Redemptive History

The Pharisees read the Scriptures as merely a law book. This approach was obviously incorrect yet we often approach the Bible with less obvious attitudes. As Michael Horton put it, the Bible is "not a collection of superior moral insights, empowering thoughts for the day, an end-times handbook, or a blueprint for a new social order - indeed, not even chiefly as a repository of doctrine." So how are we to read the Bible (pretend you can't see the title of this section)? Luke 24 tells us.

Meeting up with two downcast disciples on the road to Emmaus, the newly risen Jesus encouraged them by opening the Scriptures: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27).

We often treat the Bible as a series of individual stories that each have a specific moral, but the Bible tells us the way God worked out redemption in history. This is the story of Christ and all parts of the Word are related to it.

What scripture is telling us at the very core is the gospel. And some foolish Christians feel that they are past such basics and are ready for "spiritually superior" truths.

Derek Webb once said, "I think the church feels like the Gospel is what they preach to nonbelievers. But what people don't realize is that we need the Gospel today" and that is quite true. We need to be reminded daily of our need of God and his sufficiency and the Scriptures preach that to us.

Often behind our laziness with reading the word and our inability to stay awake during the preaching of the word is the assumption that we have heard it all before. We want something more interesting, more practical, more profound and stirring. What we don't realize is that there is nothing beyond the Gospel, nothing deeper. God is revealed most fully in the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, that He came to earth and died for sinners that they may be reconciled to God all due to his grace, is something that we will never get over or beyond. The gospel is what we live and die by; the story which began before the creation of the world, of God redeeming his people, is the very foundation of our lives and for us to be bored by it, to be looking to find greater blessings than it, to look elsewhere to know who God is, to meet God, is so absurd and it just shows how little we truly understand it.

Some Tips

As we delve into the Word, we should try to keep a few things in mind. As mentioned before, first we must approach the Word in reverence and humble obedience, understanding that God's Word is infallible truth that needs to shape the way we think and live.

Second, we must read the Word intent on understanding it. This requires time, thought, and many questions asked to a reliable source. Also, this requires us to read the Old Testament. It is true that the Old Testament cannot be understood fully apart from Christ, but it is equally true that Christ cannot be fully understood apart from the Old Testament. For us to understand Jesus and the history of redemption, we must have a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament. Those Scriptures are what shaped Christ's beliefs and life, and we would be hard pressed to understand the story of redemption if the first half is cut out. The Old Testament is necessary to have a fuller understanding of who God is, what He has done, and what He is doing.

Third, we ought to ask ourselves, what stage of redemptive history is the passage we are attempting to interpret. Such an understanding would eliminate the mistake of using verses out of context.

For example many cite 2 Chronicles 7:14 as a rallying cry for prayer for America.

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.

2 Chronicles 7:14

While prayer for the nation is obviously commendable and prayers over the nation's leaders is explicitly commanded by the Bible elsewhere (1 Timothy 2:2), this specific verse has nothing to do with America or any other modern country. This was a promise of God to Israel, the official nation of God, under the Old Covenant, not for America (which despite some assertions to the contrary, is not the new Israel by any means).

Another often misinterpreted verse is Psalm 105:15. "Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!"

According to Gilbert Trusty, "In context, in those verses (Psalms 105:9-15) God is talking about the patriarchs, about how He protected them, about how He kept Abraham's life…God was protecting Abraham because from him was going to come a nation and from that nation was going to come the Messiah." When read in context, we understand that this statement was something God said about particular people in Old Testament history. Also, one might note that during the Old Testament, particular persons were chosen by God to be his prophets and were specially anointed. But for the modern Christian believer, "John tells us that in the body of Christ we each have the anointing of God (1 John 2:20-27). This anointing does not apply only to the man behind the pulpit; we each have the anointing of God. The Holy Spirit is available to every one of us. We can be filled as we open ourselves and yield to God. It's not just one man, or some church leaders on earth who God has set apart anointed." Thus, touch not my anointed would refer to all of us who are in the body of Christ if we were to apply it today.

Fourth, and finally, we must read the Word with Christ constantly in view. As said before, every portion of the Word preaches some part of the Gospel to us. We must ask ourselves, what does this particular passage reveal to me about Christ? Perhaps it reveals his mercy and our great need of him when we read of the failures of Israel, or his power when we read of Joshua, or of his wisdom and trustworthiness when we see that God had set the plan of redemption into motion in Genesis. Every passage of the Word points to the beauty and glory of the Redeemer, and in this way passages which are seemingly unrelated to Christ enable us to know our Savior that much better.

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