The Internal Unity of Scripture - Part 2

[0:00] Blessed Lord, who has caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning, grant that we may in such ways hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest what is written, that through patience and comfort of your Holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

[0:40] Well now, as Bill has said, this is a two-part project that we're engaged in, and this is part two that we are met for this morning.

[0:57] And our starting point, let me say straight away, is to be the point at which we finished last week.

[1:08] We began, if you remember, last week by affirming, as a matter of faith, the internal unity of Scripture.

[1:20] The plan is that faith should, in real measure, become sight before this two-part project is finished. But we cited the tag from Augustine, which encourages us in this project.

[1:39] The New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament.

[1:51] And I think I spoke, though not at length, of the modern term that's used for the kind of biblical understanding that we're aiming at.

[2:05] Nowadays, it's quite a new thing, actually. This wasn't standard language at all. When I was doing theology, it became standard language about 20 years ago.

[2:19] But now, it is standard language, and it's a very convenient language. We are attempting what nowadays they call canonical interpretation. That is, an understanding of the Bible as the canon.

[2:33] That is, the standard and the rule of our faith. And the purpose of the interpretation is to make the rule stand out, so that we understand it and are able to apply it.

[2:51] Canonical interpretation, I'm sure I said last week, is contrasted with the nearly historical and nearly analytical sort of interpretation, whereby the Bible is approached simply as an old book, and its expositors take it to pieces.

[3:12] And suppose that if you want to understand the Bible, the thing to do is to look at each bit separately, and never attempt to put all the pieces together.

[3:24] Why not? Well, said the modern critics for well over a hundred years, because the pieces don't all fit together. There isn't an inner unity of the Bible, except in the very broad sense, that here you have people, Israelites, and then Christians in the New Testament, wrestling with God, that's what they say, hearing or believing that they hear words from God, and then struggling with what they hear, and in many cases, arguing against it in their own minds, and modifying it in their own thinking, and generally producing a library of books, or 66 biblical books, which don't fully fit together as a unity, except in the sense of being a unity of endeavor, trying to get the true handle on what they think God might be saying.

[4:33] Well, that's not the world in which I operate, and that isn't the view of things which I encourage you to embrace, not in the least.

[4:44] If you remember, I waved in front of your pure minds another of these modern words, it's only existed perhaps for 20 years, the word metanarrative, which is a technical term for the story that embraces all the stories, the story of which all the specific stories are part, the story which holds it all together.

[5:14] I affirmed that there is such a story. It's the story of the Creator becoming the Redeemer. And as the story is spelled out in the 66 books of Scripture, Old and New Testament together, common themes run through the whole of it.

[5:34] The theme of God himself, holy, just, faithful, gracious. The theme of God's kingdom, which in his own sovereign kingship he brings in, the kingdom of peace and joy.

[5:55] The theme of the covenant, the promise and commitment whereby God binds himself to particular people and binds them to him.

[6:08] I will be your God, you must be my people. And the figure of Jesus Christ himself, the Davidic Messiah, great David's greater son, becomes more and more the focus of hope and expectation as the story goes on.

[6:33] And the New Testament, as we shall see in detail in a moment, is as Christ-centered as anything could be. The Davidic king has come.

[6:46] He is God's last word to man. And he is the one who must fill all the Christian's horizon and be the center of the Christian's attention and response and worship and obedience as long as life lasts.

[7:09] And he will go on being central in glory where the people whom he brings to glory will praise him and adore him and fellowship with him and rejoice in his company forever and ever.

[7:24] And of course, with all of that goes the theme of the people whom God chooses, sets in shape in terms of the community life they must live, calls to holiness as their life pattern, disciplines when they lapse, restores when they're in need.

[7:53] God has a people. God is perfecting for himself a people. And heaven will be, as I said a moment ago, the unending time of fellowship between the Lord God and his people in the glory that's prepared beyond this world.

