Studying the New Testament will remind the reader of the Savior’s love, students and a professor say
For the year of 2023, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be studying the New Testament in the Church’s “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. The New Testament, a collection of writings about Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry and atonement, is a reminder of the Savior’s love, according to BYU–Hawaii students and a religion professor.
Reminder of God’s love
Dr. Matthew Bowen, an assistant professor in Faculty of Religious Education, holds a doctorate in Biblical Studies from Catholic University, and said the New Testament is a profound witness of the love Jesus Christ has for the children of God.
“I think one of the things that helps us love anything is when we understand the intent behind it. When it comes to the New Testament, we’re talking about a variety of documents and texts written by people who wanted, from their heart, to convey the witness they had of Jesus Christ as the long-awaited Messiah.”
Bowen said when he was young, he came across illustrated editions of the Bible in his grandparents’ house in Utah. When he read about Jesus’ death in the New Testament, Bowen said it had a powerful impact on him, as he thought about the love the Savior had for him and countless others to suffer and die the way He did.
Bowen said for him, the New Testament is full of promises of comfort and love from the Savior, including a reminder Bowen will be reunited with his son who died in infancy.
Besides the Savior’s atonement in Gethsemane and on Golgotha, which Bowen said was His crowning achievement, he said the New Testament was full of expressions of godly love. “A lot of them are the very personal encounters He has, like when He raises Jairus’ daughter from the dead,” he explained, relating the miracle told in Mark 5:35-43.
“As He’s on the way to perform that miracle,” Bowen continued, “there’s the story of the woman who reaches up and touches the hem of His robe (Mark 5:25-34). And then there’s the way He responds to her faith. It’s always very personal.”
Bowen said Jesus Christ was never happy with the hypocrisy He saw in groups like the Pharisees, and reserved some of His sternest words for them and other religious leaders who had forgotten the importance of God’s love. “They had allowed rules and applications of divine law and divine principles to trump the need to minister to people personally and to recover them,” he said.
Stephen English, a sophomore from Florida majoring in communications, said the language of his mother’s home country, the Philippines, helped him to better appreciate the love of God as it appears in the New Testament.
“In Tagalog, the word for ‘love’ and the word for ‘expensive’ are pretty much the same thing. That denotes value.” English said saying. “I love you,” in his mother’s native language of Tagalog also means "I value you." He added, "God puts so much personal value within all His children.”
English cited John 3:16, where it says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“In Tagalog, the word for ‘love’ and the word for ‘expensive’ are pretty much the same thing. That denotes value.” English said saying. “I love you,” in his mother’s native language of Tagalog also means "I value you." He added, "God puts so much personal value within all His children.
Favorite passages
Bowen highlighted the Gospel of Luke as one of his favorite books in the New Testament, particularly Chapter 15, where the Savior tells three parables concerning those who are lost.
These parables are those of the lost sheep who wandered from the 99 others, the lost coin that was diligently sought for and the parable of the prodigal son. According to the text, the Savior directed the parable towards the Pharisees and scribes who criticized Him for spending time with tax collectors and sinners.
“He makes a tremendous point of the idea that it’s a religious leader’s responsibility to recover those who are lost [and] to extend God’s love to them,” shared Bowen.
Bowen also said he loved Luke’s account of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane. “It talks about him being in agony.” He said the root word for agony, “again,” denotes being in a struggle, which is what the Savior faced as He atoned for the sins of the world. “And then His sweat produces extrusions of blood,” he continued, quoting Luke 22:44, as he said, “and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Anatevka Ah Loy, a senior from Hawaii majoring in English, also said her favorite story in the New Testament was the Savior’s experience in Gethsemane. “Reading about how much pain He went through really made me even more grateful towards Him. That’s the reason He came down here. It really opened my eyes to the full scale of the atonement and how big of an act of service it was. The ultimate act of service.”
According to English, “The shortest scripture in all of the Bible is ‘Jesus wept’ (John 11:35).” In this scripture, Jesus Christ had been making his way to Bethany to visit his friend Lazarus who was ill, but was told by his sisters Martha and Mary that Lazarus had died and was buried in his tomb.
When He learned this, the Book of John recorded Jesus went to mourn with the two sisters and wept with them, even though He knew He could raise Lazarus from the dead.
