4 Arguments from Scripture in Favor of Biblical Theology
A Foundation for Biblical Theology
The core conviction of those who practice the discipline of biblical theology is that the Bible is a unified work—a book inspired by one divine author (God) and given to human beings to help them understand his broad saving plan, which ultimately was accomplished through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. We will see shortly how Jesus himself pointed us toward this way of understanding Scripture. Our goal in biblical theology is to trace God’s story of redemption as it is revealed to us progressively in the revelation of Scripture.
Let’s discuss some foundational arguments for biblical theology. In other words, why do we believe that this is a valid way to study the Bible? This is an important question to answer because not everyone agrees that this is a valid approach! So I will seek to explain just a few of the key foundations that establish biblical theology as the right way to engage with Scripture.
Tracing God's Story
Jon Nielson
In this accessible guide to studying biblical theology, pastor Jon Nielson examines Bible passages from Genesis to Revelation to demonstrate how Scripture is one cohesive narrative of God’s redemptive work in the world.
1. Jesus’s Example
One answer to the above question is that Jesus read and interpreted the Old Testament in this way. When we practice biblical theology, we are following the lead of Jesus in the way that he looked at and applied Scripture.
In Luke 24 we find the account of Jesus walking and talking with two men on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection from the dead. These disciples were struggling to understand the events that had just taken place. Jesus, the man they had followed as the Messiah, had been killed. They were sad and discouraged because it seemed that he had failed.
Jesus confronted these men based on Scripture. He told them that it was “necessary” for the Christ to suffer and die (Luke 24:26); Scripture had told them that would happen! Then he did something amazing: Jesus opened the Old Testament Scriptures for these men—right there on the road—and explained to them the “things concerning himself ” (Luke 24:27). Luke tells us that he began with Moses (the books of Genesis to Deuteronomy) and then moved into the prophetic writings in order to show them how the Old Testament—all of it—ultimately pointed to him.
This is a crucial passage for helping us understand how Jesus interpreted Scripture. He saw himself as the main character—the one to whom the entire Old Testament pointed. Thus, biblical theology is legitimate. It is right to see the Bible as telling one great story that has its climax in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
We can draw a few conclusions:
The Bible—all of it—is about Jesus. That is not an overstatement. We can really say, according to what we see from Jesus in Luke 24, that the Bible is ultimately all about him. The Old Testament points forward to him, shows the need for him, and explains what he was going to do for God’s people. The New Testament makes Jesus’s work clear and plain. The Bible is about Jesus.
We cannot rightly understand the Old Testament without understanding the work of Jesus. In other words, it is bad scholarship to read the Old Testament without looking forward to the work of Jesus—the Messiah—that the Old Testament anticipates! This is what Jesus would have said. He called the men on the road to Emmaus “slow of heart” because they did not understand all that the Old Testament Scriptures had been teaching about him and his work. If we miss Jesus in the Old Testament, we simply have not studied it correctly!
We should never study the Bible without talking about Jesus. Finally, we can conclude with this important point: to study any part of the Bible without referencing Jesus—the central character of the Bible—does not do the Bible justice. We have studied it incorrectly. We need to frame our discussion of each passage of Scripture in terms of its place in the great story—a story that has its climax in the life, death, and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus’s “sermon” on the road to Emmaus lays an important foundation regarding biblical theology. How wonderful it would be to have that entire sermon recorded for us! Jesus took time to explain to the two men, from Moses and the Prophets, all the things about him in the Old Testament Scriptures. In other words, Jesus himself used “biblical theology” to see the connection between the Old Testament Scriptures and his work through his death and resurrection.
2. The Apostles’ Preaching
Another foundation for biblical theology is the example of Jesus’s apostles. We will look at just one example of the teaching of the apostles about Jesus in relation to the Old Testament: Acts 2:14–41 (Peter’s sermon to the crowd at Pentecost). In this passage, we see how Peter explained the work of Jesus from Psalm 16—a psalm written by King David.
Just as Jesus did biblical theology on the road to Emmaus, his apostles did biblical theology as well.
In Acts 2, Peter delivered a sermon to the crowd at Pentecost, just after the Holy Spirit had descended with power on the disciples, enabling them to share the gospel with people in many different languages. In this sermon, Peter used Old Testament Scriptures—specifically the Psalms and the words of the prophet Joel—to show what was really happening: God’s promised Spirit was being poured out as Joel promised would happen in conjunction with David’s descendant being raised from the dead and crowned as King (Ps. 16).
This, then, is another key passage for helping us see that biblical theology, according to Jesus and his apostles, is a good, right, and legitimate way to study the Bible. In fact, according to Peter, it is really the only way to understand the Bible correctly. We do not “get” Joel unless we see how his words were fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. We do not “get” David, in Psalm 16, if we do not see the beautiful way that his words were fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Peter, an apostle, gives us another clear foundation for biblical theology in his wonderful sermon in Acts 2.