[8:17] So you've got these common themes running right the way through the Bible and you've got common purposes on God's part that he pursues from Genesis to Revelation to teach people faith.

[8:34] What does faith mean? Faith means trusting his word, trusting his love, and trusting his faithfulness. He is going to fulfill his word and his love and his love is never going to fail.

[8:49] And that's the basis and the shape of the relationship between God and his people that he's concerned to build. That's purpose number one.

[9:03] Edification of those people so that they express and embody and practice and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.

[9:16] Call it edification. Call it the building of the community into its final glory. Third thing God is concerned to do is to demonstrate what a God-centered view of God's world is like.

[9:37] We, some of us, use the phrase world view to describe one's total outlook and view of life with God the creator who sustains the world and is redeeming us at the center of things.

[9:55] God teaches the God-centered world view which is transcultural. Cultures change and the details of expressing practical godliness may change with it.

[10:09] They have to change with it in order to stay the same at the level of principle. But the principles of truth and fact on which life in this world is to be built principles of truth and wisdom I mean about God and what God is doing those principles are unchanged from one generation to another and cultural change doesn't touch them.

[10:38] So it's good to say the Bible view of God and his world is basically transcultural. And you have to say that actually or else you don't know how to get to square one really in expressing the inner unity of the Bible.

[10:57] And then there's a vocabulary that God teaches his people through the whole through the whole sequence of historical events over well a four figure number of years nobody knows quite how many from Genesis chapter 1 to the end of the biblical period words words which the secular world either doesn't use at all or uses in a very inadequate sub-Christian way when it does use them those words have to be properly understood they are defined not simply by producing a verbal formula like dictionaries do to define words for us but by seeing them acted out in the things that God does and leads his people to do what am I talking about?

[12:02] I'm talking about words like holy which is the Bible's umbrella word for everything that God is and that we in our fallen condition aren't understanding the meaning of holiness is a project in itself and then there's the word glory which in the first instance means God on display the word in Hebrew anyway comes from a root which means weight that which is weighty that which is awesome that which is wonderful because it's so big and breathtaking the glory of God is seen as his faithfulness and his love his justice and his mercy are exhibited by his dealings with his people first in the

[13:06] Old Testament then in the New and the people of God learn again all 66 books are involved here because the process begins right at the beginning of the human story and continues unendingly the people of God learn as they contemplate God's glory God on display in the works of providence and grace that he's constantly performing they learn to glorify him you know that verb glorify it means that you praise God for what you see and you model your own life on the character of God as it's displayed in what he does he the holiness you see in God has a moral core and holiness in his people must have a moral core that corresponds so we too have to learn justice and mercy love and faithfulness and we do that to honor the God who sets before us this model of perfect behavior it's his own perfection and we see it we praise him for it and we seek to imitate it model ourselves on it and then there's the word face which I spoke of a moment ago and there's the word love the world doesn't know what love is love isn't primarily a feeling love is a resolve and it's a resolve as some of you have heard me say before for a month in saying this it's a resolve to make great the person who is the object of your affection this is a resolve it's a matter of the will it's a matter of what you do you say what do you mean by great well when it's God you can't make him great as if he isn't great at the moment but you can acknowledge his greatness in worship and that does that does honor him in the way that we should honor him and we magnify the

[15:36] Lord you know that word from the beginning of Mary's song in Luke chapter one we magnify the Lord that word magnify means we make him great in our own estimation and we try to make him great in other people's estimation also by the praise that we give him and when it's our neighbor well we form a responsible judgment as to what is going to help our neighbor towards the life that God the creator will be pleased to see our neighbor living and then we do what we can to try and help our neighbor towards that when the neighbor is our peer with whom we rub shoulders well we are prepared to help with material things when there's a problem and we seek to share the Lord Jesus with this person because we know that his or her biggest need among the many needs but the biggest need of all is the need to know Christ and find a new life so we witness and we help and if our neighbor is for instance the children in our own family well we seek to drill them in the basics of the faith and the godly way to live and we pray for them and we hope continue to hope and continue to pray that as they grow and mature so more and more they will exhibit godliness as a reality the life of holiness and righteousness as a reality the life to which we know

