Dennis Johnson Reading the Scriptures Like Peter and Paul Lecture 1

[Music] I'm gonna think with you and these three lectures about the theme of reading the Bible like Peter and Paul you know I have a more complicated subtitle and I'm gonna explain that one as well we're gonna talk about describing defending and deploying apostolic Christocentric hermeneutics I told you it's more complicated right that is hermeneutics interpreting the Bible as the Apostles did it centering on Christ and our three lectures are gonna be first of all describing what that means and then the second lecture focusing on defending it because not everybody agrees with the approach that I want to present to you today and then third we're gonna deal with the question of how to deploy that how to follow and the Apostles footsteps as we see them in the New Testament as they learned how to read the scriptures from Jesus himself so in a certain sense we're looking at the what and the why and the how and that's our aim for these lectures now when the terms Christ centered or Christocentric and sometimes we use the word redemptive historical focusing on the history of redemption when those that those terms are used with respect to studying the Bible especially in evangelical circles even in reformed circles they sometimes have Oken and a mixed reaction on the part of people attraction but also sometimes a little bit of suspicion on the one hand our own hearts have been captured by God's grace and his son so we instinctively resonate with the way that the Apostle Paul described his own preaching in Colossians chapter 1 verse 28 when he simply summed up all that he preached as proclaiming Christ or as he wrote to the Corinthians in corn to the Christians of Corinth that the on one and only theme of his preaching was nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified so we're attracted to the prospect of leading others from every scripture through every scripture to Jesus the only mediator between God and his human and that's what we want our own reading a scripture to do for ourselves for own spiritual nurture on the other hand we may have heard or read sermons that claim to march under the flag of Christ centered or redemptive historical preaching that make us kind of suspicious in various ways maybe the sermons ignored the obvious clear sense of a biblical text in its original context it just immediately flew to Christ and didn't really look at what the passage meant to the first here's the first readers the first participants maybe in an Old Testament event or maybe the sermon made huge incredible leaps from a passages distinctive message in its original context to the redemptive mission of Christ on the other hand and we're gonna look at at least one example of that or they presented a kind of a high altitude intriguing intellectual exercise in connecting passages of the Bible but they never touched down into our lives into the struggles that we face day today in fact that last that last picture of a high altitude flight comes from a friend dr. Hendrik crabbin domme who taught for many many years at Covenant College wonderful mentor to many many college students over the years but he's not so persuaded about christ-centered preaching he wrote an essay called hermeneutics and preaching in a volume in 1986 called the preacher and preaching he was reflecting in part on debates about how to preach Old Testament passages that have happened in the Netherlands just before World War two some argued that preached we preach the Old Testament we study the Old Testament for the examples that Old Testament believers give to us about how we should or should not respond to God's Word others said no no it's all about Christ we don't want to look for examples in the Old Testament and probably none basically agreed with with the first group we do need to hear examples in fact he called redemptive historical preaching he said it this way preaching in the redemptive Oracle tradition is often comparable to a ride in a Boeing 747 high above the landscape with its hot deserts and snow peeked mountains its wide rivers its dense forests its open prairies its craggy kills its deep lakes the view is panoramic majestic impressive breathtaking and always comfortable but there's one problem the Christian is not above things he's in the middle of things he's trekking through the landscape and as such he's experiencing heat or cold or pain or failure okay point well-taken is this just about drawing interesting connections between Old Testament texts and Jesus and not dealing with our struggles as we're on the terrain of pilgrimage in this world more recently a 2009 dr. Jason hood a graduate of reformed seminary and then Highlands Theological College in Scotland published a more sympathetic but still critical response to Christ centered redemptive historical biblical interpretation in the Scottish bulletin of evangelical theology he raised the question whether the New Testament shows us Christ centered interpretation only and argued that there's actually moral instruction from Christian scripture self interpretation he argued the New Testament authors actually do refer to Old Testament figures as examples positive negative the people of faith in Hebrews 11 positive Lot's wife looking back at Sodom negative they draw from the Hebrew Scriptures lessons for how Christians are to behave so he questioned whether the recent surge of interest in Christ centered hermeneutics biblical interpretation stimulated by the influence of people like Edmund clowny and Tim Keller and Brian Chapel and Mike Horton Sydney great honest and others runs the risk of ignoring the fact