Thoughts from the Grist

The past 8 or 9 years have found me in a significant period of transition regarding my understanding of the Scriptures. Although theological transitions will hopefully continue throughout my life, the current transition has radically altered my thinking regarding the Scriptures.

Perhaps it is best if I review my past thinking, teaching, and preaching. My perspective of the Scriptures was based on a very legalistic, moralistic approach where the proclamation was primarily focused on how God told us to live. The result was that I and my listeners would come away understanding what God expected of us but would know little regarding God the Father and Jesus Christ. This was most pronounced in my studies of the Old Testament although would regularly be evidenced in the New Testament studies as well.

My transition began when I was studying the Gospels and came to Jesus on the road to Emmaus. There Jesus declared that people were fools if they did not believe all that the prophets had spoken. All my life I thought I believed all the prophets had spoken. However, this time I saw what the Scriptures said next. Jesus proceeded to show them how all the Old Testament talked about Him. I shuddered to a stop and asked myself if I really believed that and if I could actually look at the various passages in the OT and see Christ. I know the classic prophetic passages that point to Him but what about Samson, Cain and Able, the Proverbs, etc.? I was not so sure.

So, the past years have been one of new exploration. How is Christ seen in all the Scriptures? And when I began to look I also noticed that I had settled far to short of Christ. I was satisfied with moralisms and legalisms. I was satisfied merely with knowing what I should be and do and did not understand that those things I was doing and being were not for God’s glory but mine.

That is bad enough but I was also teaching, preaching, and counseling these same perspectives. I was not focusing on Christ but on getting people to “look” more Christian. In effect I was helping people to be able to stand before God and say “but did we not do all these things in your name” only to hear Him say “depart from me, I never knew you.”

Ultimately, who really cares is I preach, teach, and counsel how to do better and be better (read, live more consistent with the Scriptures) if the result is that the listeners do not know and love Jesus more. Jesus came seeking worshippers, not merely people who do the right thing and act the right way.

It is because of this that I want to repent of how I have ministered to many of you over the years. My prayer for you is that, in spite of my failures, the Holy Spirit captured your hearts for God and caused you to love Jesus more than you love anyone and caused you to know Jesus more than you know anyone.

Let us not be fools and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken.