Podcasts about christ in the old testament

A new MP3 sermon from Affirmation PCA Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The King of Righteousness and Peace Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Rev. Bill Spanjer Broadcaster: Affirmation PCA Church Event: Sunday - AM Date: 10/27/2019 Bible: Genesis 14:18-24 Length: 33 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Affirmation PCA Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: A Blood That Speaks Better Things Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Rev. Bill Spanjer Broadcaster: Affirmation PCA Church Event: Sunday - AM Date: 12/1/2019 Bible: Genesis 4:1-16 Length: 40 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Affirmation PCA Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Battle of the Seeds Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Rev. Bill Spanjer Broadcaster: Affirmation PCA Church Event: Sunday - AM Date: 12/29/2019 Bible: Exodus 1 Length: 36 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Affirmation PCA Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Seed of Salvation Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Rev. Bill Spanjer Broadcaster: Affirmation PCA Church Event: Sunday - AM Date: 10/13/2019 Bible: Genesis 12:1-3 Length: 41 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Providence Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Christ In The Old Testament Subtitle: Who Is Jesus? Speaker: Mark Webb Broadcaster: Providence Baptist Church Event: Special Meeting Date: 2/9/2024 Length: 79 min.

Jason DeRouchie walks through two different case studies demonstrating how we see Christ in the Old Testament. Discovering these truths massively impacts the way we read, understand, preach, and teach Scripture!

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Greatest Story! Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 1/1/2023 Bible: Luke 24:36-48 Length: 33 min.

For more information about seeing and savoring Christ in the Old Testament, see Jason's How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament. Also download Hands to the Plow's Preacher's Guides. We have three from Old Testament books: Genesis, Psalms, and Hosea. 

For more information about seeing, savoring, and celebrating Christ in the Old Testament, see Jason's book How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament. Also see 40 Questions about Biblical Theology, a book Jason wrote with Andrew Naselli and Oren Martin. For overviews covering each of the sections in the Old Testament, see Hands to the Plow's Developing Leaders curriculum. Here are links to the Introduction, Law, Prophets, and Writings. 

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Trespass Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 10/9/2022 Bible: Leviticus 5:1-6:7; Leviticus 7:1-7 Length: 34 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Peace Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/25/2022 Bible: Leviticus 3:1-17; Leviticus 7:11-34 Length: 35 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Peace Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/25/2022 Bible: Leviticus 3:1-17; Leviticus 7:11-34 Length: 35 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Peace Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/25/2022 Bible: Leviticus 3:1-17; Leviticus 7:11-34 Length: 35 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Peace Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/25/2022 Bible: Leviticus 3:1-17; Leviticus 7:11-34 Length: 35 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Grain Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/18/2022 Bible: Leviticus 2:1-16; Leviticus 6:14-23 Length: 33 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Grain Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/18/2022 Bible: Leviticus 2:1-16; Leviticus 6:14-23 Length: 33 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Burnt Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/11/2022 Bible: Leviticus 1:1-17; Genesis 8:16-22 Length: 40 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Burnt Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/11/2022 Bible: Leviticus 1:1-17; Genesis 8:16-22 Length: 40 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Bring An Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/4/2022 Bible: Leviticus 1:1-2 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Bring An Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/4/2022 Bible: Leviticus 1:1-2 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Bring An Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/4/2022 Bible: Leviticus 1:1-2 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Bring An Offering Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 9/4/2022 Bible: Leviticus 1:1-2 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Perfect Priest Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 8/28/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:19; Exodus 28:1-43 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Perfect Priest Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 8/28/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:19; Exodus 28:1-43 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Perfect Priest Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 8/28/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:19; Exodus 28:1-43 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Perfect Priest Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 8/28/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:19; Exodus 28:1-43 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Perfect Priest Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 8/28/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:19; Exodus 28:1-43 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Perfect Priest Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 8/28/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:19; Exodus 28:1-43 Length: 21 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: No Other Way Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 8/21/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:17-18; Exodus 27:9-19 Length: 43 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: No Other Way Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 8/21/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:17-18; Exodus 27:9-19 Length: 43 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: There Is A Fountain Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 8/14/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:16; Exodus 30:17-21 Length: 36 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Altar Of God Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 7/31/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:16; Exodus 27:1-8 Length: 31 min.

In this episode, we ask ourselves, "How do we read the Old Testament? What is the best and proper way to read it…in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ?"

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Sweet Incense Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 7/24/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:15; Exodus 30:1-10 Length: 40 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Reformed Baptist Fellowship of Savannah is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Jesus in Genesis 16-17 Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Ronnie Nichols Broadcaster: Reformed Baptist Fellowship of Savannah Event: Devotional Date: 7/5/2022 Bible: Genesis 16-17; Romans 4 Length: 56 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: A Table Before Me Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 6/26/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:13; Exodus 25:23-30 Length: 38 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: A Table Before Me Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 6/26/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:13; Exodus 25:23-30 Length: 38 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: A Table Before Me Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 6/26/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:13; Exodus 25:23-30 Length: 38 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: A Table Before Me Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 6/26/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:13; Exodus 25:23-30 Length: 38 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: A Table Before Me Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 6/26/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:13; Exodus 25:23-30 Length: 38 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Our Greatest Treasure Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 6/19/2022 Bible: Exodus 35:12; Exodus 25:10-34 Length: 40 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: A More Perfect Tabernacle Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 6/12/2022 Bible: Exodus 26:1-30; Exodus 29:42-46 Length: 45 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: A More Perfect Tabernacle Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 6/12/2022 Bible: Exodus 26:1-30; Exodus 29:42-46 Length: 45 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Sanctuary In The Desert Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 6/5/2022 Bible: Exodus 25:8-9; Exodus 29:42-46 Length: 32 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Lifted Up Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 5/22/2022 Bible: Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:13-15 Length: 37 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Water In The Wilderness Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 5/15/2022 Bible: Exodus 17:1-7 Length: 39 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Water In The Wilderness Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 5/15/2022 Bible: Exodus 17:1-7 Length: 39 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Reformed Baptist Fellowship of Savannah is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Jesus in The Old Testament: Abraham's Seed Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Ronnie Nichols Broadcaster: Reformed Baptist Fellowship of Savannah Event: Devotional Date: 5/13/2022 Bible: Galatians 3; Genesis 12 Length: 51 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Bread Of Heaven Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 5/8/2022 Bible: Exodus 16 Length: 38 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Lamb Of God Subtitle: Christ In The Old Testament Speaker: Stephen Elmer Broadcaster: Grace Baptist Church of Mohawk Event: Sunday - PM Date: 5/1/2022 Bible: Exodus 11-12; Colossians 2:16-17 Length: 39 min.