that the inspired New Testament authors do actually appeal to Old Testament persons and events to reinforce their moral exhortation so the reason I have for tacking on apostolic to redemptive historical and Christocentric even though it makes it big really cumbersome subtitle the reason is I want to say let's follow the actual pattern that the Apostles show us in the New Testament their lead as we actually find it in the New Testament text so I want to take seriously dr. hoods observation that the apostolic writers of the New Testament do use the Old Testament exemplar istic Keatley to draw examples for our behavior from the positive and negative features of Old Testament people and I agree with dr. Crabbe on Tom's point that preaching has to address our Christian pilgrimage through life which is not a turbulence free flight at 30,000 feet above the surface but it's a trek through hot cold painful frustrating terrain it's it's down-to-earth so I would say that the pattern set by the Apostles we're gonna develop this in these lectures focuses centrally on Christ and his accomplishment of our Redemption but it also brings in to view in the way the Apostles read the Old Testament brings into you view us Christ redeemed people apostolic interpretation of the Old Testament relates Christ the Bible central figure and hero to the response that we are to call to give to the grace that he has shown to us so they do use the Old Testament to make cautionary tales at points of unbeli from unbelief lessons drawn from the experience of God's people of old or to commend the example of Old Testament believers and we want to see how those themes the centrality of Christ but then how we learn from the Old Testament about our lives how those inter intersect so what I want to start with now is is to sketch in this first lecture a description of apostolic crystal centric redemptive historical interpretation what it looks like as we actually see it in the New Testament here I'm thinking obviously of the sermons and the Acts of the Apostles and I'm thinking of the Epistle to the Hebrews which is actually called by its author a word of exhortation that's a that's a first century Jewish Way of saying sermon as a matter of fact we'll look more at that a little bit later but then I'm also thinking of the way Paul uses the Old Testament and his epistles because his letters really reflected the way he delivered the message of Christ in person and even the Gospels because the Gospels had their route originally in the way the Apostles preached person to person face to face the message of Christ so we'll look at Matthew Mark Luke and John as well the description that I have to offer comes in a series of contrast contrast between what people sometimes portray or think Christ centered preaching or teaching or reading reading of Scripture looks like and what we actually find in the New Testament I have five series of contrasts here I'll try to label them clearly for you so you can take notes if you wish and the first is this okay and it's a little complicated they'll give it twice contrast Apostolic Christocentric hermeneutics biblical interpretation is not allegorical ingenuity that disregards a biblical text message in its original literary and historical contexts it's not allegorical ingenuity that smuggles into ancient scriptures as much later theological detail as possible that's what it's not not allegorical ingenuity the disregards the original context and smuggles later content into an Old Testament texts rather apostolic interpretation treasures the historically progressive character of God's special revelation recognizes the limitations of an ancient scriptures or original historical and Theological horizons and then it highlights our privileged position as those who live in with the apostles call the last days when shadow and promise have been fulfilled in reality so not allegorical ingenuity respecting the original context those who are passionate about maintaining our objectivity in biblical interpretation keeping a rein on our own imaginations and subjectivity often here christ-centered as an invitation to some of the allegorical extremes that developed in the period of the early church fathers and into the Middle Ages and actually that's still around today let me give you a quick example of this Agustin or some say Augustine however you want to pronounce his name great church father great church father and in his in his city of God that great classic he has a chapter in which he talks about well the title is the arc which Noah was ordered to make figures in every respect Christ and the church the ark is a picture of Christ in the church now he probably took his cue from first Peter 3:20 and 21 where Peter talks about the water of baptism as a kind of an anti-type a fulfillment of the flood waters through which Noah and his family passed safely in the ark there is a preview there that Peter himself says we find in the history of Noah and the flood but then agustin began from that point and as he says here he went to every detail so the ark is made out of wood what does that mean well the cross obviously right here's one that you might not have thought about before the Ark's dimensions that is that it's length was six times its breadth and ten times its thickness or height the Ark's dimensions are the same dimensions as the human body which means obviously the ark is a symbol of the bar of Christ sacrificed for us but then the New Testament talks about the church is the body of Christ so the Ark is a symbol of the church because of its dimensions and the door and the side of the Ark the wound and the side of Christ and the