Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Never Read the Bible Without the Jesus Paradigm

Scripture looks like Jesus. If it doesn't your not reading Scripture.

There are lots of prophets that came before Jesus. They told Israel certain things about what the living God was like, where Israel stood in regard to his plan and work. These prophets point forward to Jesus, and can be fully understood only when you have seen Jesus, "gotten" him, and then looked back and dealt with the prophets under the new paradigm that Jesus has inaugurated, with his person and character at the center.

There are also lots of laws and rules that came before Jesus. These were so that Israel would have a picture of the living God, and be able to bring their corporate identity under the character, work, and plan of God. So to speak: God[subscript]Israel. These laws, and this character, cannot be understood or applied without first re-calibrating your understanding to the paradigm that Jesus presents to you.

There were a bunch of letters written after Jesus lived. They were written to groups of people trying to follow Jesus, by followers of Jesus. These letters cannot be read properly without a clear, rock-hard agenda to affirm and walk out....Jesus.

There was also this one prophecy written by a follower of Jesus, the source of much debate and agonizing among Christians ever since. It's really a lot simpler than they have made it. The prophecy, called The Revelation of John, is simply a vision of Jesus. His return, and his establishment of an eternal Kingdom in which he reigns. This prophecy cannot be understood(and it certainly wasn't written) without an unshakable commitment to the paradigm through which Jesus understood God, the Church, and world events. The paradigm makes the interpretation.

The paradigm, people, the paradigm....It's Jesus!

No comments: