Deutero Q

I have been teaching a weekly Bible study on Hebrews and recently focused on the Old Testament tabernacle, the portable tent of meeting where the Lord met His people (see especially Exod. 25-27 for details of the tabernacle).

In many ways the tabernacle typifies Christ, about whom Scripture says He made his dwelling—literally, He “tabernacled”—among us (John 1:14). The furnishings of the tabernacle clearly point to Christ: the altar of burnt offering typifies the sacrificial death of Christ; the laver typifies the cleansing power of the blood of Christ; the lampstand typifies Christ, the light of the world; the table of the bread of the presence points to Christ, the bread of life; the altar of incense typifies the intercession of Christ (incense is associated with prayer in Scripture [e.g., Ps. 141:2]); and the atonement cover—mercy seat—typifies the atoning work of Christ upon the cross.

I have come to a place in my Christian journey where I can affirm with Graeme Goldsworthy that “all biblical texts testify in some way to Jesus Christ. This makes him the center of biblical revelation and the fixed reference point for understanding everything else in the Bible" (Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture, Eerdmans, 2000).

The fact that Jesus Christ is the center of biblical revelation should have major implications for preaching, teaching, Bible study, and living.

How important it is that we affirm the centrality of Christ, who is the heart of Christianity as well as the very center of God’s self-disclosure in Scripture.