The Goal of Scripture

Taught by Minister Jason Tarn to HCC Sunday School on August 14, 2011

Introduction The focus today is on what I call the goal of Scripture. In other words, the Bible was given to us by God to serve a purpose. It has a goal, and to rightly interpret Scripture would require us to identify this goal and make sure our reading and study of Scripture accomplishes its purpose. Now contrary to popular preaching these days, I want to contend that the goal of Scripture is not to make you a better person. Granted, moral transformation is a result of rightly applying Scripture to your life BUT only if you read and apply Scripture according to its ultimate purpose and goal. o So for example, when a preacher preaches a sermon on Five Steps to a Better Marriage or How to Improve Your Prayer Life or Becoming a Good Neighbor, he may well be preaching truthful messages but his messages are overlooking the goal of Scripture. And in that sense, such preaching falls short of Christian preaching. My belief is that when we get the goal of Scripture and then teach and preach in accordance with that goal, we are most faithful to the text and most faithful to Gods intended purposes. And the end result, by the grace of God, will be healthier marriages in the congregation, believers getting more passionate for prayer, and becoming more hospitable neighbors. So what is the goal of Scripture? Here is how I would answer that: The goal of Scripture is to reveal Gods eternal plan to redeem a people in Christ Jesus to the praise of his glorious grace. God has a purpose to redeem a sinful people from their sins through the person and work of Christ, all for the purpose of glorifying his Name and his holy attributes, chiefly his grace. o But I also have a short answer: Jesus. Jesus is the goal of Scripture. Jesus himself admonished the religious leaders of his day for diligently studying Scripture but missing the goal. He said in John 5:39, You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me. All Scripture ultimately points to Jesus. Commentating on John 5:39, John Calvin wrote, "We learn from this passage that knowledge of Christ should be sought from scriptures, For those who imagine whatever they please about Christ will have nothing but a shadowy apparition instead of him. First, then, we must grasp that Christ cannot be rightly known from anywhere else but the scriptures. If this is so, it follows that the scriptures are to be read with the intention of finding Christ in them. Any who shall turn aside from this goal (scopo) will never arrive at the knowledge of the truth, however much they wear themselves out with learning their whole life long." Bottom line, this means that the scriptures are to be read with the intention of finding Christ in them. Or put another way, the Bible is meant to be read with Jesus as the interpretive key. He unites all the various themes of Scripture together. He is the central figure in Scriptures grand narrative - its big story. Its all about him.

o So by implication, faithful, biblical teaching should be, what is commonly called, Christ-centered teaching. As my daughters Jesus Storybook Bible puts it in the subtitle: Every Story Whispers His Name. Scriptural Support First, let me offer you more scriptural support for what Im suggesting. We already looked at what Jesus had to say about Scripture pointing to him in John 5:29, so lets listen to what else he has to say. o In one of his first sermons, in his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus went to the synagogue and read from Isaiah 61:1-2, The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor. Then he sat down and said, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing (Lk. 4:18-21). The implication is that OT witnessed about him even before he was born. The idea that even the OT pointed to him was lost on even his first disciples. In one of his last sermons, on the road to Emmaus after he rose from the tomb, he scolded two disciples who had lost all hope. And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Lk. 24:25-27) o In what sense was Jesus present in the OT even prior to his incarnation? In his book Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, Sidney Greidanus explains that Jesus was present in the form of a promise. The OT is full of promises that God made with his people in different times and stages in redemptive history. And as Paul puts it, all of Gods promises eventually find their Yes in Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20). A few verses later, still in Luke 24, Jesus is eating one last meal with his disciples, proving he resurrected in body, and it says in vv44-45, 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. o That should be our hope and prayer, that Jesus would open our minds to understand the Scriptures, to be able to see how the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms all speak about Jesus. Recall, from our previous classes that Jesus is using the standard threepart division to describe the entire Hebrew Bible (the 39 books as we know it). Bottom line, the OT speaks about Jesus.

Concerns Now on one hand, no one would really object to that. Anyone teaching out of Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22, would be crazy not to find Christ in the texts and eventually bring the sermon or lesson to Jesus. That is because those passages are either speaking about the promised Messiah or NT authors have already made the connection for us in their letters. o But can every single book of the Bible, and every single story in the Bible really lead us ultimately to Christ? Is every single passage in the Bible really Christ-centered and can we legitimately teach it that way? What about all those chapters in Leviticus about food laws and cleanliness? What about all those stories about the patriarchs or the judges or the kings of Israel? What about all the random proverbs in the wisdom literature? The concern of that many have of teaching this way is that it leads to forced interpretation. They might not have a much of a problem with God-centered preaching and teaching, but being Christ-centered would force Christ into the text when hes not there. o Well there is a point there. We dont want to preach Christ in the OT at the cost of misusing and misinterpreting the OT by allegorizing. Here is a bad example of one preachers attempt to find Christ in Genesis 2:18-25. While Adam slept, God created from his wounded side a wife, who was part of himself, and he paid for her by the shedding of his blood. . . . Now all is clear. Adam is a picture of the Lord Jesus, who left his Fathers house to gain His bride at the price of His own life. Jesus, the last Adam, like the first, must be put to sleep to purchase His Bride, the Church, and Jesus died on the cross and slept in the tomb for three days and three nights. His side too was opened after He had fallen asleep, and from that wounded side redemption flowed. Q: Now how would you critique that attempt at Christ-centered teaching? o Reading Christ, and his specific experiences that we learn in the NT, back into the OT text, making detailed connections that would not have been part of the OT authors intended message. Right Approach The legitimate approach to Christ-centered teaching is what is called typological interpreting. Robert Plummer: Because God is completely sovereign over history, all Old Testament-era saving events, institutions, persons, offices, holidays, and ceremonies served to anticipate the final saving event, the final saving person, the final saving ceremony, etc. This style of citing the Old Testament is known as typological interpretation. In Christ-centered teaching, you are not forcing the text to say something it doesn't say IF you believe that the goal of all Scripture is to reveal Gods eternal redemptive plan -- because that plan climaxes with Christ on the cross. o So there will always an element of Gods redemptive plan, which ends with Christ, that is present in every passage of Scripture, even if just in seed form.

