Gospel-Centered Resources from Midwestern Seminary
On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared and Ross talk about how and why church business/member meetings sometimes go off the rails and how both leaders and laity can pursue greater unity and more peace in these important events in a church’s community life.
On this episode of the FTC Podcast, the guys discuss the different “annoying” types one finds in Christian social media spheres and then offer some brief words of advice on how to enhance one’s use of the platforms.
According to the New Testament authors, the Old Testament authors knew that they were speaking and writing for new-covenant believers, and they also had some level of conscious awareness about who the Christ would be and when he would rise. With Christ’s coming, anticipation gives rise to fulfillment, and types find their antitype, which means that new-covenant members can comprehend the fullness of the Old Testament’s meaning better than the old-covenant rebel and remnant.
Romans 4:23–24, 15:4, and 1 Corinthians 10:11 stress that the Old Testament author wrote his text for the benefit of believers living this side of the cross. For Paul, the Old Testament is Christian Scripture and fully applicable to believers when read through Christ.
The apostle said this much to Timothy as well. Speaking about the Jewish Scriptures, he wrote that the “sacred writings … are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:15). Thus, Paul asserts, “All Scripture is … profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (3:16–17).
Based on this fact, New Testament authors frequently cite Old Testament instructions, assuming their relevance for believers today. For example, Paul reaches into the Ten Commandments when addressing children (Eph 6:2–3; Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16) and draws on execution texts from Deuteronomy when speaking about excommunication (1 Cor 5:13; Deut 22:21, 22, 24). Peter also recalls the refrain from Leviticus when he writes, “Be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pet 1:15–16; Lev 11:44–45; 19:2; 20:26). Because we are now part of the new covenant and not the old, there are natural questions that rise regarding how exactly the Christian should relate to specific old-covenant laws or promises (see future posts on this topic!). Nevertheless, the point stands that God gave the Old Testament for Christian instruction.
Paul was not explicit as to whether it was only God’s intent, as the ultimate author, to write the Old Testament for our instruction, or whether this was also the human authors’ intent. Peter, however, made this clear when he wrote that “it was revealed to [the Old Testament prophets] that they were serving not themselves but you” (1 Pet 1:12). He emphasized that the human authors themselves knew that their Old Testament words were principally not for themselves but for those living after the arrival of the Christ. Therefore, the Old Testament is actually more relevant for Christians today than it was for the majority in the old-covenant era.
In John 8:56, Jesus declared that Abraham eagerly expected the coming of the Messiah. Similarly, Peter believed that David himself anticipated Christ’s coming in Psalm 16 (Acts 2:30–31), and David’s last words affirm that he was hoping in a just ruler who would overcome the curse and initiate a new creation (2 Sam 23:3–7). Likewise, the writer of Hebrews stressed, “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar” (Heb 11:13). The Old Testament remnant enjoyed some light; they themselves wrote of the Christ and hoped in him.
On the other hand, Jesus also declared that “many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it” (Luke 10:24). It seems that we should understand Yahweh’s prophets of old as truly seeing God’s beauty and purposes and the hope that awaited them, while also affirming that they did not experience and, therefore, comprehend all that we do in Christ. For them, full disclosure awaited a later day.
First Peter 1:10–12 captures both sides of this interpretive framework. According to Peter, the prophets were themselves studiers of earlier revelation. And under the Spirit’s guidance (2 Pet 1:21), they “searched and inquired carefully” to know who the Messiah would be and when he would appear. While they may not have known Jesus’s name, they had a general sense of the type of person he would be and of when he would come, and they often learned this from studying the Scriptures (e.g., Ps 119:2; Dan 9:2). Revelation did indeed progress from the Old to New Testaments, but the development was often from conscious prediction to realized fulfillment, not simply prediction of which only God was originally aware but which we now recognize retrospectively.
As in the case of Daniel (Dan 12:8–10), the full meaning of some Old Testament texts transcends the human authors’ understanding. Nevertheless, the New Testament testifies that these authors usually understood their end-time visions, truly hoped in the Messiah, and knew something of when he would come. Furthermore, interpreters should expect that the biblical authors’ use of antecedent Scripture organically grows out of the earlier materials, never contradicting them, because all Scripture comes from God (2 Tim 3:16) and the prophets “searched and inquired carefully” (1 Pet 1:10) and made Spirit-led interpretations (2 Pet 1:20–21).
