Christ and His Bible (Part 1)

Bob RoaneJesus Christ, Theology

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Christ….Jesus said, If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. (John 1:17; 5:56)

Here are some quotations that I use in teaching and counseling to help people put their confidence in Christ and His Scriptures. This is also used in prison ministry. The Old Testament is abbreviated as “OT” and the New Testament as “NT.” The source of many of these is The Complete Gathered Gold by John Blanchard (2006, Evangelical Press). Some have been modernized, edited, and adapted. I also include some hymn fragments that I use as a prayer before, during, and after Scripture study and meditation.

The NT is in the OT concealed; the OT is in the NT revealed. (Augustine of Hippo)

We find Jesus in all the Scriptures. In the OT, He is predicted; in the Gospels, Christ is revealed; in Acts, He is preached; in the Epistles, He is explained; and in Revelation, Jesus is expected. (Alistair Begg)

A person who can read the NT and not see that Christ claims to be God can look at the sky at high noon on a cloudless day and not see the sun. (W. E. Biederwolf)

You cannot criticize the NT. It criticizes you. (John Jay Chapman)

We do not find Christ in the OT by spotting accidental references or similarities here and there. He is the center, the structure of the whole history of the OT. (Edmund P. Clowney)

We cannot have a reliable Savior without a reliable Scripture. (Brian H. Edwards)

O Word of God incarnate, O Wisdom from on high,
O Truth unchanged, unchanging, O light of our dark sky;
We praise you for the radiance that from the Scriptures’ page,
A lantern to our footsteps shines on from age to age.1

The entire Bible carries the certification of the Son of God, which brings with it infallible authority. Thus the written Word of God has the seal of the living Word of God. (John H. Gerstner)

The Bible is the constitution of Christianity. (Billy Graham)

The OT Scriptures are intelligible only when understood as predicting and prefiguring Christ. (Charles Hodge)

Ignorance of the Scripture is ignorance of Christ. (Jerome of Stridon)

Without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God remains a dead letter to every person, no matter how intelligent or well-educated they may be….It is just as essential for the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of Scripture to the reader today as it was necessary for Him to inspire the writers thereof in their day. (William Law)

It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, that is the true Word of God. The Bible, read with the Holy Spirit’s help and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Jesus. (C. S. Lewis)

The church from you, dear Master, received this gift divine,
And still that light is lifted o’er all the earth to shine.
It is the golden jewel box, where gems of truth are stored;
It is the heaven-drawn picture Of Christ, the living Word.1

Prayer: Father, listen to our prayer and give us discerning minds as you promised. Rescue us from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Let praise flow from our lips, as you teach us your Scriptures. Help us to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs among ourselves, making music to you in our hearts. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

To be continued. You can read Christ and His Bible (Part 2)
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Note: 1 From the hymn “O Word of God Incarnate,” by William Walsham How (1867, alt.). It’s a hymn about the Christ-centered written word of God and Jesus’ Church being His messengers responsible to bring Christ’s good news to needy humankind.