All Things New: The Significance of Newness for Biblical Theology

All Things New: The Significance of Newness for Biblical Theology. By Carl B. Hoch, Jr. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995, 365 pp. $19.99.

The late Carl Hoch, Jr., NT scholar, Th.D. with highest honors from Dallas Theological Seminary, ETS member and professor at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary, has produced a work worthy of wide reading by Biblical theologians and NT scholars and students. The work is a carefully constructed, yet interesting treatment of the new covenant, but it also elucidates the meaning of new wineskins, new teaching, new commandment, new creation, new man, and several similar items.

Hoch's exegesis and theological insight are exceptional. His expression is lucid, his research thorough. I learned much and recommend this work wholeheartedly. Hoch interacts with the latest and best sources from broad contexts--evangelical, liberal, and Catholic, including non-English writings. The bibliography--twenty-five pages and over six hundred entries--boasts the most recent research.

One reason this volume claimed my interest was the way it bridges so many theological topics. Ecclesiology, eschatology, and Christian ethics all depend, as Hoch notes, on whether one sees much "newness" in the NT. Should we identify Israel and the Church, equate the OT priesthood and Christian clergy, replace circumcision with infant baptism, call Sunday the Christian Sabbath, and use the Mosaic law as the rule of life for Christian believers? Not seeing newness tends to that end. Hoch believes "a continuity does exist between the testaments and needs to be spelled out carefully" (p. 54). He asks, "Did Christ come to patch up or to change?" The parable of the new wineskins demonstrates the latter. "Newness is centrally important to the New Testament. That is why the New Testament is called the 'new testament' or 'covenant'" (p. 55). In one chapter, Hoch gives seven reasons for holding that the new covenant is actually a new covenant and not a renewed old covenant. He gives a studied look at the contexts of each of the major new covenant texts--Ezekiel 11 and 36, Jeremiah 31, Luke 22, 1 Corinthians 11, 2 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 7-13--and treats the problem of Paul and the Law. Hoch is fully abreast of the best scholarship on each topic and is able to evaluate and integrate it into all his arguments.

Many practical lessons accompany Hoch's superb exegesis. Each chapter also includes a brief annotated bibliography suggesting further study. Each aspect of Hoch's presentation is extensive. For example, he shows how Christ's teaching is "new" with regard to fifteen different issues, an exposition of the observation that Christ's teaching was "new doctrine" with authority (Mark 1:27).

Hoch includes a much-needed emphasis on the ethical implications of the new man. He does not hold that "ethics are nice but not necessary" (p. 178). Church unity will only be experienced as believers practice certain virtues: they "experience the unity subjectively that Christ has created objectively" (p. 178). These virtues are humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and love. As a practical application, Hoch chides the church's emphasis on externals, criticizing it for "preaching against practices such as smoking, drinking, dancing, and card-playing, but ignoring greed, slan-der, backbiting, strife, and enmity" (p. 183). It was refreshing to find such practical notes in a theological treatise.

After detailing the distinctiveness of newness as seen in salvation history, particularly in Luke-Acts and the Pentecostal events, Hoch devotes nine chapters to expound the ways this newness is referenced in the NT. Hoch's final part of the book deals with the practical aspects of newness and the individual Christian, then newness and the Church. Citing Robert Gundry, he points out that for Paul, works are never instrumental for salvation but are certainly evidential of salvation. Calvin similarly said that man is saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves will never be alone. Hoch's treatment is excellent as he expounds on life in the Spirit and warfare against the flesh. He teaches sanctification in incremental steps over time. "Maturity in Christ," he notes, "develops from growth multiplied over time" (p. 224). He contends, "The focus of ministry within the body of Christ must constantly be upon Scripture, prayer, and fellowship. These are the means of grace that God has given his new covenant people to produce maturity" (p. 224). Hoch's two emphases for the Church are edification and extension, and he very practically portrays four models frequently followed in churches today: lecture room, theater, large corporation, and fellowship. His emphasis would be to take the good points of each and then immerse them into servanthood.

Hoch has two appendices: "The Israel Problem: Is the Church the New Israel?" and "The Use of the Term Israel in the NT." His answer is that the church is not the new Israel and his arguments are the most cogent and clearly reasoned I have seen. Hoch's exposition covers the material fully, fairly, and clearly.