The New Testament is clear that the blindness associated with the old-covenant unbelieving majority continued into Christ’s day. We see this incapacity, for example, in the religious leaders whom Jesus confronted numerous times (e.g., Matt 12:3–7; Luke 16:31; John 5:39–40). The Jewish leaders were spiritually blind, unable to see how the Old Testament itself pointed to Christ.
The Gospels indicate the roots of such blindness. In brief, they speak of an innate wickedness that stands hostile to God, of hard hearts, of desires that are aligned with the devil, and of a passion for man’s praise over God’s glory (Matt 16:3–4; 23:6; Mark 3:5; Luke 11:43; 20:46; John 8:42–44). The result was that they could not hear God’s voice or savor God’s beauty and purposes in the Scriptures. And where the leaders went, the rest of the nation went also (John 12:37–41).
Likewise, other New Testament passages teach that the old-covenant age was one of ignorance and hardness (Acts 17:30; Eph 4:18; 1 Pet 1:14), with the devil keeping most of the world blind to God’s glories culminating in Christ (2 Cor 4:3–4). But in Jesus, new creation dawns, with gospel light breaking over the horizon and dispersing darkness and shadow (4:6).
Why would God extend such a season of hardness, ignorance, and blindness? If Romans 9:22–24 is any indication, Paul believes God purposed to move those receiving his mercy to marvel more at his manifold glory in Christ. The Lord made the darkness so deep and the night so long, that we upon whom the light has dawned may be able to savor even more the warmth, brilliance, and merciful glory of God bound up in his gift of Christ.
The New Testament is clear that some, such as Simeon, were anticipating Christ’s coming and rightly grasped his person and work, including his mission of suffering (Luke 2:25–35). Nevertheless, many of the disciples closest to Jesus failed to recognize fully who he was and all that their Scriptures anticipated about him (see, e.g., Mark 4:13; 8:31–33).
Luke especially emphasized the disciples’ lack of knowledge of the Old Testament. After his resurrection, Jesus challenged the two on the road to Emmaus for failing to “believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25). Nevertheless, he made them wise to the Old Testament’s meaning (v. 27), thus fulfilling what Isaiah and Daniel said would come to pass (Isa 29:18; Dan 12:10). Likewise, Christ later appeared to his remaining followers and “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). The resurrected Christ now allows his followers to see things in the Bible that were there all along but ungraspable without the correct light and lens (see Rom 16:25–26; 2 Cor 3:14). In Christ, God “enlightens” the eyes of our hearts (Eph 1:18).
John’s Gospel in particular highlights how Christ’s resurrection and glorification mark a turning point in the disciples’ understanding of Scripture. In John 2:20–22, for example, Jesus’s resurrection moved the disciples to embrace in a fresh way both “the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” And as John 12:13–16 makes clear, only when the Father glorified his Son did Christ’s followers connect how the Old Testament Scriptures testified to Christ’s triumphal entry.
The New Testament authors affirm that the Old Testament was written for Christians and that the prophets knew they were writing for our benefit. The prophets also knew something about Christ and the time of his coming, but the full meaning of their texts at times transcended their understanding.
Fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa 6:10; 53:1), the innate wickedness and hard-heartedness of most of the Jewish populace rendered them spiritually disabled. In judgment, God hardened them, so that they were unable to understand his Word or see his purposes culminating in Jesus (Rom 11:7–8). Only “through Christ” is their blindness removed (2 Cor 3:14).
As early as Jesus’s birth, some like Simeon properly understood that the Christ’s triumph would only come through tribulation. However, full understanding of Scripture’s testimony about Jesus’s death, resurrection, and global mission came to most of his disciples only after his resurrection.
This blog series summarizes Jason S. DeRouchie’s forthcoming book, Delighting in the Old Testament: Through Christ and for Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024). You can pre-order your copy here.
Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt from Planting by Pastoring. You can purchase your copy anywhere books are sold.
We know Jesus is a shepherd because he calls himself one. But even if he’d never used the title, we would still see his shepherd’s heart by observing his ministry—how he prayed, how he loved and taught, how he shared authority, and ultimately how he sacrificed himself.
Jesus prayed. I used to think a day of prayer and solitude was time away from the mission. Jesus saw it the other way around. As he went about planting his church and the crowds pressed in, Jesus’s instinct was to pull away frequently in order to pray (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12). As he faced the agony of the cross, he steeled himself with an intense session of prayer (Luke 22:39–46). Jesus was planting as a pastor, and pastors pray.
