God sovereignly ordains events in history to speak to his people concerning his plans. We, therefore, read the historical and prophetic narratives of scripture with an eye on the fact that God was orchestrating these historical events to point to future events or to function as examples to his future people. We, therefore, must understand the Old Testament as fundamentally pointing forward to the gospel fully revealed in the New Testament and the historic events are orchestrated by God to point forward to his full revelation in the Lord Jesus.

Though we affirm the perspicuity of scripture and the fundamental clarity of its essential message, the ever-present issue when reading the Bible is this: how do I know I am reading it rightly? It is all too easy to read ourselves into the story when it isn’t necessarily about us, miss the main point of a passage or just badly misread what is said altogether. Whilst utter interpretative perfection is unlikely to any of us, there are some helpful guiding principles that can keep us on the right track with any passage of scripture.

What does this say about Jesus?

On the road to Emmaus, starting with Moses and the prophets, Jesus ‘interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures’ (Luke 24:25-27Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), 44-45Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). 2 Corinthians 1:20Open in Logos Bible Software (if available) tells us that all God’s promises are ‘yes’ in Jesus. They all point to and are fulfilled in him. 1 Peter 1:9-12Open in Logos Bible Software (if available) tells us that the prophets were pointing forward to what has now been fully revealed in and through Christ and the gospel. As a starting point for reading the Bible well, we want to ask: what does this tell me about Jesus? It is all, ultimately, pointing to him. He is fundamentally the key to understanding any part of it.

How does this fit with/relate to other passages?

2 Timothy 3:16Open in Logos Bible Software (if available) tells us ‘All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness’. What this tells us is that scripture has one author (God) and functions as a unified whole. Though it is written by around 40 different human authors over a 1500 (or so) year period, writing in their own styles and within their own cultures, it has all been inspired by one ultimate author and each part relates to every other. The Bible should be read and understood as a unified whole and, therefore, must be read and understood as each part relating to each other. This means we can expect to see a storyline unfolding and we can expect other parts of scripture to help us understand other bits of scripture.

Read it knowing God ordained events as part of his story.

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