[17:33] God calls them just as he calls us that's making your neighbor great you see that's neighbor love second great commandment well these things are taught in the Bible by stories not just by the use of words but by narratives in which you see God in action and you see people responding to God positively and turning their back on God refusing to respond to him positively and from those examples of living right or living wrong what real godliness amounts to you but all of that as we saw last week is being worked out demonstrated at length in the Old Testament story which is a story of historical preparation and didactic preparation and preparation in events and preparation in teaching too for the coming of the Lord

[18:37] Jesus Christ in other words last week we looked at the Old Testament from a vantage point as Christians we read the Old Testament in the light of the New and you may remember I said it comes out when you take an overview of the Old Testament as a whole it comes out as a drama I don't think I said it quite this way let me say it now it comes out as a three act drama act one ruin this is the first three chapters well the first eleven chapters of Genesis creation and the goodness of the creation is right at the beginning of Genesis and sin and judgment come in and fill the chapters from chapter three to chapter eleven ruin mankind has sinned and everybody is off course spiritually second act renovation

[19:42] God chooses a family makes a covenant with that family it's the seed of Abram of course that I'm talking about in due course rescues that family from the slavery into which they've fallen and legislates in very great detail the pattern of the community life that they must henceforth live as his covenant people his servants his witnesses and that takes you from Genesis chapter twelve where God calls Abraham to the end of the book of Joshua where the promised land has been entered and occupied and the Israelites having been rescued from captivity are there in the land where they're meant to be and as you know all the detailed legislation for their community life that's in half of Exodus and all of

[20:50] Leviticus and two-thirds of numbers and two-thirds of Deuteronomy as well God went into great detail to make quite sure that they would know how to live to his praise so that's act two renovation renovation of humanity in the life of God those whom God takes as his people act three relapse story of failure failure of leadership before there was a king in Israel that's the book of Judges failure of leadership under the kings of Israel David and Solomon on balance did well rather than badly but nearly all the other kings did badly rather than well and the story this section of the story picks up in 1 Samuel and then goes through to the end of 2 Chronicles the story of the kingdom is on balance a sad story it's a story of failure and mistakes as the dominant theme and then finally the people go into exile under God's judgment because of their sin sin is idolatry and immorality together the prophets have a great deal to say about those two ways of lapsing each reinforcing the other finally as I said

[22:24] Israel goes into exile after 70 years they return and there's a measure of restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah and then as I said the prophets and the wisdom literature fit into that story as ribs fit in their attachment to our spine our backbone in the human skeleton and of course if you're going to understand the books of the prophets in particular you do need to know where they fit into this sad story so there's the inner unity of the Old Testament as Christians understand it as Christians indeed are taught by the founders of Christianity Jesus and the Apostles to read the Old Testament we aren't doing this as a bright idea of our own we're doing it because

[23:25] Jesus and the apostles did it before us it was part of their teaching that we should read the Old Testament and understand it this way well now we get to the New Testament against this Old Testament background and once again we are looking for internal unity that holds together this time it's 27 books in the Old Testament it was 39 now we ask what are the principles of the internal unity of the New Testament and the first and fundamental and all comprehensive principle is that the Lord Jesus Christ Son of God incarnate who lived died rose reigns and is returning he is the center of the horizon he is the one who occupies all our attention holds our attention and shapes what's going on and what should be going on in the minds and lives of his disciples in just the same way that the projection in the omni theater fills the horizon of your vision you look and everywhere that you look well the picture that's being projected is coming through to you

[24:57] Jesus Christ for the Christian is to be like that the whole New Testament says so I'm not going to go into the specifics of Trinitarian doctrine but I am going to say now Jesus of Nazareth the man from Galilee is presented projected by all the New Testament writers as God become man 100% human yes but 100% divine as well the incarnation in that sense is fundamental to everything that's said in the New Testament and when I say incarnation of course I'm not opposing the birth of Jesus to the death of Jesus there have been people in the church who've done that it's been a very confusing thing for them to do when I say incarnation

