7 Things I Wish Christians Knew About the BibleSample

JESUS CHRIST IS THE CENTER OF THE BIBLE

According to Luke, it was the risen Jesus, speaking to two obtuse travelers on the road to Emmaus, who explained how the scriptural story climaxed with the Messiah’s passion and resurrection: “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And Luke famously adds, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:25–27). In other words, Jesus himself was the first person who engaged in a Christocentric exposition of Scripture!

This is why I urge my seminary students to memorize a quotation from Paul’s sermon in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch about how all of God’s promises find resolution in Jesus: “We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus” (Acts 13:32–33). And Paul himself writes to the Corinthians: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:20). A central conviction in the Christian understanding of Scripture should be that Jesus fulfills what was promised to Israel about the Messiah in the Old Testament and Jesus remains the primary subject matter of the New Testament.

I hope you are already convinced of this point: Jesus—his life, death, and resurrection, his status as Messiah and Lord, his identity as the Son of God—is the hermeneutical key to unlocking Scripture.

This plan was adapted from the Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible book by Michael Bird. Learn more here.