ark was made out of squared Timbers that symbolizes the steadiness of the saints and the ark had three stories now at this point Agustin knows there are a lot of theories around about what the three stories represent do they represent the whole human race descending from Noah's three sons Shem ham and Japheth maybe or do they represent the three great virtues faith hope and charity faith hope and love or do they represent the threefold gospel harvest in the parable of the sower thirtyfold sixtyfold a hundredfold or maybe and I think Agustin maybe kind of lands on this last one they represent the three states of chastity in the basement faithful marriage on the middle floor widowhood and of course a pop virginity hmm and we begin to wonder and how is Noah supposed to get all this or even how is Moses who wrote this and Moses hears now the Israelites were they supposed to get all this you see there's a lot of imaginative connection going on there somewhere along the line we think we've left completely behind the significance of the design of the Ark in the experience of Noah and actually then as Moses recorded it what's the problem well the problem is that the texts close context the near context in Genesis and in the experience of the Israelites who received the books of Moses have been completely set aside they have no voice in discerning the meaning of the text all it counts is the wider canonical context of the rest of the Bible and frankly even beyond the Bible the development of dogmatic thought in the later history of the church that's not the way we find the Apostles handling an Old Testament text not even in Galatians 4 where Paul actually uses the Greek term a leg or a toe from which we get the word allegory Paul's commenting there about Ishmael and Isaac the two sons of Abraham about their two mothers Hagar the slave woman mother of Ishmael Sarah the free wife mother of Isaac and he says these there is an analogy here to what you Galatians are experiencing now as some are urging you to trust in your own efforts to keep the Torah rather than continuing to rest and trust in the work that God has done in Christ and applied to you by the Holy Spirit now Paul draws a lot of one-to-one connections there and we might be cautious about drawing as many connections as Paul does there but at the heart of Paul's argument he has not thrown away the significance of Ishmael and Isaac in the account in Genesis and in the experience of Abraham really in the experience of Abraham as Moses portrays it for us there were two alternative routes to the fulfillment of God's promises one remedy devised by Abraham and Sarah that is to use Hagar as in a kind of a surrogate mother function to give to produce an heir for Abraham on Sarah's behalf that was within the reach of human resources human reproductive resources Hagar was still fertile and Sarah was not the other of course God's promised Sarah will be the mother of the child of promise it's utterly beyond human capacity utterly beyond what human beings could do it demanded utter trust in God's life-giving word that's Paul's point and Paul says there's the point of connection between Ishmael and Isaac Abraham and the question of Hagar and Sarah your situation today the Judaizers are saying trust in your ability maybe with some aid from God but your ability to keep all the commands of the law I'm saying trust in Jesus keeping the law and enduring the cross for you and the work of the holy spirit that's the contrast he Paul has not thrown away that Old Testament context and frankly those who have advocated redemptive historical christ-centered reading of Scripture have been much more nuanced now in our day then agustin maybe was in his treatment of the ark Edmond clowny for example in his early work on preaching and biblical theology 1961 wrote with respect to what we preach what we teach how we read scripture that first we have to interpret the text in the light of the historical horizon in which it is found then secondly in the light of God's total revelation Sydney great honest writing several decades letter and preaching Christ from the Old Testament maps out the the Christocentric method also in terms of two steps first in its own historical context then the message in the wider Canon and redemptive history the biblical context from near to wide rightly curb our creativity and must control our interpretation that's the first thing we want to be clear about we're not just letting our imaginations run wild number two number two as we describe apostolic communities it is not a Cristo monism that ignores the other person's of the Trinity it's not such a fixation on Christ the second person of the Trinity that it ignores the father and the Holy Spirit rather apostolic interpretation is robustly Trinitarian the focus on Christ as the divine executor of the father's purpose and the divine human mediator of the covenant of grace actually to the priests our appreciation for the engagement of the father and the spirit in the great works of creation and and redemption now this I'm putting in here partly because Henrique Robin Don my friend feels that the Christocentric approach unlike the approach that he advocates which he calls coven nettle historical which is Trinitarian character the Christocentric approach runs the risk of focusing so much on Jesus that we ignore God the Father and God the spirit he says the exclusively or even predominantly Christocentric interpretation must raise serious questions it's found to narrow the focus of the biblical message consciously or unconsciously in fact the rigorous application of it may well have crippling effects Luther's Christo