PDF of Lesson Notes

Biblicism might sound like a good thing…but it’s not. Biblicism is a methodology that tends to introduce confusion and mystery into the Scriptures where there isn’t any. It also tends to confuse doctrinal and theological categories such as law/gospel distinction and faith versus works. Jon and Justin consider these things and more in this episode.Semper Reformanda: The guys discuss how biblicism is related to theonomy and unhelpful views on the nation of Israel. And, as a bonus, we get into a little bit of eschatology.Resources:Episode: Is the whole Bible about Jesus? Episode: Is your theological system any good?Series: Covenant Theology seriesBook: “Living in God’s Two Kingdoms” by David VanDrunnenSUPPORT Theocast: https://theocast.org/give/ Podcast TranscriptJon Moffitt: Hi, this is Jon. Today on Theocast, we are going to be explaining what biblicism is. There’s a lot of theological confusion and categories and systems and theologies that have been birthed out of biblicism. We’re going to explain to you what it is, how to refrain from it, and how to spot it when you see it. Stay tuned.Today is a podcast we probably have been needing to do for a long time and we reference it often.Justin Perdue: We even promised to do a podcast on it multiple times.Jon Moffitt: I know. The real estate on the podcast is very small so we have to be choosy on what we pick.Biblicism is a word. I saw someone use it the other day, saying, “I’m a biblicist.” Someone should tell him not to say that.Justin Perdue: It’s not a badge of honor.Jon Moffitt: It’s a negative thing and we’re going to explain to you why. Someone may think, “Why would ‘Bible’ and ‘-ism’ be a bad thing?” Typically, “-ism” isn’t good. Not always the case; Calvinism isn’t necessarily bad—it has gotten a bad rap—which I just did an introduction to that on Ask Theocast. Check that out.But to stay focused: biblicism. Justin, give us a quick definition of what it is. Then we are going to work through about five or six examples of what happens when you don’t use Scripture properly, or you’re a biblicist, this is what it ends up producing.So what’s a good definition, a simple definition, of a biblicist for our listeners?Justin Perdue: Let me define it in a simple way, and even use pop level accessible language in talking about this. You already alluded to it once when you said a person would describe themself as a Bible person. Another way that you hear this commonly presented is people will say, “no creed but Christ”, or, “no confession but the Bible”. People will say that the only thing that we need to use is Scripture and any kind of framework outside of the Bible, or any tools outside of the Bible are not useful; it’s not faithful or it’s not responsible to use such things to understand the Scripture. And so you end up getting this kind of a situation where people will say that if the text does not say it explicitly, then we cannot preach it and we cannot teach it.Jon Moffitt: Or the reverse is true: “The text explicitly said it, therefore I’m going to preach it.”Justin Perdue: Sure. We’re going to give illustrations of this, like you said, in broad categories and the like.What ends up happening is you make the Bible sound very schizophrenic because you quote chapter and verse in isolation and you don’t interpret that verse within its broader context, even maybe within the book that it’s situated in, let alone within the epoch of redemptive history that it’s situated in, or let alone the entire Bible. And so you end up introducing mystery and tension into the Scripture where it does not exist, and you end up introducing things that sound contradictory and really confusing your listener when the Bible—rightly understood on its own terms with appropriate theological systems in place—is not contradictory. It is not confusing. There is going to be mystery, but we want to put the mystery in the right place.Biblicism is dangerous on a number of levels because as you’re going to hear us talk about, there really are hardly any key areas of doctrine that would not be compromised or confused by a biblicism. If you’re using biblicism and you’re a biblicist, you’re going to confuse almost every major doctrinal category.Jon Moffitt: Can I give an example here? A simple one would be Colossians 1:15: he is the firstborn of all creation. You could conclude that Jesus is born, or even is a created being, and I would even dare say the Trinity, if you do not allow all of Scripture to inform you about the nature of who Christ is. Many biblicists in the past have become heretical. Arian would be a great example of this, where they isolate texts and they don’t allow the analogy of faith or all of Scripture to speak into a theological position or a particular text. A good example of this is that there are many people, even in recent days, who do not understand the nature of Jesus because they read individual texts and say, “Well, that’s what it says. I’m going to take it literally in English without even using biblical language. That’s exactly what it means in the English. That’s exactly what it means. Therefore, that’s what I believe.”Justin Perdue: Proof texting is an example of biblicism where you cite chapter and verse in isolation to prove a point. That’s a common mistake that people make. Maybe a humorous way to put this is when you get people really worked up about these things and they will say, as I alluded to earlier, “I have no confession but the Bible and no creed but Christ,” as they wave their study Bible in your face. What do you think those study notes are other than an exercise in systematic theology and biblical theology and everything else that people seem allergic to?We did an episode a while back, Jon, something along the lines of is your theological system any good? That would be a useful episode for people to go back and listen to because we are going to contend today that the Scriptures present to us certain frameworks and systems of theology that come up out of the text that we then can utilize to better understand the text. A couple of those are going to be the redemptive-historical framework, and for us as Reformed guys, a covenantal framework of the Bible. Those things are really helpful. And a biblicist is going to press really, really hard against both of those things. They’re gonna say, “That’s the system that you’re imposing down on the Bible and you shouldn’t do that. You’re being irresponsible in the ways that you’re understanding and interpreting the Scripture.” Hopefully, we’re going to demonstrate how, if anything, biblicism is the much more dangerous and irresponsible perspective today.Jon Moffitt: I do a lot of internet research for things and recently I’m doing a series on Calvinism for Ask Theocast and just reading different arguments here and there. And the proof texting on either side, the Calvinist or free will…Justin Perdue: Just to be very clear, there are people that could consider themselves to be Reformed who can be biblicists from time to time. We want to be fair. Anybody can be a biblicist. I’m sure you and I have been at certain points, not meaning to be.Jon Moffitt: What we’re arguing is that being able to identify biblicist tendencies or passages that we may have interpreted in the past where we have not allowed context and tried and true theological categories.Let me give you this one illustration. It’s the most simple one that I’ve always used. When you read any text of Scripture that has relation to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—if you are an evangelical who’s been trained in a good church, you never read those without understanding that that is one in three. Another way of saying that is you’re reading it by a theological system called Trinitarianism. It’s important that you do so because it helps you fully understand that this isn’t one God working in opposition or in isolation to the other gods, because we’re not polytheists—we’re monotheists; poly meaning multiple, mono meaning one. Where are monotheists who believe in a Trinity. It is a complicated system, but it’s important to believe that because Jesus will say things like “I and my Father are one.” These have to be read in a Trinitarian context.I have met biblicists who will allow a Trinitarian context to be set on the text, but that’s as far as they will go. They won’t allow any other theological systems because “it’s not biblical”, yet they allow the Trinitarian system to guide them. It’s not the only theological system in the Bible presented to us clearly in the text. We’re going to argue for a couple others here in just a minute.Justin Perdue: One of the categories that’s most important that Jon and I are convinced of—and we’re not alone amongst the Reformed in seeing this—is that biblicism really just botches the distinction between law and gospel. There are a number of places we could go. I’m mindful of several examples in the life and ministry of Jesus where people will cite Christ in terms of chapter and verse, in terms of what God requires out from the lips of Jesus himself and say, “See? There it is. There’s the road to salvation. That’s the way of salvation.” When Jesus has in fact been actually speaking a message of law, like, “Here is how you inherit the kingdom of God. Here’s what you need to do in order to be in a right relationship with God.” People will say that’s somehow a part and parcel of the good news.One of the greatest examples of this is a large section of Scripture called The Sermon on the Mount, where people will say things like The Sermon on the Mount is gospel, to which we would say no. A much more careful reading of that text—a redemptive-historical reading of that text, and a reading of that text with an eye for law and gospel distinction—would actually lead you to conclude that that sermon is a sermon on the law, not the gospel, in terms of what God does require of us, not just at the level of outward conformity, but at the level of the heart, mind, desires, and everything else. That becomes quite clear as Jesus begins to discuss the law pointedly in Matthew 5:17 and following: here is what you’ve heard, but here is what it actually means for you. And he more or less damns everybody who hears him by saying, “You think you’ve done okay, but you haven’t; you haven’t kept the law. This is what the Lord requires of you. In fact, you need to be perfect like your heavenly Father is perfect.” That confusion of law and gospel and the life of ministry of Jesus is a big deal.Jon Moffitt: The gospel is the way in which the Bible presents its message or information, but it also is a theological category. The word “gospel” is a very closed tight knit bubble. There’s only so much that can be in there, and if you add anything into it, you are now changing what the gospel is. This is why Paul gets very upset and even says, “If anybody comes to you and starts teaching you anything other than what you’ve already been taught, adding to the gospel,” Paul is arguing for the clarity and he’s saying, “this is encapsulated and cannot be changed. It’s been set forth.” You have to read every passage of the Bible with a clear understanding of gospel, because if you don’t, then you will get “glawspel”—you get the law and the gospel together. So the gospel must be clarified.A great example of this is the rich young ruler, which we use in the past as an example. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus gives him what he needs to do if he wants to inherit it, like if he wants to receive it by earning.Justin Perdue: Jesus says, “If you would be perfect.”Jon Moffitt: That’s not gospel, that’s law. When you understand gospel, and you have the category of gospel and you’re holding that lens in your mind, and then you read Jesus, you go, “Jesus didn’t give him gospel, but what do we do?” The biblicist will say “No, Jesus answered the question; therefore, it’s good news.”Justin Perdue: Jesus just told people what they need to do to inherit eternal life so we need to go about the business of doing it.Jon Moffitt: That is, to forsake everything. We need to sell all our possessions.Justin Perdue: That is the conclusion of the biblicist when law and gospel are confused.Another great example from the Old Testament: the prophet Micah, chapter six. The context in Micah 6—the Lord begins that chapter by indicting his people. They’re guilty. They stand condemned before Him and then the prophet goes on in verse six and following of Micah 6 to write these things. He’s hypothetically speaking for the people here: “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?” And sense the sarcasm here: Lord, you’re extreme; what do you require? “Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” And then Micah says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”Now, what people do with that passage is they read that and they say, “See? Here it is. The Lord is not satisfied with empty ritualistic religion. He is not interested in people’s sacrifices. What he is interested in is the true religion of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly before it.” And so now you need to be a true religion, an old time religion kind of person, who is characterized by the doing of justice, the loving of kindness and the walking humbly before your God, and the Lord will be pleased with you. Again, that’s biblicism. The prophet there is not giving people a message of gospel either; he’s telling folks that a better understanding of what the Lord requires actually is this heart level reality. It’s not external conformity to a written code, but it’s a heart level reality of doing justice and loving kindness and walking humbly before your God. Nobody’s ever done it well enough. That’s the thing.This is where you go to that verse. Micah 6:8 is often posited as an Old Testament presentation of the gospel. It’s not. It’s an Old Testament presentation of the law very similar to how Jesus presents it in the Sermon on the Mount and other places in his ministry. Learn what this means: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”Jon Moffitt: I believe with all my heart that God blesses righteousness. He does not lie. It reflects who He is. Paul tells us there is none righteous and our good works, according to Jeremiah, are compared to really disgusting, filthy rags. Those are important. They’re not in opposition to each other.Justin Perdue: You just beautifully segued to another category. Law and gospel are massive. This one is at least as important and it is the confusion between faith and works. Biblicism is notorious for muddling this up to the high heavens. How is it that we’re justified? How is it that we’re finally saved even? Is it by faith or is it by our works? The classic text for me is Romans 2. In this context, Romans 2-3 are really illustrative.Paul has already indicted all the brilliant Gentiles at the end of Romans 1. Then he begins, at the beginning of Romans 2, to talk to everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, because we all pass judgment on other people for not meeting our own standards. If people don’t meet our standards and we pass judgment on them, we need to realize that we don’t meet our own standards and thereby we condemn ourselves with our judging. If we haven’t even met our own standards, how much less so have we met God’s standard? We misunderstand God’s kindness, not understanding that it’s meant to lead men toward repentance.And then Paul goes in Romans 2:6 and following, and as the Reformed theologian Robert Haldane once said, you either leave Romans 2:6 and following a Protestant or a Romanist—and I think he’s right. There’s no middle ground here in terms of how you can interpret it. And let me say this kindly, but sincerely: if you pick up a Romans commentary, there are a lot of guys who otherwise are pretty reasonable who absolutely lose their minds when it comes to Romans 2:6-13.Let’s just read a few of these verses and talk about what biblicists do with it, and then talk about how