Tracing God's Story (eBook)

Chapter 1

What Is Biblical Theology?

Biblical theology is a discipline that seeks to discover theology (truth about God and his work) through the gradual and progressive revelation of his saving plan in the story of the Bible. This is often done by tracing certain themes or ideas through Scripture from beginning to end—Genesis to Revelation.

The core conviction of those who practice the discipline of biblical theology is that the Bible is a unified work—a book inspired by one divine author (God) and given to human beings to help them understand his broad saving plan, which ultimately was accomplished through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. We will see shortly how Jesus himself pointed us toward this way of understanding Scripture.

So our goal in this book is to do biblical theology. We will trace God’s story of redemption as it is revealed to us progressively in the revelation of Scripture. We will begin in Genesis and end in Revelation.

For purposes of clear organization and to guide our study, we’ll make our way through the Bible in eight “scenes.” Here is the plan for these scenes:

Scene 1: God’s Creation and a Crisis (chaps. 2–3)

Scene 2: God’s Promise of a People (chaps. 4–5)

Scene 3: God’s People Grow (chaps. 6–7)

Scene 4: God’s Kingdom—Rise and Fall (chaps. 8–9)

Scene 5: God’s People—Captive and Coming Home (chaps. 10–11)

Scene 6: God’s Salvation (chap. 12)

Scene 7: God’s Church (chaps. 13–14)

Scene 8: God’s Eternity (chaps. 15–16)

As you can see, the titles given to these sections all begin with “God.” The Bible is his story—the connected account of his marvelous saving work in the world that he created. By the end of this book, you should have a clearer understanding of the unity of Scripture and the beautiful story of God’s redemption through his Son, Jesus Christ, which is revealed in all the pages of his inspired word.

Foundations for Biblical Theology

We will begin by discussing some foundational arguments for biblical theology. In other words, we are going to be asking this question: Why do we believe that this is a valid way to study the Bible? This is an important question to answer because, as we will learn in the next chapter, not everyone agrees that this is a valid approach! So I will seek to explain just a few of the key foundations that establish biblical theology as the right way to engage with Scripture.

Jesus’s Example

One answer to the above question is that Jesus read and interpreted the Old Testament in this way. When we practice biblical theology, we are following the lead of Jesus in the way that he looked at and applied Scripture.

Take a few minutes to read Luke 24:13–27—the account of Jesus walking and talking with two men on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection from the dead.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus were struggling to understand the events that had just taken place. Jesus, the man they had followed as the Messiah, had been killed. They were sad and discouraged because it seemed that he had failed.

Jesus confronted these men based on Scripture. He told them that it was “necessary” for the Christ to suffer and die (Luke 24:26); Scripture had told them that would happen! Then he did something amazing: Jesus opened the Old Testament Scriptures for these men—right there on the road—and explained to them the “things concerning himself” (v. 27). Luke tells us that he began with Moses (the books of Genesis to Deuteronomy) and then moved into the prophetic writings in order to show them how the Old Testament—all of it—ultimately pointed to him.

This is a crucial passage for helping us understand how Jesus interpreted Scripture. He saw himself as the main character—the one to whom the entire Old Testament pointed. Thus, biblical theology is legitimate. It is right to see the Bible as telling one great story that has its climax in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

We can draw a few conclusions:

The Bible—all of it—is about Jesus. That is not an overstatement. We can really say, according to what we see from Jesus in Luke 24, that the Bible is ultimately all about him. The Old Testament points forward to him, shows the need for him, and explains what he was going to do for God’s people. The New Testament makes Jesus’s work clear and plain. The Bible is about Jesus.

We cannot rightly understand the Old Testament without understanding the work of Jesus. In other words, it is bad scholarship to read the Old Testament without looking forward to the work of Jesus—the Messiah—that the Old Testament anticipates! This is what Jesus would have said. He called the men on the road to Emmaus “slow of heart” because they did not understand all that the Old Testament Scriptures had been teaching about him and his work. If we miss Jesus in the Old Testament, we simply have not studied it correctly!

We should never study the Bible without talking about Jesus. Finally, we can conclude with this important point: to study any part of the Bible without referencing Jesus—the central character of the Bible—does not do the Bible justice. We have studied it incorrectly. We need to frame our discussion of each passage of Scripture in terms of its place in the great story—a story that has its climax in the life, death, and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus’s “sermon” on the road to Emmaus lays an important foundation regarding biblical theology. How wonderful it would be to have that entire sermon recorded for us! Jesus took time to explain to the two men, from Moses and the Prophets, all the things about him in the Old Testament Scriptures. In other words, Jesus himself used “biblical theology” to see the connection between the Old Testament Scriptures and his work through his death and resurrection.

The Apostles’ Preaching

Another foundation for biblical theology is the example of Jesus’s apostles. We will look at just one example of the teaching of the apostles about Jesus in relation to the Old Testament. We will consider the passage from which this chapter’s suggested memory verses come: Acts 2:14–41 (Peter’s sermon to the crowd at Pentecost). In this passage, we will see how Peter explained the work of Jesus from Psalm 16—a psalm written by King David.

Read Acts 2:14–41—the full account of Peter’s great sermon at Pentecost.

Just as Jesus did biblical theology on the road to Emmaus, his apostles did biblical theology as well.

In Acts 2, Peter delivered a sermon to the crowd at Pentecost, just after the Holy Spirit had descended with power on the disciples, enabling them to share the gospel with people in many different languages. In this sermon, Peter used Old Testament Scriptures—specifically the Psalms and the words of the prophet Joel—to show what was really happening: God’s promised Spirit was being poured out as Joel promised would happen in conjunction with David’s descendant being raised from the dead and crowned as King (Ps. 16).

This, then, is another key passage for helping us see that biblical theology, according to Jesus and his apostles, is a good, right, and legitimate way to study the Bible. In fact, according to Peter, it is really the only way to understand the Bible correctly. We do not “get” Joel unless we see how his words were fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. We do not “get” David, in Psalm 16, if we do not see the beautiful way that his words were fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Peter, an apostle, gives us another clear foundation for biblical theology in his wonderful sermon in Acts 2.

Old Testament “Pointers”

We can find a third important foundation for biblical theology through studying a passage from the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 8, you will see that even the pictures, roles, and practices of the Old Testament are meant to point...