centrosome serves as a warning be warned right and actually in preaching Christ from the Old Testament Sydney great honest who has taught for many years on behalf of Christ centered redemptive historical preaching he acknowledges the danger of Christo monism and argues that the biblical examples of Jesus and Paul and the other writers of the New Testament show that it's really essential to preach Christ to the glory of God the Father and to do justice to the person of the Holy Spirit as various text brings the Holy Spirit more subtle work into view and so you really see as you look at the way the Apostles preached Christ that they really do view Christ as the one through whom we know the father and the one who accomplished the redemption that the Holy Spirit's now applying to us the apostles in the New Testament emphasized that the father sent the son to accomplish his mission of redemption and reconciliation and re-creation the sending of the son especially the giving of his life on the cross demonstrate the dimensions of the Father's love toward us his human creatures think of John 3:16 God so loved the world that He gave His only Simon Romans 5:8 God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us in fact in Ephesians 2 Paul says that through the work of the Sun we have access in one spirit to the Father all three persons of the Trinity working together and in Chapter four he emphasizes that all three persons of the Trinity is Ephesians for all three persons of the Trinity are deeply invested in our unity as the church one spirit just as we were called in one hope when we were called one Lord that's Jesus of one faith one baptism when God and Father of all and we could put alongside of that passages that where Jesus talks about how only the son can reveal the father and only the father can reveal the son Matthew 11:27 no one knows the son except the father no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him only the son can reveal the father Matthew 16 Jesus responds to Peters true confession that he's the Christ he says flesh and blood did not reveal this to you Peter but my father who is in heaven only the father can reveal the son and of course the spirit's role is to reveal the son as well as Jesus said in the upper room John 16 when the spirit of truth comes he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you is it possible to be so preoccupied with Christ that we ignore the father and the son yeah we can get off balance on a lot of ways but that's not the Apostles fault that's not the Apostles fault so we want to practice Christ centered reading a scripture in a way that is consistent with the Trinitarian revelation of Christ that we see throughout the New Testament third set of contrasts apostolic interpretation the bible does not full assume that christ's fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures focuses narrowly only on the atonement and on its application and justification not just on the cross not just on ARF being forgiven of sins and declared right with God rather apostolic interpretation shows Jesus achieving a comprehensive rescue and redemption not only from sins guilt and penalty but also from sins tyrannical control and since conscience defiling influence and sins mind darkening deception and eventually from all of sense byproducts including death itself and let me say that one more time that was a that was a mouthful apostolic interpretation the Bible doesn't assume that Christ's fulfillment of all scriptures focuses narrowly exclusively on his atonement and the result in our justification rather it shows Jesus achieving a comprehensive comprehensive rescue and redemption not just from sins guilt and penalty but also from sins control its conscience defiling influence its mind darkening deception and all of its toxic byproducts including finally death itself now Christ's cross and resurrection are the very center of the Bible Center the Bible centered on Christ and it really is centered on the cross and the resurrection that's why Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15 that Paul delivered to the Corinthians as a first important that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised the third day according to the scriptures that's the heart and the core of everything but from that core of what Christ did for us there pour out in all directions all the other ways that our great need as a result of our sin and defiance against God needs to be undone needs to be remedied so yes Adam plunged us into guilt we are rebels we've broken covenant with our Creator we stand guilty subject to God's wrath and covenant curse we need atonement we need what the Bible calls propecia that is the deflecting of God's wrath from us by Christ bearing it on our behalf on the cross we need that applied to us in forgiveness but we need more we're a lien ated from God who is the source of life so we need reconciliation and nothing less than the blood of the Son of God can make peace interpersonal peace between us and our Creator whom we've offended so we need a great high priest who can present his atoning sacrifice before the father we need that but we need more we're dead in trespasses and sins Paul says in Ephesians 2 we need reification we need to be made alive again we need nothing less than resurrection life of God's Son applied to us by the Holy Spirit Paul says that's what's happened when God draws us to trust in Jesus new life fusions 2 1 through 7 but we need more we're also prone to be deluded to be darkened in our understanding in the futility of I'm lines left to ourselves we stay in the deception of Satan so we need the enlightening and