Book review by current iServe Africa apprentice Onesmus Onyango:
A lot of us struggle to point to Jesus from the Old Testament. In that regard this book has been one of the most mind-blowing inspirational resources I have ever found!
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. (Matt. 5:17)
Many people only see Jesus and salvation in the New Testament from the point where the gospel writers describe His birth. I am one of these people who many times read the Old Testament but only see Him perhaps in the prophecies. The truth of the matter is that God’s rescue mission is a predestined agenda that He laid before the foundation of the earth. He is all knowing. The animal skin used to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness is a foreshadowing of the perfect sacrifice who is Jesus Christ who will be slain to cover man with His righteousness.
Vaughan Roberts clearly starts by drawing the picture in our mind of how God will completely unify the whole creation back to Himself through Christ Jesus who was from the creation of the universe (Col. 1:15-20). Jesus did not come in the New Testament, He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1).
The Bible is a chronology of the supremacy of God’s kingdom and the unfolding of the perfect salvation that is only found in Christ Jesus. Roberts tries to envision Christians with an overview of how different parts of the Bible hold together and point to the ultimate agenda of God, to bring man to Himself. I think this is one of the points that we mostly tend to miss out as Christians and Bible ministers. He brings out very clearly that you cannot segregate different sections of the Scriptures but they are linked one to another and must be handled as a whole. My tendency to always treat different parts of the Bible as ‘stand alone’ portions has been diminished by reading this book.
I was also helped to get a wider picture of God’s big picture of making His creation a perfect creation with its completeness in His Son Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:10). The final new creation will be even more glorious than the original pre-fall creation (Rev. 21-22). The resurrection body will be more glorious even than the natural body created in God’s image and likeness (1 Cor. 15:4-49). And this perfection will only come through the God-man Jesus Christ, his blood and resurrection.
The Bible study questions that are inscribed at the end of every chapter of the book are really helpful to drive home the insights of the book. They also clearly prove that Roberts is not talking words from his own mind but they are supported from the Bible; you can see these things for yourself from the Scriptures.
I recommend this book for anyone with a vision and passion to let Christ be known. It will help you point to Him as the great means and ultimate end of the kingdom of God. It will help you see and speak of God’s big picture which is to see everyone come to have a total communion with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. You read it once; you will still have the urge to read it again. The book has been helpful to me and even helps me prepare sermons for Sunday school telling the children the importance and need to have Christ in their lives.
Thanks. This is just mind opening now that most of us struggle with the old testament. God bless