Preaching and Biblical Theology

This is an edited version of my den Dulk Lectures given at Westminster Seminary California in April, 2021. The content of the lecture has been edited for publication here.

Lecture One — Preaching and Apologetics

Lecture Two: — Preaching and Dogmatics

Lecture Three–Preaching and Biblical Theology

In our third and final lecture, I will discuss the benefit of placing the “box-top” of redemptive history before a congregation in order to provide the “big picture” categories needed to interpret the Bible correctly. Teaching these big picture categories to our hearers will better enable them to resist the pull toward the subjective turn associated with contemporary American spirituality, a turn which renders the Bible irrelevant, pulls biblical passages out of context, or which understands the Bible as something other than revelation from God. Reading and understanding the Bible through the lens of a well thought-out biblical theology goes a long way toward helping us draw proper conclusions about what the kind of book the Bible is, as well as guiding us to the proper application we ought to draw from those doctrinal dots we have connected together.

The Panorama of Redemptive History

Building upon the previous lectures, I will focus upon an interpretive framework developed along the lines Dr. Michael Horton describes as the internal architecture of Scripture–God’s covenants.[1] God’s story as revealed in his word is tied to specific historical events which make up that story. As such, this story is true and comes to us in words and sentences with subjects, verbs, and objects, thereby summoning us to listen and look outside ourselves, not turn within. Telling God’s story challenges all personal and subjective mythologies, and is actually far more interesting than anything we can dream up.

The panorama of the redemptive drama flows out of this covenant history taking us from the moment of creation, to Eden, to Adam’s creation and fall, to the person and work of a second Adam, Jesus, including his death, resurrection, and ascension, to a new creation when our fallen universe becomes the home of everlasting righteousness. This panoramic view provides the “big picture categories” (the box-top of a many-pieced puzzle), the importance of which we will discuss in the balance of our time.

As we turn to the relationship between preaching and biblical theology, again, we are reminded of the connection between the facts of God’s redemptive word and deeds and essential Christian doctrines connected to them. The father of Reformed biblical theology, Geerhardus Vos, writes,

If we can show that revealed religion is inseparably linked to a system of supernatural historical facts at its culminating epoch in Christ–as we think can be done, we can see that the faith of the Apostles and the faith of the Apostolic Church revolved around the great redemptive facts in which they found the interpretation of the inner meaning of the Savior’s life. To the earliest Christian consciousness doctrine and fact were wedded at the outset.[2]

The key event in the Bible–Jesus’s messianic mission–takes place in a specific context, one foretold throughout the Old Testament in the words of Moses and the prophets. Promise becomes fulfillment because God’s self-revelation is inseparable from historical events. There is a definite and discernible progress in the biblical narrative toward a final and ultimate goal–the renewal of the cosmos and the redemption of God’s people.

In our first lecture I addressed the importance of preaching apologetically–grounding our preaching in the fact that Christianity is at its heart a truth claim, a claim tied to specific historical events. When looking at the box-top we see a succession of such events–the period before and after Noah, the age of the patriarchs, the Exodus, the Conquest, the exile and return, Christ’s life and messianic mission, his death and resurrection, Pentecost, and the Ascension, all pointing ahead to our Lord’s return and the final consummation.

In our second lecture, we discussed the importance of preaching from the biblical text through the lens of a system of theology. This enables us to lay out the dots, so to speak, and then connect them for those in our congregations who otherwise might not make the connections. A biblically based systematic theology provides the proper theological categories through which to understand the Bible as the revelation of God’s story in history. Doing so exposes the futility of the turn toward subjective and self-referential epistemologies typical of contemporary American spirituality. Pushing our hearers to consider “what God said and did” is a powerful antidote to focusing upon subjective “feelings,” self-justifying opinions or that misguided question we hear far too often, “what does this verse mean to you?”

The “Big Picture” Categories

In this lecture, we continue to consider “big picture categories,” but this time from the perspective of their historical development in Scripture (the historica salutis). We are looking at categories as they develop throughout the course of redemptive history (a line) not topically as in systematic theology (a circle). We already know many of the proof-tests for our doctrines, so the challenge is to look to see how these doctrines extend throughout the whole of Scripture and which challenge those who have taken the subjective turn.

