Should we preach Christ every time we enter the pulpit, whether our text is in Mark or Romans, Judges or Proverbs or Nahum? Doesn’t such a focus run the risk of twisting the meaning of individual passages, or of homogenizing the Bible’s rich diversity into a single and repetitive theme?

These are honest reservations. Let me respond by addressing two issues: (a) why every Christian preacher – and especially those of us who embrace Reformed covenant theology – must show our hearers how every text connects to Christ, the mediator of the new covenant; and then (b) how we can preach Christ from every passage in the Old and New Testaments, and do so with integrity that displays both the uniqueness of each text and its proper place in the biblical tapestry that displays the glory and grace of God in Jesus his Son.

Why Preach Christ from all the Scriptures?⤒🔗

Why must we preach Christ from all the Scriptures? First, Jesus taught his disciples that the whole Old Testament testifies to him. Teaching them after his resurrection, Jesus said that all three sections of the Hebrew canon – the Law of Moses, the Prophets (including the history in the books of Samuel and Kings, as well as later prophets’ preaching, indictments and predictions), and the Writings (with the Psalms at their head) – foretold his death, resurrection, ascension, outpouring of the Spirit, and forgiveness to believers of all nations (Luke 24:25-27, 44-47; see John 5:46).

The way that the inspired authors of the New Testament interpret Old Testament passages shows that they took very seriously Jesus’ insistence that the ancient Scriptures given to Israel were all about himself. In 1 Corinthians 10, for example, Paul rehearses the sad history of Israel’s idolatry and immorality in the wilderness, despite the fact that God had rescued them miraculously through the Red Sea, guided them gloriously by the cloud of his glory, and nourished them with manna given by his Spirit and water gushing from the Rock. Israel’s destruction for such treachery was “written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11). And those events were written not simply to be sober warning examples (though they were that); but also because salvation through the sea by the cloud of God’s presence was a preview of the salvation symbolized in Christian baptism (10:2), and because the Rock that bore the blow of God’s rod (which Israelites deserved) and released life-giving water was actually a signal that pointed to Christ himself (10:4). Peter also insists that the message delivered by the ancient prophets was not so much to serve their own generation, but rather to serve Peter’s Christian readers, who have heard the good news preached in the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 1:12). This is because the Spirit of Christ who spoke through the prophets was predicting “the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories” (1:11). Both the historical experiences and the prophetic words that God gave to Israel long ago focus forward on the arrival of the Redeemer who would arrive in the fullness of time to defeat Satan, sin, and death (Gen. 3:15).

Second, Paul summed up the gospel that he preached as “proclaiming Christ.” He reminded the Corinthians of his resolve to preach nothing to them except Jesus.

Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). From his imprisonment in Rome he summed up not only his own but also other Christians’ message as “preaching Christ” (Phil. 1:15-18). He told the Colossian believers about his privileged responsibility to make God’s word fully known, unveiling the mystery that God had kept hidden for centuries, that Christ was now, at last, revealing his glory among the Gentiles. Christ was the one whom Paul proclaimed in his exhortation and his teaching, since his aim was to present everyone perfect in Christ (Col. 1:24-28). Paul could also assert that in his extended ministry in Ephesus he had presented the whole counsel of God, everything that would benefit his listeners spiritually (Acts 20:20, 27); and no doubt such comprehensive instruction was his goal wherever time and God’s providence permitted. How can we reconcile Paul’s claim to preach nothing but Jesus, on the one hand, and his claim to teach God’s whole counsel, on the other? Paul knew that preaching Christ would meet every need of any human heart because in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). Likewise today, for our congregants to hear Christ preached in all his richness of glory and grace is for them to receive all that they need to live and thrive before the face of God.

Third, only through Christ – not through the Bible’s commands or examples isolated from him – can our listeners receive not only the forgiveness of their sins, but also the transformation of lives. We are well aware that the forgiveness can take place only on the basis of Christ’s innocent sacrifice on the cross, his bearing the penalty that God’s righteous wrath rightly imposes for our covenant treachery. But it is equally true that it is only through Christ – his substitutionary death, his mighty resurrection, his life-imparting Holy Spirit – that our corrupt and crooked hearts can be changed, rescued from God-defying and self-destructive appetites and set on a course toward God-glorifying love and purity.

God’s law, of course, reveals his own holy character and discloses the standards by which he assesses our hearts and our conduct as the creatures uniquely made in his image. It is, as Paul says, “holy and righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12). But the law – as divine commandment – cannot impart spiritual life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins (Gal. 3:21). It cannot empower the obedience that it enjoins, or evoke the heartfelt motive of grateful love that is its central demand (Matt. 22:37-40). It suffers from being “weakened” by the flesh, the fallen human nature that we have inherited from our first ancestor, Adam (Rom. 8:1-4).

