- When Jesus reads the Bible he presupposes Scripture as being God's very words (Jn 5:37-40, Mt 19:4-5, Jn 10:34-35)
- When Jesus reads the Bible he speaks of it being all about himself (Lk 24:44-45, Jn 5:39-46).
As we approach Scripture, the question now becomes not is Scripture all literal or is it all metaphorical, spiritual, symbolic, etc. (For Scripture take on all those different forms at different times.) The question is now what does this tell me about Jesus. What is the telos (purpose) of the text? This is important, because if you believe the Bible is only to be interpreted as literal, you will read a narrative like David and Goliath and say that the point of the story is that we, like David, should summons up enough faith and courage to fight the giants in our lives. The story becomes a story about me.
However, if we read David and Goliath and ask, "Why did the Holy Spirit have this account preserved in the Bible?" then, taking what Jesus told us (that all Scripture is telling us something about him and our salvation through him) we can see that David was just a forefather of Jesus. You see, when we put the David story into the Bible story - the big story - we notice some amazing similarities:
- Like David, Jesus came to his task weak, not strong
- Like David, Jesus fought in the place of his people to bring about their victory.
- Like David, Jesus saves his people by grace, giving them a victory that they didn't raise a finger to earn for themselves.
- But unlike David, Jesus did all of this not merely at the risk of his life, but at the cost of his life.
- And unlike David, Jesus delivers us not just from the giant of our physical captivity, but from the giant of sin and death itself.
Ed Clowney says is best:
There are great stories in the Bible...but it is possible to know Bible stories, yet miss the Bible story. The Bible has a story line. It traces an unfolding drama. The story follows the history of Israel, but it does not begin there, nor does it contain what you would expect in a national history... If we forget the story line...we cut the heart out of the Bible. Sunday school stories are then told as tamer versions of the Sunday comics, where Samson substitutes for Superman. David...becomes a Hebrew version of Jack the Giant Killer. No, David is... the Lord's anointed... God chose David as a king after his own heart in order to prepare the way for David's great Son, our Deliverer and Champion...
3 comments:
I really like the focus you have made by applying Jesus' words into the OT. Let me draw a picture: there are many gold mines but you walk by all but the last and largest one and there you stop to harvest. I don't know if you are suggesting this, but much is lost if you don't understand the OT in and of itself (and I am not suggesting that we stop there; I am suggesting that we begin there (harvest from this gold mine) and then reflect on what the OT states--perhaps as you have done with David being a type (typology)--about Jesus. I also like the salvation focus but I know that there are more major themes within the Bible than only that....I guess what I am saying is if we funnel everything through a salvation funnel then much is lost of what the OT is saying because the OT deals with many more things than only salvation (take for instance many things said to Israel in the OT that were material and temporal blessings in nature--not that I think those things are ultimately disconnected to Eternal matters yet that is not the main focus). We could develop a whole "reap what you sow" theology from the Deut or Lev alone because of the chapters on blessing and curses...and I mean that in a temporal sense, but if we funnel that only through a view on salvation the you would only have a theology of an eternal "you reap what you sow." I am going to write another post concerning the 4 major ways Matthew quoted the OT in the first 3 chapters of Matthew. I recently read a article that showed how Matthew used all 4 interpretive ways that the Rabbis of his day did. This is interesting because I would love to analyze those in reference to the way Jesus used the OT.
Thanks Scalise
I think I'm going to have to challenge you on your assumption that salvation is just one of many major themes of the Bible. Salvation is THE major theme and all others are minor in comparison. Instead of walking by other gold mines just to harvest out of the the biggest one, I believe within the biggest on (the Gospel) we harvest all other minor themes.
It is very difficult, however, to speak of this is such an abstract fashion. What other themes do we develop from the OT? If we do not filter material and temporal blessings through the salvation paradigm, what do we do with them? What is the moral of the story? What's the purpose both for the original readers and for Christians today? You see, I think if we don't filter things like temporal blessings, or reap/sow through a salvation paradigm, we will surely end in legalism. However, maybe I am misunderstanding you at this point.
It would be great if others could jump in on this subject, too, as the more we discuss it, the better we will understand one another.
yeah it is difficult to discuss this here. I agree that the major major theme of the Bible is God's glory and God making Himself known which is most clearly seen in the Gospel which is the grace of God given to sinners and revealed in the face and obedience of Jesus Christ. The glory of God's grace is probably the most specifically noted attribute of God for which the Universe exists to declare(Eph 1:6). I guess what I am kind of going after is that God is in the business of making Himself known by which all sides of History reveal, Jesus Christ being the Cornerstone. When I reflect on Romans 9:22-23 I think I see this: "What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
Rom 9:23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- " There are several main things God is doing in these verses, showing his wrath, power,mercy in order to show the riches of His glory. All these things make the Father known, and we know (John 14:7 & 17:26) that Jesus came to make the Father known. Well like you said, I don't want to be too difficult so this will be my last post on this subject, but don't worry I appreciate your firm statement and welcome you to post more if you wish. I have an open heart here and want to learn. LEt me say this in close, I know that we will worship the Lamb and will reflect on Him being slain for the glory of God and for us sinners for eternity. In other words the Gospel will resound forever (Rev 5).
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