inauspicious people in the most surprising of ways. True, certain principles of what seems to work well or poorly in various times and places can be discerned, but as soon as believers institutionalize them, depend on them, or take credit for them, the sovereign Spirit is likely to begin to work differently! If there is a timeless method, it is dependence on prayer, the one spiritual discipline many Western churches seem least inclined to prioritize. [79]

Christian ethics, reflecting life in the Spirit, flow from the heart and from a love relationship with God and others much more than from a specific list of do’s and don’ts. [133]

When we think about determining God’s will for our lives, we often jump immediately to specific issues like whom to marry, where to live, what to do for work, etc. Yet … in Scripture the most fundamental element of God’s will always involves moral living. Once we have rejected the ungodly desires and behaviors of fallen humanity and committed ourselves to allowing the Spirit to transform our lives, then we are in a position to ask more specific guidance from God. [258]

A key to preventing material possessions from becoming an idol is to give generous portions of them away. Our heavenly reward will more than compensate for what is “lost” in the process. [372]

Faith substitutes for the actual experience of things still in the future to show that there is reason to believe they will one day occur, especially when present reality seems to contradict such hope. More simply, faith means believing God’s promises about the future despite the appearances of the present. [430] 

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A companion of his later From Pentecost to Patmos, this volume examines the life and ministry of Jesus as detailed in the Gospels. Blomberg reviews not only the content of the books themselves, but the way critical scholarship has addressed them and the varying conclusions that have been reached. While broad in scope, Blomberg adeptly covers the content in systematic fashion. Early chapters (background and criticism) were trudged through, but things rallied once the focus shifted.

Unless we approach the Gospels expecting to find historically reliable information, theologically motivated emphases, and delightful literary artistry, we shall overlook important dimensions of the text and run the risk of misinterpreting them as well. [108]

Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath (a day of rest on the seventh day of the week), but a day of worship of celebration of the resurrection on the first day of the week. [238]

We may also need to rethink the ease with which we declare people to be Christians who pray a simple prayer of invitation or raise a hand in response to an evangelistic appeal. Only those who persevere over the long haul demonstrate themselves truly to have been saved. [292]

The resurrection vindicates the claim that Jesus is both Christ (Messiah) and Lord (Acts 2:36). It gives meaning and purpose to His life and death—a successful revelation of God to the world (the thrust of John’s gospel) and an atoning sacrifice for its sins (the thrust of the Synoptic gospels). And it ensures that God’s plan and purposes for the cosmos will ultimately triumph, among them the resurrection and glorification of all of God’s people throughout history. [352]

Whatever else one may or may not believe by faith, on sheer historical grounds alone there is substantial reason to believe in the general trustworthiness of the Gospel tradition. Those who then go on by a “leap of faith” to accept the entire trustworthiness of that material do so not by flying in the face of the bulk of the evidence but by moving in a direction in which the evidence was already pointing. [381]

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