So, we will survey a couple of big picture themes we discussed last time–the doctrine of creation (now considering the flip side of the Creator-creation distinction) and what it means to be a divine image bearer–the high point of the creation account. Then, we will survey the covenants (redemption, works and grace), before considering the work of the second Adam and the hope of the final consummation. By laying out the big picture categories in our preaching through the biblical text, we will see the unity of the story of redemption, as well as its factual and objective character. This external word anchored in specific redemptive events directs our attention to the God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ, and warns us not to dive into the subjective morass of contemporary American spirituality.

Creation

The Christian doctrine of God (the Creator) demands a corresponding Christian doctrine of creation. To this end there are three points to consider when we reflect upon the created order, including things seen and things unseen. First, Scripture affirms that God created all things. Nothing which now exists, does so apart from the fact that God created it. All created things exist through God’s eternal decree. Second, God created all things and is therefore distinct from all created things (the Creator-creature distinction). Creation is not divine (pantheism), nor does it exist within the being of God (panentheism). The Creator-creature distinction stands over those pantheistic impulses which drive so much of contemporary American spirituality. Third, God pronounced all things he created as “good,” a refrain which is repeated throughout the days of creation (Genesis 1). These three points constitute a distinct Christian doctrine of creation which should inform all of our preaching from Genesis to Revelation.

The Christian doctrine of creation precludes any notion that God formed our universe out of eternal matter, or that there was a realm of eternal and ideal forms in which matter is inherently deficient in contrast to the spiritual realm (i.e., Plato). The doctrine of creation insists that before all things came into being, God was, completely free and independent. God created all things from nothing (creation ex nihilo) through his creative word (Hebrews 11:3). “God said” and it was so (Genesis 1). From the sun, moon, and stars, to the sea, land, and sky, to the various creatures which fill these created realms, all things were created by God who spoke them into existence. “All things” include that which we can see (i.e., the visible world in which we live and for which we have been created), as well as things we cannot see (i.e., the angels and the invisible world).

This has significant ramifications. The Christian view of creation directly challenges the basic presuppositions of contemporary American spirituality. There are no pre-existent eternal human souls. No migration of eternal souls–reincarnation. We are not “divine” in any sense. The Creator is to be distinguished from all created things, and any supposed dualism between spirit and matter is a platonic fiction. Matter is not inherently evil, nor flawed. God created all things from nothing and pronounced them “good.”

Divine Image-Bearers

With the language of the eighth Psalm in mind (“you have made [man] a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” v. 5), Cornelius Van Til once stated that Adam was created to be like God in every way in which a creature can be like God. These words may sound shocking when we first hear them. Yet, as Van Til qualifies, because Adam is a creature, humans can never be divine. Adam’s progeny will always be creatures, although created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26), through a direct act of God in which Adam’s body was formed from the dust of the earth, and his soul was created by God’s act of breathing life into both Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:4-24). To be human is to be male or female and to bear God’s image in both body and soul, which exist as a personal unity of the spiritual (the soul) and the material (the body).

Because all people are divine image-bearers, we are truly like God in that we possess all of the so-called communicable attributes of God–albeit in a creaturely form and measure (ectypally and by analogy). This constitutes us as “human” beings, distinct from the animal kingdom and vastly superior in moral and rational capabilities. The creation of the image-bearers marks the high point of the creation account (Genesis 1:28-31), as God pronounced Adam to be “very good.” Reformed theologians have long argued that our bodies are fit “organs” of the soul. It is especially through the body-soul unity that communicable attributes are manifest.

The ramifications of being created as divine image bearers are profound given the current intellectual and cultural disruption. Adam’s task was to build the temple garden of God on earth in Eden, and to rule and subdue the earth in the name of his creator. Adam was created as fit for that task in every possible way. Adam is also the biological and federal head of the human race. All humans are his biological descendants. Any evolutionary developments are post-creation and not the basis of the imago–we do not become image bearers, we are image-bearers. This speaks directly to the unity of our race in the midst of the current intersectionality scrum. Despite our different skin colors and physical appearances, all people bear God’s image and are equal in dignity before our creator. The Imago is upstream of all racial distinctions and cultural expressions. As image-bearers, there is a unity to our race which transcends all human differences–even though our racial and cultural differences are exacerbated by the Fall.

