Biblical Theology

This past Wednesday evening I participated in a new class lead by my senior pastor. He explained to us a number of things that he’d like for us to get out of the class and that a large part of what he’s after is for us to learn what may be a new way (for me at least) of interpreting and understanding the Bible. He brought up the term Biblical Theology and discussed in what ways it is different from Systematic Theology. Now I have a laymen’s grasp of Systematic Theology but I’d never heard of Biblical, and so like most new words especially technical ones my brain enshrouded it in a vacuous cloud of uncertainty. As a good do bee and geek I scurried over to Google today and looked up the word in hopes of clearing away the gathering cobwebs.

Here is what I found….

It’s when I read something like the following that I realize I know nothing.  I’ve never understood the OT in this way, in these words, with such a simple and direct point being made.

Much thanks to Rich Lusk the author.

How does Christ fulfill all that went before? Like a prism breaking light up into a beautiful spectrum of colors, the Old Testament presents Christ to us in a wide range of shapes, hues, and tones. Consider a sampling:

• He is the Word through whom the Father spoke the world into existence
• He is the light shined into the darkness
• He is the one who came walking in the breeze of the day to meet Adam and Eve in Eden. He sacrificed that first animal and clothed them with skins.
• He is the victorious seed promised to Adam and Eve at the gates of the Garden.
• He is the New Adam, who now rules over creation and promises to fill it with his images. As the new Adam, he subdues his enemies and protects his bride, the church, from the attacks of the serpent.
• He is the Greater Noah who takes his family onboard the ark of his church in order to save them from the flood of God’s wrath.
• He is true Tower of Babel, bridging heaven and earth.
• He is the Greater Melchizedek, an eternal priest of God Most High, who feeds his people bread and wine and receives their tithes.
• He is the promised seed of Abraham, born of the “barren” womb of the vigin by the Spirit’s power. Like Isaac, he is sacrificed by his father, and received back from the dead.
• He is the Greater Jacob who claims his birthright and limps to victory.
• He is Jacob’s ladder, extending into the heavens, on which we ascend into God’s sanctuary.
• He is the Greater Joseph, who has been humiliated and left for dead by his own brothers, but is then vindicated and exalted. As world ruler, he saves the nations by offering bread and wine from his own table.
• He is the prophet greater than Moses, who leads the exiled people in a greater exodus into a greater promised land.
• He is the New Joshua, who leads his people in a new conquest of the earth with the sword of the Spirit.
• He is the Greater Othniel, conquering the City of Books (Kirjath-Sephir/Debir) occupied by giants, thereby winning the daughter’s hand in marriage.
• He is the Temple incarnate, the presence of God dwelling with men.
• He is the final sacrifice, who takes away the sin of the world.
• He is the Passover Lamb who keeps away the Angel of Death and offers his own flesh as food to his people.
• He is the final Judge, a craftier Ehud, a stronger Samson, a greater Gideon.
• He is Great David’s Greater Son, who defeats giants, remains the secret messiah, and finally takes possession of the kingdom.
• He is the one wiser than Solomon, who builds the Lord’s true house and delights the bride with his love.
• He is the Suffering Servant promised by Isaiah, the one who inaugurates the New Covenant foretold by Jeremiah, and pours out his Spirit as prophesied by Ezekiel.
• Like Jeremiah, he is a weeping prophet, who announces judgment on Israel and the temple.
• Like Ezekiel, he is the Son of Man, who executes judgment on the temple.
• He is the stone cut without hands, seen by Daniel, whose kingdom grows to fill the earth.
• He is the Greater Ezra, building a better temple, and the Greater Nehemiah, building a city with heavenly foundations.
• He is the Greater Nebuchadnezzar, Ahasuerus, and Cyrus, God’s anointed world sovereign.
• He is the one who gives Sabbath rest, he is the Tree of Life, the Rock in the wilderness gushing with living water, the cornerstone on which unbelievers stumble and on which the house of God is erected, etc.

And on and on we could go. All God’s promises are yes and Amen in him. Everything written in Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets is fulfilled in him. He is all in all.

“All God’s promises are yes and Amen in him.” Amen

If you’d like to read the rest of what Rich Lusk has to say on Biblical Theology please follow this link: http://www.hornes.org/theologia/rich-lusk/what-is-biblical-theology

PS the quoted part comes from (Part Two)