illumining of our minds we need a prophet who is God's Word and truth who is God's not just brings it who is God's Word in truth to shed divine light into our confusion and our delusion to push and cut in touch with reality we need that and we need more left to ourselves were vulnerable were enslaved we're captive to the Prince of the power of the air Paul says we need rescue by a mighty champion a royal warrior who will fight for us and that mighty champion is Jesus who came to share our flesh and blood to destroy the devil who had the power of death that's hebrews chapter 2 verse 14 and to set us free we're under attack by the rulers and authorities and cosmic power over this present darkness we need his defense we need a king a king of kings who defends us and rules and commands us in justice and in wisdom we're actually going to explore many of those things in our 3rd lecture so Christ Center reading a scripture begins at the cross and the empty tomb and then it works out from there to display to us the comprehensiveness of Jesus fasten your seat belts comprehensiveness of Jesus righteousness reckoning reconciling recreating revealing image of God restoring reign of God establishing mission that's what Jesus did for us I worked hard on that okay righteousness reckoning reconciling recreating revealing image of God restoring reign of god establishing mission that's all that comprehensive work that Jesus has done that flows from the cross and his resurrection but it's that big it's that wide now related to that third set of contrast is a fourth as well so we're going on to number four apostolic hermeneutics doesn't assume that every passage in the Old Testament testifies to Christ in exactly the same way that it speaks of Christ in exactly the same terms rather apostolic interpretation discovers various ways in which Old Testaments various genres and texts diagnose our need for restoration to true knowledge and righteousness and holiness and various ways in which God's prescription the work of Christ was anticipated and promised and foreshadowed in the Old Testament era of promise so not every text looks at Christ or points to Christ in exactly the same way but rather as we see the Apostles interpreting new tests Old Testament texts we see various ways in which Old Testaments diverse genres and texts diagnosed our need and show us God's prescription for our need a few years ago a pastor in Douglasville Georgia I've never met Joshua I don't even know how to pronounce his last name Bui seee voice whisper HAP's wrote a blog great blog name delivered delivered by grace calm but he wrote a blog reflecting on his early doctoral studies at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville Kentucky he had been exposed to professors there who believe as I believe that it's right to look at all of the scriptures in the light of the person of Christ he was not persuaded at that point maybe he is by now but the blog that I ran across he was saying things like this he said I do not hold to a strict Christocentric view that claims that Jesus Christ is in every Old Testament passage for instance I do not see Christ in Psalm 32:1 blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered if Christ is in every passage as some claim that means that Jesus is the man who had his sins forgiven and we know that's an impossibility since he never committed a single sin but then pastor police continued Wow I do not believe that Christ is in each passage and I do not believe that the human author intended him to appear in each passage what I do know is that he is the fulfillment of all scripture okay for example Psalm 32:1 which I just mentioned he says Christ is not the man who committed sin he is the one who provides the forgiveness to us who have committed sin rather than pointing to each Old Testament passage and claiming that he is present in each text as a type of prophecy he is the ultimate fulfillment well by the time I got to that point I thought I don't sure that we disagree very much at all because what I found striking about his comment was that he found Christ in Psalm 32:1 and exactly where I would have found Christ in Psalm 32:1 as the divine provider of forgiveness in fact that's exactly the place that the Apostle Paul found Christ in Romans 4 when he quotes this verse from Psalm 32 he's making the point that God blessed Abraham and David with an imputed righteousness nothing that they had accomplished but something that God granted to them though they were ungodly and he quotes this verse from David and then he goes in the larger context of Romans he talks about the question of how could God justify ungodly people and remain just because he is the just judge and so if we step back from Romans four into Romans three we find Paul explains that god justifies people by their trust in Jesus and we get back a little further and we realize that Paul says we trust in Jesus because God has set him forth this is 321 2:24 as the one who is the propitiation in his blood so in the flow of Paul's argument Christ is in Psalm 32:1 not as the sinner needing or receiving forgiveness but as the atoning sacrifice provided by God the Father the sacrifice who shed blood is the ground for God to remain just and still justify ungodly people like Abraham and David and you me the pastor Boyce doesn't think that's christ-centered preaching so I suspect he's been exposed to some form of Christ centered preaching that is a one-dimensional way of connecting Christ to the Old Testament passages and events and persons and offices and institutions that find their fulfillment in Christ and yet those who write on this again emphasize