One of my favourite elements of our Story of Everything teaching and discipleship program has been seeing the glory of Christ through all of the bible. As many of you know I was recently in Leicester visiting my daughter and her family. Leicester is like countless cities, towns, and villages throughout England in that they have a “London Road”, the road one would take to get to London. Charles Spurgeon would use this as an analogy to help young preachers understand how to faithfully preach Christ from all of the Scriptures saying,
“So, from every text of Scripture there is a road to Christ. And my dear brother, your business is, when you get to a text, to say, now, what is the road to Christ? I have never found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if ever I do find one, I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savour of Christ in it.”
This has led some critics to suggest certain evangelicals impose spurious links to calvary in every Old Testament passage. This is not what faithfully seeing the glory of Christ in all of Scripture is about. Rather, it is understanding that the bible is a unified story of a singular main character – Jesus, the Christ. As readers, it is our task to see how each passage integrates with the climax of God’s revelation in the person, work, and teaching of Jesus Christ, as shown to us in the New Testament. Of Jesus’ teaching of the two travellers to Emmaus Luke said, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27).” The Apostle Paul put it this way, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
So, if seeing the glory of Christ in all of the bible is not imposing the cross upon every text, how do we see the things ‘concerning himself’? Here are a few helpful categories:
- Promise-fulfillment – Much of Christ’s “presence” in the Old Testament is seen through God’s covenantal promises to his people. Not surprisingly, this is a key interpretative lens used by our New Testament authors.
- Typology – Seeing redemptive events, people, or religious practice as a type of pre-figured Jesus. Examples abound, but consider Moses and the Exodus, or the Levitical sacrificial system.
- Analogy – It is not unusual, or surprising, to see analogies between the teaching of an Old Testament author and the ethical or spiritual teachings of Christ.
- Theme – The relatively recent emphasis upon “biblical theology” has tremendously helped the Church understand the big themes of Scripture and how they may be traced through the Old Testament to fulfillment in Christ. Themes such as Kingdom, redemption, and mission for example.
- New Testament reference – It is easy to forget that for our New Testament preachers and authors, their “Scriptures” were the Old Testament! Seeing how they quote, draw allusion, and preach from, OT texts is greatly illustrative for us.
- Redemptive-historical progression – Seeing the progression of revelation to God’s people of redemptive history both honours the original context of Scripture, yet also points toward the reality of fulfilling climax in the person of Christ. For example, what starts in Genesis 3 as the shadowy promise of a coming “serpent crusher”, takes on progressing clarity as we move through promises to Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah.
“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Cor 1:20)” I hope that you, like me, have found it easier to say, “Amen to God for his glory” as we have consistently put the glory of Christ on display through the Story of Everything!
Much love,
Pastor Gary
