Progress of Redemption #01 — David Shirley

Welcome to the Progress of Redemption course. I trust you've read your syllabus and seen that this is a special survey from Genesis to Revelation. We will study the relationships between significant sections of Scripture, unified by the theme of redemption, in order to see the blueprint of God for human history.

Please read your course objectives and note that under your course requirements, that your grade will be determined as follows. The weekly worksheet or your notebook in which you will be taking notes in class, and your midterm and final exams.

Also, there will be a project or a term paper in which we would like you to take the eight thematic sections of the Bible and list within those sections the Christocentric themes of each of the 66 books of the Bible, found in those eight thematic sections of the Bible.

Prayer and the Goal of Studying Redemption

But before we begin, let's just pause for a moment of prayer. Father, we do want to come to you today as your children, born of your Spirit, born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, that lives and abides forever.

We come as babes in hearts, willing to submit, wanting to believe and trust your Word, so that if you reveal to us your will, our hearts are prepared to do it. And if not, Lord, we ask that you would change our hearts and make us ready to do your will.

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things from thy law. We ask that you would grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you and of your Son, Jesus Christ, so that we can know the things that you've freely given to us, that we might make you known.

So we commit this study to you and ask for your help that we might relate it to your theme, to your plan, to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. To him be the glory, both now and forevermore. Amen.

It is our intention that we would, as Paul said, declare unto you, not shrink from declaring unto you, the whole counsel of God, the whole purpose of God. And to study, to present ourselves approved to God, workers that do not need to be ashamed, but rightly dividing the Word of truth.

The Unity of the Bible and Christ as Its Central Theme

And if you could, for a moment, pretend that I have a puzzle in my hand, and this puzzle has 66 pieces to it. And I'm going to take this puzzle with its 66 pieces and shuffle it like a deck of cards. And I'm going to deal to you a few of those pieces as there are 66 books in the Bible.

Now I don't know how many books of the Bible you've actually read. Some of you may have been dealt all 66 books. Some of you may have read half of the Bible. Maybe you have read 30 or so books of the Bible.

Some may have read 10, some maybe less. Maybe you're here and just getting started in your study of God's precious Word. And we're so glad to have you if you are. But can you imagine being given only a few pieces of a puzzle and then being asked to put that puzzle together, assemble that puzzle, and then rightly divide and correctly interpret and tell all the intricacies of that puzzle?

And yet many people are trying to rightly divide the Bible, and they have not yet first rightly united the Bible. And so we want to look at the theme of both the Old and the New Testaments, the most basic division of the Bible, which is Christ Jesus Himself.

You've no doubt heard that old saying, the new is in the old concealed and the old is in the new revealed. Because what the Old Testament foreshadowed, Christ, the New Testament fulfilled and revealed Christ.

He was prefigured in the Old Testament, but with the New Testament, there is the reality of Jesus Christ. And God has said that though He has spoken in many and various ways in the past, in Hebrews 1, 1 and 2, in these last days, God has spoken directly through His Son, or more literally, in the Son.

That's the message that God chooses to speak through in these last days. And so when we look at the Bible, it is divided up into eight major sections, and Christ is the theme of each of these sections.

The Law: Election and the Foundation of Redemption

We first have what we call the Law, from Genesis to Deuteronomy. We have that foundation upon which the message of Christ and God's salvation to the world is being built. We see people elected and chosen.

God chooses His people and builds His nation through a man. And the book of Genesis will give us this information. And then we see God redeem His people, bring them out in the book of Exodus, set them apart in Leviticus, make them a special and peculiar people, give them direction for their life in numbers, and instruct them further in Deuteronomy.

But it's all laying a foundation, the Law, the Pentateuch, the Torah. That's one section of the Bible. We will look to see how it relates to the theme of redemption. And then there's the section of history, from Joshua to Esther, where we're making preparation for the Messiah to come.

Historical Books: Preparing for the Messiah

And under Joshua, the Israelites take possession of the land. And because of their lack of obedience, they were oppressed as a nation. And we see in Judges that everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

But yet even in that time, there was devotion, true devotion. And we read about that in the book of Ruth. And then finally, Samuel comes and brings that stabilization to the nation. And he anoints Saul as king.