 That is the way Bryan Chapell puts it in his book Christ-Centered Preaching. This means that in order for us to expound biblical revelation from any passage we must relate our explanation to the redeeming work of God there present. The redemptive dimension of a particular Scripture may not seem to dominate the texts landscape because the redemptive features of a passage sometimes appear only in seed form, just as revelation does. . . . You do not explain what an acorn is, even if you say many true things about it (e.g. it is brown, has a cap, is found on the ground, is gathered by squirrels) if you do not in some way relate it to an oak tree. In a similar sense, preachers cannot properly explain biblical revelation, even if they say many true things about it, until they have related it to the redeeming work of God that all Scripture ultimately purposes to disclose. Q: How would you legitimately lead your hearers to Christ from this text? o The intended message was to Israel about Gods wonderful gift of marriage. But Paul explains that that mystery of marriage find its meaning in Christ and his relationship to the Church. Q: How would the chapters on food laws and ritual cleansing lead you to Christ? o Do you feel the burden of sin that calls for such detailed regulations and rituals? o Do you feel the release and joy of not having to do these things every day, wondering and worry if you are clean enough to approach God? o By the grace of God and the blood of Jesus, unclean sinners are washed clean forever and never have to go back to these rituals to try to clean ourselves! E.G. Read from Sally Lloyd-Jones The Jesus Storybook Bible. o The Present: pp. 62-67. o A Giant Staircase to Heaven: pp. 48-54. Here is an awesome quote from Spurgeon on finding Christ in all of Scripture. In writing to a young preacher he said, Dont you know, young man, that from every town and every village and every hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London? . . . So from every text in Scripture there is a road towards the great metropolis, Christ. And my dear brother, your business is, when you get to a text, to say, now what is the road to Christ? . . . I have never found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if ever I do find one . . . I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savour of Christ in it. Applications That Spurgeon quote really brings this issue home practically. The application is this: Seeing and teaching Christ as the goal of all Scripture keeps you from moralizing Scripture. The main reason Im stressing that Jesus is the goal of Scripture is because the only kind of teaching and preaching that will truly do you any good is Christ-centered teaching and preaching.

o There are too many sermons and books on OT and NT passages and stories that end up promoting moralism and good behavior. They focus mainly on what we have to do as Christians and focus very little on what Christ has already done for Christians in his death and resurrection. Listen to what Chapell writes, A message that merely advocates morality and compassion remains sub-Christian even if the preacher can prove that the Bible demands such behaviors. By ignoring the sinfulness of man that makes even our best works tainted before God and by neglecting the grace of God that makes obedience possible and acceptable, such messages necessarily subvert the Christian message. Christian preachers often do not recognize this impact of their words because they are simply recounting a behavior clearly specified in the text in front of them. But a message that even inadvertently teaches other that their works win Gods acceptance inevitably leads people away from the gospel. He gives the example of the Deadly Bes in teaching and preaching. Chapell is talking about messages that exhort believers to be something in order to be blessed by God. They are biblical in origin - promoting a biblical, holy behavior - AND they might even point to Jesus as an example of this behavior, but they are not biblically completely messages. They do not point to Jesus as our savior and sanctifier. o Be Like Messages: Messages than expound on a biblical character (biographical preaching). Preachers urge congregants to be like or don't be like certain heroes and villains in Scripture. But because were legalists by nature, we will take a Be Like message and try to conform our outward behavior to that character, but true spiritual transformation requires Christ and his sanctifying grace. e.g. Be like David and face your Goliaths! o Be Good Messages: Messages that emphasize certain behaviors we should or should not emulate. Chapell says, Even when the behaviors advocated are reasonable, biblical, and correct, a sermon that never moves from expounding standards of obedience, places peoples hopes in their own actions. People walk away thinking Gods favor and blessing in conditional upon their performance. But instead of focusing on do this, don't do that messages, we need to emphasis first and foremost Christ did for you what you could not do on your own. o Be Disciplined Messages: Messages that exhort believers to improve their relationship with God by more diligent use of spiritual disciplines. Pray more, read the Bible more, go to church more and have deeper quite times. No one will argue against practicing these things, but such teaching leads people into a subtle legalism. I had a terrible day today. It was probably because I woke up late this morning and didn't do my quite time. The lack of emphasis on Christ and his grace is clearly evident.

 Let me end with this great Jay Adams quote, If you preach a sermon that would be acceptable to the member of a Jewish synagogue or to a Unitarian congregation, there is something radically wrong with it. Preaching, when truly Christian, is distinctive. And what makes it distinctive is the all-pervading presence of a saving and sanctifying Christ. Jesus Christ must be at the heart of every sermon you preach. That is just as true of edificational preaching as it if of evangelistic preaching. . . . Edificational preaching must be always evangelical; that is what makes it moral rather than moralistic, and what causes it to be unacceptable in a synagogue, mosque, or to a Unitarian congregation. By evangelical, I mean that the import of Christs death and resurrection - His substitutionary, penal death and bodily resurrection - on the subject under consideration is made clear in the sermon. You must not exhort your congregation to do whatever the Bible requires of them as though they could fulfill those requirements on their own, but only as a consequence of the saving power of the cross and the indwelling, sanctifying power and presence of Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit. All edificational preaching, to be Christian, must fully take into consideration Gods grace in salvation and in sanctification.