Written by Kyle E. Sims |
Sunday, August 29, 2021
The antidote is to look beyond this world to Jesus. He is the one who can bring real, genuine, and lasting joy, even in a world of illogical fear and growing Godlessness. See what the Lord has done and is doing. Take the time to stop and count these blessings.

Where is your joy? To be honest, I struggle with joy. I know it is a facet of the Fruit of the Spirit. But it is just hard to be joyful when the world is turned upside down. Why is this? We are Christians. We know the Lord is in control. But yet, we live in fear and depression. Why is this?

We do not keep our eyes on the Lord. I mean this in the greater sense. The Lord needs to be our compass, our filter, our bell-weather. We must see all of life in the light of his power and providence. If we are only looking at men to make changes and build our culture, we are in trouble. There will be no joy because man cannot do it.
We expect the things of this world to bring us absolute joy. As a tall teenager, I dreamed about winning a basketball championship and playing in a national tournament. I still remember that night in early March. We won our district and were going to the National tournament. It was funny, I was happy. But it was not the deep-down joy I thought it would be. I imagine many people reach a goal and find a similar feeling. They marry the love of their life. They get their dream job or live in their dream city. It is excellent, but it is not that joy we long for in our souls. Only Jesus brings this joy.

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Written by David M. King |
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Jesus taught his disciples to read the Old Testament in a new way; not by changing the meaning of the Old Testament, but by showing them how he genuinely and truly completes the story of the Old Testament. As a result, we can’t understand either the Old Testament or Jesus without looking at both. First, we come to understand Jesus in light of the Old Testament; then, in his fulfillment of it, we come to understand the Old Testament in light of him.

Jesus Is the Authority on Scripture
Does the Old Testament really point to Jesus? To answer that question, we should ask an expert. Who’s the leading authority on Bible interpretation? It’s not the dear person who first shared the gospel with you, as knowledgeable as he or she may be. It’s not your pastor either, despite his wisdom and experience. It’s not even a biblical scholar who has devoted an entire academic career to the study of Scripture. All these people are valuable in the formation of our faith; we should learn from them as much as we can. But the leading authority on all things spiritual—including our question about the Old Testament—is Jesus himself.
Look at Jesus’s credentials. He’s the beloved Son of God, the crucified and risen Savior, the Lord of heaven and earth. I assume that because you’re reading this booklet, you know Jesus in this way. You’ve repented of your sins and believed in him for salvation; you’ve come to know him as the treasure of your life. If you don’t know Jesus in this way, and you’re just reading this booklet out of curiosity, I hope what you read here will help you understand more clearly who Jesus is and what he did—and I hope you will trust in him and be saved. As Lord of all, he’s worthy of your faith.
As Lord of all, he’s also the Bible expert we’re looking for! Jesus is the leading authority on Bible interpretation. So if we could ask him what he thinks about the Old Testament, we would have the answer to our question.
Thankfully, if you read through the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—you’ll discover exactly what Jesus thought about the Old Testament. He valued it as the authoritative word of God. He studied it as a boy (Luke 2:46); he attended synagogue every week where it was read and explained (Luke 4:16); his grasp of it gained him the title Rabbi (John 1:38); he taught it with an authority that surpassed the scribes of Israel (Matt. 7:29); he insisted that it could not be broken (John 10:35); and he referred to it constantly throughout his ministry, even while struggling for breath during his crucifixion (Mark 15:34). Jesus valued God’s word as authoritative.
But these observations only touch generally on Jesus’s perspective on Scripture. We need to press in a bit further if we’re going to find the answer to our more specific question: Did Jesus see himself in the Old Testament? Did he understand that the Old Testament was ultimately pointing to him? The answer is, He did!
The First Easter Evening
During his earthly ministry, Jesus had prepared his disciples for his resurrection from the dead—but they hadn’t grasped what he meant. You can imagine their fear and wonder when he showed up among them after his crucifixion. The Gospel of Luke reports one of his appearances on that first Easter evening. Jesus had already appeared to Mary, to Peter, and to two other disciples; now he appeared to a larger group of disciples gathered in Jerusalem. After convincing them that he was truly alive, Jesus said to them,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:44–47)
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Written by Richard C. Barcellos |
Monday, September 27, 2021
Fesko says, “for those who criticize biblical theology as a novelty, they seem to forget the scriptural maxim that there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9)” (474). Though the phrase biblical theology is of modern origin, the hermeneutical concepts and trajectories of what we now call biblical theology are at least as old as the Hebrew canon itself. They also appear in the intertestamental era, the NT, the patristic era, the Middle Ages, and in the Reformation and post-Reformation eras. Biblical theology is older than many think.

