What’s the purpose of your blog?
This blog reflects my own personal journey into Jesus Christ and his eternal purpose through the church. I have discovered that an individual goes through many seasons in their relationship with Jesus in conjunction with their experiences in the church and the world. Therefore, my writings glaringly reflect those many seasons.
As a young academic and an aspiring Christian mystic, this blog is unashamedly a reflection of my pursuit of Christ in spirit, soul, and body—the realm of the intellect as well as spiritual imagination. It is my desire that this blog would contribute to biblical academic dialogue, encourage humble Christ-followers, and challenge honest skeptics.
Primarily, this blog is dedicated to those who are loving Jesus with all of their heart, soul, strength, and mind. The Centrality and Supremacy of Jesus Christ is about a worldview. Welcome to a world where Jesus of Nazareth has called us to celebrate salvation by living and praying his kingdom come to earth—so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
What do you believe about the Scriptures?
The Bible (Old & New Testaments) is the inspired, infallible word of God (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). I believe that the Scriptures are trustworthy in conveying God’s progressive revelation through the history of Israel, culminating in the life of Jesus of Nazareth—who is the exact representation of God in the fullness of divine, incarnational revelation (Matt 16:16, 21:33-40; Jn 1:1-14, 5:39, 8:58, 10:33, 14:9; Col 1:15-20; Heb 1:3).
I believe that “inspired” (God-breathed) does not mean that all of the Bible should be read literally, but according to its original ancient context and genres. To affirm that the OT is inspired isn’t to say that the Hebrews saw God in his fullness, or that all portions of Scripture are equally authoritative. All Scripture is subordinate to Christ. He is the reality of the OT shadows (Col 2:17). Jesus sorts out all misconceptions of God in the OT.
All Scripture should be read using a Christocentric hermeneutic (interpretation). This means that Christ is not only the center of the salvific story told in the Scriptures, but that all Hebrew perceptions of God in the OT should be understood in light of Christ, the final self-revelation of God.
Wherever OT portraits of God do not look like Christ, I see God taking on the sins of Israel and accommodating himself to their limited vision and partial revelation. A renewed understanding of inspiration is found in a true Christocentric interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.
Inspiration testifies to the Spirit’s activity in the lives of the prophets and apostles who penned what in time became celebrated as sacred Scripture (2 Peter 1:20-21). The testimony handed down to us in the text is reliable in its transmission, and it is trustworthy in what it intends to communicate to the ancient and modern reader about God in Christ.
Interpretation is another matter that requires a responsible handling of the biblical text, “rightly dividing” it in Christian community. This should be done in a spirit of grace and humility. As the church, we must recognize the difference between the Scriptures, and our interpretations.
The highest view of the Scriptures is not the one that seeks to make an idol of the Bible (biblicism), but the one that allows the biblical text to exalt Christ as the living Word over all creation. The Word became flesh, not ink.
March 2nd, 2013 at 9:49 pm
I’m unclear as to how you take a very limited set of Christ’s teachings, assembled for a purpose other than giving us a complete picture of God revealed in Christ and think that creates a complete hermeneutic from which to alter what the Old Testament tells us in its exegetical and cultural context.
March 2nd, 2013 at 10:05 pm
Hey Michael, what do you mean by “limited” set of teachings?
I would say that the Gospels (particularly Matt 5-7), and the teaching of the apostles expounding on what Jesus taught them, is plenty reason to come to a Christocentric hermeneutic. There is clear evidence that Jesus radically interpreted the Hebrew Scriptures (OT) in a way that both shocked and bewildered his audience, especially his idea of Messiah and his mission to reveal what God is like. Notice how Jesus doesn’t read all of Isaiah 61 v.2 in Luke 4:18 at Nazareth. He stopped reading in the middle of a verse, right before the part about vengeance.
And since the apostles followed his teachings and example to death, instead of reverting back to OT belief and practices, it’s evident they also utilized a Christocentric reading of Scripture. Therefore, I’m convinced they were doing the same thing I’m advocating.