NEW TESTAMENT ILLUSTRATIONS The New Testament is even more didactically explicit than the Old in its insistence upon God’s sovereignty over life and salvation: 1. Jesus teaches that the minutest occurrences are directly controlled by his heavenly Father. It is he who feeds the birds of the air (Matt. 6:26) and clothes the fields with flowers (Matt. 6:28). Not a sparrow is forgotten by God or falls to the ground apart from his will, and the very hairs of our heads are all numbered (Matt. 10:29–30).