we should understand it in the context of Romans. Romans 2:6; this is true about God: “He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”What you hear people say—again, otherwise pretty orthodox, like sound teachers, Protestants—they come to Romans 2:6-13 and they’ll go, “We know that we are justified by faith, but somehow—you can see it right here it says in the text—somehow our works will factor into our final salvation, because it says so right here that God will render to each one according to his works. Those who do good, He’s going to reward with eternal life. Those who do evil, He’s going to punish with wrath and fury.” No. That’s not the way to interpret that passage, somehow mysteriously our works factor into our final salvation, because this question has to be asked in the broader context of Romans: what is Paul doing? There’s a flow of his thought that’s going to culminate in Romans 3:21. He’s arguing that everybody has judged themselves and judged others. We don’t need our own standard, let alone God’s. God is an impartial righteous judge who rewards those who do good and punish those who do evil.The problem though is that nobody’s good. Because he’s going to go there in Romans 3:9 and the following: “Nobody is good. There’s not one righteous. No, not one.” We should be thinking we are all damned. How can anyone be saved? Which is why he says in verse 21 and following: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” He concluded that whole section of his argument in verses 19 and 20, where he says that the law condemns everyone, Romans 3:19, and verse 24, by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight because the law only crushes people. But yet, in a biblicism kind of way, we go to Romans 2:6, and we go to Romans 2:13, and we quote it and say, “Ah, but guys, we’ve got to work for this. We got to do something. Even though we’re saved by faith, somehow our works factor in.” And that’s just an irresponsible presentation. What does it do? It confuses the nature of the gospel itself and robs the saints of assurance.Jon Moffitt: This is another way of saying this: understanding the nature of man and understanding the gospel are two categories we have to hold in both hands as we read every text. We know from scripture that we are in Adam, meaning that we have received the curse of Adam which is that our spiritual nature, the capacity to love and obey and please God, to trust in Him, has been cursed unto death. Paul describes it as being dead cause we’ve had to go from death to life. Obviously we are not physically dead; he is speaking about the cursed nature that we have. So you cannot demand a cursed dead nature to do that which it has no capacity to do, which is to obey God.This is even in James: the classic quote, “faith without works is dead.” We really needle down into that. And if I am looking at someone who says to me, “I’m a Christian,” and yet they don’t see the necessity of producing good fruit in keeping with repentance and obedience, all that… “I don’t need to do that. I just need to say a prayer and I’m good.” I would agree that they are confused. James is even getting it out in the context saying, “You’re saying you’re a follower of Jesus, but the way that you are acting is contrary to that. And if you’re unwilling to repent of that, then the faith you were claiming is a dead faith.” At that moment, you don’t call someone to do something they can’t do. Because at that moment, you go, “Okay, you don’t understand the gospel. This isn’t a works issue; this is a gospel issue.” Because those who have saving faith are going to obey.Justin Perdue: It’s a gospel issue, it’s a union with Christ issue, and it’s a regeneration issue. If you have been born again and if you are not just giving some kind of mental assent to some truth about Jesus, but you are trusting him, and you’re hoping in him, that only occurs via the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. You have now been united to Christ and you will bear fruit. That’s what the Scriptures say. But to confuse that, to invert that, to proof text it and say, “Faith without works is dead; show me your faith by your works,” to then conclude, “We need to go about telling people to do good work so that they know they’re saved.” Wrong. That’s not the conclusion that we draw. We go about preaching Christ. We tell people to trust Christ. Through their union with him, fruit will be produced. You can’t invert that relationship, but biblicism confuses that relationship to no end.Jon Moffitt: I’ll just reference this here for two reasons: one, we have a podcast on it and two, we have a podcast coming. On repentance and biblicism, we did a needle down, focus in on that a couple of weeks ago. You can go back and listen to What Is Repentance? We really unfold that from what biblicism is. I would also say lordship salvation falls into this, where a lot of the arguments that you will see again in the next coming weeks… we’re going to give you some more examples on this, but I’ll just say this now: I think lordship salvation is built upon a biblicism platform.Justin Perdue: It completely is in that there’s a collapsing of law and gospel. There’s a confusion of faith and works and repentance. There’s really a different definition of faith that is given in the lordship camp where obedience and repentance and a sincere desire to obey and all those kinds of things are woven into the definition of faith. And that is something that, historically, Protestants have been very careful to not do. And we’ll talk about that in some subsequent episodes.Jon Moffitt: One example that’s like a precursor to that is as someone Reformed and even Calvinist, when you understand the depravity of man and the sovereign election of God as it relates to our salvation, the biblicism of lordship doesn’t seem to work. I would agree with the fact that when Jesus saves me and brings me to new life, I am now owned by him—and I’m gladly thankful that he is my Lord. But I don’t have the capacity to make that change within myself or determine that that is handed to me. It’s not something that is given to me as if there’s something I must do in order to be a child of God.Justin Perdue: And the bottom line is that when you have been united to Christ by faith, you now—Romans 6:17—have become obedient from the heart. You actually do desire to obey God, but the desire to obey is not a piece of faith itself. The new birth that is worked by God produces faith and then the fruits of regeneration and faith are a desire to obey, amongst a whole host of other things. But you can’t confuse that. We’re going to talk more about that in the coming weeks and I’m excited for those conversations.One of the last couple of big categories in the regular portion of the podcast is also a reference back to an episode. We did one on typology and types and shadows and all those kinds of things called Is the Whole Bible Really About Jesus? Just to briefly pick back up on this and to help explain how biblicism is unhelpful here: we talk regularly about how the whole Bible really is about Christ, that it’s about the plan of redemption that God has had since before the foundation of the world, that centers on Christ, that’s accomplished through him, that’s then applied to us by the work of the Holy Spirit—all to the praise of God’s glorious grace. And so we interpret every passage of Scripture in light of that main message, in light of that main point.We realize that the way that God has revealed His plan of redemption by farther steps through history, and in the pages of Scripture, there are all of these things that serve as types of something greater to come, their shadows and the substance is going to come. There are pointers to things that are going to come later that are ultimate, that will fulfill them. And so when we preach anything in the Old Testament, for example—I could think of a number of examples, the obvious ones are the Passover, when we preach the Exodus, the parting of the Red Sea, when we preach the day of atonement or whatever it may be, we’re talking about those in light of Christ and what he would come to do. He’s the Passover Lamb. He is the one who has atoned for our sin and removed it from us. He is going to deliver us not out of bondage to Egypt, but from bondage to sin and death and Satan. But we would argue preaching the entire Old Testament this way.Sometimes people get really worked up when we preach in a very Christocentric, a Christ-centered way, from the Old Testament, a biblicist will say, “Brother, you are not giving appropriate attention to the original author’s intent. Did Moses fully understand everything that you’re saying about Jesus? Did David fully understand everything that you’re saying about Jesus from the Psalms? Did Micah understand everything that you’re saying about Christ?” Fill in the blank. A biblicist will rail against a Christ-centered sermon sometimes from the Old Testament because we are not doing justice to the original author’s intention—to which I want to say this humbly, but I would stake my ministry on this: is it legitimate, for example, to preach baptism from Noah and the Ark? Yes. Peter makes that connection for us in 1 Peter 3. But what should we preach when we preach a sermon on the Ark and the flood? We should preach salvation, we should preach baptism, and we should preach Christ as the emphasis of that passage.What should we preach when it’s the Passover or the day of atonement? We should preach Jesus. What about the temple? We were having this conversation before we hit record. There is an obsession in some circles with the temple and the rebuilding of the temple and all these kinds of things, and when we see the temple being built in the Old Testament—God’s having a house built for Him where he’s going to dwell with His people—when we see the tabernacle for that set up in the camp of Israel, we should be preaching Jesus from those passages. Why? Because Jesus shows up on the scene and says himself that he is the fulfillment of the temple. He is God’s presence on earth. Then as he ascends and sends his Holy Spirit, the church is now the fulfillment of the temple. The Spirit of God Himself dwells in the church with His people and the like. Then in the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no temple because God will be there and the Lamb will dwell among us. There’s no need for a temple anymore. This is how we should preach the temple. And there are going to be people who are going to be saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Should you preach the temple that way in the Old Testament?” Yes. If we’re a Christian, we should.Jon Moffitt: All of Scripture is Christian Scripture.Justin Perdue: This is where I think I get really upset with biblicism, maybe as much as any place: Romans 2 and 3 get me worked up, but this stuff really works me up because people almost call into question whether we should preach Christ from the Old Testament from these things that prefigure him and point to him, as though it’s, “Maybe you should, but that shouldn’t be the emphasis of your sermon.” The last time I checked, we are Christians and we preach Christian sermons, do we not? We want to read Genesis or Exodus or Micah or Esther as Christians, for crying out loud.Jon Moffitt: I think there’s a fear of allegorizing there. I remember when I was in Bible college and even in seminary, it’s like, “Oh, we don’t want to fall into that trap where we’re allegorizing everything in the text and putting things in the text that aren’t there.” That’s a legitimate argument: you can’t force into the text things that aren’t there. I would argue that if you got five points of how to be faithful like David…Justin Perdue: Tell me where that is in the text.Jon Moffitt: No, it’s not in the text at all. Let me read you something real quick from Romans 15. I think it will make your point, Justin. Paul says this: “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” And then Paul gives us the motivation—and it’s interesting how he gives us motivation—pay attention to this in verse four: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.” So he’s referencing Christ, he’s referencing our needs to bear with the weak, and our motivation is the Old Testament leads us to hope. There is no way you can conclude that Paul isn’t meaning hope in Christ because he just got done arguing for it in chapter 14… well, I would say all of Romans. The point of it is that anytime you see these New Testament writers referencing the Old Testament, they are referencing it as these are designed for endurance and encouragement because the Old Testament gives us hope. Because what is the Old Testament about? It’s about Jesus. This is one more example of a text of interpreting the Old Testament for us.Justin Perdue: I know we said this last week; I’m gonna say it again: whenever we do what we’re describing, where we interpret and read and preach the Old Testament in this Christ-centered way, we’re doing what Jesus told us to do and we’re doing what the apostles did. Full stop.I understand there’s a danger of allegorizing everything, and that is not at all what we are advocating for; all we’re advocating for is to read the Old Testament the way the apostles read and understood it. There are countless examples that we could give from Paul, from Peter, from the writer of the Hebrews, from John, where it’s obvious that they see things in the Old Testament. If they were in a hermeneutics class in most modern day seminaries, they would get a failing grade for saying what they’re saying. “Oh, what about the original author’s intent? Did the Psalmist really mean that in Psalm 68? Were they really talking about Jesus’s ascension and the giving of gifts, Paul, like you say in Ephesians 4? Or the rock from 1 Corinthians 10:4 referencing Exodus 17?” All of these things are just example after example after example of how the apostles read the Old Testament. The writer of the Hebrews—what’s the sacrificial system about? What’s the priesthood about? It’s about Christ. It all pointed to him. Why would we go back to something that’s been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus? What was Abraham about ultimately? He was justified by faith as a pattern for everyone who had ever believed the promises of God realized in the Messiah, and we would be saved the same way. This is how we should read all of these things. Jesus himself in John 3, the snake that’s lifted up on a pole in Numbers 21—it’s about him and how he would be raised up, and when we look to him and what he’s done, we’re saved.Jon Moffitt: We could go on and on and on, but we are running out of time. We did have one left. We’re going to leave it for the other podcast we’re about to do. We’re going to talk a little bit about eschatology and biblicism.For those of you that are new and listening, we have a ministry called Semper Reformanda, “always reforming”, and we started this as a way to connect with our listeners, but also to go to a deeper level. There are many who love what we’re saying on Theocast but have questions and want to go to that next level of conversation. Justin and I step into a different role in that way, where we interact with our listeners a little bit more and we take this conversation to a little bit deeper level. And you can join us.Semper Reformanda is two things: one, it’s a podcast that we do, but two, it’s also a community. It’s an online community, and believe it or not, a local community. By now, our app is out and you can go and sign up to get our private podcast feed, and also join a group. Download our app and see what groups are available. You can join an online discussion group, or you do it over zoom, or you can do it locally in your town. Those are growing. I think we’re over 20 plus so far. People are getting signed up to start their own. So if you want to learn more about that, you can go to theocast.org.Excited to continue this conversation. We’ll see you next week.