Only Christ’s death for us – and therefore our death with Christ – can shatter the tyrannous grip of sin on our hearts. Only Christ’s resurrection for us – and therefore our resurrection with Christ – can introduce us to the purifying power of his Holy Spirit, by which we begin to “walk in newness of life,” finding our pleasure now in becoming pleasing to our Redeemer, reflecting his purity and love (Rom. 6:1-14). Just as Moses’ face “absorbed” and then reflected God’s splendor from his audience with the Creator on Mount Sinai, so our hearts are changed to display the beauty of his holiness as we all, with unveiled faces, behold the glory of Christ through the preaching of the good news of his grace (2 Cor. 3:18). Paul sums up the message by which believers remove the corrupt passions and practices they inherited as fallen children of fallen Adam and clothe themselves, instead, with the renewed image of God “in true righteousness and holiness” in the concise expression: “learning Christ” (Eph. 4:17-24).

How to Preach Christ from all the Scriptures←⤒🔗

How can we preach Christ, while treating every passage faithfully, doing justice to its unique message and mission? The simple (though not always easy) answer is context. We must read and preach every text in its appropriate contexts: not only the paragraph around it, not only the book in which it appears and the era in which it was given, but also the flow of redemptive history, moving from God’s original covenant with humanity in Adam to his gracious covenant with his special people in Christ.

The Westminster Confession of Faith rightly observes that God voluntarily condescended to bridge the infinite gap that sets him apart from his creatures, engaging his human image-bearers “by way of covenant” (7.1). Moreover, since the Fall, when sin disrupted that original relationship, there has been “one and the same” covenant of grace, though it has been “differently administered in the time of law, and in the time of the gospel” (7.5-7.6). Since the Bible is God’s own word defining that covenant bond and chronicling its history, this divine-human covenant is the most significant context in which we should read and preach any passage, whether in Old Testament or New. These two main sections of our Bibles, Old and New Testaments, reflect the way key Scriptures (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-13; 2 Cor. 3:5-18) speak of God’s “old covenant” with Israel, ministered by Moses, and God’s “new covenant” instituted by Jesus himself (Luke 22:20).

Biblical covenants unite two parties – God the Lord, and his servant-people – in a bond of exclusive love and loyalty. This bond is sovereignly initiated and imposed by the Lord. He sets the terms and conditions, which are not open to negotiation by his human servant. The covenant is secured by the Lord’s promises and structured by his commands. Moses does not apply the term “covenant” to God’s initial relationship to humanity in Adam at creation (but see Hosea 6:7). But our Confession is correct to see in Genesis 1-2 all the essential components that would appear in later covenants: interpersonal commitment, commandments, and consequences. In speaking of the consequences that would ensue if Adam ate from the forbidden tree (Gen. 2:16-17), God implicitly promised Adam that perfect, personal, perpetual obedience would be rewarded with eternal, abundant life (WCF 7.2). But Adam failed; and because he acted for us, his failure is ours too (Rom. 5:12-21). But his and our utter destruction did not immediately ensue. After Adam squandered his opportunity, God’s curse on the tempter who lured our first parents into foolish rebellion implicitly promised that Eve’s descendant would someday crush the power of the Evil One (Gen. 3:15). A new covenant, grounded in undeserved divine grace, replaces the covenant that Adam breached. God would intervene (“I will put enmity”), and he would do so through a man, the uniquely-worthy “offspring” of the woman who would in due time bruise Satan’s head. Later covenants that bear the “covenant” label – with Noah and earth’s creatures after the flood, with Abraham, with Israel through Moses, with David – are all outworkings, expressions, steps forward in this covenant of grace, leading to its fulfillment in the new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34.

This means that reading and preaching any Old Testament passage (or New Testament, for that matter) in its appropriate historical context means approaching it in terms of its location in this series of covenants that structure the Lord’s relationship with his people from the dawn of history, through the eras of the Patriarchs, the Law, Israel’s life in the land, exile and return. By means of these successive covenants God was keeping his primeval promise to separate his people from Satan’s minions and to protect them from Satan’s assaults. Yet Israel’s separation (holiness) was always incomplete and Israel’s rescues were always short-lived, falling short of the richness of God’s promises. So God kept his people’s appetites whetted, their hearts athirst, for the final redemption to be achieved by the final Redeemer to come.

Jesus is that Redeemer, the mediator of the new covenant (WCF 8.1) – the full flowering of the covenant of grace (Heb. 9:15; 12:24). He fulfills, in his divine-human Person and by his redemptive mission, both the Lord’s freely-promised covenant commitments and the servant’s obligations to wholehearted trust and allegiance. The whole Bible is structured by covenant because the whole of human history is structured by covenant, and Jesus is the complete covenant-keeper both from the Godward side (as faithful covenant Lord) and from the man-ward side (as faithful covenant servant). This complex of truths has tremendous implications for how we interpret and how we proclaim every passage in the Bible in light of its context ... its covenant context.