And the nation is stabilized. David expands that kingdom. And finally, Solomon brings that kingdom into a tremendous glory, a glory that has impressed the whole world. And yet with all that, Solomon did not follow the Lord as he ought to.

And after his death, there was a division. And his son, Rehoboam, followed the counsel of the young men rather than the elders, the older men. And there was a split so that Jeroboam became the king of the ten northern tribes and Rehoboam was king of the south, which is Judah, and, of course, the tribe of Benjamin, those two tribes.

And things just deteriorated. And in 2 Kings, we can read about that until finally there was the deportation of the southern kingdom of Judah also. And Chronicles is a review of this prophetic history of Samuel and Kings, but it views it from a priestly point of view and showing the destruction of the temple.

And yet we see that in the midst of all this, God's providential hand is still there. He is protecting his people in Babylon if we read the book of Esther. And then he restores them to their temple in Ezra.

He reconstructs the nation in Nehemiah. And they are waiting, this remnant of people. And all this history has been preparing them and getting them ready for the coming Messiah, Redeemer. And so we call this the section of history.

Poetry: Aspiration for Christ

And then there's a third section of poetry, the five books of poetry, in which we see in a special way an aspiration for Jesus Christ is expressed. Even in the book of Job, in Job chapter 9 and verse 33, Job says that he had this aspiration for one who might lay his hand upon us both, that is, upon God and upon man.

We know that that is that one mediator found in 1 Timothy 2 .5, that mediator Jesus Christ. And throughout the book of the Psalms, we feel that desire for communion with God. In Proverbs, we see how they aspire for the wisdom of God, that wisdom that's fulfilled in Christ alone, as Colossians tells us in chapter 2 and verse 3.

And even when you read Ecclesiastes, you can't help but pick up there's an aspiration for satisfaction, that man can find his ultimate rest in God. And the Song of Solomon, though, speaks of that marriage, that relationship between a man and a woman.

There's that sense there where we can feel the longing for union, for love. And we know that the true lover of our souls is none other than Jesus Christ. And so throughout these books of poetry, the thing that stands out that they express, that aspiration for Jesus Christ.

The Prophets: Expectation of the Coming Messiah

And then there are the prophetic books from Isaiah to Malachi, in which the hope of a national restoration, we see international salvation being brought through Christ. We see, of course, a retribution upon evil and a judgment upon sinful nations.

Jeremiah, one of my favorite books, is about reaffirming the future covenant with Israel. And there's a tremendous expectation in these prophetic books of the Messiah, of Christ. Ezekiel talks about a glorious restoration by Christ.

Daniel deals with the political destination of the people and the time when Christ will come as a stone and be the King of kings and Lord of lords. Haggai and Zechariah may point to a more religious restoration, and yet it's still through Christ.

And Malachi may look at a more moral reconstruction, but it's by Christ. And so the prophetic books have an expectation of the coming Messiah. Then the next major section of Scripture is the Gospels. And we've been waiting and anticipating the realization of this coming Messiah.

The Gospels: Christ Manifest

And finally, in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he's here, and so Christ is manifest. We see him. And in Matthew, he's manifest as the sovereign king to the Jews. In Mark, he's manifest in his ministry as a servant to the Romans.

In Luke, he's manifest in his perfect humanity as a man to the Greeks. And in John, he's manifest in his deity as God to the whole world. And so this anticipation that we've been waiting for culminates and is manifested in the Gospels.

Acts and the Worldwide Proclamation of the Gospel

And we see Jesus Christ. John points to him. Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And then the next section in the Bible is the New Testament history, which is the book of Acts.

And we read the story of how the Gospel and the good news about Jesus begins in Jerusalem and then it moves out to the surrounding areas of Judea and then on into Samaria. And finally, the Gospel is propagated and proclaimed throughout the whole world.