Jesus loved and taught. While lounging at a dinner party with the town elites, Jesus didn’t see the sinful woman who interrupted the meeting as a distraction, but as an opportunity to love and teach. A parable of grace and forgiveness came effortlessly from his lips as the woman wept and the town elites mocked (Luke 7:36–50). He was willing to lose face with the movers and shakers in order to shepherd one single, burdened woman. Jesus was planting as a pastor, and pastors love and teach.
Jesus shared authority. When it came time for Jesus to call his closest followers, he didn’t select the gifted and the powerful, but instead chose twelve fumbling men—a few nondescript fishermen, a despised tax collector, and so on. After a period of discipleship, he then “gave them authority” and sent them out in pairs so that they would “proclaim that people should repent” (Mark 6:7, 12). Notice two things in this passage. First, Jesus took advantage of his popularity to give authority away. Second, he gave authority away in order to see people repent and believe. Jesus was planting as a pastor, and pastors share authority in order that more and more people might proclaim the gospel and be won to that gospel through faith and repentance.
Jesus sacrificed himself. Perhaps most amazing of all, Jesus “remained silent” (Matt. 26:63) as he stood before the unjust Sanhedrin, hearing false charge after false charge leveled against him. It’s tempting to wonder why. After all, Jesus was heaven’s darling! He threw demons into pigs! We want him to speak up for himself, to rebuke these fools and make the truth known. Eventually he does speak up, and in doing so he explains his silence. Blood dripping from his brow, he says, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). Jesus remained silent so that he might sacrifice his life in order to bring his sheep into the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus was planting as a pastor, and pastors sacrifice for the good of their people in order to bear witness to the truth.
Jesus didn’t hastily build the church. He was deliberate and careful. He prioritized relationships over speed. Jesus was a pastor. He planted his church as a pastor. He knew his sheep and his sheep knew him. He drew near to them. He cared for them. He led them, gently. He listened and ministered to individuals. Names, not numbers, concerned him. He looked people in the eye, he touched their wounds, he wept with them, he entered their homes, he shared meals, he washed their feet, he taught them the truth, and he prayed for them.
Churches built on Jesus and his gospel will survive on the last day. If you’re a church planter or pastor, it’s worth asking the question, What lies at the foundation of this thing I’ve spent such a long time building?
In this Mailbag installment of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson answer listener-submtted questions on life and ministry. This episode includes topics like the challenge of AI to ministry, how bivo pastors can manage preaching load, what to do with those “unteachable” members, how you shouldn’t discipline your church Eeyores, and more.
Editor’s Note: The Theology in the Everyday series seeks to introduce and explain theological concepts in 500 words or less, with a 200-word section helping explain the doctrine to kids. At For The Church, we believe that theology should not be designated to the academy alone but lived out by faith in everyday life. We hope this series will present theology in such a way as to make it enjoyable, connecting theological ideas to everyday experience and encouraging believers to study theology for the glory of God and the good of the Church. This week, penal substitutionary atonement.
From the Garden of Eden to the present day, the fundamental human problem has always been sin—its destructive power, its all-pervasive presence in the world, and its inevitable consequence of divine judgment. The doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement teaches us what God has done through the death of Jesus Christ to save sinners from sin, most pointedly, to save sinners from the inevitable wrath of God against sin (Matt 1:21). To treasure this doctrine in our everyday lives, we should understand how each word teaches precious truths about Christ’s death for us.
Christ’s death was Penal.
In His dying, Christ took on the punishment due for human sin, though He Himself was sinless. The Scriptures clearly teach that sin—as rebellion against the holy, righteous, and eternal God—merits divine wrath both in time and eternity (Rom 1:18; Rom 2:5-6). The bad news is that because all have sinned, all stand under the just condemnation of God’s wrath (Rom 3:23; John 3:18-19). The good news is that Jesus Christ took on the punishment for the sins of those who repent and believe in Him. Scripture tells us that He was “crushed” for “iniquities” and “pierced” for “transgressions” (Is 53:5).
Christ’s death was Substitutionary.
Because Christ lived a sinless life, He had no sins of His own to pay for. Amazingly, then, in His death, Christ was suffering God’s wrath for sin on behalf of undeserving sinners. Christ “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pt 2:24) and was “pierced for our transgressions” (Is 53:5). Our Lord “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Pt 3:18). In His death, Christ was suffering for us who believe. He stood in our place to take the punishment we deserved.