Is the whole Bible really about Jesus? Here at Theocast, we believe that it is. Jon and Justin consider the pattern of Jesus and the apostles with regard to how they understood the Bible. The guys consider typology and how it is useful in understanding the Scriptures–and biblicism and how it is not helpful.Semper Reformanda: Justin talks about the thing that has most impacted his preaching. Jon and Justin then discuss how important it is to see that every promise of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Jesus.Resources:Episode: Is Christ-Centered Preaching Dangerous?“The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant & His Kingdom” by Samuel Renihan“Preaching Christ in All of Scripture” by Edmond Clowney“The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament” by Edmond ClowneyFREE Ebook: theocast.org/primerSUPPORT Theocast: https://theocast.org/give/   Podcast TranscriptJustin Perdue: Hi, this is Justin. Today on Theocast, we are going to answer the question, “Is the whole Bible really about Jesus?” We don’t like to bury the lead here at Theocast, and so our position is that yes, in fact, the whole Bible is about Christ and what he has accomplished on behalf of sinners in order to save us. We’re going to have this conversation from a couple of different perspectives. We’re going to talk about typology and how that works in the Bible. If you don’t even know what typology is, don’t worry, we’re going to define it and try to explain it for you.We’re also going to talk about Biblicism and how it is unhelpful to understanding the Scriptures accurately. Again, if you don’t know what Biblicism is, stay tuned. We’re going to try to explain it to you and help you see how it relates to this conversation.We really hope this is an encouraging and life-giving conversation for you, and that is a conversation that will open up the Scriptures and show you how from Genesis to Revelation, Jesus really is the point of it.The title of the episode is Is the Whole Bible Really About Jesus? What we want to do today is answer that question. But we’re really just pulling the curtain back here and having a conversation about a couple of different things—and I’m going to try to explain briefly what we mean by these terms and then we’ll just kind of take-off and run with this. We’re having a conversation today about typology and somewhat also about Biblicism. And so just briefly to define those terms for the listener: when we talk about typology, we are talking about the way that God reveals Himself, the way He reveals redemption—in particular, the way He reveals redemption through Christ in Scripture—where there are things that occur earlier on in biblical revelation, referred to as types, that are significant in and of themselves but they point to something that is greater, different, and ultimate. So those greater, different, ultimate fulfillments of the types are often referred to as antitypes. We’re going to talk about examples of some of that today. But if the Bible is read appropriately in a typological way, we are going to see types and shadows and pointers to Jesus all throughout the Old Testament before Christ even shows up on the scene in the New Testament.If you think about, for example, the writer to the Hebrews and how he explains the fact that the sacrificial system, and so many of the other things that were revealed to Israel in the law, were ultimately about Christ. They were ultimately shadows and pointers to Jesus and the redemption that would be accomplished through him. That is a biblical example of typology. We’re going to talk about some other biblical examples of typology in this episode. So we’re having that conversation about how typology is really helpful in coming to the Bible, and it’s helpful to us, in particular, in seeing Christ through all of Scripture.But then we’re also going to be having a conversation about something referred to as Biblicism. The goal of a biblicist is a good goal; it’s a good aim. It’s admirable that you want to be a Bible person and only say things that the Scripture says, and you don’t want to add to it or take away from it. That’s a good aim. But oftentimes, the way that Biblicism presents itself is that if the text does not specifically and explicitly say something, that it just must not be true. And so there’s a real concern in Biblicism for some of the systematic categories, the covenantal categories, the redemptive-historical categories that the Reformed have always had that help us to see Christ in all of Scripture. The biblicist gets very anxious about that. We’re going to explain what we mean by that, too.Before you check out, if you’re sitting here and you’re thinking, “Oh my gosh. This is an academic conversation and this is something that’s going to be over my head,” it is not going to be. We’re going to talk about this at a street level, as a couple of pastors who deal with the Scriptures regularly and are trying to teach the Scriptures to our people. This conversation ultimately is about seeing Christ in all of Scripture in ways that are legitimate and responsible, and really upholding what Jesus Christ himself says about the Bible, namely, that it’s all about him. We hope that you come away from this episode more encouraged to study the Scriptures, more encouraged to sit under the Scriptures on the Lord’s Day as you hear your pastor preach them to you, or if you’re a pastor out there and you’re more excited to get in the pulpit and herald Christ from any text in the Bible.I might just launch us off, Jon, in thinking about the words of Jesus Christ himself in Luke 24 and in John 5. Luke 24, the road to Emmaus. Jesus is resurrected and he appears to a couple of his disciples and he says to them that they are slow of heart to believe everything that the Scriptures have revealed. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to these disciples everything in Moses and the prophets that was written about him.Then in John 5, at a couple of different points, Jesus makes it very clear to his Jewish audience. He says to them, “You search the Scriptures thinking that in them you find eternal life; yet it is they that bear witness about me.” And then he goes on later in John 5 to say they talk about Moses a lot, and, “if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.”This is the conversation that we’re having today. I get excited for this because this has changed my Christian life. It has changed the way that I think about the Bible wholesale. This is probably the single greatest thing that informs my preaching from a week to week basis: it is the fact that all of the Scriptures from Genesis to revelation are about Christ and what he has done for sinners.Jon Moffitt: I was preaching through the book of John, and John is probably one of the greatest prolific writers when it comes to the Old Testament in terms of how much he references in typology, in referencing to ceremonies and the law. He mentions the Psalms and Isaiah a lot. He won’t do a direct quote, but he’ll even say things like “to fulfill scripture” to allow the reader to know what Scripture something is in reference to.To add to the Scriptures that talk about Jesus in the Old Testament, there’s a couple more. You have Acts 8:35: “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”Book of Acts. Let’s do some math here. The New Testament has not been written at the moment; it’s being recorded as past history. What Scriptures is he referencing? What is he talking about?Justin Perdue: Whenever we hear the apostles in the New Testament reference the Scriptures or Jesus reference the Scriptures, they’re talking about what we call the Old Testament.Jon Moffitt: Philip is telling the eunuch about Jesus from the Old Testament, which I can tell you right now that Justin and I both can preach the gospel clearly from the Old Testament because the apostles did. We can use Old Testament text to preach Christ and we do, and we’ll always do. We are not crippled by only having the New Testament in order to preach the gospel because what else was Philip using?Another verse that would be connected to this is Acts 18:28 where he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that Christ was Jesus. Again, Scripture has to reference the Torah, the Old Testament, and he’s referencing the Old Testament to show that it is about Jesus. It’s not one little reference. I know sometimes people say, “Well, you guys always quote Luke 24 and you’re basing an entire theological system and way of reading the Bible based on one verse. It’s not. There are multiple examples of New Testament writers using the Old Testament to teach us about Jesus. There is much that can be learned and should be learned about Jesus.Now, this is where understanding typology is so important. It took me a long time to understand this and so I’m going to say it in such a way that if you’re brand new to Reformed theology, if you’re brand new to redemptive-historical biblical theology or covenant theology, typology is really important. When someone said “type” and “antitype”, my brain didn’t have a category for that. So if you’re smart unlike me and you already know it, you can fast forward the next 30 seconds. But if you’re like me and you need help in these categories, the antitype thing is what threw me off.A type is an example or a picture of something, but not the reality of it. We use these illustrations all the time, but one of my favorite ones is if you go to a Mexican restaurant and you get that real big laminated menu. I love that the more expensive ones will have a picture of the burrito and underneath it, it says, “Not the actual size.” Thanks for clarifying. But it’s a picture; it’s a type of the burrito. You look at it, anticipate it, and are excited about what you see, but the picture is not what you taste, it is not what sustains you, it is not what gives you energy. The substance, or the real burrito, is called the antitype.So when we say type and antitype, which we’re going to give some examples here in the Old Testament, those are the theological terms for it. A great example of this is when Jesus says to Nicodemus, “as the serpent was raised in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” The serpent in the wilderness was a type, an example, a picture of what is going to happen to Jesus, because those who looked on the serpent and believed were healed, and those who looked to Christ on the cross and believed are also healed of their sins. That’s a good example of type and antitype as it relates to Jesus being referenced in the Old Testament, pointing us towards the New Testament reality.Justin Perdue: Jesus, of course, picks up on that very thing in his conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. The New Testament is replete with examples of this kind of thing being done by Christ and the apostles.You mentioned earlier how the apostles write what I might even call the apostolic pattern when it comes to this conversation. When we are saying that we read the Bible from a redemptive-historical perspective, meaning it’s redemptive history with Christ at the center, and we read it in that Christ-centered way, and we read it with an eye for typology—types and shadows and pointers and fulfillment and all those things—all we are saying and all we are advocating is, “Hey guys, let’s read the Bible. In particular, let’s read the Old Testament the way that the apostles understood it and the way that Christ understood it.” We’re not coming up with anything new. We are looking to Christ, Paul, Peter, John, and the writer to the Hebrews, and we are just following their lead in terms of how they understood the Old Testament Scriptures to bear witness to Christ and the redemption that he would accomplish for sinners.This is maybe one of the more controversial pieces of this conversation: we have freedom to not only go to the texts that the apostles specifically reference, but we have freedom to read the entire Old Testament that way, because they have given us a pattern; they have shown us how to do it.For example, the way that Peter in 1 Peter 3 connects the ark and the flood and what happened there, to redemption and to baptism. That means that it is legitimate to now go back to the Old Testament as saints have done for a long, long time and see other passages, to use Peter’s language, where the saints are brought safely through water. And we can see those things as a pointer to our baptism, through which we are united to Christ, we are sealed into him, and our sins are drowned in the waters of baptism because Christ ultimately has taken the judgment of God for us. We’ve died in Christ to the law.So Peter connects that in 1 Peter 3 to Genesis 6-8. But then there are other ways that the saints have seen the same connection, like Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea, where God’s people walk safely through water. People have said this is a pointer to baptism—they’re entirely right about that. Because it’s a pointer ultimately to the deliverance that God would accomplish for us through the Lord Jesus Christ.But a lot of times—again, talking about that Biblicism thing where it’s gotta be on the face of the text and if the text doesn’t say it, we shouldn’t draw the conclusion—if you do that, if you go to the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus, where if you were to preach the flood from Genesis and you were just conclude that Moses, in writing about the ark and the flood, doesn’t say anything about baptism, doesn’t say anything about Jesus and the ark being a type of Christ, and so as you preach this, you think, “The original authorial intent must have been this thing and this is what I need to say.” In order for you to do that, you have now divorced the account of the ark and the flood in Genesis 6-8, you have divorced that from the entire canon, you have divorced it from the entire context of the whole Bible, and have actually been irresponsible in preaching it if you do not preach Christ and baptism from Genesis 6-8.That’s the really controversial thing, I think, to say here. There is such an obsession sometimes over original authorial intent in the Old Testament that we almost academically, thinking that we’re smart, convince ourselves to not preach Christ from the Old Testament.Jon Moffitt: To go back to explain what you mean by authorial intent, for those who this might be new to if you didn’t grow up a part of a church that does expository teaching or preaching, what Justin is getting at is that when an author like Moses sat down to write the history, inspired by the Spirit, there’s a reason behind their writing. That’s authorial intent. What’s the intention of the author? You can see these things in the epistles, you can hear in the beginning when Paul says, “I’m writing you for this reason.” Even in the gospels, you can see the introductions to the gospels and what they’re writing them for. The argument has been—within conservative, evangelical Calvinistic churches—is that you cannot give any other application than the original intention of that individual author. What we mean by author is Paul, David, Moses, etc.There’s a danger when you read Scripture in that way because it disconnects the Bible as if it’s a library of books that are all of the same time period, and God is a part of them—but they’re not all connected as if there was one theme.Our argument is that according to the New Testament, there is a theme and there is a driving message. We can go to Ephesians 1 and it literally says that before the foundations of the world, God made a pactum, a covenant, that there would be salvation promised to sinners. This was before the first mention of Scripture; this is before creation. We take great heart in that because Paul is saying there’s a greater theme that’s going on; there’s a major theme of what all of Scripture is about. Paul thankfully gives us a good peek into that to say, “This is how you should read your Bible: from a redemption of sinners that unfolds through history.” This is why we use the term that’s been used for many years: redemptive-historical understanding of Scripture.So our argument would be the author of Scriptures, the intention of the author, which is God by means of the Holy Spirit. The authorial intent is redemption. And then you go down into the writer. I would argue the author is God, the writers are the humans; they’re instruments. So the authorial intent is always God and His redemptive plan as revealed to us in Scripture. And then we go down and say, what did the writer say in their context? We don’t want to interpret it in our own means saying, “Well, I can say whatever I want now because the writer just wrote something.” No, the writer wrote it for a purpose, but it’s not disconnected from all of Scripture and God’s authorial plan, which was told to us before.Justin Perdue: A few comments here. 1 Peter 1:10-12 in that area. The apostle there makes it clear. I’ll just read 1 Peter 1:10 and following: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” That’s 1 Peter 1:10-12. What that is saying is that the prophets of old, as they wrote down things inspired of the Holy Spirit, did not fully, in their humanity, understand everything that they were writing. That right there has to be taken into consideration when we have this conversation about original authorial intent.Did Moses understand