As the federal head of the race, Adam acted on behalf of all his descendants during a time of probation in Eden. Adam was commanded not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What Adam did in Eden, he did as our representative–as though each of us were there acting in him (in corporate solidarity). Adam was created in righteousness, holiness, and possessed true knowledge of God (cf. Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). Adam was not merely innocent before God, but personally holy and morally upright, possessing the natural ability to obey all of God’s commands and to fulfill the cultural mandate (Genesis 1:28)–the latter is the origin of human culture and the institutions of society (government). Adam was given dominion over all of creation as God’s vice-regent. God assigned to him the role of ruling over the world and naming all of its creatures. He was given plants and animals for food. This reflects the Psalmist’s point that humans are but a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5).

Adam’s spiritual nature (the soul lives on after the death of the body) reflects essential human nature. Our souls are invisible, indivisible, and immortal. We are created as rational beings with great intellectual abilities, and the moral ability to determine right from wrong is hardwired within us (Romans 2:12-16). We are also capable of receiving the revelation which God gives through the created order (general revelation) and through his word (special revelation). The subjective turn, however, denies even the possibility of such revelation, instead seeking to identify fallen human nature and vain imagination with the divine. To quote Paul, “professing ourselves wise, we become fools” (Romans 1:22).

The Fall of Adam–The Context for Redemption

We speak of redemptive-history because we assume that people are in need of redemption from sin. The entire course of the biblical narrative post-Eden assumes the reality of human sin, guilt, and the curse–which is death. The Bible begins with the account of Adam being created in a covenant of works/creation, which remains in effect after his fall. Had he obeyed, he would have been glorified, the consummation would occur, and the temple garden in Eden completed. God would dwell with his people. But, we know by looking at the box-top what happened and how this impacts the entire course of human history.

Those who have taken the subjective turn, often operate on the misguided assumption that deep down inside, people are basically good if not a chip off the divine block. When we compare ourselves to others, we might measure up pretty well. Sure, there are some who we might begrudgingly admit are better people than we are, we still do pretty well in most of our self-comparison tests against others.

Assuming that people are basically good, as do most Americans, ignores the fact that ours is a fallen race, under the just condemnation from God, awaiting the sentence of death and eternal punishment. The reality is that God is not going to compare me to someone else, who is also a fallen sinner. Instead, God will measure me against the standard of his law, which is holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12). Like everyone else descended from Adam, I am not holy, righteous, and good. I am a sinner. I am under the sentence of death. If I take the subjective turn what will I find? That I am divine, that I possess an inner light? No, I find a blackness which should frighten me. I stand condemned before God. I am guilty. This guilt before God is the basis for human angst, loneliness, our self-centered perspective on life, our dissatisfaction with our possessions, and our fractured relationships throughout the course of our lives.

Because Adam acted as our representative in Eden, when he rebelled, we are guilty before God for Adam’s act of rebellion as if we had been in Eden, personally rebelling against God as did Adam. The guilt of Adam’s sin was imputed to us (Romans 5:12-19), rendering us guilty before God, ensuring that we have all inherited a sinful nature from Adam, and it is from that sinful nature that our own particular acts of sin spring (Romans 7:5). We sin because we choose to sin. We like to sin. This is a far cry from the notion that we are all basically good people who occasionally fall short of arbitrary moral standards. Rather, we are sinful people, whose sinful propensities lead us to acts of sin. We were not created to be this way. Our struggles to find meaning and purpose arise within because we are fallen.

Ben Franklin’s famous adage comes to mind, “the only two things in life which are inevitable are death and taxes,” both of which I might add, stem from human sin. Death is not natural to the human race. Death is the consequence of the fall of Adam. When Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, work became toil. Fruitful fields were filled with weeds and thistles. Child-bearing became labor. Adam faced the sentence of death. As the Puritans so aptly put it, “in Adam’s fall, sinned we all.” We live in a fallen world in which something is fundamentally wrong and everyone knows it. Death is not a hoped-for release from the material world. It is divine judgment–the separation of body and soul.

