When we read the Bible, we are powerfully reminded that God communicates as a master storyteller, using grand historical narratives, epic poetry, and complex proverbs, as well as didactic lessons and apocalyptic dreams. What holds all of these components together is the reality that God not only is the overarching Author but also is working to bring about the redemption of his people climactically in and through the life, death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus. Put simply, it is the gospel that unfolds across the whole of the Bible.
Biblical theology is the art of seeing God as both the overarching author of the biblical text and the overarching actor of redemption revealed in Scripture. In this regard, Scripture should be read with attention both to its unfolding plotline from Genesis to Revelation and also to its emphasis upon Jesus as the fulfillment of the hopes of God’s people. Biblical theology is also the art of organizing the diverse materials of Scripture by discovering and displaying the links that hold this story of redemption together. There is an inherent unity to this exercise because of the divine Author, but this is not a uniformity that suggests any one truth has been revealed all at once in only one form. The organic unfolding of the message of the Bible across its many ages reveals a perfect seed that grows by phases of design into a perfect tree. Not every dimension of the tree is manifest as it grows across the years. This “organic unity” of the Bible frees us to read each passage or book of the Bible in the context of the entire message, and to read the entire Bible in view of each particular passage.
Biblical theology begins by considering the ways in which passages of Scripture are tied together across the whole breadth of Scripture and then ascertains how certain themes unfold and develop across the whole of Scripture. In light of the abiding promise of God’s presence to Abraham in Genesis 12, for example, it becomes apparent that God’s presence comes (and becomes known) in diverse ways and times. God came to Moses in the burning bush. He came to Israel in the wilderness in the cloud by day and the fire by night. God’s presence settled on the Most Holy Place in Solomon’s temple—and entrance into the Most Holy Place came only once a year, and then only by the high priest. Climactically, God’s presence was made manifest in the flesh with the coming of Jesus. This theme of God’s presence will be consummated at the end of time in the new heavens and the new earth.
Biblical theology seeks to capture this historical unfolding of themes across the whole Bible, themes that faithfully represent God’s authorship of the grand narrative of redemption, beginning with creation and reaching a climax in the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus. The links and relationships between passages that disclose these themes should not be arbitrarily connected, nor should they wrench any passage from its original meaning. When God asks Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice in Genesis 22, surely it is not arbitrary to see the way in which this prepares for when God the Father himself offers up his Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice. The former (Abraham/Isaac) prepares us to see more clearly the latter (God the Father/Jesus).
Another example of how links and relationships in Scripture work to develop broad themes emerges when we see that all of the terms the New Testament authors use to speak of salvation are taken directly from the Old Testament. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God has done a brand-new work—but it is a work he prepared beforehand as those concepts (redemption, adoption, sacrifice, etc.) were used to reveal and interpret God’s gracious work with his people in prior times.
Biblical theology works on the assumption that God revealed the gospel progressively over many successive eras and embedded it as the story of many diverse individuals and institutions. God’s revelation was not delivered in a static fashion, as if he were offering a lecture on theology, simply recounting details of doctrine in a linear outline. The apostle Paul cites Genesis 15:6 in Romans 4:3 (“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”) because the beginning of the gospel of God’s gracious dealings with his people goes all the way back to Genesis—and the necessity of his grace becomes ever more clear in the ensuing centuries of human brokenness.
God speaks not merely that he might be known in some abstract sense but so that his relationship with mankind, rent asunder by the tragedy of sin, might be restored. In this sense biblical theology reminds us that God reveals the grand narrative of redemption not merely so that we can become theological specialists in the abstract knowledge of God and the world but rather so that we can understand the story of God’s redemption and our place in it. The goal is always to understand how God relates over time to real people in a complex and broken world so that they may love him. Such a perspective does not permit us to neglect doctrinal truths, but neither does it allow us to harbor ideas that intrigue our brains without facing our limitations or, more importantly, engaging our hearts.
Too many people read the Bible in fragmented ways, seeing only the “trees” and missing the “forest.” Biblical theology challenges us to see the “forest” and to understand that this great story of the gospel is the only story within which our lives make sense. It is our hope that this Bible will help every reader see the forest in the midst of the trees, thereby not only delighting in the beauty of biblical theology but also reaching a deeper appreciation of its spiritual fruit: a personal embrace of the grand narrative of the gospel and the God who tells it.
Adapted from the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible
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