that there are a variety of ways that the Old Testament bears witness to Christ two examples quickly Bryan Chapel in his book Christ centered preaching talks about three general categories of ways that biblical passages connect to Jesus one is text disclosure where a text makes a direct reference to Christ when is type disclosure that's a study of correspondences between persons events and things that first appear in the Old Testament to preview or prepare for or express new testament true focused in Christ and then there's context disclosure pointing out where a passage fits in the overall revelation of God's redemptive plan and so you're looking at the big trajectory we're going to be looking at that little in one of the later lectures in this series - in in context actually dr. chapel says there may be predictive passages that anticipate what Christ does for us preparatory that kind of whet our appetite reflective that give us a response to what God has done for us in Christ or resultant these are different ways in which scripture points to Christ's great honest again in Creech in Christ from the Old Testament talks about seven ways actually that texts as we look at the larger context of redemptive history connect to Christ's redemptive historical progression is one secondly promise fulfillment third typology fourth analogy fifth longitudinal team themes sixth New Testament references seven contrasts now as I've read those in his description seems to me sometimes those overlap a bit I'm not going to take time to identify each and explain each now we don't really have time for that but topology for example is also a form of analogy right Adam in Christ we're gonna look at that a little bit later on in this series Adam is a type of the one to come Paul says Romans five he's a template he's the pattern that shows something about Christ there's an analogy Adam made a decision many are affected by that decision Christ made a decision many are affected by that decision there's an analogy there's also a difference Adam made a horrible decision and all who were in Adam are horribly affected by that Christ made a wonderful godly obedient sacrificial decision and all are in Christ are benefited by that but you see an allergy and topology are not so far apart the point is just as we think about Christ centered redemptive historical reading of the Bible we not want to be sensitive to the various ways that Old Testament passages are connected to Christ when they come into commentary by New Testament authors we're gonna look in the third lecture especially at the themes of covenant Lord and servant and the covenant and prophet priest and King to see more of that variety that fifth contrast fifth contrasts the last contrast here in our first hour of lecture apostolic hermeneutics does not merely exhort hearers to imitate Jesus or Old Testament figures for that matter as an example nor does apostolic interpretation let us simply contemplate Christ's once for all accomplishment without responding to the commands and the imperatives and the positive examples of the Bible so we don't focus only on the commands and the examples but we also don't focus only on like Christ has done and not ask the question how should we respond rather here's the other side of it apostolic interpretation proclaims Jesus unique redemptive achievement on our behalf for the sake of calling us to faith and to christ-like love and christ-like living in gratitude for grace it holds the two it holds the two together I put it that way because I think for example of a 19th century classic novel of old liberalism called in his steps some of you may have seen a movie made from that black-and-white movie and back in before they knew that there was color in the world in his death and Charles Sheldon wrote in his steps in the late nineteenth century and the premise of the novel was that a preacher questionable whether he believed that Jesus is gone but Jesus was a great example and so he was preaching on first Timothy 2:21 for this you've been to this you've been called because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps and he put to his congregation every important decision that you face this week every thing that has an ethical moral component to it ask yourself the question what would Jesus do now in the late 20th century a lot of earnest teenagers wore WWJD bracelets because they wanted to ask of themselves the question what would Jesus do they probably thought that was a new question but it was Charles Sheldon's question what would Jesus do follow Jesus example well there's some foundation for that in first Peter too isn't it he gave you an example that we should follow in his steps and I mentioned dr. hoods essay at the beginning he points out that there are places in the New Testament where the writers of the New Testament writing under the inspirational holy spirit really do say follow Old Testament people's examples when they live by faith and New Testament authors do point to Jesus example sometimes Paul even points to his own example and say follow my example as I follow Christ that's all true but we're not reading and preaching scriptures as the Apostles have shown us to do when we reduce Old Testament narratives to morality tales to Aesop's fables to the kind of stories that came out in the 1996 book by William Bennett former cabinet member the book of virtues or more recently David Brooks is the road to character or Eric Metaxas is seven men and the secret of their greatness and seven women and the secret of their greatness all those came out in 2015 good books but the Old Testament is about more than that more than follow these