Jesus is the Lord who came to keep all God’s covenant promises. Jesus also became human to fulfill the obligations of the covenant servant – to offer the obedience that we have not, to endure the curse that we deserve, to transform us into the image of his faithfulness. Keeping the covenant “template” in mind – Lord and servant, promises and commands – gives us a framework for approaching every text in the Bible and tracing the trail that leads from it to our Savior. Wherever in the Scriptures we see God at work as Lord of the covenant – creating, regulating, ruling, rescuing (and, yes, judging too) – we recall that Jesus is the full and final revelation of the triune God, who executes the Father’s purposes in creation and redemption in history and acts in our experience through the Spirit whom he has sent. Wherever the biblical text shows us human beings functioning as covenant servants – whether in faithfulness or in utter failure, or some mixture of the two – they are reflections that direct our hearts’ gaze to Christ, the Servant of the Lord par excellence. To the extent that other servants of the Lord trust and obey and enjoy God’s blessing (for instance, David approaching Goliath “in the name of the Lord,” 1 Sam. 17:25; Ps. 118:26; Matt. 21:9), they preview Christ’s flawless obedience and resurrection victory. When they suffer in spite of their integrity (for instance, Ps. 69:7-13; John 2:17-22), their sorrows foreshadow Christ’s cross. When they fall short (as they always do eventually: recall David’s sins against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah), they show that there is only one utterly loyal Servant of the Lord, and he alone is our hope. His substitutionary suffering absorbs our covenant curse (Gal. 3:10, 13). His obedient life secures our covenant blessing (2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9). His almighty Spirit is reconfiguring our hearts’ desires and hands’ actions, making us faithful servants in his image (Rom. 8:3-4, 29; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10).

The Holy Spirit’s agenda to conform us to the image of Christ suggests another approach that helps us discover how the Bible’s every passage points to Jesus. Our Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms rightly incorporate wording from Eph. 4:24 and Col. 3:10 to explain what it means to affirm that humanity is created in the image of God: “God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures” (WSC 10; see WLC 17). The three attributes­ knowledge, righteousness, and holiness­ align closely to the distinctive mission of each of the three mediatorial offices­ prophet, king, and priest – by which God administered his covenant relationship to ancient Israel. Prophets spoke God’s Word, conveying knowledge of the covenant Lord to his people. Kings executed God’s righteous rule over his people, defending them from foreign aggression, from domestic injustice, and from individual insubordination. Priests served in God’s holy presence on others’ behalf, offering prayer and sacrifice in worship.

Before sin entered the picture, Adam and Eve, God’s image-bearers, fulfilled all these functions faithfully. As prophets, they were to hear God’s word, respond to it faithfully, and convey it to each other in knowledge. As kings, they had “dominion over the creatures” and were to exercise it with wisdom and integrity. As priests, although in the absence of sin atoning sacrifice was unnecessary, they were to guard God’s garden-temple from any invader who would defile its holiness. But when sin entered the picture, our first parents failed utterly as prophets (believing and speaking lies), kings (defying God and obeying a creature), and priests (hiding the shame of their unholiness, and then expelled from God’s presence).

Through the rest of the Old Testament God would call out and give to Israel special agents of knowledge/truth (prophets), of righteous authority (kings), and of holy worship (priests). No prophet, no king (or judge, or sage – roles related to royalty), no priest in Israel fulfilled his office flawlessly, of course. But through each of them, both in their faithfulness and in their failures, God was foreshadowing the multifaceted ministry that Christ himself was fulfilling through them (often in spite of themselves) and that Christ would fulfill in person at his incarnation. Our Confession and Catechisms express the teaching of God’s Word with striking clarity and fidelity when they show how Christ, the complete and final Mediator, fulfilled all three offices to perfection: “Our Mediator was called Christ, because he was anointed with the Holy Ghost above measure; and so set apart, and fully furnished with all authority and ability, to execute the offices of prophet, priest, and king of his church, in the estate both of his humiliation and exaltation” (WLC 42; see 43-45; WSC 23­ 26; WCF 8.1). The opening of the Epistle to the Hebrews (1:1-4) introduces the threefold office of our Redeemer: he is the Son in whom God has “spoken” in these last days (prophet), the king who upholds the universe and sits at God’s right hand, and the priest who has “made purification for sins.” Although Christ’s priestly mission is the central point of this great epistle (8:1), the epistle also explores his roles as God’s spokesman (2:1-4; 3:1-4:13) and his people’s ruler and defender (2:5-9, 14-16; 7:1-2). Often elsewhere in the New Testament we are urged to discover the complex and complete sufficiency of Christ’s saving work through the complementary perspectives of his ministry of truth and knowledge (prophet); his ministry of wisdom, warfare, and righteous rule (king); and his ministry of intercession, sacrifice, and sanctification (priest).

This threefold perspective on Christ’s work helps us discern how Scripture’s diverse texts and types of literature are connected ultimately to him. The wisdom of Israel’s sages relates to the king’s royal responsibility of righteous judgment. In Christ all God’s treasures of wisdom are found (Col. 2:3). The songs of Israel’s psalmist relate to the priest’s privilege in worship. Christ’s sacrificial death makes us fit for God’s holy presence, and our risen Savior speaks God’s name in our midst (Heb. 2:12). Wherever we turn in God’s word, we meet the Lord and Servant of God’s covenant, the prophet who brings knowledge, the king who works righteousness, the priest who worships in holiness. So, on every page we meet our Christ, and from every page we can proclaim his glory and his grace.