And the disciples begin this worldwide proclamation of Christ, and there's a complete history of it in the book of Acts, which history, of course, is also prophetic in the sense that it's still continuing today through you and I.

And it will be complete finally at the times of the fullness of the Gentiles, which we'll talk about later. But then there's another section of Scripture we call the Epistles. And in the Epistles, we see the practical application of what we have in Christ.

The Epistles: Practical Life in Christ

When we look at Paul's Epistles, where he has used the phrase in Christ so much, we see that Romans tells us that there's redemption in Christ. In 1 Corinthians, there's sanctification. It's in Christ.

2 Corinthians, there's triumph, jubilant victory, overcoming victory in Christ. Galatians tells us that we're free. We've been emancipated. It's in Christ. Ephesians says that we've been exalted and brought into union in Christ.

Philippians tells us of the joy that we have in Christ and the participation that we have in Christ with the Gospel that causes that joy. And Colossians speaks of how we're complete in Christ, period.

1 Thessalonians, again, there's an expectation in Christ and His return. And as 2 Thessalonians tells us, there's a future glorification in Christ that is coming. 1 Timothy tells the believers that they're to be faithful in Christ.

And 2 Timothy, to be sound and steadfast in Christ. So Titus also, to be steadfast and always engaged in those good works in Christ. And Philemon tells of the benefit and the practical positive help we are in Christ.

And then, not only in the Pauline epistles, but in the general epistles, where we're exhorted to follow Christ. Then we see in Hebrews that we're to follow Christ to perfection. That He is the wisdom that James speaks about.

We're to follow Him in submission. Peter talks about an impurity. John tells us that we're to be in communion with and that our contributions and the things that we do are to be done for the cause of Christ.

Jude says that we are to stand in contention for the faith. The once for all delivered faith to Christ. And that's in Christ. And so, throughout the epistles, we see that the aspirations that were held in the Old Testament are now met and applied to our lives as we're in Christ.

Revelation: The Consummation of All Things in Christ

And then finally, there is that prophecy in the New Testament as the prophets of the Old Testament. So, in the book of the Revelation, we have the consummation of all things in Christ. And it shows how all things are going to find and be filled and summed up in Christ.

And He's revealed as the King. Because in the Gospels, He's been the prophet to His people. In the Acts and the Epistles, He's been the priest for His people. And now in Revelation, He consummates it all as King of kings and Lord of lords.

So, as we study through the Progress of Redemption, we're going to ask that you take these major sections and themes of the Bible, these eight divisions of the Bible, and to find in each of these the books and to list the theme there.

Genesis: Election and the Seed of the Woman

Such as, we'll start with Genesis and say that the key verse in Genesis is Genesis 3 .15 where it says that God has put enmity between thy seed and the woman's seed. God tells that there's going to be someone born from a woman and of the woman's seed and that one will be the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and there will be enmity between that one and between Satan.

And if I could sum up the book of Genesis in one word, I would choose the word election. Because in chapters 1 -11, God selects and elects certain things to tell us. In those first 11 chapters of Genesis, He picks out things.

He covers everything from the creation of the universe to the creation of man and the origin of sin, how human civilization began, includes the flood and the destruction and down to the Tower of Babel.

There are just so many things included in that. And yet, He selects only certain things to tell us. I often wish He'd have told us more things, things that I would like to know about. But He covers all that in just 11 chapters and then He turns in chapter 12 and from chapter 12 to chapter 50, He spends 39 chapters giving details about one man and his family.

And then you wonder as you read through that, and we'll get into that later, why did He choose this one man and then why did He choose certain people in this man's family and through those, He brought the Messiah, the Redeemer of the world.

And so, I think of Genesis, I think of the word election and how it portrays Christ. It portrays Him as the seed of the woman. No doubt as we move on into Exodus, we will see that in Exodus 12, He is the Passover Lamb and so forth.

As we go through the books of the Bible, we will find that Christ is the same of each of the 66 books of the Bible and that they'll fit together quite well. Now, before we get too far down the line, let's think about interpreting the Bible.