Christ’s death was an Atonement.
Christ’s death was no partial cure for sin. In His death, Jesus perfectly satisfied the demands of God’s just wrath against sin. Christ’s death completely and eternally covered the guilt incurred for our sins (Heb 10:1-18). As God’s wrath is averted to His sinless Son, Jesus’s death repairs the sinner’s broken relationship with the Father. Indeed, Christ died “that he might bring us to God” (1 Pt 3:18).
Christ’s death for your everyday life.
This biblical understanding of Christ’s penal substitutionary death stands at the very heart of the Christian Gospel. Therefore, it is truly a doctrine for Christians to cherish “in the everyday.” As we walk this pilgrimage on the way to our heavenly homeland, we will continue to battle indwelling sin within us and the influence of sin around us. As John Owen famously warned, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.” As we struggle through an imperfect journey of growth in holiness, we need not be insecure about our standing before God or His love for us. The payment for our sins has been settled once for all, and Christ’s penal substitutionary death is the Father’s definitive and unwavering proof of His love for weary sinners and sufferers (Rom 5:8).
For the Kids:
What happens when you do something wrong, like disobeying your parents or lying to them? Do you get in trouble? Is there some punishment for the bad thing you do? The truth is that there is a punishment coming for every bad thing that we do. God is perfectly good and will never let any bad thing go unpunished. The bad news is we all have done bad things that deserve God’s punishment. But the good news is that God loves us even though we do bad things He hates! So, He sent Jesus to save us from the punishment we deserve.
When Jesus died on the cross, He was punished by God the Father so that we don’t have to be. Can you imagine if you did something bad and one of your friends said he would step in to take your punishment for you? That would show your friend loves you a lot! Well, that’s exactly what Jesus did for us. By turning from our sin and trusting in Him, we are forgiven and free from the punishment we deserve, and we can live with God forever and ever!
On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson look at the biblical qualifications for pastors and how both the culture’s and oftentimes the church’s expectations differ.
For most of us, if we are honest, evangelism is intimidating. It can be incredibly hard to work up the courage to talk to others about Jesus. In some moments when we have opportunities to share the Gospel, that little voice in your head rattles off about 10 reasons why you shouldn’t. “What if you mess it up? You should just remain quiet until you have studied more…” Or “You really don’t have time. After all, if you speak up now and get into a conversation, you may be late for church!”
The first thing that needs to be said is that this is, unfortunately, normal. I say it is unfortunate because it would be great if when we became a Christian, evangelism, all of a sudden, became easy. But that isn’t often how it works. Rather, evangelism is hard. It is hard because evangelism requires us to kill our pride and the fear of man.
And, because evangelism never just becomes easy (at least in my experience it hasn’t), this means that the reason why we evangelize must be based on something other than our feelings. Therefore, consider these eight reasons we should evangelize. These eight reasons will, I pray, help to give you proper motivation to share the Gospel (even if you don’t feel like it).
First (and in no particular order), we evangelize because we have an incredible message to tell. Think with me briefly about the nature of our salvation. God is the holy and just one, and we are sinful and unworthy. Due to sin, humanity’s relationship with God was ruptured. God would have been right and just to give sinners what they deserve, that is, His holy and righteous wrath due their sin. But instead, God planned to save sinners. In the Gospel, we are confronted with the reality of full pardon for all of our sin, past, present, and future. Not only full pardon, but a restored relationship with our Creator. We are adopted as sons of the King. This is truly a remarkable message, and God’s goodness demonstrated in this remarkable message compels us to tell others.
Second, we evangelize because Jesus commanded us to do so. Matthew 28:18-20 says, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
We, as followers of Christ, are commanded to go and make disciples. This is not an optional endeavor for a set apart group of Christians. Rather, this call is for every person who claims to be a follower of Christ. As slaves of Christ, we must be faithful to what our Master has commanded us to do.
Third, we evangelize because Hell is real. There is a real place called Hell where people will go if they die outside of Christ. The Bible describes this place in graphic terms. Listen to some of them:
Revelation 21:8: “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Matthew 25:41: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:46 says that those outside of Christ will “go away into eternal punishment.”
Revelation 14:11: “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 says: “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”
Matthew 13:50 describes the unrighteous being thrown “into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
And we could go on and look at more verses that speak about the awful reality of Hell. Because Hell is real, we should pray that God would use us to save as many people as possible from that terrible reality.