3. Old Testament “Pointers”
We can find a third important foundation for biblical theology through studying a rich passage from the book of Hebrews that explains the priestly ministry of Jesus by contrasting it with the priestly ministry of the Levites in the Old Testament. Read Hebrews 8, and you will see that even the pictures, roles, and practices of the Old Testament are meant to point forward to the role and work of Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
We could select any one of a great number of passages from Hebrews to illustrate this foundation for biblical theology. This book gives many examples of the ways that Old Testament pictures, practices, and roles ultimately point forward to the far greater work of Jesus Christ as the great Savior and King of God’s people. In fact, the whole message of the book of Hebrews could be summed up as “Jesus is better.” He is better than all the systems of the Levitical priesthood, and his death is better than any other sacrifice that has ever been made!
In other words, the biblical theological foundation that we can take from Hebrews 8 is that not only did Jesus and his apostles do biblical theology, but the pictures and roles of the Old Testament themselves demand a more perfect fulfillment in the work of Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
In this specific passage, we see the author of Hebrews (whom we cannot identify) showing us this principle in the concept and role of the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament. He describes Jesus as the true “high priest” of God’s people—the one who is “seated at the right hand” of God in heaven (Heb. 8:1). We learn about Jesus’s priesthood through the role of human priests throughout history, who offered sacrifices to God for the sins of his people. Their work was meant to be a picture of Jesus’s final and perfect work as the great high priest of God’s people. Here is how the author of Hebrews puts it: “They [human priests] serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5). He is arguing that the Old Testament priesthood was intentionally set up by God to partly resemble the final saving work of Jesus Christ, the true high priest and final sacrifice for God’s people.
All of Scripture is valuable for showing us the beauty of the gospel.
So in light of Hebrews 8, we should look at passages from the Old Testament with the following assumptions:
• God intentionally designed Old Testament rituals to point us to Christ. This is clearly the argument of the author of Hebrews. The way that God set up the Levitical priesthood was not random. It was meant to show us our need for Christ’s work and to teach God’s people about the final salvation that was coming in God’s Son.
• We can learn more about Christ and his work by understanding the Old Testament. A careful study of the priestly duties and functions can teach us about what Jesus accomplished for sinners on the cross.
• Therefore, all of Scripture is valuable for showing us the beauty of the gospel. This point flows out of the last one—biblical theology reminds us that every part of the Bible is valuable. It is all from God, and it is all meant to show us Christ in all his beauty, glory, and saving work.
So Hebrews teaches us about the Old Testament pictures themselves. Along with the prophecies and predictions, they are meant to make Christ visible and real to us as we read and study them.
4. The Unity of the Bible
There is one final foundation for biblical theology that we should consider: the connection between the way the Bible begins and the way it ends. This connection is yet another “proof ” for the legitimacy of the discipline of biblical theology.
The end of the book of Revelation gives us a picture of the very good end of God’s great story. It shows us the final dwelling place of God with his redeemed people—the holy city, also described as the new heaven and new earth, a perfect, eternal place.
As we examine this passage, one interesting point that surfaces is how so much of it is connected to all that has come before in the biblical story. Consider the following pictures that appear both in Revelation and earlier in the Bible:
• The tree of life shows up in the holy city (Rev. 22:2). We remember that tree from Genesis 2; God planted it in the garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve ate freely of it before the fall. After the fall, though, they were prevented from eating its fruit. At the end of the story, then, the tree returns, and God’s people can eat of it again.
• The river shows up again, flowing through the eternal city of God (Rev. 22:1–2). We remember that there were glorious rivers flowing through the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:10–14), watering the plants and giving life to all the creatures that lived there. Here is another connection between the beginning and the end of this great story.
• The temple also shows up at the end (Rev. 21:22). But it is not a physical temple, as in the days of Solomon. In fact, there is no temple at all in this heavenly city; God himself is the temple, because he dwells with and relates directly to his people. In a way, the entire city has become God’s great temple—his great meeting place with his people.
So as we look at how the ending of the Bible story contains pictures that we can gather along the way, we begin to again see an important foundation for biblical theology: the Bible story ends in a way that relates to all of what has come before. There are echoes of Genesis in Revelation, as well as pictures and events that remind us of every part of the story of God’s saving work in the lives of his people in the world.
When we read Revelation in this way and see how it is so closely connected with all that has come before in the Bible story (Old Testament and New Testament), it is not very difficult to see that the Bible really does come to us as one unified story of God’s great saving work in the world, a work that is centered on his Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible ends with echoes of how it began; this is God’s great story, and it hangs together perfectly.
Luke 24, Acts 2, Hebrews 8, and Revelation 21–22 offer us solid foundations for biblical theology. Hopefully you have been encouraged by seeing how Jesus and his apostles understood the Old Testament as pointing forward to the saving work of Christ, with the Bible as one connected story of God’s great redemption plan!
This article is adapted from Tracing God’s Story: An Introduction to Biblical Theology by Jon Nielson.
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