By Gary Ray Branscome
God tells us in Scripture why He caused the Bible to be
written, the purpose He intends for it to serve, and what our response to it
should be.
In short, it was written to testify of Christ (Jn.5:39), the purpose it serves
is not only to testify of Christ but bring us to faith through that testimony (Jn.20:31),
and our response to the law should be to humble ourselves before God and repent
(1Jn.1:9), while our response to the gospel should be to believe God’s promise
of forgiveness in Christ (Mk.1:15), and to believe that forgiveness cleanses us
of all sin making us righteous in the sight of God (Rom.3:28). In the
paragraphs that follow we will look at the Bible passages just cited, plus
several others.
The words, “This is a trustworthy statement, worthy of complete acceptance, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” tell us that Christ
came into the world to save us (1Timothy
The words, “Search the
scriptures; for in them you think that you have eternal life, and they are they
that testify of me,” and the words, “These are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the
Son of God; and that believing you might have life through His name,” tell us that the Bible was written to testify of
Christ, so that we might have eternal life through faith in Him (John 5:39 and 20:31).
The words, “All the prophets testify of Him, that through His name whoever believes
in Him will receive forgiveness of sins,” tell us that “all of the prophets” testify of
Christ (Acts
How the Purpose of Scripture Applies to Its
Interpretation
When Christ said, “These are the words that I spoke to you, when I was still with you,
that everything must be fulfilled, that was written in the law of Moses, in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me,”
the words, “in the law of Moses, in the prophets, and in the psalms” were a
reference to the three parts of the Hebrew Scriptures (Luke 24:44). Therefore, those words
of Christ testify to the fact that He regarded the entire Hebrew Old Testament
as the Word of God. And, He was the one who would know! Moreover, because
Scripture was written to testify of Christ, we should interpret everything that
the Bible says in the light of what it says about Him. In theology that is
known as a Christological (Christ centered) approach
to Bible interpretation. In his epistles, the Apostle Paul gives us several
examples of Christological interpretation as he interprets the Old Testament in
the light of the Gospel. And, that approach to interpretation fits together
perfectly with what I have already said about the theological unity of
Scripture.