It's all about Jesus!
The Transfiguration Lodovico Carracci 1594 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jesus and the two disciples On the Road to Emmaus, by Duccio, 1308-1311, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Road to Emmaus appearance, based on Luke 24:13-32, painted by Joseph von Führich, 1830. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The following doctrines and texts have proved priceless ballast for me in steadying my own soul, and keeping my seminary experience on track, when Jesus and his gospel haven't been as pervasive in the classroom as they are in the Scriptures.1. The Whole Universe Is About Jesus.
Not only with respect to God the Father are all things "from him and through him and to him" (Romans 11:36), but the same can be said of God the Son. Indeed, Paul says in Colossians 1:15–20 that all things — in creation and in redemption — are in Jesus and through Jesus and for Jesus.
Everything exists with respect to him. Everything exists through him. And everything exists for him. And "he is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (verse 17). And he is central in our salvation, as head of the church, "that in everything he might be preeminent" (verse 18).
Perhaps no six consecutive Bible verses are more important for a distinctly Christian worldview than Colossians 1:15–20. All things, created and redeemed: in Jesus, through Jesus, for Jesus. Ergo, he's worth making relentlessly pervasive in seminary education.
2. The Whole Bible Is About Jesus.
And if everything in the universe is in Jesus, through him, and for him, how much more then is everything in the Bible? We could establish this truth by good inference from Colossians 1, or we can learn it specifically from Jesus in Luke 24 and John 5, among other places.
John 5
And if everything in the universe is in Jesus, through him, and for him, how much more then is everything in the Bible? We could establish this truth by good inference from Colossians 1, or we can learn it specifically from Jesus in Luke 24 and John 5, among other places.
John 5
In John 5:39–40, Jesus gives the Jewish leaders of his day this fundamental lesson in Christian hermeneutics (call it "the basic principles of the oracles of God," to use the language of Hebrews 5:12) that every reader of the Scriptures (seminarians all the more) should keep in constant view: The Scriptures testify to Jesus. "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."
And in case we missed it, he gets more specific in verse 46 about the Pentateuch: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me." Don't forget to take this with you to your Old Testament survey and exegesis courses.
Luke 24
And, of course, Luke 24 is the granddaddy — Jesus, fresh off the resurrection, teaching his followers that the Scriptures really have been about him all along. Beware any course in hermeneutics that doesn't get to Luke 24 pretty quickly. It doesn't get much clearer when it comes to how we should be reading our Bibles. This is shamelessly Jesus-centered.
In verses 25–27, Jesus says to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus, "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?" Then Luke tells us he gave them a lesson in Bible reading with himself at the center: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."
Fast forward in the same chapter to verses 44–45:
Then [Jesus] said to [his disciples], "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 . . .
Spurgeon: Finding Jesus Everywhere
Given such straightforward and significant statements about the centrality of Jesus in the Scriptures, is it even possible to go overboard in finding Jesus in too many places in the Bible? Surely it can be abused. But as Spurgeon asks, "Would it not be better to see him where he is not than to miss him where he is?"
I love to find Jesus everywhere — not by twisting the Psalms and other Scriptures to make them speak of Christ when they do nothing of the kind, but by seeing him where he truly is. I would not err as Cocceius did, of whom they said his greatest fault was that he found Christ everywhere, but I would far rather err in his direction than have it said of me, as of another divine of the same period, that I found Christ nowhere!
And in case we missed it, he gets more specific in verse 46 about the Pentateuch: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me." Don't forget to take this with you to your Old Testament survey and exegesis courses.
Luke 24
And, of course, Luke 24 is the granddaddy — Jesus, fresh off the resurrection, teaching his followers that the Scriptures really have been about him all along. Beware any course in hermeneutics that doesn't get to Luke 24 pretty quickly. It doesn't get much clearer when it comes to how we should be reading our Bibles. This is shamelessly Jesus-centered.
In verses 25–27, Jesus says to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus, "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?" Then Luke tells us he gave them a lesson in Bible reading with himself at the center: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."
Fast forward in the same chapter to verses 44–45:
Then [Jesus] said to [his disciples], "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 . . .
Spurgeon: Finding Jesus Everywhere
Given such straightforward and significant statements about the centrality of Jesus in the Scriptures, is it even possible to go overboard in finding Jesus in too many places in the Bible? Surely it can be abused. But as Spurgeon asks, "Would it not be better to see him where he is not than to miss him where he is?"
I love to find Jesus everywhere — not by twisting the Psalms and other Scriptures to make them speak of Christ when they do nothing of the kind, but by seeing him where he truly is. I would not err as Cocceius did, of whom they said his greatest fault was that he found Christ everywhere, but I would far rather err in his direction than have it said of me, as of another divine of the same period, that I found Christ nowhere!
3. The Whole of Our Lives Is Designed to Be About Jesus
It's Colossians 3:17 that takes the massive scope of 1 Corinthians 10:31 and applies it explicitly to Jesus. 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Colossians 3:17: "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Do everything you do in Jesus's name — that includes seminary. How sad and sick it would be to approach seminary education (of all things!) in any other way.
So keep both eyes peeled for Jesus. Let's relentlessly make him the explicit center of all our learning, as we keep him as the conscious focus of all our lives.
It's Colossians 3:17 that takes the massive scope of 1 Corinthians 10:31 and applies it explicitly to Jesus. 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Colossians 3:17: "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Do everything you do in Jesus's name — that includes seminary. How sad and sick it would be to approach seminary education (of all things!) in any other way.
So keep both eyes peeled for Jesus. Let's relentlessly make him the explicit center of all our learning, as we keep him as the conscious focus of all our lives.
