Eternal Perspective vs. Instant Gratification

Our church's current teaching series is covering the message of the entire Bible in 12 weeks. We're explaining how all 66 books work together to say something: God's message to us. One of the points we've made repeatedly during this study is that the Bible is unified: the Old and New Testaments fit together and, contrary to popular opinion, they paint the same picture.

One example of the unity between the two Testaments is their perspective: the cast of both is forward-looking and gratification-delaying. Now, this is perhaps expected in the Old Testament, which looks forward to the coming of the Messiah. But surprisingly, despite the fact that the Messiah has already come in the New Testament, it too is forward-looking and gratification-delaying.

This similarity in mindset throughout the entire Bible, and the way it works itself out in our current instant gratification culture, is the subject of an article I wrote for the Colson Center for Biblical Worldview. You can read more here.