[25:58] I'm thinking forward to the cross and to the whole saving ministry that comes out of what Christ did for us on the cross it's all of a peace atonement intercession fellowship with Christ who as it were is the senior partner in our lives and who stands by us and sustains us and enables us to live to his glory he walks with us we may truly say and he will welcome us into the glory beyond when the time comes for us to leave this world he is as I said right at the center and his saving work is all of a piece don't separate any part of the fact of Christ from any other part of the fact of Christ in all 27 New Testament books this is the perspective and he is at the center he's central for every Christian he's central for the people of

[27:04] God who in the New Testament are called the church and he's central in fact in importance for the world even though the world doesn't know this but the truth is as is said at the end of Matthew's gospel that all authority has been given to him in heaven and in earth that is to say he is ruling the cosmos on his father's behalf he is the channel through whom the providential action of God governing his world takes place he is the lord of the world whom everybody ought to be worshipping and meantime his people on earth are on mission all the time on mission sent out to make known the knowledge of Christ the knowledge of the way things really are in this world go and make disciples of all the nations said the lord jesus and christians every day of their lives that's you and me of course we are to understand that that's the very part of the job we're meant to do and we are to remember that one day this world's history will finish one day the cosmos as we know it will come apart it's unimaginable but that's what's going to happen

[28:41] I think that the best way we can begin to imagine it is to contemplate this thought there'll come a moment when for everyone who's alive in the world the way that we are today sitting in this room and you patiently listening to me all our environment human environment local environment all of that will just be gone and you and I or if we are the terminal generation or whoever is in the terminal generation will be conscious of one thing only that each of us as individuals on our own isolated individuals we are before the Lord Jesus and accounts have to be settled it's called the day of judgment when Paul went to

[29:48] Athens the intellectual capital of the ancient world you remember he made a speech to the top body for discussing matters religious and philosophical people and the Areopagus and what he told them was that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by the man that he's ordained and he's given the world proof of that by raising him from the dead well the Athenians thought that this was such utter nonsense that they couldn't listen to any more of it and they howled Paul down that's what it means when you read the it's really an under translation of the Greek when Paul spoke of the resurrection some mocked that's how our Bibles usually render it but actually what they did was howling down young boo shut up don't talk such nonsense we won't hear any more of this that kind of thing and the meeting dissolved in confusion and for the minority who were willing to hear and interested to hear more

[30:55] Paul had to make a separate arrangement of when they would meet so that he could tell them more well that's Paul taking this bit of a Christian message to top intellectuals who in the short term at any rate wholeheartedly rejected it but there it is it's part of the New Testament message and if we accept this as from God we've got to take it seriously move into the New Testament thematically now against this general frame of Jesus Christ filling the mind and the heart and the horizon like the picture and the omnitheater what you have in the New Testament what you have proclaimed in the New Testament over and over is well it's four things together actually which I'm going to separate out just so that we can see them in general what the

[32:00] New Testament proclaims is the fulfillment of God's purposes through Christ what are God's purposes restoration is the word that fits the world went out of shape as a result of human sin which put humanity out of shape straight away because human nature was set in the mold of the transgression into which Adam and Eve had fallen and it's been in that mold ever since and the world itself the cosmos around our environment as we call it was cursed by God we can't we're not in a position to work out the details and say how it would have been if man hadn't fallen we can only say that the world as it is now is not heaven and there are all sorts of things that constantly happen in this world to remind us that this is not heaven things aren't the way that they would have been if man hadn't sinned and they aren't the way that they're going to be when

