May 16, 2024
This past Sunday morning I mentioned that Romans 15:4 really needed its own sermon. I'm not going to write that sermon here. But I do want to break the verse down a little more for you. Here's what Paul said, right after quoting Psalm 69:9 about Jesus bearing the reproaches/insults that were aimed at God: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
Note how similar this passage is to 1 Corinthians 10:11, "Now these things [the events of the Exodus and wilderness wanderings] happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come," and to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."
Note the broad scope. "For whatever [Scripture] was written"/"All Scripture." Paul has just quoted a fragment of a Psalm in Romans 14. In 1 Corinthians he's speaking of the events recorded in the Pentateuch. "All" is as universal a word as Paul could use - he has in mind here the entirety of what we call the Old Testament.
Note the contemporary audience. What was written in former times is not a dead letter. Rather, it was written ultimately for us. What happened to the Israelites of old happened to them as an example for us, and was written down for our good. And who are we? We are those "on whom the end of the ages has come." With the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the last days, the end times, have dawned. And all that was written before Jesus came (as well as the Scriptures written after He came!) was written for God's people in Paul's day, and for the church in every generation.
Note the purposes of Scripture. Instruction, examples, teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness, equipping for every good work, endurance, encouragement, and hope. The whole Bible, including the Old Testament, teaches us the gospel of Jesus and how to live in the light of that gospel. We see the finished work and the example of our Savior in Psalm 69. We see the example of sins to avoid and duties to fulfill in the wilderness generation. We gain endurance, encouragement, and hope as we see the faithfulness and steadfast love of the triune God.
Note the divine nature of the Bible - In Romans 15:4 Paul says that endurance and encouragement come through the Scriptures. And in Romans 15:5 he says that God is the "God of endurance and encouragement." This drives home the point that the Scriptures are the very words of God Himself, not merely the words of man.
Note the Christ-centered nature of the Bible. Paul's citation of Psalm 69 shows how Jesus is in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27, 44). As Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:15, "the sacred writings . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."
As we approach the summer months, with perhaps a different schedule, let us commit anew to reading, studying, meditating on, and memorizing the word of God. May we be like newborn babies all our lives in the sense that we continually yearn for the pure milk of the word (I Peter 2:2-3), and may we continue to grow up to mature manhood and womanhood, who can eat the solid food of the word and more and more "have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:14). My prayer is that our preaching not only teaches you what the Bible says, but also shows you how to read the Bible for yourself. I long for each one of us to be like Ezra, who "set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel" (Ezra 7:10).
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Speaking of reading and teaching the whole Bible in light of the coming of Jesus Christ, RTS and The Gospel Coalition announced this weekthat the lectures by Tim Keller and Ed Clowney on Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World are newly available online with a host of great accompanying resources. Tim Keller (1950-2023) is well-known; Ed Clowney (1917-2005) was a pastor and a professor (and for eighteen years the president) at Westminster Theological Seminary in the late 1900s. They co-taught a Doctor of Ministry class for RTS in 2002, and though it is aimed primarily at preachers, any Christian can benefit from the way they discuss seeing Jesus in the Old Testament and communicating Him and His gospel to a secular world, especially those of you who are teaching in various ways at our church!