Interpreting Scripture: Exegesis and the Meaning of the Text

So, the meaning that we want to get as we go through the Bible is in the mind of the one speaking. God has spoken through His Word. We're the hearers. We want the interpretation. And so, we want to follow the rules that God has given within Scripture to get at the meaning.

We want to exegete the Word of God because Peter tells us that it's very possible if you turn to 2 Peter chapter 3 and look at verses 14 through 16. Here in these verses, we see that if you exegete the Scripture, if you read into the Scripture, rather than pulling out and exegeting what is there in the Scripture, then the way you handle that Scripture is going to determine whether you have salvation or whether you have destruction.

He says in verse 14, Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of things in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort or twist, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

One of the sure ways of destroying your life is to study the Bible in the wrong way, to twist and distort Scripture, to read into it things that aren't there and things that you might feel or see or think are there.

But to receive salvation, we need to get the meaning that's in the mind of God. It's not so much what you often hear people say, well, what does that mean to you? Well, that's not really the issue. The issue is what has God said and what was in the mind of God when He spoke.

And so as we come to the Bible, realizing that it can bring salvation, and it has, but it can also bring destruction. We wouldn't handle something so powerful as the Bible if it was in the form of dynamite.

We wouldn't handle it to our little kids and then just tell them to go experiment with it and play with it because where it might be useful, it could also destroy them. And it is so with the Bible. It is so powerful that we need to be careful in the way we handle it.

The Bible, as Jeremiah put it so well in Jeremiah 1, verses 1 and 2, it says, the words of Jeremiah to whom the word of the Lord came. That is, we're dealing with the words of a man, Jeremiah, but we're also dealing with the word of the Lord.

And so the Bible is a linguistic incarnate, much as Jesus Christ was the theanthropos, He was the God-man. He was the word made flesh in John 1, verses 1 and 14. He had two natures. He is fully God and He was fully man.

And so we call Him the theanthropos, the God-man. Well, the Bible is very similar. It's a linguistic incarnate in that it is the words of Jeremiah but it's also the words of God. And so when we come to the Bible to interpret it, the nature of the Bible will affect our interpretation.

Because it has a God nature, then we need to know the laws of the Spirit. And because it has a man nature, we need to know the laws of human language. And so as we read in the Bible that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, they're just foolishness to him.

And Jesus says that His Father revealed to some but He hid from others. And that Jesus revealed to His disciples, God revealed to some by way of the Holy Spirit, to others He didn't. And so as we come to the Bible, we want to realize that we must be, as Jesus said, come to Him who is meek and lowly.

We must be babes in heart. As a matter of fact, one of the things that He really rebuked the people for was that they were slow of heart to believe all that was written in the Scriptures. And oftentimes they just didn't seem to know the power of God, the power of what God had said in His Scripture.

The Laws of the Spirit: New Birth, Submission, Faith, and Prayer

And so there are some laws of the Spirit that we need to follow. Four simple laws for sure. One is that you must be born again. You must be a child of God. Because the natural man would not be able to even begin to understand the things that are revealed by the Spirit of God.

They make no sense to him. They are actually foolish to him. Because the Bible is dealing with the things of God. And these things are consummated in the person, Jesus Christ, who has become a stumbling block to so many.

And no natural human can understand these things. So you must be born again by the Spirit of God, not by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. And then you must be a babe in heart.

There must be willing submission on your part. You must come to Him, not wise in your own conceits, but as a babe in heart. And then you must believe and trust God. That is, many people come to the Bible just to get knowledge, and knowledge puffs up.

But we are to come to God with trust in God, but an active faith, ready to believe, to the end of an objective action on our part. In other words, ready to do. Jesus said, any man that's willing to do his will will know the teaching.

And we know quite well that not everyone that just says, Lord, Lord, is going to enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father who's in heaven. And so in the end, it's not going to be all the creeds you can quote, but it's going to be the deeds that you've done.

And so we must come to God trusting and ready to do the things that He's revealed. That's the law of the Spirit. God will reveal to you if you're ready to do what He reveals. Now, lastly, the law of the Spirit is that we must pray.

