What's It All About

"And if you pick the Bible up, the question is, what's it all about? All of these authors, nations, times, dates, places, hundreds of commands? Well, ultimately, it's a Word from God. That's why, when Jesus speaks of the prophets today, he is speaking of those who, in the Old Testament, said hundreds of times, “Thus saith the Lord.” They saw themselves, the authors of Scripture did, as literally messengers for God, giving a word to his people, commanding them to hear and obey, calling others to become his people by turning from sin and trusting in him. And so ultimately this is a book from God. And the question is, what's the book about? What's the book about? Is it about us and how we should live our life? Is it a book solely about history and nations? Is it a biographical sketch of major leaders in the history of the world and how they lived their lives and positive and negative moral examples we can obtain by evaluating their successes and failures? What exactly is the big idea, the primary purpose, the central message, of this library of sacred books? That's exactly what Jesus tells us today. He tells us the purpose of his life is ultimately the fulfillment of this book. And so this book is about Jesus. It's all about Jesus from beginning to end.

Here's exactly what Jesus says about his life and this book. Luke 18:31–34, “And taking the twelve,” those were his disciples, “he,” that is Jesus, “said to them, 'See, we are going up to Jerusalem,'” a very important city, “'and everything that is written,'” there are the Scriptures, the writings. Again, Scriptures mean writings. “'Written about the Son of Man,'” that's about Jesus, “'by the prophets,'” so there we have the authors of Scripture, “'will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles,'” those are non-Jews, “'will be mocked, shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.' But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

So Jesus here is telling us that his life is about this book, that the prophets who wrote the Scriptures were predicting his life, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection, that all of history, all of Jesus' ministry, and all of these books in this Bible are ultimately about the person and work of Jesus Christ. And so we do not worship the Bible, but we worship the God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we love and trust the Bible because it is the perfect and thorough recording of Jesus Christ predicted to come into history and the fulfillment of all that was promised."

Mark Driscoll [Source]