The Christ Centeredness of Scripture

Before I came to the reformed tradition, I failed to appreciate the Christ centeredness of all scripture. The Old Testament was useful in understanding the history of the Jews, and some good moral insights might be discerned from the characters, but the New Testament was really all I needed. Looking back, it is not difficult to see how those from the same theological camps, or lack thereof, could also come to the conclusion that only the red letter passages in their bibles are the truly significant ones. That is, if Jesus did not set forth the proposition it could not be trusted as the word of God. The result is a very small and incomplete version of the scriptures. Vos addresses this gross error brilliantly in the following passage:

"To take Christ at all He must be taken as the centre of a movement of revelation organized around Him, and winding up the whole process of revelation. When cut loose from what went before and came after, Jesus not only becomes uninterpretable, but owing to the meteoric character of His appearance, remains scarcely sufficient for bearing by Himself alone the tremendous weight of a supernaturalistic world-view. As a matter of fact, Jesus does not represent Himself anywhere as being by his human earthly activity the exhaustive expounder of truth. Much rather He is the great fact to be expounded. And He has nowhere isolated Himself from His interpreters, but on the contrary identified them with Himself, both as to absoluteness of authority and adequacy of knowledge imparted [Luke 24:44; John 16:12-15]." Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology, The Banner of Truth Trust, 2004, p. 302.

By better understanding this essential truth, - i.e., Christ is the center of all scripture, the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is so much richer. God has given His people the wonderful story of how he has, is, and will redeem His people. Let us tell it often, lest we forget His incomprehensible grace, mercy, and love.