OUR PURPOSE AND AIM
Scripture reveals to us that the highest reason for which God does anything is His own glory. Nothing can be higher in God’s purposes than Himself alone. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. - Isaiah 48:11 Thus, the ultimate end (τέλος) for the existence of creation is towards that glory. That is, God created all things for the exhibition and enjoyment of His glory. Thus, in all things, God is moving them towards the achievement of that glory . That glory, we see chiefly in God’s grace revealed in the redemptive work of the Son who became man to give His human life as a ransom for His people. It is this perspective that drives the purpose of this Bible study, which therefore is for us to come to know and love the glory of God as He has revealed Himself in His Word. The Westminster Shorter Catechism captures it well: What is the chief end of man? Man’ s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. WSC #1 Our aim is thus to have our hearts enlightened to the knowledge and glory of God (Hab 2:14, Eph 1:16-20)
How this study works
Serious Bible studies oftentimes either work exegetically through a specific book in the Bible or consider various important Biblical doctrines (systematic theology) revealed through Scripture. This Bible study will follow the redemptive history, i.e., the plotline of Scripture to achieve the abovementioned purpose and aim. Theologians call this a Biblical-theological approach. Biblical theology is not concerned to state the final doctrines which go to make up the content of Christian belief, but rather to describe the process by which revelation unfolds and moves toward the goal which is God’s final revelation of his purposes in Jesus Christ. - Graeme Goldsworthy The bulk of discussion in this series will consist in attempts to elaborate on the main plotline categories of thought found in the New Testament by particularly investigating the origins of these categories in the OT, how they have already become partially fulfilled in its NT context and the church age, and then how it will ultimately be fulfilled in the consummation of Christ’s return. Our focus is the Lord Jesus – the author and fulfilment of these categories. We want to understand all the implications why Jesus Christ, the Son of God became man, why He died and was raised to His Father’s side from where He will come to judge the living and the dead.
An inaugurated-to-be-consummated reality
As we said already, the goal of Scripture is God’s glory. That glory has its center Jesus Christ and His eschatological new-creational kingdom which He inaugurated in His church and is even now working to bring to full revelation and consummation when He destroys all His and her enemies forever (Mt 16:18, Rom 16:20). This study places us today right in the middle of this ‘inaugurated-but-not-yet-consummated’ story of redemptive history. The Old Testament frequently foretells of the ‘latter days’ or ‘last days’ when God will rule over His people in righteousness (Isa 2:2, Mic 4:1, Hos 3:5), while in the NT the apostles claim that language for them and for us (Acts 2:17, 2 Tim 3:1, Heb 1:2, Jm 5:3). It is with the early church, that we can say therefore that “the end of the ages has come upon us” (1 Cor 10:11). The NT church is God’s people awaiting Her Lord’s return on the (consummating) last of these (already inaugurated) last days at the end of the ages. In the words of G.K. Beale, the doctrine of eschatology (already-inaugurated and not-yet consummated eschatology) should not merely be one among many doctrines we address, it should be the lens through which all the doctrines are best understood. As time proceeds and we grow in our appreciation and understanding of the unity of Scripture with God as its author, our study will also become more in-depth and technical, but at the beginning we aim to brush with a broad brush.
Themes, undercurrents, and presuppositions in Scripture
Presuppositions
The Scripture is not the product of the church; rather the church is to be the product of Scripture. The church today, by design derives its existence from Scripture, i.e., from Christ’s revelation to and through His Apostles (Eph 2:19-20). All the activity of the Spirit in church history ‘can never be substituted for or equated with the canon’. If this is true, then 1.We must read Scripture not merely as history recorded by human authors (i.e., merely with a grammatical-historical hermeneutic ). We must read it as the very Words of God who spoke deliberately with the purpose of revealing Himself and His will (2 Tim 3:15-17) - what we may call a canonical hermeneutic. What this means is that behind the intended meaning of human authors in the Bible was God intentionally authoring the canon of Scripture in a way that progressively revealed Himself and His purposes. All Scripture is therefore one canon, but with an intended development over the course of Biblical history – what we may narrowly call redemptive history. 2.The Bible fundamentally unveils redemption within its pages, not merely the faith of ancient believers. In other words, Scripture gives us redemptive-history and insists on a response of faith from us (2 Tim 3:14-17 cf. Mt 22:31). 3.The canon does not consist in what the church subjectively hears as the Word of God here and now. Instead, the church finds itself at a moment in time within God’s broad redemptive plan needing to hear what the Spirit made known to the prophets and apostles within redemptive history (narrowly speaking). (John 15:26-27, 16:12-15). 4.All this makes the church deeply dependent on the Scripture.
Undercurrents
1.Scripture is filled with the depravation of mankind. Man is quick to assign virtues and greatness to himself, but in fact there is nothing that he will not pervert (Rom 1:18-32). 2.Subsequently, the whole of Scripture constantly leaves a sense of desperation and necessity for divine interjection with salvation and justice. (Ex 20:2, Isa 1:9, Lam 3:22) 3.There is an intended movement of the soul that the Spirit of God works toward through Scripture – a constant movement among the ‘WHAT’ and the ‘WHY’ towards the ‘WHO’. The ‘WHAT’ is the objective reality of God’s costly redemption through Christ’s death on the cross (Acts 2:38, 1 Tim 1:15). Within the ‘WHAT’, the ‘WHY’ is the penetrating existential/subjective significance of the ‘WHAT’. The ‘WHY’ leads the soul to grapple with the objective reality of our own unworthiness in light of what Christ had done. (Acts 2:39) But it is on embracing the ‘WHO’ where we must ultimately land. Knowing and worshipping God is the ultimate purpose within the ‘WHAT’ and the ‘WHY’. (Joh 17:3; Ex 15:11; Mic 7:18). This simple truth is oftentimes lost on us modern believers as we get stuck in the mere thrills of doctrine or the self-indulgence of our own existence.
Themes
1.Exodus: Called out of darkness 2.Glory: The end for which God created the earth 3.Covenant: The eternal glory of the Trinity on display 4.Kingdom: Ultimate Divine reality 5.Personal Transformation 6.Temple: God among His people 7.Irony: God’s unexpected ways to overturn human folly 8.Spiritual adultery 9.Promise and Fulfilment in Christ: Continuity in Discontinuity and Discontinuity in Continuity 10.The People of God: The Son’s inheritance 11.Storyline cycles: The Creation-Fall-Redemption cycle and the Consummation 12.Family, adoption, household, sonship 13.Ambassadors: Blessing the nations