[33:19] God restores the cosmos the New Testament says that that's what he's going to do through our Lord Jesus Christ and the restoration will bring in a state of affairs in which the people of God are all together all praising all enjoying all in fellowship with Christ and with each other and all how shall I say it how can I say it all more exuberant and ecstatic about it than words can tell because they know that this glorious state of being goes on forever it's pictured right at the end of the book of Revelation when in chapters 21 and 22 one hears of the city of

[34:21] God coming down from God to this world what's being talked about I think from other passages in the New Testament is a total restoration of this world this world order in some way and the city of God place of fellowship that's what the city image is saying is now with Christ with the Father and the Spirit also a place of supreme joy and fulfillment this is God's purpose being fulfilled and it means glory in every sense of that word for God's people more specifically the New Testament is telling the story of the fulfillment of God's promises all of this in detail was foretold more or less clearly in the

[35:27] Old Testament and Paul at one point makes a big deal of the fact that in Christ and through Christ note those prepositions by the way we'll come back to them in a moment in Christ and through Christ all the promises that God has ever given about his intentions purposes undertakings for his people in this world are now fulfilled did you do you do you know this word from Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 all the promises of God find their yes in him that's in Christ then he says that's why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory and it's God who establishes us with you in Christ Paul continues and he's anointed us and put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee that in due course every promise of

[36:35] God made to the individual believer is going to be fulfilled for each of us I have a friend his name is Mark Dever he is the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C.

[36:51] he has just published a couple of books which between them constitute a survey of the whole of the Bible it's a set of sermons which he preached actually 66 sermons one on each book of the Bible and the first book the Old Testament book has in on its dust jacket in prominent letters the words promises given and the second volume which actually was published first that's the volume of sermons on the New Testament it has on the jacket in large letters promises kept yes that's exactly right and we can add now further thought third thought the New Testament proclaims the fulfillment of patterns patterns that God gave in action to show his people what was going to be done when Jesus

[38:04] Christ came to fulfill the promises and the purposes of the father who sent him Christians have a name it's a traditional name for the patterns we talk about types and the study of types is typology you know those words and a type is a pattern in action which in due course gets replaced by something better than was there before but the pattern remains the same examples our Lord Jesus Christ is prophet priest and king he's saying that this is his threefold office as our savior that means he's a better prophet a better priest and a better king than any that the Old Testament knows better because of what he brings or take the reality of redemption which is the basic theme of the

[39:15] Christian gospel Christ died on the cross to redeem us well there was a typical redemption in the Old Testament God saving his people from slavery in Egypt for us too there's slavery let's wake up to it we are slaves of sin and slaves of the devil who at the moment is the ruler of this world if we don't realize it that simply shows how deep and unchangeable as far as we're concerned the slavery is but the Lord breaks in and redeems us and for centuries Christians have been picturing the Christian life as comparable to the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness the promised land if any of you have read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress which I hope that some of you have though I fear that some of you haven't you will know that that's the basic picture of the

[40:22] Christian life with which Bunyan works from beginning to end it's a pilgrimage from the city of destruction to the city of God the promised land the promised place of glory well that's the that's how the typical redemption becomes a picture of what we call the anti-typical reality of spiritual redemption in Christ and that which occurs in Christ or through Christ is greater and more glorious than that which occurred when the pattern was established in Old Testament times in the books of Exodus Leviticus and Numbers a tremendous amount is said about sacrifices sacrifices which include the shedding of blood for the atoning of sins and this is a pattern of reality which the

[41:29] New Testament picks up and highlights yes there has to be death in order to atone for human sin it has to be a substitutionary death and the Lord Jesus died it blood was shed without shedding of blood there's no remission of sin that's said specifically in Hebrews and that's paraphrasing what those sacrificial rituals so carefully described in Leviticus and Numbers in particular are also saying this is a pattern that was fulfilled in Christ this is the meaning of his death in pain and shame on the cross well I simply say that I'm sure that I ring bells in your hearts when I do say it I'm not going to go into details because I've got some more to say about some other things but I hope you're getting the idea the way to think of the relation between type and anti-type is in terms of

