Point of Clarification

My review of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament may have resulted in confusing a few people.  Or it could have resulted in you thinking that I am lessening or making light of the divinity of Jesus Christ.  So as a point of clarification to a helpful and constructive comment from a friend I wanted to post this as a reply.  As always my hope is that the writings on this blog will strengthen and encourage you in your faith and walk with Jesus Christ.  I trust and hope that God will take frail words and use them through the power of His Spirit to do that.  Grace and Peace in Him.

“The reference to the book requiring some previous knowledge of the Old Testament was supposed to convey that this is not a book I would recommend giving to a brand new Christian. I think there are some other things they should read and explore first. Also, in general I would much rather a believer first be exposed to the Word of God in all it’s richness and then be led through the church’s (i.e. believers) understanding of that Word.

And I wholeheartedly agree that Christ is the Word of God, and that He is the divine Son of God. God incarnate, come to live and die as one of us as payment for sins, and then to be raised as the first of all who would come after. Hallelujah sin and death have been defeated through the person and work of the God-man, Jesus Christ.

But what I appreciated about this book is that it responds to a church culture in which Jesus relationship to the Old Testament is seen in one of three ways. First, some Christians see no connection at all and so they just read the New Testament. Second, Christians think that Jesus relates to the Old Testament simply as the fulfillment of a bunch of prophecies. So they read the Old Testament as if Jesus is on every page and every passage is a prophecy about Jesus. Certainly the Old Testament points to Jesus, the question is in what way. Third, some believers see Jesus coming merely to fix what was inherently wrong with the Old Testament and the Law, or to come in and abolish the Law and make it irrelevant. The result of these three misconceptions is grievous to the church today. The first and third responses result in Christians ignoring the Old Testament. The second response results in Christians spiritualizing the Old Testament so that they misuse and distort the Word of God. Thus all three result in the Church losing the first two-thirds of God’s written revelation. However, what Wright does is show that Jesus follows perfectly in the plan and mission of God’s work as begun in the Old Testament. By doing this he not only restores relevance to the Old Testament but He also grounds the person and work of Jesus Christ as being the central fixture in God’s work in the World. The result then is not a diminishing the person and work of Jesus, the Word of God, but an exalting of it.”