How To Read the Bible

How to Read the Bible - Tim Keller

There is, in the end, only two ways to read the Bible: is it basically about me or basically about Jesus? In other words, is it basically about what I must do, or basically about what he has done? If I read David and Goliath as basically giving me an example, then the story is really about me. I must summons up the faith and courage to fight the giants in my life. But if I read David and Goliath as basically showing me salvation through Jesus, then the story is really about him. Until I see that Jesus fought the real giants (sin, law, death) for me, I will never have the courage to be able to fight ordinary giants in life (suffering, disappointment, failure, criticism, hardship). For example how can I ever fight the ‘giant’ of failure, unless I have a deep security that God will not abandon me? If I see David as my example, the story will never help me fight the failure/giant. But if I see David/Jesus as my substitute, whose victory is imputed to me, then I can stand before the failure/giant. As another example, how can I ever fight the ‘giant’ of persecution or criticism? Unless I can see him forgiving me on the cross, I won’t be able to forgive others. Unless I see him as forgiving me for falling asleep on him (Matt.27:45) I won’t be able to stay awake for him.

In the Old Testament we are continually told that our good works are not enough, that God has made a provision. This provision is pointed to at every place in the Old Testament. We see it in the clothes God makes Adam and Eve in Genesis, to the promises made to Abraham and the patriarchs, to the Tabernacle and the whole sacrificial system, to the innumerable references to a Messiah, a suffering servant, and so on.

Therefore, to say that the Bible is about Christ is to say that the main theme of the Bible is, ‘Salvation is of the Lord’ (Jonah 2:9).

Reading Jesus Centered

I'm always looking for ways to improve my Bible reading experience, and ways to help others in the same way. Check ou Two Simple Steps for Changing the Way You Read the Bible by Stephanie Hillberry at Lifetree

I’m just going to come right out and say it: applying the Bible to our lives is overrated. When we apply it to Jesus instead, we unlock unexpected insights that prove to be more valuable than practical application. But learning to read the Bible in this new way can take a little practice, plus a few good tools. Here’s what helped me make the transition:

Two simple steps for how to read the Bible with a Jesus-centered approach

First, get a Jesus-Centered Bible.

I mentioned that a few good tools help to shift our focus off ourselves and onto Jesus while reading the Bible. The Jesus-Centered Bible is one of those tools because of its’ unique features that make focusing on Jesus easier.

But first, if you’re thinking, “isn’t my Bible already Jesus-centered?” the answer is Yes–of course it is. There are references and insights about him all the way from Genesis to Revelation, and you can start digging deeper into them right now.

But if you have trouble spotting his story in the Old Testament (which most of us do), or if the epistles of the New Testament seem like they’re as much about the apostles and the early Christians as they are about Jesus, then the Jesus-Centered Bible can help in a way that other Bibles don’t. Because it was created exclusively to frame all the books of the Bible with Jesus as the central character, he’s easier to spot. Blue letters, for instance, reveal him in the Old Testament, and red letters highlight his name in the entire New Testament (a really simple feature that’s surprisingly eye-opening). And throughout all the pages you’ll find commentary and questions directly about Jesus. Even the year-long Bible reading plan features chapters that uniquely focus on Jesus.

Sure you can find him in other Bibles, but the Jesus-Centered Bible makes it really hard to miss him. And that’s what we want.

Second, get a journal.

Whether you normally journal or not, you’re going to want to jot down new insights about Jesus as you read. You can use the journaling method that works best for you, or start with some ideas based on what’s worked for me lately. Regarding the latter, here’s what I do when I’m reading a Bible chapter.

>> I read through the text once just to get the overview.
>> Then I reread it with a question in mind. My favorite questions to ask while reading come from Rick Lawrence’s suggestions in The Jesus-Centered Life. They include:

• What’s one thing for sure I know about Jesus based on what I just read?
• What did Jesus do/see/say here? What didn’t he do/see/say?

>> Then I write my observations. Personally I’ve found it helpful to write them like I’m having a conversation with Jesus. For instance, from Colossians chapter three I might write:

(v1) You raise us to new life with you.
(v1) You sit in heaven in a place of honor at God’s right hand.
(v3) You’ve hidden our lives with you in God. You’re a protector, a guardian.
(v4) You’re all that matters. Anything that isn’t about you doesn’t matter.
(v11) You forgive us. You’re forgiving in nature. You don’t hold a grudge.
(15) You offer peace to rule our hearts. You don’t offer strife or anxiety. You are the source of peace.
(v16) Your message is rich and fills our lives. Your message isn’t shallow. It isn’t deficient. It’s better than the messages from the world/culture.
(v17) You appointed us as representatives. You’re trusting. You’ve entrusted your message to us. You believe in us.

Do you notice how focusing on Jesus in this way shifts the entire perspective? After years of writing more “me’s” than “you’s” in my prayers and journals, this simple tweak has been powerful. In a culture that constantly preaches self-fulfillment, it’s refreshing to realize how liberating it is to not put ourselves at the center. Call it a paradox or heavenly wisdom, but Jesus wasn’t lying when he said that when we die to ourselves, we’ll actually find ourselves. Or, rather, we’ll find him, and our lives tucked in with his.