In J. V. Fesko’s contribution to a book in honor of Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., he addresses an important issue—the antiquity of biblical theology. He acknowledges that there are some who think biblical theology finds its origin in classical liberalism and rationalism. He quotes Jay Adams as claiming that “Geerhardus Vos rescued it from the liberal theologians” (J. V. Fesko, “On the Antiquity of Biblical Theology” in Lane G. Tipton and Jeffrey C. Waddington, Editors, Resurrection and Eschatology: Theology in the Service of the Church, Essays in Honor of Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. [Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2008], 444). Even D. G. Hart claims, “The problem for biblical theology is that it is a recent scholarly effort, originating only in the late nineteenth century” (444). These detractors notwithstanding, Fesko states his thesis as follows:

…it is the thesis of this essay that biblical theology has been a part of the church’s interpretive history from the earliest years, not simply in the patristic period, but stretching back into the very formation of the Old Testament (OT) canon, evidenced in its own intra-canonical interpretation. (445)

Then he adds these words: “In recognizing the antiquity of biblical theology, we will see how fundamental the discipline is to the hermeneutical and theological process” (445). Fesko claims that biblical theology goes all the way back to the OT. He is fully aware that its formal inception occurred in the eighteenth century; that is, as a distinct discipline within, or at least vying for entrance into, the theological encyclopedia. But he also realizes that a concept can be present and functioning in antiquity while the word or phrase we presently use to describe that concept is absent. In other words, he does not fall into the word-concept fallacy.
After reviewing Gabler’s[1] contribution in the early days of biblical theology in the modern era, Fesko then devotes four pages to Geerhardus Vos. The reason is probably two-fold: 1) The book is in honor of Gaffin who is a follower of Vos in the Reformed tradition of biblical theology and 2) Vos is the most important modern figure in terms of shaping biblical theology within the Reformed tradition.
Note two of Fesko’s three “key ideas…in Vos’s understanding of biblical theology” (450). First, “the biblical theologian does not treat the biblical text from merely a historical perspective” (450). This is what the liberals had done. Vos’s concern is to respect the Scriptures as revelation from God. This is why he preferred “the term history of special revelation in lieu of biblical theology” (450). Since Scripture is revelation from God, “the entire corpus is an organic whole” (450). This is why Vos sees biblical theology as “the exhibition of the organic progress of supernatural revelation in its historic continuity and multiformity” (450).
Second, “unlike Gabler’s understanding of biblical theology, Vos believed the discipline focused on Christ and covenant, which is the manner in which the church learns redemption accomplished and applied” (451). The Bible unfolds itself in a Christ-centered manner via its covenants. Everything before Christ prepares the way for Christ. Fesko quotes Vos as follows, “All Old Testament redemption is but the saving activity of God working toward the realization of this goal [i.e., Christ], the great supernatural prelude to the Incarnation and the Atonement” (451). The various stages of Bible history are redemptive epochs gradually and progressively “unfolding…God’s revelation in Christ…manifested through the various covenants…” (451).
In a section of the chapter entitled BIBLICAL THEOLOGY THROUGHTOUT THE AGES, Fesko seeks to show “how various interpreters throughout the centuries have employed the hermeneutics of biblical theology, which therefore demonstrates the antiquity of the discipline” (453).
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