We are sinful by nature and by choice, and that we are not now, and never have been, innocent before God (Psalm 51:5; 58:3). As Paul tells the Ephesians (2:1-3), we are dead in sin and by nature children of wrath. In Ephesians 4:17-19, Paul speaks of sinful people as “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart . . . . They have become callous . . . and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Our thinking is futile, we are darkened in our understanding, we are alienated from God, and we seek to gratify our sinful nature rather than seek to please God. The subjective turn is a dead end.

Redemption–The Covenant of Grace

Covenant theology is at the center of Reformed theology. This is our box-top which enables us to make sense of individual biblical accounts of sinful human behavior, yet look for God’s greater purposes throughout. Because humanity fell in Adam who plunged the human race into sin and death, it will take a second Adam (Jesus Christ) to obey the commandments of God to fulfill all righteousness (cf. Matthew 3:15), and to remove the guilt of our individual sins, as well as that guilt imputed to us from the federal head of our race, Adam (cf. Romans 5:12-19). This requires a covenant other than the covenant of works in which God allows a redeemer to undo the consequences which Adam brought down our race. This brings us to the covenant of grace–the covenant which unfolds from Genesis 3:15-Revelation 22:21 against the backdrop of the prior covenant of creation/works.

The covenant of grace is the historical outworking of an eternal covenant of redemption (the so-called “covenant before the covenant”) in which the persons of the Holy Trinity decreed that Jesus will perform his redemptive work on behalf of all those whom God chose before the foundation of the world (cf. Ephesians 1:3-14). God’s saving grace is not directed to the world in general, but to the specific individuals whom God intends to save. In this covenant, the Holy Spirit will apply the work of Jesus Christ to all those the Father has chosen and for whom the Son will die, ensuring that all of God’s elect will come to faith in Jesus Christ through the preaching of the historical facts of the gospel–the divinely appointed means by which God’s elect are called to faith. God determines the end (who will be saved) as well as the means by which he will save them (the foolishness of preaching).

God’s gracious covenant appears throughout redemptive history, culminating in the new covenant foretold by Jeremiah (31:31-34). God is the author of this gracious covenant, which is based in the promise of eternal life, made on behalf of sinners by a gracious God who intends to save his elect from the consequences of Adam’s sin through the work of Jesus Christ. In this covenant everything hinges upon the sacrificial death and the perfect obedience of the only covenant mediator between the Holy God and sinful humanity, Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). All of this takes place in history–specific times, in specific places, impacting people with names and addresses–not within us.

While the condition of the covenant of works was Adam’s perfect personal obedience to the commandments of God, the condition of the covenant of grace is faith in Jesus Christ, who undoes the consequences of the fall. The essence of this gracious covenant is seen in the oft-repeated refrain first found in Genesis 17:7; “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” If we fast-forward redemptive history to the final chapter, when the new Jerusalem descends out of heaven, we again hear these wonderful words–the motto of the covenant of grace. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, `Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).

Redemptive history is the outworking of God’s eternal decree, through the unfolding of successive covenants. These are the historical manifestations of the covenant of grace. Immediately after the fall of the human race, God promised Adam a redeemer will come to rescue the human race from the consequences of sin. In Genesis 3:15, we find the historical manifestation of the covenant of grace in the first promise of the gospel (the proto-evangelium). No sooner had Adam sinned, than the Lord pronounced a curse upon the devil: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring [Eve]; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” In this gospel promise, God promises to crush the serpent and save his people. This is the first promise that Jesus will die on a cross to redeem us from our sins.

The covenant of grace unfolds in historical stages–God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, 17, etc., the promises God made to Israel at Mount Sinai, then renewed on the plains of Moab (Deuteronomy 29:13), the promise of an eternal kingdom made to David (2 Samuel 7:14), to the prophecy of a new covenant given to Jeremiah (31:33), which the author of Hebrews applies to Jesus Christ, the covenant mediator (Hebrews 8:1-13). This covenant unfolds throughout the course of redemptive history, seen in the fact that there is but one gospel in both testaments, just as there is only one covenant mediator (Jesus Christ). God promises to be our God, and declares that we are his people. These covenant promises bookend redemptive history from the fall of our race, until the time of the end, when Jesus returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. This is what the Bible is about and why it was written–to tell this story.

