Reading in Luke 24, and John 21-21 today…talking about the resurrection of Jesus. Besides the totally amazing nature of that in an of itself, the other thing that struck me was the prominence of the Scriptures and how it is explained in these passages.
- All of the Bible points to Jesus. Luke 24:27 says “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Jesus is talking to his disciples after God raised him from the dead, they were “slow to understand” what everything meant and Jesus makes it plain to them…all of the Bible points to me, all the prophecies he fulfilled and all of the story of Israel is the working of God’s redemptive plan in history to bring about the events that just happened.
- We have the scriptures written down so that we may believe. John 20:31 says “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The fulfilling of all the prophecies and God’s redemptive plan, his rescue mission for us is in Jesus…and it is all recorded by men carried along by the Holy Spirit, this isn’t something man invented. God’s word is clear in 2 Peter 1:20-21 —
20knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
All of scripture, Old and New Testaments, point to Jesus the “Christ” – the “Anointed One”, the Messiah. They are written by men, inspired by the Holy Spirit, men ‘spoke from God’ as the verse says above — with one purpose and one story line – to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for us to believe, and by believing have life in his name.
Let us read with word from this perspective – they are not just words on a page, they are the story of life that God offers us in Jesus!
Mike Ruel 