Caught Between ‘Try Harder’ and ‘Trust Christ’: Keeping Christ Central to Biblical Teaching
If you happened to grow up in an evangelical church during the past fifty years, it is likely that you are familiar with stories such as Abraham and Isaac, David and Goliath, Moses and the Exodus, and Jonah and the whale. Such lessons are usually accompanied by a flannel-graph that makes any child feel as if he is right in the midst of the story. This adventure is often concluded with the “moral of the story” (similar to what is found at the end of each of Aesop’s Fables). The teacher then offers the students some practical application: “Be brave like David, faithful like Abraham, or patient like Moses.”
To many Christians this is familiar. It also appears to be a great method for teaching the Scriptures. While this approach to applying a biblical text is not necessarily wrong, there are potential flaws in this method of application. This essay will focus primarily on the importance of Christ-centered application. Let us begin by examining several problems with using biblical characters as solely moral exemplar in application.
It Makes Flawed People into Revered Examples
God wants His people to be faithful. So, if God wants faithful followers, why not say, “Be faithful like Abraham”? The main problem with this is that it is easy to move from commendation of Abraham’s character to the near idolization of him. While the Bible certainly gives warrant to honoring the righteous, it also clearly teaches that Christ alone is truly righteous (1 Pt. 3:18) [1]. To only exalt Abraham for his faithfulness is to fail to acknowledge God’s work in Abraham’s faithfulness. This typically results in Abraham being our example to follow rather than Christ.
While Abraham may have been a faithful follower of God, he also made some horrific mistakes. He begins by believing that God is not able to provide him with a son. He then moves to taking his wife’s advice and conceives a child with her servant. While several writers in Scripture tell us that “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; Jas. 2:23), by no means was Abraham without sin.
It Ignores the Metanarrative of Scripture
One of the greatest problems with modern Christian teaching is that it often portrays the Bible as a collection of disjointed stories for an individual’s use. If teachers of the Word are going to exhort their hearers to be like Abraham in one way, they must also exhort them to not be like Abraham in other ways. This will ultimately lead to the isolation of single stories for the sake of drawing out particular moral precepts.
If a pastor preaches about suffering like Job on one Sunday, and the godliness of Enoch and the glory of heaven on the next, the Bible may appear disjointed. While there could be a common thread between these subjects and characters, it is likely that people will leave these services without seeing any connection between the two narratives. Simply put, they will miss the grand narrative of God’s redemption of man.
Stephen, the deacon, provides a very detailed example of how the Passion fits into the metanarrative of God’s Word (Acts 7:2-53), but the average Christian often has little understanding of how this fits together. Without a proper understanding of the grand narrative of Scripture, the stories of the Bible are either seen simply as historical events or individual stories explaining how a contemporary culture should live – one that is already sufficiently individualistic having not been anchored into a larger biblical storyline whose key performer is God himself.
It Tells People to Try Harder
The ultimate danger is not that people will simply misunderstand the metanarrative of the Bible. The ultimate danger is that if Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Joseph, Job, and Paul serve as the main biblical examples and applications of Christian living, ultimately congregations may gradually become filled with people who only think this can be done by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, forgetting the empowerment Christ’s life offers.
Imagine that a minister says, “The great patriarch Abraham was promised a son by God, and after a long wait, this son finally came. God then asked Abraham to sacrifice this only son that he had waited so long for. This must have been unimaginably difficult, but Abraham was faithful to God. No matter what God asks of us, we must be faithful to Him, and be willing to give up anything in our lives!” Although it may not be intentional, there is the possibility that an audience might interpret this as a need to muster up some more faith and be courageous. They just aren’t trying hard enough. “If Abraham can do it, why can’t I?” Although commitment to God does require courageous faith, this is a truth which must not stripped from its New Testament Christian significance.
Showing Christ as Both Ultimate Hope and Ultimate Fulfillment
If the ultimate goal of preaching is to display Christ and point people to him, then why not reveal the incarnate Christ as the great fulfillment of every moral and story? This does not mean merely to point to Christ as an example, but to show Him as the ultimate fulfillment and application of every storyline, theme, and moral.
Here is a simple way to use Christo-centric application. Take the sermon or lesson text, teach thoroughly using the biblical characters, but conclude with application that shows Christ as the greater fulfillment of the text or moral of the text. Let’s use Abraham and Isaac again as an example. The application may go something like this:
“God promised Abraham a son. It seemed as if that promised son would never come, but he eventually did. God was faithful to Abraham, but God wanted Abraham to show his faithfulness to Him as well. God called Abraham to do the seemingly impossible task of killing his only son, but Abraham was willing. Abraham demonstrated his faithfulness to God, and God spared his son. While Abraham was a faithful servant, it was the God of heaven who most clearly demonstrated His faithfulness to His people by sending His only Son to Earth. It seemed as if this Son would never come, but He eventually did. Where Isaac was unaware of his father’s plans, the Son of God was fully aware of the plan and still remained faithful to His Father’s will. Isaac was spared, but the faithful Son of God faced Hell itself so that we could be at peace with God. We are the children of God. We must look to the only truly faithful Son not only as an example, but as our only hope of remaining faithful to God.”
The whole of Scripture is about one person—Jesus Christ. Scripture is given to reveal God’s plan to redeem and restore the world through His Son. It is not always simple to apply Christ in every text, but it is possible with some careful thinking and examination of Scripture [2].
It must be remembered that this does not always apply to the interpretation of the text, but it does apply to the application of the text. Timothy Keller gives an array of great insight and example of how to biblically apply Christ:
Jesus is the true and better Adam who passedthe temptation test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us. Jesus is the true Abel who though innocently slain, has blood that now cries out for our acquittal, not our condemnation (Heb 12:24)….He is the true Joseph, who at the right hand of the king forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them. Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant (Heb. 3)….He is the true and better Job–the only innocent sufferer who then intercedes for his friends (Job 42)….He is the true David, whose victory becomes his people’s victory though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves. Jesus is the true “Teacher” (Ecclesiastes) who may lead us through despair to help us find God. He is the true Jonah who went into the belly of the earth and so the people could be saved [3].
May this essay lead teachers of the Word to build up the Church through highly exalting our great God and King, Christ Jesus.
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[1] Hebrews 11 is an obvious example of Scripture commending the faithful. While the Bible is commending these people, it is ultimately more important to note who they are being faithful to. After all, an act of faithfulness is only as important as the object to which one is faithful.
[2] Some may fear that this type of approach may lead to allegorical teaching, but these concepts are laid forth strictly for Christo-centric application.
[3] This quote is taken from a Doctorate of Ministry course at Reformed Theological Seminary. The quote can be found in the section titled “Applying Christ” on the audio recording on iTunes U: http://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=378879885
Resources for Further Reading:
Edmund P. Clowney, Preaching and Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961).
Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, Albert Mohler, C.J. Mahaney, Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009).
Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999).
Michael Lawrence, Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010).
April 15, 2011
Yes! [originally submitted on 24 November 2010]