This Jesus-centered approach to reading the Bible sounds simple enough to start, right? Get your Bible and journal today and spend the next thirty days practicing these two steps. 

Reading the Bible Like Jesus Did

How did Jesus read the Bible (the Old Testament)? Does this question have implications for how we should read it? I agree with these comments on Luke 24:44-47 from an article by Thabiti Anyabwile at the Gospel Coalition:

How does Jesus read the Scriptures?

First, the Lord read the Scriptures autobiographically (v. 44). He makes a stunning claim 400 years after the close of the Old Testament: The Scriptures contained things “written about” Him. In fact, by citing “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms,” Jesus claims that there’s something about him in the whole of the Old Testament. There’s no part of Scripture where His story does not emerge. There’s no part of our Bible’s, then, that can be adequately read without coming to see Jesus in some form.

Second, the Lord read the Scriptures teleologically (v. 44). Okay, that’s my fancy word for the day. It means Jesus read His Bible with fulfillment in view. He taught the  disciples to consider “everything written about me… must be fulfilled.” The prophecies, patterns, types and history have an end point in mind, namely, Jesus. They point to Him; He fulfills them. The unique thing about this “autobiography” is that God wrote it beforethe life was lived. We write our autobiographies during our lives and after we’ve lived a while. God wrote the account of His Son over centuries and centuries before His Incarnation and earthly ministry. All of history was moving to Jesus’ climactic fulfillment. Proper reading of the Bible requires an instinct for getting to Christ and His fulfillment of God’s promises and plans. He is the end to which all history heads.

Third, the Lord read the Scriptures in a Gospel-Centered Way (v. 46). I know, “Gospel-centered” is all the craze these days. But it’s actually a lot older than faddish marketers make it sound. Being gospel-centered dates back to Jesus–and even further back since Jesus sees the gospel in the Old Testament Scriptures He read. Reading the Bible well means not only looking for Jesus but looking specifically for the redemptive purpose and work of Jesus. The Old Testament contains the prediction of Christ’s suffering and resurrection, and the hope of redemption   through repentance and forgiveness of sins. The Bible contains a missionary impulse and plot. Notice that this redemption is “proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” When we read our Bibles we ought to gather a sense of God’s salvation through Christ, of atonement, of victory over death and sin, of the centrality of missions and preaching the gospel, and the privilege of playing our part in the salvation history of God. Like those early disciples, we “are witnesses of these things” (v. 48).

All of this has implications for how we are to read our Bibles. Three obvious ones come to mind.

1. If Jesus read the Bible autobiographically, then we must read it biographically. In other words, the Bible is not about us. Not in the most immediate and important sense. The Bible is about Jesus and to read the Bible well means delaying questions like “What does this have to do with me?” or “How can I apply this to my life?” until we first thoroughly know what the Bible has to do with Jesus and how it applies to Him. If we read the Bible autobiographically we’ll actually remove Jesus from the story or relegate Him to a lesser role. What a tragedy that would be! We should read our Bibles the way John the Baptist “read” his forerunner role: “He [Jesus] must increase; we [the reader] must decrease.”

2. If Jesus read the Bible teleologically, then we must read it with visions bigger than our lives in mind. There’s a place–an important place!–for applying the Scriptures to our lives. We are to “live… by every word that comes from the  mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Yet, our smaller stories nestle in a larger over-arching story. The larger story focuses on the glory of God in Jesus Christ in the redemption and damnation of sinners. The larger story calls us outside of our smaller selves to live beyond ourselves and there truly become ourselves. It calls us to lose our lives so that we might find them. Any reading of the Bible that makes us more focused on ourselves and teaches us to shrink back or hold our lives dear is actually a misreading of the Bible. It is to read the Bible with our goals in mind rather than God’s. We’re made for bigger things, grander visions.

3. If Jesus read the Bible in a gospel-centered way, then we need to read the Bible in a gospel-centered way. The Lord taught His disciples to read their Scriptures in a way that revealed His suffering, death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins. They were to read their Bibles in such a way that they would be repentant, constantly turning into this good news that redemption had come in Christ. We need to find that message on every page of the Bible so that we can treasure that message every day of our lives. We need to read our Bibles this way so that we may be the witnesses we’re called to be and proclaim the message entrusted to us. How wonderful it would be to be able to share the gospel with family, friends and the nations from every type of biblical literature in ways natural to the text! That’s our goal and that’s our privilege if we learn to read the Bible the way our Master did.

So, do you read your Bible the way Jesus read His?

Worth a Look

Links worth a look:

Genesis 1&2: Are You Missing the Point?

How King David Reminds Us of Jesus

What the Eucharist Means to Me - Robin Parry

Why You Can't Pit Jesus Against His Bible

Evangelism in the Workplace

Feeling Shame is Not Repentance