New Testament Theology

Jesus

• preached the kingdom of God, the coming rule of God on earth as it is in heaven.
• like John the Baptist, to prepare he urged repentance and faith in the good news (gospel) of God's coming reign.
• God as abba
• He saw himself as the Messiah, saw his death as salvific
• Used "Son of Man" to refer to himself, both has a generic sense (I'm a guy) and an apocalyptic/Daniel 7 sense (I'm going to come on the clouds to judge the world).
• Cast out demons, understood as part of the arrival of the kingdom of God.
• Taught love of neighbor and enemy as core ethic.
• Focused on the "lost sheep" of Israel

Paul

• Uses language that treats the persons of the Trinity as distinct persons yet unique in association/fellowship.
• One God, creator, for whom all things (1 Cor 8:6)
• God is righteous (Rom). God is sovereign (Rom).
• God should be known by the creation (Rom).
• God predestined the plan of salvation and future election of his people.
• In Adam all die. In Adam sin and death entered the world (Rom).
• All sin. All under power of Sin (Rom). 
• Flesh/spirit dualism--flesh under power of Sin, Spirit as power of freedom.
• God offered Jesus as atoning sacrifice, for our redemption.
• The risen Jesus is enthroned as Lord. "Jesus is Lord."
• Understood Jesus to be the "Son of God," the king of the cosmos, the "Son of David"
• Some indications of Jesus' pre-existence (Phil).
• Jesus is God. (Titus)
• Holy Spirit is essential to being a child of God. Holy Spirit is seal of God's ownership, an "earnest" of our inheritance.
• Holy Spirit intercedes for us. (Rom)
• We are "justified" by faith in God on the basis of the faithfulness of Jesus. We are reconciled to God.
• We are "sanctified" by the Holy Spirit, cleansed and set apart to God.
• We are adopted as children of God.
• Church is built on the trunk of Israel, with Gentiles grafted in.
• Church is temple, built on the foundation of Christ. Ephesians adds the apostles and prophets.
• Satan opposes God's people. Later letters like Colossians and Ephesians have more on spiritual powers and battle.
• We need to live holy and blameless lives; love fulfills the Law.
• Unity is a core goal of the church and love is the solution to the church's disunity.
• Lord's supper indicates unity, anticipates Lord's return to eat with us again.
• Later letters feature cultural structures (household-Ephesians, church-1 Timothy).
• To be absent from body is to be present with the Lord.
• All Israel will be saved in the eschaton (Romans).
• Christ will return and we will be caught up to participate in judgment (1 Thess).
• We will have a resurrection body (1 Cor).
• We will appear before judgment seat of Christ to be judged for deeds (2 Cor).
• The creation will be redeemed (Romans).
• All Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy).

Mark

• Jesus is the suffering servant, with possible overtones of Isaiah 53
• Jesus is the Son of God, most shown by Jesus on the cross.
• Uses "Son of Man" in relation to Jesus' suffering
• Jesus kept his messianic identity a secret while on earth.
• Jesus is a ransom for the sins of many.
• Israel faces great persecution, destruction of temple
• Jesus will return on the clouds
• Only those with ears to hear will hear.

Matthew

• Jesus is the "Son of David," the new Moses
• Church built on the rock of Peter and his confession of Jesus as the Christ.
• Not everyone in the church is in the church.
• Church is an expanded Israel. Israel suffered in part for its rejection of Jesus.
• Jesus gives the fulfilled understanding of the Law of Moses. Love fulfills the Law. We must love our enemies.
• All nations need to hear and obey the gospel, church sent
• Strongest imagery of hell fire and (eternal) apocalyptic judgment in the NT.

Luke

• Emphasis on Jesus' ministry to the poor and marginalized. Jesus potentially includes everyone into the people of God.
• Much less focus on atonement dimension of Jesus
• All those who are lost can repent and return (Prodigal Son)
• Everyone is my neighbor (Good Samaritan)
• We are in the "times of the Gentiles"
• General resurrection of everyone will take place
• Kingdom of God will be on earth

Acts

• Jesus enthroned as Lord, Christ, Son of God at the point of his resurrection
• The Holy Spirit gives birth to the church and is essential to being in the church.
• The power of the Spirit in Jesus continues into the church to today.
• Baptism as central to inclusion in the church

Hebrews and General Epistles

• God the creator of all things (Heb)
• God is the giver of perfect gifts. (James)
• Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James)
• Jesus the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Jesus is the great high priest. (Heb)
• Christ is greater than the angels and the old covenant (Moses, priests, sacrifices). (Heb)
• Devil holds the power of death. (Heb)
• Some angels are bound awaiting final punishment. (2 Peter/Jude).
• Humanity created to have glory and honor in the creation. (Heb)
• Humans are created in the image of God. (James)
• We are justified by works. (James)
• Those who apostatize cannot find repentance. (Heb)
• Faith is essential. (Heb)
• World will be destroyed by fire. (2 Pet)
• Humanity will rule with Christ. (Heb)
• Prophecy came by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet)

John

• God is love. God is light.
• Jesus the Word who came from heaven
• The Son and the Father are one. We see the Father through the Son. The Son speaks for the Father.
• Jesus is the I AM.
• Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
• The Spirit is our advocate, who leads us into truth.
• The importance of believing in Jesus. Jesus is the only way to the Father.
• We all have sin. All have sinned. Those born of God shouldn't sin. (1 John)
• If we confess sins, he will forgive. (1 John)
• There are sins to death and sins not to death. (1 John)
• Strong spirit/flesh dualism
• Jesus goes to prepare a place for us.
• There is eternal life and eternal condemnation.

