God graciously saves sinners through Jesus Christ.
Somewhere in the margin of my Bible I have noted a statement made by our pastor emeritus to the effect that the Bible is theocentric in scope and Christocentric in focus. This is right in line with the previous post on this topic: the Bible is all about God. Our pastor simply used bigger words, as he was wont to do, to say the same thing. The Bible is theocentric – God is the central character of the Bible. In fact, every other character simply plays a supporting role in the story. Every other person in Scripture has meaning only because of his place in the story of God’s redeeming work. They are not there for us to imitate them, but because they have some meaning or task in relation to God’s activity in salvation. The Bible is all about what God does, not about what we do. Of course, we experience what God does, but it is God who gives the experience to us. We do not somehow get it from God because of our actions. It is all of grace.
Being Reformed in perspective I believe that I am saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, as revealed in Scripture alone. By the grace of God we are what we are (1 Cor. 15:10). God’s saving work is a gracious work. That work is done through Christ. Therefore, the Bible is not only all about God, but also all about His work of redeeming us through Christ – it is Christocentric in focus. If we read the Bible with any other controlling thought in view, we will miss the message. If we preach the Bible with any other controlling thought in view we will fail to communicate the message.
In all our reading and study of God’s Book we need to keep His central theme in mind: He is graciously saving sinners through Christ.
More to come, God willing…
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