Christ’s Incarnation

At the heart of the covenant of redemption is the doctrine of the Incarnation. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity and the eternal son of God took to himself a true human nature for the purpose of saving us from our sins. This doctrine marks off Christianity as a supernatural religion, grounded in specific truth claims–i.e., God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:18). Such a claim stands opposed to contemporary American spirituality, which aims for moral improvement, spiritual enlightenment, or the experiential benefit of its adherents.

The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the proof that God keeps his promises–the key turning point in what is truly the greatest story ever told. As God was pronouncing the curse upon Adam, Eve, and the serpent, he promised to rescue Adam from sin through the seed of the woman–a biological descendant from Eve who will redeem God’s people from sin (Genesis 3:15). In the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God fulfills his promises as Immanuel (God with us). The Word must become flesh if any of us are to be saved from the havoc wrought upon us by the first Adam (cf. John 1:17). There is no other way.

The Old Testament is filled with various messianic prophecies, in which God’s promise to redeem his people are set forth with amazing specificity. There are sixty-one major messianic prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus found throughout the Old Testament, all of which are fulfilled by the coming of Jesus Christ in human flesh–these are great texts upon which to preach–these prophecies are part box-top and part puzzle piece.

God’s promise to Adam in Genesis 3:15 is fulfilled when Jesus dies upon the cross. Jesus crushes Satan and suffers for his people to bring about their redemption. As but one illustration of God’s redemptive promises being fulfilled in Christ, in Isaiah 7:14 we read, “therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The Redeemer is supernaturally conceived, and God in human flesh. The Old Testament’s perspective on redemption is one of hope and expectation. A redeemer will come, which is why Matthew’s gospel opens with the historical record of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. In Matthew 1:18 ff, we read: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. . . . Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).” This is also why Matthew’s gospel opens with a genealogical record, tracing Jesus’s ancestry back to Abraham through the line of Judah and the house of David. Our Lord’s genealogical chart is proof that God sent the promised one.

While the mechanics of the incarnation largely remain a mystery–Paul speaks of the incarnation in 1 Timothy 3:16 as such, “great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: [Jesus] was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory”–the fact of the incarnation is beyond question. Jesus is fully man and fully God is clearly taught in Holy Scripture, as in Philippians 2:6-8, when Paul speaks of Jesus “in the form of God,” and “taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Jesus is God in human flesh, he has two natures (one human, one divine), yet he is one person. In the Incarnation, God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, fulfilling the office of covenant mediator. The Word becoming flesh lies at the heart of God’s work of redemption. This Savior cannot be found by turning within—he is revealed in history (cf. 1 John 1:1-3). He comes to us now through an external word–specifically through preaching.

Re-Creation–The Second Coming of Christ and the Summing Up of All Things

Although the biblical account of redemption takes many twists and turns, the story comes to a glorious resolution in the final chapter when we discover what was destined for God’s people all along. The fallen children of Adam become imagers of Christ. There is coming a day when every injustice will be made right, when all human suffering will cease, and when every tear will be wiped from our eyes. We cannot find such hope within, we must look up and outside. On the appointed day Jesus will return to earth to raise the dead, judge all people, and renew the heavens and earth, removing every hint and trace of human sin. In Revelation 21:3-4, John speaks of the Lord’s return as the culmination of God’s gracious covenant promise:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Every believer longs for the day of Jesus’s return. History has a telos or an end, it is linear, not cyclical, it is not open-ended Hegelian vortex. History is racing ahead to the Lord’s return–a date upon the calendar, if presently unknown to us.

When Jesus returns, three distinct events occur in co-ordination. The first is the resurrection of the dead (Daniel 12:1-4; Isaiah 25:6-9)–including those who will live forever blessed in the presence of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; 1 Corinthians 15:12-58), and those who will enter into eternal judgment (2 Thessalonians 1:6, 8-9; Revelation 20:11-14). A second event is closely related to the resurrection of the dead, and entails the final judgment of believers and unbelievers alike (Matthew 13:36-43; 25:31-46). The third event is the creation of a new heaven and earth (Romans 8:21; 2 Peter 3:10)–the recreation and renewal of all creation.