Fourth, in light of the reality of hell, we evangelize because we love the lost. What kind of sick people would we be if we had the cure for cancer but told no one? That would reveal that we don’t actually love people. But sometimes, this is how we act with something even far more important than a cure for cancer. We have the good news of the Gospel which reconciles God and man for all eternity. Therefore, let us pursue people with the Gospel out of love for them. We aren’t trying to win arguments; rather, we are trying to win souls. To truly love people is to share the Gospel with them.
Fifth, we evangelize because we are God’s means to reconcile the world to Himself. Yes, God is absolutely sovereign over all things. Yet, He accomplishes His Divine purpose by using means. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
God could have written the Gospel in the clouds for all to see, but He didn’t. Rather, He calls people to Himself and then He entrusts them with the ministry of reconciliation. That is, He entrusts you and me to take His saving message to all peoples. God uses means to accomplish His purposes and accomplish His purposes, He will! Revelation 7:9 describes an incredible scene in heaven, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”
So, take confidence that God does in fact save people, and there could be several people standing around the throne one day because of God using you, as His means, in this great endeavor called evangelism. Let that amaze you for a moment.
Sixth, we evangelize because tomorrow is not promised. Our lives, and the lives of those around us, could be gone in an instant. As we are told in James 4:14, our life is but a vapor. Therefore, we seek Gospel conversations with others in the here and now because tomorrow is not guaranteed. The Bible is clear that Christ could return, or we could die at any moment. Let’s share the Gospel with diligence and zeal because we never know when the Lord will either return or call us home.
Seventh, we evangelize because it sanctifies us. Evangelism is one of God’s means to kills our pride and make us more dependent upon Him. Some of you might find that evangelism is one of the hardest things you will ever do. You will find that you pray for strength a lot when you are sharing the Gospel with people. But this is intended! God designed it that way because we were never meant to live in our own power. Dependence upon God is a good thing. So, when you feel overwhelmed, discouraged, or fearful. Pray. That may be exactly why God has you in that moment.
Eighth and finally, we evangelize because we love God. This is, perhaps, the most important reason. The fuel for our evangelism should not be out of duty or dread. Rather, we should strive to be obedient in evangelism because we love the Lord, and we want to see Him rightly honored and worshipped.
In conclusion, we have at least 8 reasons we should evangelize.
Therefore, when you don’t “feel” like sharing the Gospel, don’t let that “feeling” have the final say. Rather, remember these reasons for why we evangelize and strive to be faithful. It won’t always be easy, but our God is faithful.
Excerpted with permission from You Are a Theologian: An Invitation to Know and Love God Well, by Jen Wilkin and J. T. English. Copyright 2023, B&H Publishing.
The Bible begins with the claim, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Do not miss the significance of that first sentence. The Bible begins with a stunning claim: there is one God.
Imagine how this statement would have landed on the ears of its original audience, Israel, waiting in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. For four hundred years, they had lived in a polytheistic land, the fruit of their labors pulled from their hands to be offered up to a pantheon of Egyptian gods. Here they stood, poised to enter into a land with a pantheon of equal size. The Canaanite gods were equally numerous, and equally demanding. And God declares there is no pantheon at all, but a mono-Theon. It is a message embedded in the covenant He had declared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it is a message He had declared to Moses at the burning bush: “I AM WHO I AM” (Exod. 3:14). The so-called gods of Egypt and Canaan might claim, “I am the god of rain or harvest or childbirth,” but none could make this claim. Only the God of the Bible can say: “I AM.”
In the wilderness wandering, Israel finds comfort in God’s oneness: “Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). They owe all of their allegiance to Him and Him alone. Similarly, our worship cannot be divided. We worship the God who creates all things and redeems us from slavery to sin, and we worship Him alone. Just as Israel would run to foreign gods, we, too, are tempted to trade our mono-Theon for a pantheon. Like them, we need to hear, again and again, that the Lord our God is one.
God’s oneness remained in the hearts and on the lips of Israel’s faithful all the way into New Testament times. This is what makes Jesus’s claim in John 10:10 so bold. He says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). We will explore Jesus’s claim of unity and equality with God in chapter 7, but note here that He reiterates the historic claim that there is only one God. The gods of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome are not gods at all. According to Jesus, there is only one God.
