Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:27
Excavation
Presently, we are easily finding Christ in these opening verses of the Bible. But soon, we will be going deeper. In preparation for us excavating truths that have been covered over by neglect or inconvenience or the fear of being peculiar (set-apart), it is wise for us all to share a common understanding of a few facets of God’s Word.
Doctrine
Doctrine cannot be made from the silence of the Bible. For example, nowhere in God’s Word do we find when or how people learned to read and write. God makes it clear to us that words carry great significance, but the Bible is silent regarding the invention of reading and writing. So, there are lots of opinions about this but no Christian doctrine about this topic. A person would be heretical to teach as a Church doctrine that Adam invented writing.
A second component of this truth is that Scripture must be interpreted by Scripture. If we are seeking the truth of God’s Word we can use nothing less than God’s Word to understand that truth.
Telescoping
When we study prophecies in the Bible, they are usually from prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah. In their prophecies we find a characteristic called telescoping. What God reveals to prophets in visions, dreams, or messages are often layered messages. There will be an aspect of the prophecy that will come to pass rather quickly, and then there are aspects of that same prophecy that may be fulfilled by events that are scattered across centuries or millennia. But to the prophet it appears all as once; often they don’t see the timeline.
Redemption, Recovery, and Restoration
As we excavate in search of Jesus, we will discover Christ our Redeemer, Christ the Father’s Recoverer, and Christ the Restorer. The Bible is not a science book, though it contains science. The Bible is not a political book, though it has much to say about politics. The Bible is not a history book, but, again, it contains much history. No, the Bible is about the redemption of the children of Adam, the recovery of all Adam lost, and the restoration of God’s holiness within His creation.
We will learn that God had a plan for redemption even before He created all things. Jesus is the Lamb slain from the creation of the world (Revelation 13:8). We will see Jesus redeem a remnant of the descendants of Adam. We will see Jesus recover all that Adam lost when he sinned and then give that to the Father. And finally, we will see God, (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) restore God’s holiness within His creation through a new heaven and a new earth.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we will wrap up our preparations for digging deeper, and then on Monday we will discover Jesus in some unexpected places.
Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash
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https://rockexcavationservice.org/2019/05/05/just-the-way-jesus-is/