Grace Seeker
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Now you are disappointing me, Grace!
Alas! We can't have you so disappointed. So, let's investigate it. And as we are talking about a decision of the Church I'm going to begin our investigation with the early church, prior to any NT writings.
We don't know near as much about them as we would like, but we do know some things. And chief among those things we know the basic message of the apostolic Church. If the accounting in the book of Acts is to believed, the early church was heavily influenced by the teaching of the apostles. And what was their message? Well, despite deference to those who think the place to find the content of the apostles' teaching is in the Qur'an, I suggest we look at the record of their sermons and other Christian literature of that day. When we do this, we find frequent references to the death and resurrection of Jesus. One might presume that those sermons which later appeared in the book of Acts were recorded by Luke as representative of typical gospel preaching of that period of time. That assertions of the resurrection should be particularly frequent and emphatic is understandable given that so many of the first sermons of the Church were delivered in Jerusalem, outside whose very gates Jesus had been crucified. The testimony of Jesus' resurrection not only was testimony that Jewish authorities had no power over neither Jesus nor his message, but was vindication of Jesus and the disciples and a judgment on the wrongfulness of those who had rejected Jesus and conspired to accomplish or condoned Jesus' death. The first message then is that God had given Jesus a decisive vindication.
Yet, Peter's references to the manner of Jesus' death -- "whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree" (Acts 5:30) and "they killed him by hanging him on a tree" (Acts 10:39) -- would immediately bring to mind the judgment "anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse" (Deuteronomy 21:23). Surely Peter knew this. So, why would he have been so explicit? What is the significance of mentiong that Jesus died on a "tree"?
Peter himself gives us the answer in his later writing:
Peter interprets the cross in terms of sin-bearing. Note also the allusion to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. Peter sees in the cross (and Paul would later follow him in this interpretation) the divine purpose of atonement. Post-resurrection, Peter takes ideas that were once abhorent to him -- the idea that the Messiah would have to suffer (see Mark 8:29-32) -- and proclaims that in them is the answer to the problem of sin, evil, and the human condition. Jesus' death become the archtype of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. What it sought to do -- provide forgiveness and reconcilition -- was now not only accomplished but accomplished for all people in the events of Jesus' life.
The message of God's will for humanity, his chosing of a people and desire for them to life out a covenantal relationship with God faithfully is the essence of the story of the Old Testament. The failure of that covenant (on the people's not on God's part) and the institution of a new that was successful and could be applied to reconcile any who would enter into it is the message of the New Testament whether one is reading from the Gospels, the letters, or the apocalypse. The purpose of the Church is to continue to tell that story and invite people to live in this newly available reconciled relationship. As the writings of the OT and NT as the church has and uses them in the 4th century are all that is necessary for telling that story and wholly sufficient to that purpose, there is no need to add to it. And so the canon, the standard of what is necessary and sufficient for faith and practice, can be closed. Much more valuable inspiration might come to us from God. But the scriptures as they exist already contain all that is needed and are entirely sufficient to the task of communicating the activity of God who seeks to reconcile us to himself and, as a corrollary to that, with one another.