Revelation

• Holy, holy, holy God
• Jesus and God are to be worshiped.
• Lamb of God slain
• There will be lots of bloody wrath visited upon the earth.
• A large host of Israel will be saved.
• Two resurrections and a millennium
• Hell was created for Devil and angels
• new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem

Notes on Marshall's NT Theology

I'm trying to sum up my notes on the first 200 pages of I. Howard Marshall's New Testament Theology. Here we go:

1. How do we do NT Theology?

• Heikki Räisänen - We don't. It all falls apart. (17-18)
• Approach 1 - Lump the books together as a quarry for the stones. (24)
• Approach 2 - Impose systematic theology on the books. 
• Approach 3 - Just look at the individual authors. (25)
• Approach 4 - Trace development of ideas.
• Marshall's hope - Find inherent principles for organizing the mass of teaching. (28)
• He finds a missionary character to all the documents that can serve as an organizing principle. (35-36)
• Jesus is not just a presupposition for NT theology to him (contra Bultmann).

2. Preparatory remarks before launching into Gospels

• Matthew and Luke used Mark.
• In general he sides with the idea of Q as a source.
• "There are goo grounds for assuming that the handing down of tradition in the early church was 'controlled'" (53).
• "We have in the Synoptic Gospels a faithful representation of how Jesus appeared to his earliest followers" (54).
• "The traditions behind the Gospels were contemporary with the period of letter writing" (56).

3. The Gospel of Mark

• "The kingdom of God is the main theological theme in the teaching of Jesus" (78).
• "For Mark the Gospel is more about the messenger than the message" (81).
• "Christ," "Son of God," and "Son of Man" dominate as titles for Jesus, the last of which could refer both to Jesus as one who suffers and as one who will come in judgment from the skies.
• "Only after the cross and resurrection does full understanding become possible" (89).
• Looks to the immanent consummation of God's rule (93).
• My additions: 1) focus on Jesus' death and suffering at the center of him being the Messiah, 2) the repeated sense that only those who have ears to hear will hear, 3) the ethic of loving God and neighbor, and 4) this is a Gentile Christian theology (all foods clean).

4. The Gospel of Matthew

• "Matthew is more Jewish in outlook" (95). "A strongly Jewish-Christian audience" (125).
• "The law remains in force for his Jewish audience, but in the light of the antithetical teaching that follows it is the law as reinterpreted by Jesus that is now to be kept" (99).
• "Jesus never speaks of God as Father except to his disciples" (99).
• "The historical Jesus did focus his mission on the Jews" (101)... "but the mission of Jesus is not ultimately confined to the Jewish people" (103).
• "The church is in effect the new Israel" (106). [careful]
• Particularly characteristic of Matthew is that Jesus is the Son of David (112). "Lord" is also more frequent, as is the use of "worship" (proskyneo).
• Marshall mentions that some think Matthew equates Jesus with Wisdom. I think so myself.
• Also Jesus is Moses 2.0 - Jesus the teacher in Matthew
• "The law is both internalized and radicalized" (119).
• Importance of Jesus as fulfillment of prophecy. Importance of righteousness in Matthew (119).

5. Luke-Acts

• Salvation language is prevalent, understood in some places as the rescue of Israel. Most of Israel has fallen away but not all (142). Jesus the Savior is fairly unique to Luke. (146) Strong Elijah-Elisha typology
• "Jesus' concern was for the outcasts of Jewish society" (136).
• "The task of Jesus is defined in prophetic terms" (147).
• "The character of the career of Jesus is best summed up as mission" (149). The mission is primarily to Israel.

6. Luke-Acts

• "The main theme is that God has raised and exalted the crucified Jesus to be the Messiah and Lord through whom forgiveness an the Holy Spirit are offered to all who call on the Lord" (180).
• "Of all the books in the New Testament it is Acts that most clearly exemplifies the relationship of the theology of the early church to its mission" (157). 
• "The work of the apostles is a continuation of the work of Jesus whereby the signs of the kingdom of God are manifested and salvation is made effective in people's lives through the preaching of his followers" (160).
• Gentiles do not have to become Jewish proselytes, yet it is not necessary for Jewish Christians to give up their way of life either. (164)
• "Paul's beliefs cannot be regarded as a criminal offense under Roman law" (170).
• Acts has a strong sense of divine necessity, that things happen under God's direction. However, this is not always the case (not completely pre-determined). (171)
• "The establishment of the church and its mission is the object of prophecy" (172).
• Three major events: the Christ event, the coming of the Spirit, and the mission of the church. (174)
• "The fundamental theological question in Acts concerns the relationship of the church to Israel and the Gentiles" (178).
• "Little is said about the function of the death of Jesus in achieving salvation" (181).