great noble examples to read biblical narratives solely for the sake of distilling our duties life lessons or expiring examples is really to take those Old Testament narratives out out of their most significant context their place in the unfolding story of God's gracious covenant toward undeserving people so the Apostles don't distill or retain the imperatives the commands while disregarding the indicative announcement of the good news of Christ to take in his steps from first Peter two for example and isolate that actually takes it out of its contest because I remember we heard Paul said Christ suffered for you that's how he got into this and a few verses after that Paul points out Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the tree so it's His redemptive work that is the foundation and the fountain from which are called to follow his example come now on the other hand apostles don't distill and retain indicative announcements of God's good news and dismiss the call to response the Epistle to the Hebrews is a great example of this this great great sermon letter it's all about how Jesus is better in every way shape and form we'll look at that a little bit later on in these lectures is a word of exhortation that's what he calls it in chapter 13 verse 22 and that's implies that - it's a sermon now given an irritant form but it also means that the point is exhortation it's a call to response the central task that the book performs it exhorts us to exhort one another every day chapter 3 verse 13 and each movement of the sermon when he talks about how Jesus is better than angels and then about Moses and then about Aaron and then about the sacrifices and then about the earthly promised land and then about Mount Sinai that's the whole flow of the sermon at every point he makes application I have on my shelf a commentary that calls all of those applications sections well uses words like parentheses or digressions no no those applications are not parentheses and digressions they're the point of the rich biblical teaching about why Jesus is better one of my professors many years ago at Westminster seminary Philadelphia in Richard Gavin has written it's it's misleading to view Hebrews basically as an apologetic polemic treatment of the person and work of Christ and the superior your superiority of the new covenant to the old to which various imperatives have been appended in a secondary fashion Hebrews does provide profound an extensive teaching especially on the person of Christ and on soteriology on salvation but it does that only in solution with application only as the applica tory element is pervasive and shapes the argument I think he's right the teaching is for the sake of the application you see the pasta the Apostles don't say we're just going to tell people the good news of Jesus and let them figure out how that works their way out in their lives they draw the draw the points of connection you look at us a letter like Ephesians were Paul for three chapters loads into the into the Ephesians the wonderful grace of God in Christ that reconciles us together to the Father and to one another and then chapter 4 verse 1 he turns the corner I urge you to walk worthy of the calling with which you've received and now he shows us in those last three chapters how it all works out in our relationships with one another so we need to follow the Apostles lead we need to help our brothers and sisters and ourselves connect the dots between what God in Christ has done by his sheer sovereign grace and the fruit that such grace needs to bear in the habits of our hearts our affections our motives our character and then in the actions of our hands so to sum up quickly if we want to read the whole Bible especially the Old Testament the way the Apostles did with Christ and the gospel at the center attentive to the Bible's redemptive historical substructure our interpretation will attend first of all to the text close context its historical and literary context before we expand our perspective to the wider circles of the whole biblical Canon and the whole of the history of redemption will resist allegorical ingenuity well see Christ the Incarnate son in can't work in concert with the Father and the Holy Spirit will see that Christ's mission as Redeemer centers on his sacrificial death in his victorious resurrection but it flows out from that point as far as the curse is found justification reconciliation sanctification glorification we'll see the different ways that Old Testament texts connect to Christ whether by type and prophecy or by dramatizing our fallen condition that cries out for rescue or in some other way and will ask of every passage that announces the beautiful truths of what Christ has done how should I respond and will ask of every passage that announces my duty and my response how is this grounded in the grace of what God has done for us in Christ this is the what this is I've tried to describe the what of what we're talking about when we discuss Christ centered redemptive historical reading of the Bible as practiced by Jesus and the Apostles and the other New Testament writings so our next text is going to be to respond to some who are still uneasy about this focus on seeing Christ in every part of Scripture we're going to answer the the why question and that will be in our second lecture

Channel: Westminster Seminary California

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Keywords: Dennis Johnson, Westminster Seminary California, Hemeneutics, New Testament

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Length: 48min 16sec (2896 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 03 2019