The New Testament authors preserve this teaching, as well. Paul reminds the church in Galatia, full of Jewish and Gentile believers, that “God is one” (Gal. 3:20). Over and over again, the Bible asserts there is only one God who is Creator, Sustainer, and providential Ruler over all things.
As in the days of Abraham and Moses, as in the days of Jesus and Paul, so in every era of human history we have been drawn to belief in many gods. Or in no god at all. The Bible emphatically disagrees. There is one God, and He alone is worthy of worship.
The oneness of God is the first of two important instincts for Trinitarianism. It is what distinguishes the God of the Bible from the many gods and godlessness of human invention.
The second important instinct for Trinitarianism is the threeness. God is one God, but He is One God who eternally exists as three distinct persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Each person is fully God. But the Father is not the Son, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son, but they are the triune God who is perfectly one and distinct in three persons. The threeness of God is not a form of poly-theism because Christians worship just one God. Nor would Christianity teach particular or preferential worship of any of the three persons within the godhead.
Confused yet? Let’s break it down by asking a few further questions: What distinguishes each person of the Trinity?
What makes the Father, Father? What makes the Son, Son? And what makes the Spirit, Spirit?
If ever an analogy offered help, it would seem that now would be the time to employ one. Maybe you have heard some analogies for the Trinity: God is an egg: a shell, white, and a yolk. God is like water: ice, water, and steam. God is like a three-leaf clover. Though at first these honorable attempts may seem helpful, they can actually hinder our understanding of the diversity of the three persons in the Godhead. Fortunately, the Bible offers some simple language that helps us with distinguishing the three persons.
Two categories that have historically helped Christians see the distinctions of each person are the Immanent Trinity and the Economic Trinity. The Immanent Trinity refers to God in Himself—even before creation. The Economic Trinity refers to how we see the Immanent Trinity revealed in redemptive history. What we see in Scripture is that:
God the Father initiates the plan for salvation.
God the Son accomplishes salvation. God the Spirit applies salvation.
The Father, eternally unbegotten.
The Son, eternally begotten by the Father.
The Spirit, eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.
In order to see these two categories more clearly, we give our attention to how the Bible describes each person and what they do. To understand what distinguishes each person, we look to what each person does in the biblical story. What do we know of each person as it relates to their redemptive acts in history that give us insight into their eternal relations as Father, Son, and Spirit?
Here are the three keys:
Editor’s Note: Interested in reading more? You can purchase your copy of You Are a Theologian: An Invitation to Know and Love God Well here.
Is Christ really part of the Old Testament? Should I as a believer in the twenty-first century claim Old Testament promises as mine? Does the Mosaic law still matter today for followers of Jesus? Is the Old Testament Christian Scripture, and if so, how should we approach it?
This blog series on Delighting in the Old Testament seeks to help Christians make connections to Christ and practical application to the Christian life from every page of the Old Testament. More specifically, it seeks to help you:
To understand the Old Testament fully, we must read it as believers in Jesus, with God having awakened our spiritual senses to see and hear rightly. That is, we read through Christ. Then, as Christians, biblical interpretation reaches its end only after we have found Jesus and experienced him transforming us into his image. We, thus, read for Christ.
Some Christians may query, if we are part of the new covenant, why should we seek to understand and apply the Old Testament? While I will develop my response throughout this blog series, I give ten reasons here why the “Old” in Old Testament must not mean “unimportant or insignificant.”
If space says anything, the Old Testament matters to God, who gave us his word in a Book. In fact, it was his first special revelation, and it set a foundation for the fulfillment we find in Jesus in the New Testament. The Old Testament was the only Bible of Jesus and the earliest church (e.g., Luke 24:44; Acts 24:14), and it is a major part of our Scriptures.
Without the Old Testament, we wouldn’t understand the problem for which Jesus and the New Testament supply the solution (Rom 5:18). We would miss so many features of God’s salvation story (9:4–5). And we wouldn’t grasp the various types and shadows that point to Jesus (John 1:29; 2:19, 21). Furthermore, some doctrines, such as the doctrine of creation, are best understood only from the Old Testament (Gen 1:1–2:3). Finally, the New Testament worldview and teachings are built upon the framework supplied in the Old Testament.
Note how the book of Hebrews begins: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb 1:1–2). The very God who spoke through Old Testament prophets speaks through Jesus!
