Crossway ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible: Christ in All of Scripture, Grace for All of Life (Ebook)

Christ in All of Scripture, Grace for All of Life
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4335-6888-6
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 2096 Seiten

'This study Bible is a must-have to help us see Jesus Christ throughout the whole Bible.' -biblereviewguys.com The ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible is designed to help readers see Christ in all of Scripture, and grace for all of life. It features book introductions, gospel-centered study notes, and a series of all-new articles-written by a team of over 50 pastors and scholars. This content explains passage-by-passage how God's redemptive purposes culminate in the gospel and apply to the lives of believers today. Readers will be challenged to see how the message of the gospel transforms sinners from the inside out.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Crossway

Leseproben

Introduction
to the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible The goal of the Gospel Transformation Study Bible is twofold: (1) to enable readers to understand that the whole Bible is a unified message of the gospel of God’s grace culminating in Christ Jesus, and (2) to help believers apply this good news to their everyday lives in a heart-transforming way. Our hope is that, as Christians throughout the world learn to see the message of salvation by grace unfolding throughout Scripture, they will respond to God with greater love, faithfulness, and power. This is not a new way of studying the Bible. Rather, this approach honors our Lord’s own instruction to see the gospel in all of Scripture, so that his love empowers the transformation of our lives from the inside out. The Gospel in All of Scripture
Christ’s grace does not wait until the last chapters of Matthew to make its first appearance, but rather is the dawning light increasing throughout Scripture toward the day the Savior came. Jesus himself made this clear when he spoke to the religious leaders of his day, saying, “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; see also 1:45). After his resurrection, he spoke similarly to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke records Jesus’ conversation this way: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27; see also v. 44). Jesus says repeatedly that all the Scriptures bear witness of him. But of course, a key question remaining for us is, how do all the Scriptures do this? Jesus cannot be contending that all portions of Scripture make direct mention of him. Most verses and most accounts in the Bible make no explicit reference to Jesus. We will understand what Jesus meant about all of Scripture bearing witness to him as we remember the big picture of the Bible. An old cliché says, “Biblical history is ‘his-story.’” But how is this story of Jesus unfolding across the past and future millennia the Bible describes? A standard way of thinking about the whole picture of God’s dealing with humanity begins with a good creation, spoiled by Adam’s fall, redeemed by Christ’s provision, and perfected in the consummation of Christ’s rule over all things. This creation-fall-redemption-consummation perspective helps us map all the events of Scripture. All have a place in this great unfolding plan of “his-story.” In addition to seeing the overall plan of “his-story,” it is important to remember that the “redemption” component of biblical history begins unfolding long before the crucifixion narrative in the Gospels. The Bible reveals the dawning light of redemption near the very beginning. Immediately after Adam’s and Eve’s sin, God says to the one who tempted them, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Bible scholars refer to this verse as the “first gospel.” It is God’s first promise to redeem his world and people—broken by Adam’s sin—by the divine provision of One who would come through a human source to defeat Satan while also suffering an awful attack from him. This early verse in Genesis sets the stage for all that follows in the Bible. The rest of human history will be played out on this stage. Thus, every piece of Scripture that follows has a redemptive context. Our goal as Bible readers who are interpreting as Christ intends is not to try to make Jesus magically appear in every text, but to show where every text properly stands on this redemptive stage. Jesus is the chief and culminating figure on this stage. The stage is set for him; all that transpires on the stage relates to him; and we do not fully understand anything on the stage until we have identified its relation to him. It should be emphasized that placing every text in its redemptive context does not mean that every text mentions Jesus. Rather, every text relates some aspect of God’s redeeming grace that finds its fullest expression in Christ. Ultimately, we understand who he is and what he does by how he “fleshes out” the message of redemption that unfolds throughout the Bible. This unfolding gospel perspective may be communicated in a variety of ways in the commentary portions of this Gospel Transformation Study Bible. Many texts specifically describe, prophesy, or typify (set a pattern for) the ministry of Jesus. Straightforward identification of obvious gospel truths is sufficient for understanding these texts. There are many more texts, however, that prepare for or reflect upon Christ’s ministry by disclosing aspects of the grace of God that find their completed expression in Jesus. These “gospel windows” revealing God’s gracious nature and provision may be identified and/or described through a variety of means—for example, locating a text in its redemptive-historical context, identifying a literary motif typifying God’s redemptive work that carries through the Old and New Testaments, describing doctrinal developments that are foundational to gospel understanding, or simply showing how God’s divine care for his people evidences the grace necessary for our redemption. Our goal will be to identify gospel themes through methods readers can identify and repeat in their own study of Scripture. We want to distinguish such interpretation from speculative approaches that have sometimes cast doubt upon the gospel focus or veracity of Scripture. In the past, some interpreters have understood Christ’s statements about all the Scriptures speaking of him to justify fanciful references to Jesus in Old Testament passages with little biblical support. Such “allegorical” interpretations may, for example, claim that because Noah’s ark was made of wood, and the cross was made of wood, therefore the ark represents the cross. Of course, someone else could say that the wood of Noah’s ark represents the wood of the ark of the covenant, or the wood panels of the temple of Israel, or the wood of the boat from which Christ stilled the storm. The trouble with such allegorical interpretations is that they are more a reflection of human imagination than biblical revelation. If the New Testament does not indicate that a specific object or account is about Jesus, it is best not to force an interpretation that logic cannot prove. At the same time, we should be very willing to learn principles of redemptive interpretation that the New Testament writers employed and exemplified. From these principles we learn that the more common approach to understanding the redemptive nature of all biblical texts is to identify how God’s Word predicts, prepares for, reflects, or results from the person and/or work of Christ. These four categories of gospel explanation are not meant to be exhaustive or kept rigidly separate, but they do help us explain how all of Scripture bears witness to who Christ is and/or what he must do. Some passages—such as the prophecies and the messianic Psalms—clearly predict who Christ is and what he will do. Isaiah wrote of the Messiah, that “his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end” (Isa. 9:6–7). This is a clear prediction of Jesus’ person and work, and there are many more such predictions in the prophetic portions of Scripture. Other passages prepare God’s people to understand the grace that God must provide to redeem his people. When God uses his servant David to show mercy to King Saul’s lame grandson (a royal descendant who would be David’s blood-rival for Israel’s throne), we understand something about God’s ways of forgiving enemies and showing mercy toward the helpless. Not only do many Old Testament passages prepare God’s people to understand the grace of his provision, they also prepare the people to understand their need. When Paul writes in Galatians 3:24 that the law was our schoolmaster or guardian helping lead us to Christ, we understand that the high and holy standards of the law ultimately prepare us to seek God’s provision of mercy rather than to depend on the quality of our performance to make us acceptable to him. The sacrifice system further prepares us to understand that without the shedding of blood there is no atonement for our failures to keep the law (Heb. 9:22). And because Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness, we are prepared to understand that our standing before God depends upon our faith in the provision of another (Rom. 4:23–24). Grace does not spring up like a surprise jack-in-the-box in the New Testament. God’s people have been prepared for millennia to understand and receive the grace of Christ on their behalf. Because grace is the key to understanding the purposes of God throughout the whole Bible, culminating in Christ, aspects of the gospel are reflected throughout Scripture. When a text neither plainly predicts nor prepares for Christ’s person or work, the redemptive truths reflected in the text can always be discerned by asking two questions that are fair to ask of any text: What does this text reflect about the nature of God who provides redemption? and/or What does this text reflect about the nature of humanity that requires redemption? These simple questions are the lenses to the reading glasses through which we can look at any text to...