[42:40] I said this last time I'm sure in terms of a permanent foundation having been laid and the temporary building wooden structure being erected on it but it's only temporary and in due course it's going to be pulled down and removed in order to make way for the stone structure the permanent structure which is going to be built on that foundation and which is going to last all the Old Testament types you see are like the temporary wooden structure and the final building is better I suppose too you can illustrate type and anti-type from those home makeover programs of which television channels are full full to bursting these days the basic shape of the house the room remains the same but it's made over it's decorated it's made to look quite different from how it was before and then you can sell the house in a way that previously you couldn't and you could enjoy the house or you can enjoy the house in a way that previously you couldn't well it's not a perfect illustration of course but you can see I think what I'm saying the details which were less than perfect are now replaced by realities which at every point cover what the details were dealing with before but cover it better better furnishings better color scheme better carpeting and so on and so forth and this is one of the bonds of unity within the

[44:36] Bible hypology holding together the preparatory era in which God was teaching his people the patterns and then the era of fulfillment the era in which the Lord Jesus comes and everything that the patterns pointed forward to is fulfilled and realized in a perfect form which doesn't ever need to be adjusted this is God's last word to man this is the final truth this is the final reality that we need in order to draw near to God in true worship and fellowship and the Lord Jesus the living Lord who made atonement who fulfills this role this old role of prophet priest and king who is the mediator of the new version of the improved version of God's covenant with man he is right at the heart of everything and he fills the whole horizon and that's

[45:43] Christianity last thought here the new testament proclaims the fulfillment of God's purposes promises and patterns yes through the fulfillment of that to which God's prepositions pointed no not propositions prepositions in the new testament there is a magnificent and amazing theology of prepositions what I mean by that is that just about everything that's to be said about the Lord Jesus is conveyed by the use of the following prepositions through with in and then two prepositions one of which means literally into and the other means upon what am I talking about well this

[46:50] Jesus is the one whose shed blood brings us pardon of our sins justification through faith acceptance into God's family so that we are his own adopted children this is our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and what he has done and what in his glory as our intercessor he still does but he's not remote he is as I said earlier the living Lord who by his spirit makes himself present with each of his people and walks with us and sustains us gives us strength always even to the end of the world it's a fellowship fellowship with Christ as an abiding dimension of Christian life that's through and with and what now about in well you know that in the

[48:02] New Testament Paul constantly John in his first well in all three of his letters and the Lord Jesus himself as his words are recorded in John's Gospel they all talk about life in Christ or when Jesus talks about it it's life in me I'm the vine you're the branches abide or stay put as I think it's most vividly expressed stay put in me and I will stay put in you you'll live in Christ and your life will be a case example of Christ in you the hope of glory praise from Colossians chapter one of course what does that word in mean it doesn't mean absorption as if you know like they say in Hinduism when you get into God you as a person are dissolved away and cease to be that's the Hindu and Buddhist idea of Nirvana but no it means union union whereby you the person you are are drawing life from the Lord and the Lord is pouring life into you and you are covered by his representative ministry he is your representative before the throne of God that's what's in view it's a relationship of a particular kind and it's hard to find any human analogy for it

[49:57] I don't know how to illustrate it except in terms of the Lord's own illustration he is the vine we are the branches we know what this is like of course because we grow these things in our own back gardens we've been familiar with them since we've been so high the life that's in the branch comes from the stem or the stock which is the basic plant or the basic tree or basic bush and the branch only has this life in it while it's part of the total bush total tree or total plant well yes that's exactly what is being affirmed only Christ himself living Lord is the plant the bush the tree and our life is to be lived consciously in union which means a fellowship based on a communion a sharing of life union with him and then there are two