everything that he wrote completely in terms of how it pointed to Christ and would be fulfilled in Jesus? No, he didn’t. Did Isaiah in Isaiah 53 fully understand what was going to happen? No, he didn’t. So if you are going to govern yourself by what Isaiah or Moses or David or whoever understood then you’re going to gut the Scriptures of their ultimate meaning that point to Christ and his work for sinners to save us. That’s just one thing for us to keep in mind.Here are two examples that I think are very illustrative and perhaps provocative when it comes to this conversation. They are both from the pen of the apostle Paul. 1 Corinthians 10, in particular, verse four is where I want to get. But I’m going to begin with chapter 10 in verse one and read it real quick. Paul says, “For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” That is a reference to Exodus 17. Now, in Exodus 17, what’s happening? In verse four of 1 Corinthians 10, it’s a reference to that chapter; in Exodus 17, the people had been brought out of Egypt, they’ve been brought through the Red Sea, and they are grumbling because they’re thirsty. And Moses says to God, “What am I supposed to do with these people?” Basically. And God says, “I will stand before you there on the rock of Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” and Paul is saying that that rock and the water that came out of it is about Jesus.Can you imagine in an Old Testament class or in a hermeneutics class, if a student in many seminaries today were to preach that text or to write an expositional paper on Exodus 17 and to ultimately make the point of that. “Well, Jesus is the point of this.” You will get a failing grade in many seminary classes because that is irresponsible hermeneutics and exegesis of the text. But that’s what the apostle Paul does.Another passage that perhaps is even more illustrative of what we’re talking about is Ephesians 4:7 and following. Paul has just been talking about how there’s unity in the church. Then he goes on to say, he’s going to talk now about how each of us have been given gifts for the use of the body and for the building of the body. He says, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,” and he is referencing now Psalm 68, “‘When he ascended on high he led a host of cap his, and he gave gifts to men.'” And then he goes on to talk about how that’s ultimately about Jesus giving gifts to the church.If a person were to read Psalm 68, that psalm is about God being enthroned on Mount Sinai, traveling from the wilderness to Mount Sinai and being thrown on Mount Sinai. We would be looking at that again in an Old Testament class, an exegesis situation, or a hermeneutics class. And if someone were to stand up and say, “Hey, that right there—God being enthroned on the mountain—what that’s ultimately about is Jesus Christ and his ascension. And then it’s about him giving gifts to the church.” Again, I think that many people would be rebuked for such an interpretation. I think Paul himself would have gotten an F in many seminary classes for saying that that’s what this is ultimately about. He would be scolded to consider original authorial intent. “Paul, what are you doing?” These are the things that we’re talking about, and we could give a dozen, 20, or 30 more examples like that from the New Testament and how the apostles write. And so all we’re contending for today is for us to interpret the Scriptures just like Paul. Let’s look to the Old Testament and when we preach the old Testament, let’s preach it asking this question: where does this text stand in relation to Christ? It’s so helpful because then we are kept from moralizing.Think 1 Corinthians 10, Exodus 17. We can talk about the people grumbling, we can talk about our sin and all those kinds of things, and we can talk about God’s provision for the things that people need. But ultimately, what are we going to leave people with? That God in His grace—not only has He already rescued people from bondage to Egypt, which is a pointer to the rescue that’s going to come from our bondage to Satan and sin, not only has He brought the people safely through the Red Sea, which is a pointer to baptism and how we’ve been brought safely through water. But now He’s sustaining His people in the wilderness while they are sojourners. And He is saying that the water that He gives for their sustenance is ultimately about Jesus Christ himself. That’s what we can say. It’s so wonderful. It’s beautiful.Jon Moffitt: In Sam Reniham’s book, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom, chapter 13 on the mystery of Christ is really helpful in this because that is what we’re dealing with: the revelation of the mystery of the Messiah and the final consummation where Jesus does finally show up from type to antitype, or from shadow to substance.I want to allow Justin and I to speak into this for a moment where it does change two things: I think it changes God in the way in which God interacts with you and His Word, and number two, I think it allows the Word of God to come alive. My kids love putting together puzzles. They’re up there right now. It’s summer break and they don’t have school. I wake up and they’re out there putting together a puzzle, which I don’t do. To me, I’d rather read a book or something. Puzzles just seem puzzling to me. But if I were to go in there and flip the puzzle upside down where all the color is now gone and there are only shapes, they could painstakingly, and probably with not a lot of joy, put that together. It’s going to be confusing and they could get the outer border and the frame down. But after that, it’s just not gonna be as enjoyable because part of the puzzle is seeing the progress. That’s how most people read the Bible; they don’t see the picture, they don’t have the box cover, and they are not looking at the live colors of the illustration. They hear about how powerful the Word of God is, they hear about how wonderful it is, but what they look at is a puzzle turned upside down. I can see the general idea; I know the corner pieces are obvious, but the rest of it doesn’t make sense.What we’re trying to say is once someone introduced to us the historical understanding—and this is how the Word of God has been taught and read for hundreds of years—all of a sudden, we couldn’t stop putting the puzzle pieces together and seeing Christ come to life as the Old Testament reveals him.Justin Perdue: You just talked about power. People were told that the Word of God is powerful. Last I checked, Jesus Christ is the power of God: the gospel and the message of Christ and his cross are the power of God unto salvation. If the word of God is powerful, which it is, and if the word of God accomplishes its work, which it does, ought we not herald the one that the Word is about, who is described as the power of God, the wisdom of God, our Redeemer, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption? Yes. We should preach him. I get geeked up about this, which is probably evident even on this podcast today.I’m going to continue to illustrate some of this just to maybe demonstrate my excitement over this and how this fires me up. I’m saying this publicly so I’m bound to this forever: if someone were to push me on my favorite book of the Bible, I usually say whichever one I’m reading and studying or preaching through at the moment. It’s my favorite because it’s on the front of my mind. But I think I am at a place finally in my life where if somebody told me to pick one book, it is unquestionably the book of Hebrews for me at this point because of this very reality.What’s the book of Hebrews about? It’s about Christ and how he’s greater than everything and how he’s the point of it all. The writer is telling people, “Don’t go back to the law. Don’t neglect such a great salvation and go back to the law. You know why? Because Jesus is greater than the law. He’s greater than angels. He’s greater than Moses. He’s greater than Aaron. The law, the sacrificial system, the priesthood, and the whole nine yards: all of that was about Jesus Christ. He has accomplished your salvation. He has once and for all made an atonement for your sins. He is seated at the right hand of God in the heavens and he’s coming back. He’s got you and you’ve been given a Kingdom that can never be shaken. It’s ultimately all about Jesus and what he’s done for you. And so now, in full assurance of faith, draw near to the throne of God with confidence and boldness.” What a wonderful message. That’s one.Another one is John 6. This just pops into my brain and it encourages me to no end. This illustrates our point too: when Jesus has given this whole business to people about how he’s the bread of life, and how he’s the bread that came down from heaven, he references the manna in the wilderness. He says your fathers were fed with bread from heaven. How many people, in preaching manna from the Old Testament, are gonna preach Christ? Because we should. As Jesus spoke about it, he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven. Just like your fathers were sustained in the wilderness by heavenly bread, you and your pilgrimage on this earth will be sustained by me. You need to eat my flesh and drink my blood because I am true food and true drink for you.” He’s pointing to the Lord’s Supper, but ultimately he’s talking about union with him, how he is our nourishment, and how he is what we need.This is just another example of how we often are not taught from the whole Bible everything that Christ understood the Scriptures to be saying about him. When I come to the Scriptures and when I sit under the Word, I need instruction on wisdom. I need instruction on things that I need to avoid doing because they’ll wreck my life. I need instruction on things that I should pursue because it will be good for me. I need good teaching on God’s law so that I understand what God requires and how I have not met the test. But ultimately, what do I need and what do you need when we come to the Scriptures? We need Christ proclaimed to us because he’s the only hope for sinners—and he is everywhere.I’ve said this before and I just want to clarify. Forgive me for being excited about all this, but when we talk about preaching the Bible and understanding the Bible this way, we are not saying that the Bible is a Where’s Waldo? book, Jesus is Waldo, and on every page, we’re trying to find him hidden underneath words and rocks and everything else. It’s not what we’re saying, but we are asking the questions of the text, always knowing that everything in the Bible is oriented toward and around Christ. And so then we preach that way and we understand it that way. To your point, Jon, it makes the Bible come alive.There’s actually good news all throughout. Because if I’m only told about wisdom or if I’m only given law, there’s no good news in that. Or if I’m only told that God is holy and God is good, or if I’m only told that Jesus is Lord, there is no inherent good news in that for me because I’m a sinner. You’ve got to give me the whole thing and you got to tie it together for me with Christ as my Savior.Jon Moffitt: If I were to hand you a drill that’s got a screwdriver bit in it and there’s no battery in it, and you’re over there and you’re twisting it, you’re getting the job done. You’re using it like a screwdriver. That’s how most people see the Old Testament. They understand it’s supposed to screw or unscrew something. Then I walk over, I pop a battery in, I hit a button and I say, “Watch this. Your mind is going to explode at the capacities and the abilities of how much more you’re going to be able to accomplish.” That is understanding the Old Testament in light of the power of the New Testament.One more passage I want to give as an example of this is 2 Corinthians 1:20 where it says, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” He just summarized the Old Testament. The Old Testament is just one massive unfolding promise. It started with Adam, clarified with Abraham, moving on to David and Solomon, and all the way through the prophets. And he says, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” So Paul in the beginning of his letter in 2 Corinthians, he’s concluding for you that Jesus is the finality of all that has been written. He is it; he is the point. There’s nothing wrong with asking how this promise is connected to the greater reality of Christ. So when we look at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets and all of that, he says all the promises of God. All of them. If Paul didn’t mean to say that, he should have clarified it like “some of the promises of God”. But he says, “all of them” are pointed in a redemptive nature to a Person of redemption who saves sinners. It is exhilarating to go back and read a book full of, you can say fantasy, but it’s not fantasy, but it feels like fantasy, because there’s so many miraculous texts in there. It’s Narnia on steroids.When you go, “Hey, this is God showing how He’s going to fulfill the promise of a Messiah, and Paul already told us it’s going to happen. So let’s go back and watch it over,” now you have one conclusion. You begin to read the Bible as one story, promise, and one covenant after another of God always being faithful. Even when the children of Israel went down to one person, God was still faithful to preserve His seed, to preserve His promise in the midst of debauchery and sin and absolute chaos. God is still in control. You look at the death of Christ, which is utter chaos, and yet John says that was according to the plan.Justin Perdue: Well, how many times does it look like the light is going out on redemption as you read the Scriptures? I just preached the account of Noah and the flood not long ago because we’re in Genesis right now, and the line of the promise is down to one guy and his family. There are going to be other points like David and Goliath: is redemption about to be over if this giant kills this guy? What’s going to happen? And that happens over and over again in the Bible. Ultimately that’s about God and what He’s doing—this is His movie and we should sit on the edges of our seats with our popcorn and jumbo Coke ready, watch it, and behold what our God has done.This is maybe my closing thought: let’s just say that you watch a really good movie for the first time and you’re watching all these things unfold. Then you get to that point in the movie where this thing happens that makes everything that happened before it clear. It makes everything that happened before it obvious. Everything that you were watching for the last two hours was about this. It changes everything for you in terms of how you think about that movie.Jon Moffitt: Can I give one example? The Village.Justin Perdue: Exactly. That’s a good illustration of what we’re discussing today. Jon, if you go back and watch The Village tonight, you’re going to watch it knowing that, and it’s going to change how you see it, because you’re going to identify all of these things throughout the movie before that revelation really occurs—and we read our Bibles that way now because we’ve been told the point of it all, and we’ve been shown how to read it by the apostles and by Christ himself. Why on earth would we go back and read the Scriptures that were written before Christ came as though he isn’t the point? We shouldn’t.It’s kind of crazy. And I think it’s just a joyful and joyous experience for people when you read and study the Scriptures, or you sit under preaching, where it becomes very clear that there are sermons about Christ all throughout the Old Testament. What a wonderful book the Bible is.Jon Moffitt: I know you’re going to take us into the Semper Reformanda and explain what it is, but in there, I would like to talk about the dangers of not reading your Bible this way and how modern day history, through different biblical interpretation models that have been given to us, have actually caused pietism, legalism, doubt, fear, and anxiety when it relates to the Old Testament, instead of hope and joy.Justin Perdue: We’ll have that conversation. Saints, if we’re going to leave you with one final thought today, it’s that read your Bible, study it, and sit under the preaching of God’s Word knowing that the whole Bible is about your Savior who died for you, who atoned for your sin, in whom you died to the law and your penalty has been dealt with, and he is the one who provided you with righteousness and you’re secure in him. Read your Bibles that way and they’ll come alive, we pray, for you.We are now headed into our Semper Reformanda podcast. This is a second podcast that we record every week for people that have partnered with our ministry. If you’re not familiar with Semper Reformanda and what it is, you can go over to our website theocast.org, and you will find all the information that you need to know about Semper Reformanda over there. We would encourage you, if you’ve not already done so, to go check that out and consider joining the Reformation as we seek to spread this message of the sufficiency of Christ and the rest that is ours in him as far and wide as possible. We would love for you to lock arms with us.For many of you that are listening to the regular podcast and will not be listening to the other one, we’ll talk with you again next week. For those of you Semper Reformanda folks, we’ll talk with you guys in just a moment. 

