Biblical Theology (eBook)

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THE NEED FOR BIBLICAL THEOLOGY

SEEING THE POINT OF THE STORY

When I (Nick) was in elementary school, one of my classmates gave a book report about a story written by C. S. Lewis featuring four children, a lion king, a white witch, and a hidden magical land accessed through a wardrobe. I was mesmerized. So I purchased The Chronicles of Narnia for myself and read them with pleasure. But years later, after my conversion to Christ, I realized I had been missing the author’s obvious intentions to point his readers to Jesus.

It’s possible to read a story, find it interesting, and entirely miss its point. You might focus too much on the scenery or the minor characters. You might read only paragraphs at a time, or aimlessly skip from one place to another. You might even try to cobble together the story’s plot or worldview from a variety of disconnected sections. If you do any of these things, it’s more than likely you’ll misunderstand the story, both its hero and its major themes.

The Bible is a divinely inspired story. It tells its story though a collection of stories, songs, poetry, wisdom sayings, Gospels, letters, and apocalyptic literature. Together, these various forms tell a true story about God’s saving work in history. The Bible contains sixty-six books written by a variety of authors. These authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit, who used their unique personalities and contexts to create for us the canon of Scripture, with its single main point and plot line.

Christians recognize the Bible’s divine authority. They even read and study it daily for years. And yet, many still miss the point. Jesus addresses some people like this in John 5:39–40: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

It’s possible to honor the Scriptures yet read and use them incorrectly by failing to see the big picture God has designed. Thankfully, though, the Bible’s author left us some clear clues about the point of his story. Here’s one major clue from Jesus Christ himself:

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:44–49)

Jesus explains two things in this text. First, he makes the shocking statement that all of the Old Testament—from the Pentateuch to the Prophets to the Psalms—was actually written about him; in other words, Jesus identifies himself as the promised Messiah. Second, he says that his followers will be witnesses of these things to all nations, that is, to all peoples in all places.

Simply put, you won’t understand the story of the Bible unless you see that it’s all about Jesus! From Genesis to Revelation, Jesus is the Hero and the point of the story. What’s more, you won’t understand who Jesus is unless you understand the larger story that’s all about him! Jesus is the interpretative key to the Bible, which means a careful Bible reader will find him in the beginning, middle, and end of this story.

God has revealed for us in the Bible the King’s purposes, the King’s plans, and the King’s promises. As they’re worked out in history, we need to pay attention to this story and read it as Jesus says we should. God’s story is a grand story—the grandest of them all, in fact—and it’s centered on his plan of redemption in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

But to read the Bible faithfully, we need the proper tools. The discipline of biblical theology is one of those helpful tools.

1. Biblical theology helps clarify the Bible’s main purpose. Some people approach God’s Word as if it were a collection of independent stories, or an assortment of advice and counsel, or even a universal cookbook with recipes for “the good life” scattered across its sixty-six books. But these approaches fail to bring to light the central purpose of Scripture.

In the Bible, the triune God explains who he is and what he is like and how he’s at work throughout history by his Spirit and in his Son, Jesus Christ the King, and how we ought to glorify him in this world. Biblical theology helps us to grasp this main purpose by looking at each passage of Scripture in light of the whole Bible so that we understand how every part of Scripture is related to Jesus.

2. Biblical theology helps guard and guide the church. Reading Scripture rightly means knowing where each book fits into its overarching narrative. And knowing the overarching narrative helps us read and understand accurately each event, character, or lesson that’s been given to us as part of God’s progressively revealed Word. Understanding the whole story of Scripture clarifies who Jesus Christ is and what his gospel is.

God has promised to rescue a people from every tribe and nation and tongue for his own glory through his Son and by his Spirit. These redeemed people are members of Christ’s body, the church. What is the church of Jesus Christ supposed to be and supposed to do? Jesus said to his followers—those who’ve repented of their sins and trusted in him alone—that the Scriptures testify “repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). So the proclamation of Jesus Christ ought to be at the heart of the church’s mission to disciple the nations. In this way, biblical theology guards the church from the deadly error of proclaiming a false gospel and guides the church toward keeping the proclamation of the true gospel as the centerpiece of its mission to the world for the praise of God’s glory.

3. Biblical theology helps us in our evangelistic outreach. Sharing the good news with those who are unfamiliar with Christianity requires explaining much more than “four spiritual laws” or the “Romans road.” People first need to grasp that the Christian worldview accompanies a total transformation of mind-set. In our evangelism, we must start with God and creation to see what’s gone wrong. From there, we’re able to follow what God has been doing throughout history, which will help us discover why he sent Jesus and why that matters today. Not until we rightly understand these past events in their proper contexts will we be equipped to uncover what God is doing right now and what he’ll do in the future.

4. Biblical theology helps us read, understand, and teach the Bible the way Jesus said we should. Jesus himself says in Luke 24 that he is Scripture’s interpretive key. So if we fail to read and understand Scripture in a way that leads us to Jesus, then we will miss the point of the Bible, and as a result we will teach others to commit the same error.

WHEN CHURCHES MISS THE POINT

The bottom line is this: missing the point of the Bible’s story produces false gospels and false churches. Let’s consider a few examples of this kind of error that biblical theology helps us to avoid.

The Prosperity-Gospel Church

Let us introduce you to Jonathan. He reads his Bible daily and prays often but has never read through a complete book of the Bible. Look in his Bible and you’ll find circled verses in the Old Testament and underlined pages in the New.

His wife, Rebekah, has memorized quite an impressive array of Bible verses and is teaching these verses to her children, one by one. Jonathan, Rebekah, and their young family are part of a local church in their city in Africa (though this could be Asia, Europe, or America, for that matter). When I asked to hear some of Rebekah’s memorized verses, she recited Mark 11:24: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Then she said, “That’s what Abraham did, so that’s what I do.”

A bit disturbed, I (Robert) decided to reach out to one of her pastors. When I asked him what he thought the main message the Bible might be, he said: “Oh, that’s easy. God sent Jesus to give the abundant life by faith to all who believe. God will give us this life now with all the riches and blessings that Jesus deserves if only we have faith. We can create our own blessings, when we pray in faith like Abraham did.”

The Civil-Gospel Church

Visiting some believers in another city, this time in the United States, I (Robert) asked them to tell me what the message of the Bible is. Their answers went something like this:

Well, America is a Christian nation, God’s chosen nation like Israel, a city on a hill. God has blessed this nation, but like it says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

They continued:

God and country, that’s what my church is all about. This is supposed to be a Christian nation, but now we’re told we can’t have the Ten Commandments on the walls of our public schools! If Americans would just be good, moral people like Abraham, Moses, or David,...