Bible-Centered or Gospel-Centered

Did you know that you can be Bible-centered without being Gospel-centered? Surprising? Well, it shouldn’t be. You may recall that Jesus repeatedly scolded the Pharisees for not knowing the Scriptures. Did they miss too many Bible studies? Hardly. Those heartless paragons of hypocrisy knew their Scriptures backwards and forwards. No, they knew the Scriptures and yet they didn’t know.

How many times have you read of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness by Satan and come away thinking “I should commit more Bible to memory like Jesus if I’m to resist Satan’s attacks” or “I should grow closer to God through prayer and fasting so that I can handle temptation”? How about the story of Jesus‘ healing of the paralytic? Generally applications run something like “We shouldn’t be annoyed by the needy and helpless even if they do a cut hole in our roof!” When you read these passages who are you identifying with? When we put ourselves into the story we are Jesus! Isn’t this what we ought to do? Aren’t we Christ-ians? Jesus is after all our example. To be sure, but Jesus is more than our example. Much more. He is our Savior.

The story of Jesus’ temptation isn’t told primarily to give us tips on our duel with the Prince of darkness. This is a David and Goliath moment. The giant is bigger, stronger, scarier than all of us. But Jesus, our hero, our warrior, our deliverer marches onto the battlefield and slays the beast. He did in the wilderness what Israel failed to do, what we all fail to do. The lesson isn’t tactics on how to cross swords with the great Deceiver. The lesson is Jesus fought and won for me.

When Jesus heals the paralytic, it is quite absurd, nay asinine and arrogant, that we place ourselves in the position of the Healer. There are only two positions we can occupy. Either we are the Pharisees who stand in judgment over Jesus (“We know our Bibles. Let us see if this fellow does it by the Book. Oh, blasphemy! Forgiving sins! Outrageous. Only God does that. Yes, yes the poor, paralyzed wretch is doing jumping jacks. No, I don’t know how that was done, but you’re missing the principle of the matter.) and tragically never realize that they need healing and forgiveness. Or we are the paralytic and his friends desperate for healing, desperate to meet the Healer, desperate to hear those words, “Your sins are forgiven.”

So do you know the Gospel, or are you content to just know the Bible?

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Today Jen and I have been married 11 years. They haven't been pure bliss, but they have been the sweetest years of my life. Her beauty seems ever growing, and my heart seems ever more captured. I'm not a huge Andrew Peterson fan, but he does right pretty good lyrics. This song, I think, perfectly fitting for our marriage.

I love you, Jen. As the song says, I gladly dance with you "in the shadowlands until the shadows are no more."