For English, this action of mourning with Mary and Martha showed Jesus’ empathy and was a reminder to all disciples to mourn with those who mourn.
“Jesus is Jehovah clothed in the flesh, He was one of us in a very particular way. He lived out the whole breadth of the human experience...He had a love enough for Lazarus to cry for him. He manages to turn His desire for Lazarus to come back into a way to glorify His Father,” English explained, referring to the Savior bringing Lazarus back from the dead after thanking His father for having heard Him.
English also said the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead was a beautiful example of taking one’s own desires and using them for righteous purposes.
Another expression of love seen in the New Testament English noted was the love Jesus had for His mother Mary. When Jesus was crucified at Calvary, Mary and John the apostle were present.
While he hung on the cross, slowly dying, the Savior commanded John to care for His mother from that moment onward (John 19:25-27).
“That kind of suffering he had to endure, to turn outward like that and continue in that enduring love is ... there aren’t many people that I can imagine who could do that.”
The cross and Christ
Bowen said he felt some Latter-day Saints have become uncomfortable with seeing crosses, whether they are on walls or on jewelry, but said the cross was an important part of understanding exactly what the Savior went through for everyone who would ever live.
He related the story of a man named Horatio Spafford, who penned the words to the hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul.”
According to Bowen, Spafford suffered unimaginable loss. After losing his son, as well as a great deal of property, he received word that the ship his wife and four daughters were traveling on had sunk while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. All four of his daughters perished, leaving his wife as his only surviving family member. Because of the Savior, Bowen said, Spafford’s faith did not diminish, but actually grew, and led him to write the hymn, one verse that highlights the symbolism of the cross in Christianity.
“My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”
Bowen continued, “Paul talks about Christ becoming ‘sin’ for us. He did that so we could become like Him, like the Father.”
“It tells us Christ loves us. He did all of these things for us - all because He loves us. He promises us if we just follow His word and listen to His commandments, we can be happy. He has so many blessings He wants to share with us.”
“It tells us Christ loves us. He did all of these things for us - all because He loves us. He promises us if we just follow His word and listen to His commandments, we can be happy. He has so many blessings He wants to share with us.”
Covenants
When Ah Loy said she took a New Testament class at BYUH from Dr. Daniel Sharp, she said her appreciation for the volume of sacred scripture increased. The class looked at the Savior through the eyes of the different prophets and apostles who knew Him.
She said through the New Testament, she gained a greater understanding and appreciation for Jesus Christ, especially through the miracles and acts of service He performed and the promises He gives to everyone.
“It tells us Christ loves us. He did all of these things for us - all because He loves us. He promises us if we just follow His word and listen to His commandments, we can be happy. He has so many blessings He wants to share with us.”
Bowen emphasized the power covenants had for followers of Christ, and how the New
Testament is all about making and keeping covenants. He also said it is important to remember the New Testament is not a replacement for the Old Testament.
He explained all the standard works are important and need to be studied and appreciated, since they all point to Christ.
“President Nelson has put a tremendous emphasis throughout his life on the promise of the Abrahamic covenant. Well, Paul does the same thing,” he added, referring to the apostle Paul and his epistles to church members in cities such as Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Colossus and Thessalonica, which make up a large portion of the New Testament. These writings are words of love and instruction to the saints in those cities, advising them to focus on Jesus Christ and avoid sin, said Bowen.
Through the teachings of Paul and other apostles such as Peter and John, the gospel was spread around the Mediterranean. Bowen made a point that the New Testament as a whole points to covenants just as the Old Testament does. He said Christians need to know the New Testament is not a replacement for the Old. Making and keeping covenants through ordinances is still necessary, he emphasized.
“In order to understand Paul, you have to understand the Abrahamic covenant within the context of the Judaism of his time, and then understand what he’s saying about Jesus’ role in bringing to pass all of the promises in the Abrahamic covenant,” Bowen explained.
The Abrahamic covenant is the covenant God made with the prophet Abraham, as told in the Old Testament and Pearl of Great Price, according to the website ChurchofJesusChrist.org. In exchange for following the principles and ordinances of the gospel, keepers of the covenant receive blessings from God and will be able to enter into the Celestial Kingdom, living in everlasting happiness with Him and their Savior, Jesus Christ, says the site.