As Psalm 119 and verse 18 says, Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from thy law. Ephesians 1, 17 and 18, we know that Paul's prayer, that we would be granted the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, so we can know these things that are given to us by God.

And we can know the hope of our calling. We can know what great inheritance we have and what He has in us. And we can know the power of His Spirit, the power of the resurrection of Christ. And we can look with hope.

So we need to pray. There's no point in tuning the piano after the concert. When we come here on Sunday mornings, I notice James doesn't spend a whole lot of time tuning his guitar after the worship service is over.

But I've quite frequently seen him get that thing in tune before the worship service starts. And so it is in the laws of the Spirit. Once we're born again and come with willing, submissive hearts as a child to the Lord, trusting and ready to do the things that He said, and pray and say, Open my eyes.

Show me. Give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Then we've met the laws of the Spirit. But we also have to deal with the laws of human language because this book is a linguistic incarnate and man has laws in his language.

The Laws of Human Language and Context

So the laws of human language would be that we want to first look at the general background, find out who the author is and what his situation is, the geography, where he's at, the customs, the times that he lives in, and the occasion.

Why is he writing and what's going on during this time that caused the occasion for this writing? And then look for that theme that unifies the book, that axis that the book turns on. And then once you've seen a theme, then check and see if there are any major divisions related to this thing.

Is there a plan to this? Is there an outline given within the book? And then study that outline, that plan, within the context, within the composites that make up that plan or outline of the book. In other words, context simply means con with text to weave.

Hence we have textile mills which weave cloth and string and things like that. They're woven together. And so the contexts are those things which are woven together. If you want to, for example, sometimes check out Colossians chapter 4, verses 2 through 6 and compare that with Romans 12, 1 and 2.

And you'll see that one of them is not woven and one of them seems to be woven. There's something woven together. We look for that. And then after looking for that which is woven together, then we can get down to the very words, to what I would call the bricks that make up the building and then the mortar which is the syntax.

We have words but we also have syntax which is the meaning that is between the words. And as we're looking in the words, we'll want to find the etymology and trace the history of the word for that might help us.

It doesn't mean that that's the meaning of the word but it will help us to understand where the word came from and how it's developed throughout history. But what we really want to look for is the usus loquendi, that is the use of location.

How was this word used on location? Because words are used in different places and at different times in different ways. When I first got here to England, I heard people say brill. And the only brill I knew was brill cream that somebody puts on their head.

And then I saw signs that said, don't cue here. And I'm like, I don't even know how to cue. I mean I know what a cue ball is. It goes on a pool table and I know that sometimes when you're doing a play, they give you a cue when you're supposed to come in and do your part.

But I didn't know how do you cue here and then someone handed me something rather large and asked me if I could put it in my boot. And I thought, I don't even have boots on. What do you mean put it in my boot?

And they were talking about what I would call the trunk of my car. And so words are used differently in different places and some might say, well let's take a trip. It used to be a trip was a trip that you could take on drugs or it could be a trip that you took in a car or someone may refer to pot.

Do you have any pot? Or to bread. There's so many words that we have to find the usus loquendi of the word and not just the etymology of the word. And then there's meaning in between those words. We're all familiar with the story Three Bears and we could say let's eat Goldilocks or let's eat Goldilocks.

And that syntax, that meaning that's between the words becomes very important. But once we've done all that we want to follow the most basic hermeneutic principle of all and that is to relate this book and the teachings of this book to the whole progressive plan of God.

Redemption as the Central Hermeneutic Principle

There are two important hermeneutic questions that we need to ask. And to me this is the ultimate hermeneutic principle. Peter said in 2 Peter 1 .9 that if you can't remember this if you've lost sight of this then you're blind and you can't see.

You're short-sighted. And even Peter who was an unlearned fisherman but had revelation from God and flesh and blood did not reveal these things to him but as Jesus said, my father which is in heaven he got the basics down well.

And Peter says that redemption is so important and we can't lose sight of that redemption. So two questions you want to always ask is what's the intended emphasis of this part of scripture on redemption which is the main theme of the Bible.

