We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
Reflections on the Supremacy of Christ (Part 1)
In my previous post I argued that the Bible tells a story in which the culminating event – the coming of Christ – reframes everything that preceded it. Though it is all inspired, not everything in it should carry equal weight for us. Rather, everything leading up to Christ, including the portraits of God, must be reframed in light of the revelation of God in Christ, and especially in light of the crucifixion (which, as I’ve argued before, discloses the theme of everything Jesus was about).
This revelation disclosed a significantly new understanding of God that led to a significantly different way of reading the Old Testament. Speaking specifically about Paul, Neil Richardson notes that the revelation of God on the cross not only provided him with “ a new language about God, but also a new understanding of God.”[1] In other words, the revelation of God on the cross reframes everything.
Jesus and the New Testament authors provide the precedent for this way of reading the Old Testament. In this and subsequent posts, I’m going to give a dozen or so indications from the New Testament that the revelation of God in Jesus, thematically centered on the cross, should be placed over, not alongside of, other portraits of God in Scripture.
At one point in his ministry Jesus said, “I have testimony weightier than that of John” (Jn 5:36). Interestingly enough, Jesus elsewhere claimed that, “among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Mt 11:11). Jesus placed the words and ministry of John above any of the Old Testament prophets, and yet he told us that his testimony is “weightier” than John’s!
It’s clear that, while Jesus affirmed the inspiration of the Old Testament, he believed that John’s ministry and teaching carried more weight than any Old Testament writer and that his own testimony carried more weight than both. This means that, while everything in Scripture is inspired, not everything carries equal weight. We must consider all that we learn about God and his kingdom from Jesus to have more authority than everything that preceded him.
Think about it, and stay tuned for the second reflection of the supremacy of Christ in the next post.
[1] N. Richardson, Paul’s Language About God (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 133.
Image by Kevin Dooley. Sourced via Flickr.
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, ReKnew
Related Reading
Our Commitment to Love (and Avoiding Theological Idolatry)
Given that we have just launched ReKnew, I thought it would be helpful to spend a good portion of our initial blogs unpacking the theological vision of ReKnew. Our goal is to post content to the site at least three or four times a week, with two of these posts (on average) being fresh content from me addressing particular theological topics. The other posts will be things such as videos, quotes of the day, featured articles from elsewhere on the web questions from readers, and so on.
Before I begin unpacking ReKnew’s theological vision in subsequent posts, however, today I want to offer four preliminary words about the theological convictions I’ll be espousing.
Past Sermon Series: Faith & Doubt
Faith is sometimes understood as the lack of doubt. As a result, doubt can be seen as the enemy of faith. But Biblical faith can withstand doubt and even be strengthened by it. God wants His people to wrestle with Him on the things that matter in their lives. We must not be afraid of struggling with deep…
N.T. Wright on the Whole Sweep of Scripture
Here’s a really fine video message from N.T. Wright on how to read Scripture. So many of the misunderstandings we take away from Scripture happen when we pick out a verse here and there and neglect the whole story. We hope this will bless you and encourage you to “press your nose against the window.”
Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?
If asked why Jesus had to die on the cross, most Christians today would immediately answer, “To pay for my sins.” Jesus certainly paid the price for our sins, but it might surprise some reader to learn that this wasn’t the way Christians would answer this question for the first thousand years of Church history.…
Seeing and Knowing God
There are many scripture passages that seem to suggest that the way people view God often says more about them than it does about God. Our perception of God, as well as other spiritual truths, is conditioned by the state of our heart. Jesus’ most important teaching on this matter is found in John’s Gospel…
Satan or God: Who Tempted David to Sin?
The author of 2 Samuel says that Yahweh caused David to sin by taking a census of his military personnel (2 Sam 24:1) while the author of 1 Chronicles attributes this temptation to Satan (1 Chr 21:1). It is clear that the author of 2 Samuel had no problem accepting that Yahweh was capable of…