Justin talks about the thing that has most impacted his preaching. Jon and Justin then discuss how important it is to see that every promise of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Jesus. This content is for our members only. Visit the site and log in/register to read.

Zechariah 3:1-10 A Picture of Christ In The Old Testament

Jon and Justin talk about the goodness and the sweetness of confessional theology--as well as the confusion and harm that exists outside of it. This content is for our members only. Visit the site and log in/register to read.

Is there any Christ in your Genesis? The book of Genesis is often mishandled. Peripheral things are over-emphasized and the main point is lost. Jon and Justin talk about Genesis from a redemptive-historical, covenantal, and Christ-centered perspective.Semper Reformanda Podcast: Jon and Justin take a deeper dive into covenant theology and the book of Genesis. It is our perspective that Genesis cannot be rightly understood apart from a covenantal framework. We aim to explain how and why.Resources:Our Covenant Theology teaching seriesBook study on Sam Renihan’s bookOur episode: Is Your Theological System Any Good?Ask Theocast: GENESIS: About Creation? A Science Book? NEITHER?!?! Book Giveaway: “Grace in Despair” by Dianna CarrollSUPPORT Theocast: https://theocast.org/give/ FACEBOOK: Theocast: https://www.facebook.com/Theocast.org TWITTER: Theocast: https://twitter.com/theocast_org INSTAGRAM: Theocast: https://www.instagram.com/theocast_org/  Podcast TranscriptJustin Perdue: Hi, this is Justin. Let me begin by asking you a question: is there any Jesus in your Genesis? Today on Theocast, Jon and I are going to be talking about the book of Genesis, the ways that it is often mishandled, and how we often miss the main point of that wonderful book. We’re going to look at Genesis today from a redemptive-historical perspective, from a covenantal perspective with Jesus at the center. We hope it’s encouraging for you.We’re going to take a deeper dive into covenant theology over in Semper Reformanda, and how that relates to our understanding of Genesis. We hope all of this is helpful and encouraging to you. Stay tuned.For those who listen to us all the time, you might be ready for what I’m going to say: we talk about redemptive-historical theology and the redemptive-historical framework of the Bible. We talk about covenant theology and we talk about a very Christ-centered way to understand the entirety of Scripture.Today, we’re going to put some of those tools to work, and we’re going to have a conversation about the very first book of the Bible—and that’s obviously none other than the book of Genesis. There are many takes on the book of Genesis in our day. There are a lot of things said about it that, we don’t want to bury the lead here, that Jon and I find to be a little bit less than helpful and confusing. And the main point of Genesis, we fear, is often lost because of some of these peripheral things that often become the focus. In particular, what we want to do today is be able to talk about Jesus from the book of Genesis.The episode title, if you’ve already looked at it, is There is No Jesus in Your Genesis, Sir, which is a reference to a Charles Spurgeon quote, a paraphrase of the Charles Spurgeon quote, where he said, “No Christ in your sermon, sir? Go home and never preach again until you have something worth saying.”So we’re going to talk about the book of Genesis today on a number of levels. We’re going to begin by just talking about some of the things that are often the focus of evangelicalism when it comes to the book of Genesis and hopefully have a little fun; we have a little fun in a gracious way and point out how that’s less than helpful.And then we’re going to pivot and talk about the ways that we think we should understand the book. I hope that this is mega encouraging for the listener as we think about how God the Son is all over the place in the book of Genesis.Jon Moffitt: What is the book of Genesis about? I asked this to my kids the other day just to test them out. Justin has his hands way up in the air. And the common answer is…Justin Perdue: Creation.Jon Moffitt: Creation. That’s right. What is interesting is Justin, you’re preaching through the book. I’ll throw you on the spot here. How many chapters are in Genesis?Justin Perdue: 50.Jon Moffitt: 50. And how many of those chapters are in reference to creation?Justin Perdue: Two.Jon Moffitt: That’s right.Justin Perdue: I’ve got my hand raised. Can I make some comments? Ask me what Genesis is about.Jon Moffitt: We’ll get there. We’ll get there.I grew up influenced by what’s called an evidentialist apologetic. For those of you that are new to Theocast, or maybe new to this whole idea, apologetics is to give an answer. You’re not apologizing for something because you feel sorry, but it’s to provide an answer. And there are two different categories of apologetics: you have evidentialist, meaning that with enough evidence you can provide solid truth so that someone can make a logical decision to follow Christ. So apologetic through evidence. And then Justin, what would be the opposite of an apologetic perspective?Justin Perdue: Presuppositionalist perspective? That means we understand that there are presuppositions that must be maintained and held if one is going to see these truths as legitimate and valid, and ultimately, given that we understand that God is the one who grants us true wisdom and sight by His grace, we understand that we’re not going to reason anybody into the kingdom of God and that God must do a work in someone’s life in order to cause them, help them, by His grace to see these things as true.Jon Moffitt: Right. Those are the two perspectives. The one I came from was an evidentialist perspective. We’re going to be as kind as we can be here, but this is the reality. We always try. We’re sinners and we often need to repent.Anyways, what you end up getting into is an evolution/creation debate, and we use the Bible—specifically the book of Genesis—as a science textbook, or as you like to say, a documentary on creation. We then go through and we try to prove the legitimacy of creation, which I understand and I would agree with, that we can look at science to see the glory of God and to strengthen and encourage our faith. There’s nothing wrong with that. But as we do with any text of the Bible, we need to always ask two very important questions: who is the audience and what’s the author’s intention of writing to that audience? And that will tell you the purpose of the book.Justin Perdue: And alongside that, as the divine Author of the entire Bible, what is God meaning for us to understand here too? And I know you agree.Jon Moffitt: Right. The hard part about when we’re thinking about Genesis is that we immediately focus on the scientific/historical side of it—and it is important. If you don’t have a historical Adam and Eve, you’re going to be falling off into heresy after chapter 2. So we have a problem.We understand the debate; this is not what this debate is about. We hold to a historic understanding of Adam and Eve, but when it comes down to our understanding of Genesis, because we have created such an evidentialist/this is an evolution-creation debate, we miss the whole point of why Genesis was written and the purpose of Genesis in modern day life. Our life today, as a believer—what is it supposed to be for us? There’s the Creation Museum, we’ve got the big ark over in Kentucky, and people would ask me what my thoughts are on that. I think there are some helpful things there for Christians. They can go there and be encouraged. It’s a lot of money. I don’t know if I would have spent all that money on that. So if someone wants to give me multi-millions of dollars, I probably will use it for something else. But I’m not here to judge—I don’t live far from Kentucky, so probably one day I’ll take my kids to go see it.Justin Perdue: I’ll even go so far as to say, in a slightly more joke-ish, punchy way, that if the initial thought bubbles that go up from your head when the book of Genesis is mentioned is creation versus evolution, if you immediately think Creation Museum and you immediately think Ark in Kentucky, then this podcast is for you. With all due respect, not that those things are bad. And like Jon said, there’s a time and a place for some of these debates and conversations. There are useful things, I’m sure. Going to the Creation Museum or going to the ark in Kentucky could be a great experience to have with your family. I also don’t think that Christians that don’t go are going to be missing out on something that is somehow just essential to our faith because the point of the book of Genesis is something entirely different.I’ll go ahead and say this really quickly before we get into more of the meat of the episode. When you read Genesis 1 and 2, your mind should immediately go to Revelation 21 and 22. Because in reading the account of creation, we are reading that in light of God’s promise of the consummation of redemption and restoration at the end of it. There are striking parallels between those respective chapters at the beginning and end of the Bible. I think this episode is going to maybe flesh out for us why and how that’s the case.It’s sad that we have sort of gotten lost in the weeds—and the concerns that are peripheral at best have become the main focus of our conversation about this book of the Bible. And we miss the main point and are robbed of really edifying and encouraging stuff.Jon Moffitt: Justin, if you don’t mind, I’d like to give the context to Genesis and why it was written, and then we’ll move from that to try and give us a fuller explanation, comparing to what most commentaries and what most people do with Genesis. Then, I think, we’re going to argue the way in which the Bible has used the book of Genesis and we’ll go from there.We need to think about the historical context at this point. I know that this is a little bit snarky, but Genesis was not written the day after creation. Adam didn’t have a pen out and was tracking along.Justin Perdue: It was actually written millennia after.Jon Moffitt: Yes. 2,500 plus years is the estimate of how much recorded history had passed in Genesis before it was given us. So you have to understand why then was it written so far down the line? Let’s just think about the history. To understand Genesis, I would say Genesis is the prologue to Exodus, and in many ways you would want to go read Exodus first because it explains why Genesis exists. I know that the order of the books come in Genesis, Exodus, but it is for this very reason: Moses is the author of the Pentateuch. Moses’ life and story explain the necessity of why these books were written. This is, I would say, the really fast prologue introductions to the whole explanation of Genesis. The people of Israel who had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, they have not only been there that long, but there is no recorded history other than the verbal history that’s been handed to them about Abraham and the promises of Abraham, and they have become flat out polytheists, and it becomes the plague of the nation for the rest of their existence. It’s just horrible. God talks about whoring after other gods and idols constantly with the prophets and even Moses. When they’re brought out, Moses is up on the mountain. He comes back and what are they doing? They’re worshiping another golden calf. So you have an issue of polytheism. When Moses leaves and he goes up on the mountain and brings back the 10 commandments, what’s the first commandment? “You should have no other gods before me”, which is the issue Israel is going to face. When Moses begins to write this, he’s not writing this with the absence of reality. In Egyptian history, the tradition was that there wasn’t one god who created everything; there were multiple gods.Justin Perdue: And that was true of all the ancient Near Eastern creation accounts.Jon Moffitt: So Moses is writing in such a way that it’s shocking to say that in the beginning, Yahweh, one God, created all things. You have to understand that there is definitely an apologetic going on. It’s polytheism, not evolution, that he’s going after. This is a monotheistic religion that Moses is introducing to a polytheistic people.Justin Perdue: Sure. A few comments here on not only Moses writing it, but what he’s doing. As we’ve already said, Genesis is historical and Moses is writing redemptive history, and it’s really important that we understand that. That’s why I say it’s not a documentary, it’s not a history textbook. It’s not written like that.Two things can be true at the same time, and I think this is worth mentioning: we can uphold the fact that even the account of creation is written in a very beautiful and literary way, and at the same time, uphold its historicity. Those things are not mutually exclusive. I know sometimes people lose their minds when we start to talk about the literary elements of the way Moses wrote the book, but he is writing redemptive history for the people of Israel. And like you said, Jon, if anything, the creation account in Genesis is written as a polemic against not only polytheism generally, but also specifically against other creation myths that would have existed. It’s very clear as you study it because there are very interesting distinctions between Genesis and these other accounts of creation, and those distinctions make all the difference. They’re too coincidental to be a coincidence. So Moses knows what he’s doing.Now, is Genesis—and the Bible in general—useful in speaking to atheism? Yeah, because in the Bible, it’s very clear that people have denied the existence of God forever. The fool says in his heart that there is no God and all that. So we’re not saying that one can’t use the Bible to argue against an atheistic worldview, but understand why Genesis was written to the people of Israel originally. I think it does matter.Jon Moffitt: I do not feel the necessity, at any moment, when I am dealing with unbelievers or even the atheist to prove to them the evidence of science or use science to prove Scripture. And the reason I have to say that is Paul is very clear that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God. That’s Proverbs. But Paul has also said that the unbeliever will look at the Word of God, specifically the gospel, and call it foolish.Justin Perdue: And the unbeliever will suppress the truth about God and unrighteousness. Romans 1. So, clearly, God has to do a work in a person’s heart and mind in order for the person to ever see God’s existence is true and good.Jon Moffitt: Now, does that mean that any efforts at apologetics, when it relates to creation and all that, is of no value? No.Justin Perdue: We want to clear up misunderstanding.Jon Moffitt: That’s right. I just think we need to be very careful that we don’t use Genesis in a way it was not intended to be used. If you think that God wrote that so that we could prove to the evolutionists they’re wrong, evolution didn’t come around until many, many, many years later.Justin Perdue: Let’s talk about Genesis and what it’s about. What is Genesis about? Short answer: Genesis is about redemption. Because that’s what the whole Bible is about. It is also more specifically about redemption accomplished through God the Son who took on flesh, and that is in view all throughout the book of Genesis.Let’s begin with the account of creation in Genesis 1:1 and following. Is Jesus in Genesis? Is God the Son in Genesis, even Genesis 1? Absolutely. He is. We should not read Genesis one without thinking of some other passages of Scripture. So when we read in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God…” our mind should immediately go to John 1. “In the beginning,” the exact same construction, “was the Word,” who is the divine Word, God the Son, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” So in that sense, God the Son is the beginning of all things in terms of this world, and he is the agent of creation through whom the whole thing is made.Jon Moffitt: I would say that we need to, I would say as the Reformers do, but I would argue as the apostles do, they use the New Testament in order to interpret and explain the Old Testament. This is a great example of that.Justin Perdue: A couple of other texts just for our encouragement: Colossians 1:16 about Jesus. “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”Jon Moffitt: Did the readers of Genesis, when Moses wrote the Pentateuch, fully understand that?Justin Perdue: Of course not. Did Moses understand it fully?Jon Moffitt: Probably not.Justin Perdue: This is an epic thought: the writer of the Hebrews, at the beginning of his letter, he says that God has spoken to us at various times in various ways through the prophets, etc. “But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. . . through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Think about that thought, that the one through whom all things were made is the very one who takes on flesh to go and live in that world, suffer in that world, bleed in that world, and die in that world in order to save sinners. I think it’s legit that we see that from the opening tip of Scripture. Genesis 1:1—there it is. “In the beginning, God….” We have God the Son present, and we need to think about God the Son and his redemptive work that he would do, connecting it to these other passages in the Bible.Jon Moffitt: I would say there are two ways in which Genesis has been read, but they come to the same conclusions. When the children of Israel would hear the law read over them constantly and they would memorize it, they would write it upon the tables of their heart—all of the commands that we have given to us and Deuteronomy—they would hear it as the same way: it is the history of redemption. The reason is that in Exodus, they just entered into a covenant with a God they really don’t know much about. And Moses says, “Here’s the God you just entered into covenant with. He is the creator. He’s also the one who made the promise to restore that which was broken.”So Moses, through the inspiration of the Spirit, is explaining how they got from creation to Egypt, and explaining the faithfulness of God along the way. I will say that the most important part of the story of Genesis is the fall, because the question then becomes, one, we know that there is sin because everyone experiences it. Moses just explains how it got here. And then the greatest part about Genesis is that you have the Creator of the universe, and now you’re going to have the restoration by the Creator.Justin Perdue: He’s the Restorer of the universe.Jon Moffitt: In the mind of the reader, the question has to be, “Who is the seed of Eve?” Because when he shows up, then all will be made right. That’s the question the reader has.Justin Perdue: And we’re going to get to that promise in just a minute. But I think you’re right. I think it’s important for people to see that the work of redemption is effectively the work of re-creation. That’s what God is about. We’re just going to pepper some stuff in here from the early chapters of Genesis. Even in verses three through five where God creates light, I think this is significant. And I think it preaches a sermon about Christ. Because there is light in the universe now, and light only comes from God—without God, there’s darkness—but there’s light that exists without the sun being created yet. And people sometimes lose their minds and wig out. How is there light without the sun? Have you read the book of Revelation? Have you read Revelation 21 where we’re told that the Heavenly City has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb.Jesus, also according to John’s gospel, in him, in the Word was life, and that life was the light of men, the true light that enlightens everyone who is coming into the world. So Christ is described that way. He’s going to literally be the light of the new heavens and the new earth. So we ought to see that in the early chapters of Genesis: there’s light that exists apart from the sun. It’s preaching Christ to us.Last thing, if you’ll allow me from the creation account early there. The seventh day, the Sabbath day; it’s a very unique day because all the other six days have this common refrain of “there was evening,” “there was morning,” “the first, second, third, etc. day.” The seventh day doesn’t have that refrain. Many Christians through history have understood that to be a pointer to Christ because that seventh day is awaiting its fulfillment, and that seventh day of our Sabbath rest finds its yes and amen in Christ. In particular, it’s fulfilled when Jesus would lay in a tomb outside Jerusalem. 