We want to know that emphasis. And then how does this part of scripture relate to the other parts of redemption that are revealed in the Bible? Because the Bible portrays Jesus Christ the Savior of the world and hence the title of this class The Progress of Redemption.

And we'll see that God's had the same plan pretty much since Genesis 15 -6 when Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. We see that Paul in Romans 4 -3 says that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.

So from the Old Testament to the New Testament there's really been no change. God's had the same plan from the beginning that we would believe in Christ. And the same promise was given to us in Genesis 17 when God promised to Abraham.

We see in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 6 and in Revelation 21 we have the same promise. Behold the tabernacle of God is going to be with men and He's going to dwell with them and they're going to be His people and God Himself will be with them and He'll be their God and they'll be His people.

And that's been the promise from the beginning. This Messiah who will be with us and dwell with us and we'll be His people. And the sign has not changed either because in Genesis 17 the sign of circumcision was given and we have the same sign in Romans 2 and Romans 4 -11 says that it's the seal of the righteousness of faith.

We're talking about circumcision being the circumcision of the heart that's in the spirit not the outward circumcision which was the sign in the Old Testament but a circumcision of our hearts so that as Philippians 3 -3 says we are the true circumcision.

We worship God in the spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We don't put any confidence in the flesh at all. And we're circumcised with a circumcision that's made without hand. And so the sign hasn't changed.

It's been circumcision and it's the same mediator from the Old Testament the Passover Lamb all the way through to Jesus the one mediator between God and man. And if you look at 1 Timothy 2 -5 and Hebrews 9 -24 we see that reiterated.

Genesis and Revelation: The Bible's Redemptive Arc

But from Genesis to Revelation there is a connection. In Genesis 1 -1 we see in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and Revelation 21 -1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth. In Genesis 1 -10 there's the gathering of the waters that God calls the sea.

In Revelation 21 -1 the sea was no more. In Genesis 1 -5 the darkness He calls it night. In Revelation 21 -25 there is no night anymore at all. In Genesis 1 -16 there are two lights the greater to rule by the day and the lesser to rule by the night.

But in Revelation 21 -23 the city has no need of the sun or the moon. Neither one of those lights. In Genesis 2 -17 He says in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. In Revelation 21 -4 He says death shall be no more.

In Genesis 3 -16 He's going to greatly multiply the pain and the sorrow. And yet in Revelation 21 -4 He says neither shall there be pain anymore. In Genesis 3 -17 Cursed is the ground for your sake. In Revelation 22 -3 there shall be no more curse.

In Genesis 3 -1 Satan appears as deceiver. Revelation 20 -10 Satan disappears forever. In Genesis 3 -22 -24 man is driven from the garden from the tree of life. In Revelation 22 -2 the tree of life is available for all.

In Genesis 3 -24 man is driven from God's presence. But in Revelation 22 -4 God dwells in the midst. And man shall see His face. And in Genesis we see that man's home is by a river. When we get to Revelation 22 -1 man's eternal home is also by a river.

And as we put this puzzle of the 66 pieces together we're going to see that Christ is the theme and the redemption that's in Christ Jesus is the theme. We want to always bring all of our interpretation of Scripture back to this theme.

One Program, Two Programs, and Covenant Theology

And we're going to look at views of the Bible. Some people view the Bible as one program. The new and the old are the same. They're one program from the beginning to the end. Others view the Bible as two programs.

There's an old program and there's a new program. And then there are folks that see the Bible as one program but there are qualitative differences within that program. There is an old and a new that have the same theme, the same plan the same relationship, but there are some differences between the old and the new.

Now in this class as we go through from Genesis to Revelation our two big objectives will be to see the unity of the Bible as it relates to God's plan of salvation for mankind. That is, all redemptive activity being through Jesus Christ by the power of God which is received by faith.

And second, to review the general content of the books of the Bible and see the thematic relationships between the books. Now, God has a goal. From Genesis 1, 1 and 31 that in the beginning God created until we get to Revelation 21 and see a new heaven and a new earth because the first has passed away we realize God has been going with a goal.