Justin Buzzard posted a little while back on the importance of relating everything we read in Scripture back to the cross.  This has been a concept that has been hugely helpful in my study of Scripture.  For every passage we look at there is a gospel context- the gospel relates to it at some level and at some point in the text of Scripture.  We cannot miss this or we miss the message of Scripture itself.  Anyways, enough from me- enjoy.

In your regular reading of God’s Word, are you regularly making it to the cross?

Today, whether you read a few chapters in Leviticus or Luke, Ezekiel or Ephesians, Proverbs or Philippians, you must make it to the cross. If you don’t make it to the cross, if you don’t see the connection between a chapter in Proverbs and what Jesus accomplished on the cross, you’ll miss the whole point of your regular Bible reading. The whole point of reading through your Bible on a regular basis is to begin to see and celebrate that the whole Bible is about the cross–about the gospel, about the good news of what Jesus has done for you.

Make it to the cross.

If you don’t make it to the cross, if you read a few verses in Proverbs and a paragraph of commands in Philippians without detecting how these sentences connect to the blood-stained beam of wood where, “For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21), then consequences will follow.

If you don’t make it to the cross, you’ll make your Bible reading and your relationship with God about your performance rather than about Jesus’ performance. You’ll gravitate away from the gospel and towards religion. Anxiety and fear will take the place of confidence, joy, and rest. Legalism will replace freedom. If your eyes don’t catch a glimpse of the cross as you turn the pages of Scripture, you’re likely to spend much of your day staring at yourself, wallowing in endless introspection, rather than staring at your Savior, delighting in his costly love.

Cultivate the habit of making it to the cross every time you read your Bible.

This entry was posted by Tim Pickard on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 11:12 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.