1500 years after Moses wrote these words, he’s going to lay in a tomb outside Jerusalem on the seventh day of the week because his work is done. Redemption is over. Sin is atoned for. Righteousness fulfilled. And he’s going to get up from the dead on the next day to usher us into the new creation. And then the writer to the Hebrews picks up on that and tells us that we have entered into God’s Sabbath rest when we cease from our working, like God rested from His. And we know that Christ is the fulfillment of that rest that we are promised forever, but it’s already ours in Him.Genesis 1 and the early verses of Genesis two—we should read these in light of Christ and what God is going to do through him if we’re going to read Genesis like Christians.Jon Moffitt: Genesis is a Christian book, just to be clear. The Old Testament is a Christian book. I mentioned there are two ways to read it: first of all, it’s treated as an Israelite who understands that God is the one redeeming them and they’re looking forward to the seed of Eve, and then it comes through the seed of Abraham, and so we gain clarity. You have the promise and then you have the narrative of humanity about how they just constantly prove they are in desperate need of restoration, or I would say rescuing. You get to the flood and God says no one is righteous, and so He abolishes the world. And then just like anybody would ever think, if we could start all over and just get rid of all the bad people, God proved that won’t work. Because the problem is not with the current people on the earth; the problem is that it’s in the heart or in the seed of man—it’s passed down.Justin Perdue: If we’re going to talk about Adam and Noah, Noah is a type of Adam. God wipes humanity off the face of the earth because He sees that the inclinations of man’s heart is only evil continually in Genesis 6. After the flood, God has hit the reset button but the problem with Noah is that he’s too much like Adam. Basically, sin remains. We even see one of Noah’s sons is cursed, like God cursed humanity, the snake, and the whole creation in the garden. Just hitting the reset button and wiping people off the earth is not going to fix this. There’s something more fundamentally at issue here.Jon Moffitt: The second way it’s read, as modern day Christians, is that we have the whole Canon now, and we allow the New Testament interpretation of the book of Genesis to be the filter by which we then go back and read and say with full confidence that Genesis is the introduction of Jesus to us, not only of the Father, but Jesus, the Creator and Sustainer of the world. And not only that, but the Spirit that moved upon the water. So we allow the New Testament to be read now as redemptive as well, but we read it as seeing that it’s the fulfillment of Jesus and how we get Jesus to this point. I think, as an Israelite or as a modern day Christian, we both read Genesis from a redemptive historical understanding of Scripture because it’s how we get Jesus.Justin Perdue: It’s a great observation. You have the Trinity in the first two verses of Genesis 1, because you have the Father, and then the Son is the agent of creation, and the Spirit hovering over the face of the deep. That’s a pretty cool thought, too.Going back to the garden and thinking about Adam and Eve, covenants and promises, and the like… Jon, let’s not bury the lead here. We are convinced, and we’re going to talk about this in Semper Reformanda in detail, that it is impossible to rightly understand Genesis apart from a covenantal framework—and that’s a big deal. More on that over in Semper Reformanda. We’re going to talk a little bit about some of this stuff right now. So God makes Adam and Eve in His own image, and then God makes a covenant with Adam where He gives him things that he is to do, and He gives him prohibitions—one prohibition in particular that there’s a particular tree that he’s not to eat of, and He gives a sanction: “If you break this covenant that I’ve made with you, then in the day that you break it, you’ll surely die.” Adam, in that sense, is serving as the representative of the entire human race. And when he falls into sin, he plunges all of humanity and all of the creation into sin and ruin along with him.How do we know this is true? We could go a number of places, but we can go to the book of Romans where Paul connects all of these things for us, and we see that through one man’s disobedience, all of this wreckage and ruin has come upon us. But then through the obedience of the new Adam, the second Adam—Christ—that many will be made righteous. And so we can connect Adam and Christ that way, and see that God intended that if Adam had obeyed and had been righteous, that all would have been well with humanity. But because he fell and we fell in him, there now has to be another one who can represent us before God and actually accomplish all of the terms of the covenant that God made with Adam. He is perfectly obedient, he is sinless, he is completely righteous, and then his work is counted to us and he represents us for all of those who are united to him in faith. I don’t think it’s overstating it to say that that promise that God makes to Adam and Eve in the aftermath of the fall, that there will come a seed of the woman who will step on, who will crush the serpent’s head—that is the proto-euangelion, the first promise of the gospel, as it’s often referred to—that is the promise we would say of the covenant of grace.The rest of the entire Bible—it’s a big book, and Genesis 3:15 is only a few pages in—the rest of the entire Bible is the unfolding and the accomplishment of that promise.Jon Moffitt: That’s right. Yes, creation is a big part of it. But I would say I agree with Justin: the covenant of works, and I would call it the first Adam and the last Adam, or he’s also described as the second Adam in that Christ is the fulfillment where Adam failed. And you have Paul mentioning this language and using this language that Jesus is the second Adam. In many ways, that’s what you’re waiting for. You’re waiting for the federal head, meaning the representative of humanity. Federal head is a language that I was introduced to by Reformed theology, and a lot of people struggle with the concept of a federal head, but federal means representative. Because Adam sinned, we are all sinners. We inherited his sin. He is the representative of humanity. If you reject that theology, it’s kind of dangerous because that’s the very thing that Paul says: in Adam all died because he is the original human and his disobedience is now passed on to us. But it also says in Christ, all are made alive.So, you want federal headship because if you don’t have it, then Christ can’t be your representative for righteousness. This doctrine is introduced in the very beginning, in the very first book, and it really becomes the theme. Because you see the federal head and the representative of the effects of it in Genesis 3:16 and following, and all of a sudden, you see the curses that come forward, you see the fallout, and then you also see the promise of the federal head of Christ, the second Adam, which is in the seed. And you see the story of the two seeds, which we would argue is the two covenants—covenant of grace versus covenant of works—Christ being the promise of the covenant of grace. If you want to know what we mean by that, we did a whole five-part series on the covenant of grace or covenant theology. It’ll be in the show notes. So go down there and find that it’s free. Go listen to it. There’s a whole handout. We encourage you to do so.The reason why we mentioned this is that it helps you understand and really flow the narrative, where you’re not trying to find one evidence to prove somebody wrong about history. Number two, you’re not trying to find moral application. Can you find moral application in these texts? Sure. Don’t be like Adam and Eve and disobey God. But you’re missing what’s really happening and the superstar of the story, which is God using Jesus to redeem sinners. That’s the superstory, and there are these stories under that.I will say this: in the dispensational-evidentialist world, it seems like the superstar of the story, which should be Christ, is put down as a subset and everything else becomes a priority, whether it’s the evidence of creation or moralism, the “be like” whoever…Justin Perdue: I would argue that it’s not just in the evidentialist-dispensational world. I agree completely with what you assessed about that world, but I think in other streams within evangelicalism, there are still things that are inappropriate, like there’s an off-centered emphasis. For example, even in thinking about Genesis 2 and the covenant God makes with Adam, I think people are happy in a general sense, to say that Adam represents us and that in his fall he represents us. But there’s not always that obvious connection made with how everything that was lost in Adam and then some is going to be gained for us in Christ. We miss that connection or we emphasize things that are secondary application as though they’re the main takeaway. In Genesis 3 and the account of the fall, how many times have you heard sermons where the emphasis is Adam and Eve doubting God’s word? And that’s the problem. Or Adam didn’t lead Eve like he should have, and that’s the emphasis.I’m not saying that all of that is illegitimate to say at all, but the point of that text is the fall of humanity into sin because our first covenant head and federal head fell and failed in the covenant that God had made with him. And there was a promise immediately upon sin entering the world, and immediately upon us in Adam blowing it—there’s the promise of grace, there’s the promise of Christ in the gospel. And God went, “I’ve got this. I’m going to save a people. You guys, because you have such a thing as freedom of choice, right in the garden, you have blown this. But I’m a Redeemer and I always have been, and I’m good. And there’s one who’s coming.” that needs to be what we preach from Genesis 3. And then as we make our way through the rest of the book, we’re tracing those two lines of the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.And the question that you often will ask, Jon, that I think is a really good one: as we’re reading the rest of the Bible, we’re thinking who that promised seed is. When is he coming? That’s what we’re finding out as it unfolds through farther steps in Revelation, unfolds through the rest of the Old Testament, where we are primed and ready by the time the angels announce to Mary and to Joseph that there’s one coming who’s going to be named Jesus, because he’s going to save his people from their sins. Thank God he’s coming. He’s here.I think that we do people a tremendous disservice when we do not emphasize the redemptive plan of God accomplished through Christ, that has always been the plan not just from Genesis 1, but from before the world began.Jon Moffitt: I would even say what is great when you start having a Christocentric understanding or a redemptive-historical understanding of Scripture, you begin to see the connection. There’s a flow. There’s a cohesiveness to the text. One of the things I love about the grace that’s in the New Testament is absolutely seen in the Old Testament. Here’s a great example: God comes into the garden and says, “Hey, Adam! Where are you?” As if God does not know. It’s like, “Hey, buddy. I know you’re hiding. I know what you just did.” It’s like you caught the kid with the hand in the cookie jar, but it’s far worse than that. You caught them with a bloody knife and he just murdered. What does God do when He promises the seed? What requirement did He put on Adam and Eve?Justin Perdue: Nothing.Jon Moffitt: Nothing. He did one thing: He separated himself from their presence and then said, “Oh, and by the way, not have anything to do with you, but through my providence and my promises, I will then restore your presence back to me.” That’s grace, right? To receive unmerited favor. And it was seen right in the beginning. God not only promises Jesus, but promises Jesus with no strings attached. That’s good news.Justin Perdue: I could talk about this for a long time, but we got to get over to Semper Reformanda. I’ll make a couple of brief comments about something you just raised.What we’ve done today, I hope, with Genesis is maybe begin to show people how they can and should read their entire Old Testament. Because I do think a lot of people approach the Old Testament in a number of ways that are bad. We’ve touched on several. One, for many people, the Old Testament is just like a wasteland: it’s hard, it’s full of law and threats. There is maybe an occasional oasis because there’s a prophecy about the Messiah or some promise of grace or comfort or restoration. But generally speaking, the Old Testament is just hard. We ought not see it that way if we’re looking at it through this Christocentric, redemptive-historical lens. You already talked about our tendency to moralize the Old Testament, where we follow around these Old Testament saints and figure out how to be like them. That’s not a good way to approach the Old Testament.Lastly, I think people tend to approach the Old Testament, and this is probably especially true in a dispensationalist framework with an almost completely law-centered mentality. What are you doing with that? You’re mining through every text to find the things that we need to be doing or the things that we need to not do, and that becomes the point of the message. Here’s the issue: none of that squares with how Jesus understood the Scriptures and none of that squares with how the apostles understood the Scriptures. And remember that for Jesus and the apostles, the Scriptures were the Old Testament. That was their Bible at that time. They understand that whole thing, the Old Testament, to be a testimony about Christ. And so we should certainly understand the book of Genesis that way. And I think we’ve tried to do that this morning as we’ve recorded.So we’re about to make our way over to Semper Reformanda, which is a podcast for those who have partnered with Theocast and have joined the Reformation, as we like to say, to see this message and this theology spread as far and wide as possible. Because Jesus really is enough for us to have peace with God now and forever, and we want as many people to know that rest and that peace is possible. If you don’t even know what Semper Reformanda is, you could find out more information about it and the ways that you could partner with our ministry over at our website, the URL for that is theocast.org. We encourage you to go check out everything we got over there on the site, including how to become a member of Semper Reformanda.Jon Moffitt: And a big part of the membership is online and local groups where you can get together and discuss the podcast each week. So don’t miss out on that.Justin Perdue: Not only are you partnering with us, but we’re trying to create a community where you can love on each other and encourage each other and sharpen each other. So if that sounds good to you, go check it out.We will talk with many of you over there on SR. I think that’s the lingo we’re using these days.Jon Moffitt: And what are we talking about?Justin Perdue: How a covenantal framework is essential to our understanding of Genesis, and in a lot of ways the Bible, but especially Genesis.All right. We’ll see you over there guys. 

