What do the scriptures principally teach?
The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
Because, “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16 we are called to, “retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me {Paul], in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 1:13
The Scriptures teach us Jesus.
Jesus? Is that all?
How about Law, doesn’t it teach us law too? We need something to do right?
It can’t all just be about Christ. Or can it?
Concerning this law…
“In Paul’s train of thought that does not mean that the law on account of its sacrifices, priests, prescriptions for purification, etc., gave a “sketch of Christ” and that he was to be known and expected from it because in it he was “symbolized as in a shadow.” The function of the law intended here is not that in a positive sense it gradually leads those who find themselves “under it” to Christ, but rather that in a negative sense, on account of its enslaving and killing operation, it prepares them for the redemption that has appeared in Christ as liberation from that bondage.”
— Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An outline of his Theology
It would seem even this Law, given for a good purpose was not so we could merely imitate but so that He {Jesus}could be illustrated and complete what the Law demanded but that we were incapable of doing.
So yes, it is all about Him and all our duty is discovered and fulfilled in Him.
He (the God/man)is so much more than you might think. The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. He is more than you’ll ever fully understand and your thimble is not sufficient for His infinite goodness.
He will always overflow your expectations.
There may be many, myriads, of competing themes that man my postulate to take the rightful place of Christ but it should be noted…
“Hence we must hold, that whosoever adulterates pure religion (and this must be the case with all who cling to their own views), make a departure from the one God. No doubt, they will allege that they have a different intention; but it is of little consequence what they intend or persuade themselves to believe, since the Holy Spirit pronounces all to be apostates, who, in the blindness of their minds, substitute demons in the place of God.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, chapter 5
We’ll spend many upcoming days and weeks considering the wonder of Christ, the one and only mediator of God. His person, His work, His goodness, His life, His death, His resurrection. His intercession and His coming again. There is no better topic than the person and work of Christ. It is Him who IS what all of this is for. We are His inheritance and we are His.
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