Isn’t the Old Testament’s God one of wrath, though, whereas the God of the New Testament is about grace? Not exactly. In brief, God is as wrathful in the New Testament as he is in the Old (e.g., Matt 10:28), and the Old is filled with manifestations of God’s saving grace (e.g., Exod 34:6). Certainly, there are numerous expressions of Yahweh’s righteous anger in the Old Testament, just as there are massive manifestations of blood-bought mercy in the New. Nevertheless, what is important is to recognize that we meet the same God in the Old Testament as we do in the New.
Paul stresses that the Lord “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” the very powerful “gospel of God” (Rom 1:1–2; cf. Gal 3:8). Foremost among these prophets was Isaiah, who anticipated the day when Yahweh’s royal Servant (the Messiah) would herald comforting “good news” to the poor and broken (Isa 61:1; cf. 40:9–11; 52:7–10; Luke 4:16–21). Reading the Old Testament, therefore, is one of God’s given ways for us to better grasp and delight in the gospel (see also Heb 4:2).
As with Israel, the Lord calls Christians to lives characterized by love (Deut 6:5; 10:19; Matt 22:37–40; cf. 7:12; Rom 13:8, 10; Gal 5:14). However, he now gives all members of the new covenant the ability to do what he commands. As Moses himself asserted, the old-covenant law called for life-encompassing love (Deut 30:6), and Christians today can gain clarity from the Old Testament on the wide-ranging impact of love in all of life. As we will see, this happens rightly only when we account for how Jesus fulfills every particular law.
Far from setting aside the Old Testament, Jesus stressed that he came to fulfill it, and he highlighted how the Old Testament’s instruction was lastingly relevant for his followers (Matt 5:17–19). In later posts we’ll consider further the significance of this text, but what is important to note here is that, while the age of the old covenant has come to an end (Rom 6:14–15; 1 Cor 9:20–21; Gal 5:18; cf. Luke 16:16), the Old Testament itself maintains relevance for us in the way it (a) displays the character of God (e.g., Rom 7:12), (b) points to the excellencies of Christ, and (c) portrays for us the scope of love in all its facets (Matt 22:37–40).
Jesus himself said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39; cf. 1:45; 5:46–47). Then, following his resurrection, he opened his disciples’ 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 and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:53; cf. 24:27; Acts 26:22–23; 1 Cor 2:2). A proper “understanding” of the Old Testament will lead one to hear in it a message of a suffering and resurrected Messiah and the mission his life would generate.
The New Testament often cites the Old Testament in ways that call us back to look at the original context. For example, Matthew 27–28 portray Christ’s tribulation and triumph at the cross by recalling Psalm 22 many times. Jesus quotes Psalm 22:1 when he declares, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). In stating, “And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots” (Matt 27:35), Matthew alludes to Psalm 22:16, 18, which reads: “They have pierced my hands and feet…. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” To fully understand their words, the New Testament authors call us back to the Old Testament through their quotations and allusions.
Regarding the Old Testament prophets, Peter identifies, “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you” (1 Pet 1:12). Similarly, Paul was convinced that the Old Testament authors wrote for new-covenant believers—those following Jesus on this side of his death and resurrection. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4; cf. 4:23–24; 1 Cor 10:11).
Significantly, Paul was referring to the Old Testament when he spoke of the “sacred writings” that are able to make a person “wise for salvation” and of the “Scripture” that is “breathed out by God and profitable” (2 Tim 3:15–16). Knowing this fact colors our understanding of his charge in 2 Timothy 4:2–4. In short, Paul believed Christians like Timothy needed to preach the Old Testament to guard the church from apostasy. While we now have the New Testament, we still must study, practice, and teach the Old Testament like Jesus and his apostles did for the good of God’s church.
This Delighting in the Old Testament series seeks to supply believers with an interpretive framework and guide for rightly handling the Old Testament as God’s Word for us (2 Tim 2:15). It approaches the Old Testament through Christ and for Christ. The series will develop in four stages, each with three to four posts. Stage 1 calls for reading well the Old Testament by interpreting it through and for Christ. Stage 2 then develops this call by indicating how Christians can see well Christ’s person and work within the Old Testament. Stage 3 considers how to hope well in Old Testament promises, which through Christ become certain for all who are in the church. Finally, Stage 4 overviews how to live well by applying Old Testament laws in view of how Christ fulfills them.
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The blog series summarizes Jason S. DeRouchie’s forthcoming book, Delighting in the Old Testament: Through Christ and for Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024). You can pre-order your copy here.
