Again, the Scriptures are not a library of disjointed, independent, inspired books. The First and Second Testaments are not two separate books bound together between a single cover. Rather, they are a unified canon. All the books of that canon contribute to the plotline of God’s covenantal relationship with humanity through Jesus.
You can think of the First and Second Testaments as act 1 and act 2 of the same drama.
Each book, therefore, must be understood and interpreted within the framework of the greater whole.
Jesus Christ is the glue that binds both Testaments together. As Brevard Childs says, “The completely New of the gospel is formulated in terms of the Old. Herein lies the deep mystery surrounding the two testaments. Separate and yet undivided, two voices yet the sound is similar, an Old Word pointing to the New, yet the New is only known in the Old.”
That said, it’s a profound mistake to detach Scripture—both First and Second Testaments—from Christ. The Bible has no real meaning unless it is grounded in Christ. The beauty of Scripture for followers of Jesus is to reveal Christ.
Many who have rightly taught that Jesus is the hermeneutical key to the Bible have failed to look at all Scripture through the lens of Christ. What we will demonstrate in this book is that everything in the Bible points to Jesus—either His person, His work, or His character.
When we fail to see the entire Bible christologically and theographically, the door is opened for the Bible to take on a raft of contradictory interpretations. We believe, therefore, that failure to read the Bible christologically is the cause for the countless divisions among Christians. The internal unity of the Bible is its witness to Jesus. He is the Canon within the canon.
Reading Scripture through a christological and theographical lens is more radical a move than we might think at first blush. In our observation, it’s rarely practiced today—even among those who claim to uphold the centrality of Christ. It’s one thing to profess to read the Scripture christologically or to agree with it in principle. But it’s quite another to actually practice it.
Many Christians read the Bible with modern or postmodern optics, then clip on “Christocentrism” sunglasses. But reading Scripture through a christological lens changes the way we see and approach the entire Bible, as well as how we regard and handle biblical doctrine.
It also prevents us from making the common mistake of missing the drama for the details. Reading Scripture christologically turns Bible reading from two dimensions into 3-D. It transforms it from black-and-white into high-definition Technicolor. We are confident that as you read this book, you will better understand what we mean.
Toward a True Red-Letter Bible
Many Christians grew up reading red-letter editions of the Second Testament. Those are the Bibles wherein the words of Jesus are printed in red. Now imagine a First Testament where every reference, every prophecy, every shadow, every image, and every allusion to Christ appeared in red.