[51:13] I said there are two more prepositions one means into and it's the preposition that in Greek one would use for going into a room so that having gone into the room you're now there and the other preposition means upon so that if I lift this Bible and then put it down upon the desk which holds it up I have done what this second preposition expresses down on so that that which goes down on something is henceforth resting on it that's the meaning of this word if you're into Greek the first preposition is ice and the second one is epic well those are the prepositions that are used in evangelistic contexts in the New Testament all the writers use them they are the prepositions used for extending your arms the arms of your heart to receive and embrace

[52:23] Christ and then to rest your weight the weight of your hopes the weight of your daily living you rest all of this on him in the sense that you say to him from your heart and you mean it Lord Jesus I cannot get on without you you must hold me up and that's the exercise of faith which brings people into Christian life in the first instance and that is also the exercise of faith which we who live our lives in Christ are to be making every day of our lives so that we are in fact living as we say in dependence as distinct from living in independence of the Lord no we live in dependence Lord uphold me

[53:23] Lord help me I am resting my weight and my hopes of getting it right whatever it is on you that's faith well it's amazing how much theology you can pack into those five prepositions isn't it each of them pointing to a tremendous theme which is part of the reality of Christian life life in Christ well as usual the clock has beaten me I had a little more to say let me just tell you what the headings were we could I suppose have another session going over some of this in more detail if that was desired what more I had to say I had to do first Hebrews which is a letter in which every point right up to the detail of the application final details of the application every point is made by exposition and application of Old Testament scripture demonstrating how the

[54:42] Christian reality fulfills it and is better than the Old Testament original was there's a better covenant founded on better promises a better sacrifice a better priest than any of the Aaronic priests a better country than the promised land in Palestine which the Old Testament saints in the Exodus were aiming at everything for Christians is better and God has prepared for us some better thing so that the Old Testament saints in fellowship with the Lord as they are beyond this world they don't enter into the better thing save in our company God prepared for us some better thing so that they without us would not be made perfect and then the other thing that I was going to go to turn on is the way in which the four gospels exhibit different aspects of the glory and significance of the

[55:56] Lord Jesus as these qualities are displayed in the ministry he fulfills as you know they're all of them accounts of his ministry with different angles of interest different emphases different underlinings different stresses the simplest terms Matthew's gospel proclaims the king has come and Jesus' Davidic messiah setting up the kingdom is highlighted Mark proclaims the savior has come and Mark constructed his gospel so that when you read it it comes across as a journey to the cross right from the get go Jesus is on his way to the cross why?

[56:50] well because that's where salvation was won in Matthew Jesus is the king in Mark Jesus is the servant the suffering servant of God according to the picture in Isaiah 53 Luke's emphasis the natural emphasis for a man who was a physician before he became a Christian evangelist that's what Luke was the healer has come and Luke telling his story is particularly interested in focusing on the way in which Jesus changes human lives a lot of stories which go into detail about that this is what you would expect from a physician and this is what you actually get in Luke Jesus the perfect man himself transforming the human lives of other people and John is celebrating the fact that God in person has come the incarnate

[57:59] Lord is the incarnate Lord he's God come in the flesh so where Luke stressed Jesus' perfect personal humanity John stresses Jesus' full divinity incarnate divinity and where Luke had exhibited Jesus in the stories as the transformer of human lives John exhibits him as quite simply the life giver but my 60 minutes have all gone and having said that much I have to pipe down you say what about the letters well you have to have another session for me to go into the way in which the letters develop the thought of the continuity between Old and New Testament a single plan of God being fulfilled and the centrality and supremacy and adequacy and ultimacy of the

[59:02] Lord Jesus Christ and how errors obscure this and must be laid to rest and how true understanding celebrates this and leads to doxology and praise so it's Christ in all the scriptures and it's discipleship in all the scriptures and it's the work of God perfecting his church his own people in all the scriptures and there you have the internal unity of the Bible in itself and you stand back and you marvel at the wisdom of God and you can't wait to do some more Bible study and inspect more closely this glorious product of divine wisdom celebrating the divine saving grace of our

[60:09] Lord Jesus Christ okay folks that's the end of presentation chapter 2 and one and vale and this hope and continue to