Christ is the greater David, and David's victory over the giant Goliath was a pre-cursor to the victory of Jesus over the serpent.

11_04_20 Christ In The Old Testament (13) [Ps Jon] by Maretul Har UK

Christ In The Old Testament (12) [Ps Jon] by Maretul Har UK

Today, we examine the majesty of our God. We also discover how a Sovereign God weaved a tapestry of a coming King that would be a direct descendent of King David. David knew it as a promise...a promise for his day but as it turns out our day as well..

Today, we examine the majesty of our God. We also discover how a Sovereign God weaved a tapestry of a coming King that would be a direct descendent of King David. David knew it as a promise...a promise for his day but as it turns out our day as well..

Associate Pastor Leon encourages us to seek the beauty of Christ in the Old Testament.

Listen to sermons from Reformation Bible Church!

Listen to sermons from Reformation Bible Church!

Warren Wiersbe continues his series called "Christ In The Old Testament". This week he teaches from Exodus chapter 12 on the passover.

Warren Wiersbe continues his series called "Christ In The Old Testament". This week he teaches from the Passage in Exodus 16 on the Lord sending bread from heaven.

Warren Wiersbe continues his series called "Christ In The Old Testament". This week he teaches from the Passage in Exodus 16 on the Lord sending bread from heaven.

Warren Wiersbe continues his series called "Christ In The Old Testament", this week Dr Wiersbe teaches out of Joshua chapter 20 on the city of refuge.

Warren Wiersbe begins a new series called "Christ In The Old Testament", this week dr wiersbe teaches out of Exodus 17

Warren Wiersbe continues his series called "Christ In The Old Testament", this week Dr Wiersbe teaches out of Numbers chapter 21.

Warren Wiersbe begins a new series called "Christ In The Old Testament", this week dr wiersbe teaches out of Isaiah 53.

Psalm 45 is a prophetic poem concerning the glory of Jesus Christ as He defeats His enemies and is united to His Bride, the Church.

Eight Essential Elements of the Biblical Christian Gospel Series. Types and images of Christ in the historical narrative of Israel.

Eight Essential Elements of the Biblical Christian Gospel Series. Why recounting the history of Israel in presenting the Gospel is important.

Old Testament Optimization Series, Chapter 1. All of the Old Testament points forward to Christ. Christ is not only revealed in the prophecies of the Old Testament, but also in the story of Israel, the Law of God, and the Wisdom Literature.

Old Testament Optimization Series, Chapter 1. All of the Old Testament points forward to Christ. The first two ways to see Christ in the Old Testament are through the four Old Testament offices and through the prophecies that Christ fulfilled.

This message on Why Jesus Christ is God, ultimately becomes a bridge to the 5 part series entitled -Christ in the Old Testament- found in Danny Bond's Word Transfer series section here on Sermon Audio.----In this message John moves to witnesses of Christ as God. Danny runs out of time on his 3rd point -The Witness of Scripture.- ----Picking up where he left off, Pastor Danny ends up giving us what is now the 5 part series -Christ in the Old Testament.- An extremely eye opening--study.----That series officially completes GOSPEL OF JOHN VOLUME 1.----After this message before us now, we refer you the series CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT... to complete Gospel of John Volume 1, with a total of 40 messages.----John chapter 6 will begin Gospel of John Volume 2.----Tell a friend about this unique in-depth journey we are enjoying through the Gospel of John. ----We encourage you to invite a friend, or a home group of friends, to listen with you. May God bless you abundantly as you listen.----We are delighted to make available our Word Transfer podcast in iTunes through Sermon Audio. Take a few minutes - Subscribe today- Simply log into iTunes. Do a search on Danny Bond and click -Subscribe- when you see The Word Transfer logo. Then go to Podcasts in your iTunes and start downloading-

Psalm 1 part 3: The Way of the Righteous

Psalm 1 part 2: The Fruit of the Humble Heart