Then I watched this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkNa6tLWrqk&feature=player_embedded#!
When I say "I couldn't have put it better myself" I really mean it. I didn't! but this short video sums up something of what I was groping for in my blog. The bible is basically about Jesus and if I don't get that then everything I think the bible says about me will be rather distorted.
In the video Tim Keller asks:
"Is the bible basically about you and what you should do or about Jesus and what he has done?...Is David and Goliath basically about you and how you can be like David and Goliath, or about him, the one who really took on the only giants that can kill us. And his victory is imputed to us.
Tim Keller
Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden (his garden, a much tougher garden) and whose obedience is imputed to us.
Jesus is the true and better Abel who though innocently slain has blood that cries out not for our condemnation but for our equital
Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go into the void not knowing wither he went.
Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just sacrificed by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us all. God said to Abraham now I know tyou love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from me . Now, we at the foot of the cross, can say to God, now we know that you love me because you did not with hold your son, your only son whom you love from me.
Jesus is the true and better Jacob, who wrestled and took the blow of Justice we deserve so we like Jacob only receive the wound of grace to wake us up and discipline us.
Jesus is the true and better Joseph who is at the right had of the king and forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his power to save them.
Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and mediates a new and better covenent
Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who struck with the rod of God's justice, now gives us water in the dessert
Jesus is the true and better Job. He is the truly innocent sufferer who then intercedes for and save his friends.
Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his peoples victory though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
Jesus is the true and better Ester who didn't just risk loosing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate heavenly one. Who didn't just risk his life but gave his life. Who didn't just say "if I perish, I'll perish" but "when I perish I'll perish for them so save my people"
Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out in the storm so that we could be brought in.
He's the real Passover lamb, he's the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light the true bread.
The bibles not about you!
Great stuff (Oh I've just found it transcribed on the internet so I didn't need to copy it
all out! Still, really enjoyable to have listened to it several times). It was in Jared C. Wilson's blog written last year where he points out that it has been attributed to others like Lloyd Jones as well as Keller. http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2009/10/a-christian-instinct-not-typology/. Here's a couple of quotes from it:
"I remember when it was cool to see Jesus in The Matrix. When that five minutes was over, and even your father in law was reading up in 2 Kings to figure out the significance of Neo’s spaceship, the whole thing was a joke. "
The blog goes on really helpfully:
"I think this is one reason why, for all my appreciation (and utilization) of good scholarship, when a blogger goes academic about the Christian life and ministry, my eyes glaze over. It is why something John Piper said at the last Gospel Coalition Conference resonated with me so strongly: “Commentaries can be sermon killers. No commentary has the word Oh! in it.”
This is why I keep telling myself that my bible blog is not a commentary. I keep having to steer it away from being that and make sure it's a genuine account of my reaction to seeing Jesus in the bible. Eight months ago I set out on a journey to blog the whole bible in order to climb higher and get a clearer view of Jesus. I am at Melchizedek right now. I'm on very safe ground in seeing a link to Jesus there as the NT has already joined the dots for me (Heb 6:20). No one can accuse me of playing "Wares Wally" with the bible on this one. I recon though that its right and good to go beyond the specific examples of the NTs use of the old in pointing to Jesus. Jesus said it's all about him (Luke 24:27, John 5:39, Acts 17:2, Acts 18:28, ...) and spent a lot of time explaining that to his disciples. Everything should therefore point to him in some way. I remember Lex Loizides play a game at a conference where he got people to give him random bible verses (and people dually obliged with some very random ones) and he showed how each pointed to Jesus and the gospel.
I find more and more that I don't just see Jesus in the bible; films and even newspaper articles remind me of him. That's not surprising as he is the truth and any spec of truth points to him . Even falsehood and injustice remind me of Jesus, both the one appointed to judge sin the one who came to be it for us.
PS also found text here on a more recent posting.
http://chipanderson.blogspot.com/2007/06/jesus-is-true-and-better.html
Great to find a fellow Dyslexic blogging. His blog carries a warning " I am dyslexic. I am sure we will have that with fun." Perhaps mine should too. There should be a universally recognised sign for it.
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