The Old Testament prophets (such as Daniel and Isaiah) foretold that human history would come to an end with a universal resurrection of all the dead—the so-called “general resurrection.” Paul describes the nature of the resurrection of the body in 1 Corinthians 15:50-55). “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality . . . .`Death is swallowed up in victory.’ `O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’” What a glorious end to a remarkable story.

But the final judgment also occurs when Jesus returns. For those who are Christ’s it is glorious. But for those who are not, it is a day of terror. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul speaks of,

the Lord Jesus [being] revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9).

In Matthew 13:39b-43, when explaining the parable of the weeds, Jesus speaks in similar terms,

the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Judgment arrives when the dead are raised.

This is also the day of cosmic renewal. In 2 Peter 3, we read that while unbelievers scoff, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” When Jesus returns, the natural order will be radically changed, and all traces of the stain of human sin will be purged from the earth. The dead are raised, all are judged, and creation is renewed. We will dwell forever in the home of righteousness.

The return of Jesus and the resurrection of our bodies shouts at us that heaven (eternal life) is not disembodied existence in a mythical place. In Revelation 21:9-27, John is given a vision of our eternal home–a new heaven and earth where the saints of God dwell in resurrected bodies. The heavenly city has streets of gold and is filled with precious gems–a description of the New Jerusalem’s unspeakable glory by analogy to earthly beauty and wealth. Then, we find John’s description is that Christ’s church, that bride which he has redeemed, is present with the Savior in her midst. John writes “`come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb’” (Revelation 21:9). And then John sees something quite remarkable.

I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 21:22-27).

When Jesus uttered that word on the cross, “it is finished,” it is to this scene that his words ultimately direct us.

So, with that, we have come to the end our story. The great panorama of redemptive history has taken us from creation, to our federal and biological father, Adam, to the fall of our race, to the redemption from the guilt and power of sin which is ours in Jesus Christ. But the story ends with a magnificent glimpse of the glory which lies ahead. So let us long for that day, and as we do, let us look to Jesus “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Wrapping Up

We live in an age of great intellectual shallowness and cultural disruption. In the midst of this sweeping change with its modern renewal of the ancient subjective turn, we must tell our hearers that God’s story (an external word) guides our steps, and that turning within will only get us lost. When we have the big picture categories of redemption in mind, we find the story which God reveals to us in his word, which is so much greater and far more compelling than any story we can find within, or that we hear from the lips of teachers of contemporary American spirituality. The subjective turn inevitably leads not to ultimate fulfillment, but into the inner void of darkness, selfishness, isolation, and epistemlogical chaos. We have no real hope if my truth is truth, because what might be true on Tuesday (a good day) might turn out to be false on Friday (a bad day). And your truth will never match my truth.

When we preach, it is our calling to tell God’s story which comes to us through an external word–not through an inner quest. Let us tell that story as true, and as we do so connect the theological dots for our hearers. We should also take the time (however briefly) to explain the doctrines to which individual biblical texts point us. But let us do so without the contentiousness of the politics of identity, and certainly not appealing to the religious technology to which so many of our contemporaries are addicted.

Let us strive to preach apologetically and boldly yet winsomely affirm the truth of Christianity by simply retelling God’s story. May we organize our preaching through the tried and true categories of a biblically sound Reformed systematic theology, which is firmly grounded in the God-given account of redemptive history. As we have seen, the doctrinal dots are everywhere and good preaching will connect them. Keeping the redemptive-historical box-top before us, helps us tell God’s story as he does.

As we come to the end, we return to Charles Spurgeon once again: as preachers we let the lion out to do its work. But is also our duty to show our hearers the lion’s claws and teeth (the threatened curse), while at the same time reminding our hearers that those claws and teeth point us to a lamb, whose shed blood turns lion’s claws and teeth into a glorious story of redemption (the promised blessing). This story directs us outside ourselves to what God has done for us in the person and work Jesus Christ–who died on a particular Friday, and was raised three days later on a particular Sunday, and who will come again to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new.

This is a much better story (a true story at that) than any of us can find through turning within. As preachers, we get to tell this story again, and again. And what we learn in seminary should enable us to tell this story, clearer and better.

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[1] Michael Horton, God of Promise (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2006), 13.

[2] Geerhardus Vos, “Christian Faith and the Truthfulness of Bible History,” in The Princeton Theological Review, No. 3, (July 1906), 289-305.