The Bible Through The Lens Of Jesus
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say we as Americans have a dysfunctional relationship with the Bible. It is misused, misapplied, and weaponized. Why? Because we’ve been handed down a tradition that sets the Bible apart from the One to whom it testifies. This Sunday, we’re talking about unlearning and relearning the Bible by reading it through Jesus, with Jesus, for the sake of becoming like Jesus.
As we walk through the Christian year together, each season will be accompanied by a guiding question – a question to wrestle with, pray through, and bring to God. During the season of Epiphany, as we give our attention to our revelation of the son of God, we’re asking together: “How are we encountering Jesus?”
According to verse 17, Jesus is not in opposition to the Bible, but is rather the fulfillment of everything it commands and promises. What might this mean for our approach to the Scriptures?
In verse 20, Jesus says that our righteousness must surpass that of the religious leaders – the very leaders who knew the Bible backwards and forwards. What is Jesus teaching us about the connection between what we know and how we live?
We’ve all grown up with some sort of vision and approach to the Bible. Even if you grew up away from faith, you probably had some kind of idea of what the Bible was. Growing up, what did you learn about the Bible – and how did it impact your relationship to it as an adult?
As the fulfillment of the Law, Jesus is the lens through which we now see and read the Scriptures. How might this approach to the Bible change the way you read and study the Scriptures?
The assumption: the Bible is a book of commands to be followed
“The Sermon on the Mount is the nearest thing to a manifesto that Jesus ever uttered.”
— John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:17-20 NIV
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Matthew 5:17 NIV
We understand Jesus through the Bible AND we understand the Bible through Jesus.
Distortion: Jesus is a part of the Bible
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
John 5:39-40 NIV
“The irony of Biblicism is that for all its claims about giving final authority to the Bible, in reality Biblicism enables the individual reader to remain their own private authority. So if you don’t like Jesus’ explicit call to an ethic of nonviolence, you can always appeal to the wars of Joshua and David to countermand the Sermon on the Mount. This is how you use Joshua to trump Jesus. Perhaps the most clever way to ignore the commands of Christ is to cite an opposing chapter and verse.”
— Brian Zahnd, “Christianity vs. Biblicism”
Distortion: Jesus is apart from the Bible
To follow Jesus is to meet him on his terms, not ours.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40 NIV
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Galatians 5:6b NIV
There is no such thing as a church that looks like Jesus that isn’t a church rooted deeply in the Word of God.