![A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness by [Piper, John]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q82%2BbUAKL._SY346_.jpg)
JESUS AND THE PSALMS
Jesus referred to the Psalms as the voice of men inspired by the Holy Spirit . . .
“As Jesus taught in the temple, he said, ‘How can the scribes say that Christ is the son of David? David himself in the Holy Spirit declared, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet”’” (Mark 12:35-37).
GOD SAID WHAT MOSES SAID
When Jesus taught about divorce, he grounded his view on Moses’ words in the creation account. Jesus saw Moses’ words as God’s words . . .
“Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?’ ‘Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ’that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate’” (Matthew 19:13-16).
To repeat, Jesus saw the creation narratives of Moses as what God himself said.
THE SCRIPTURES CANNOT BE BROKEN
“‘We are not stoning you for any of these,’ replied the Jews, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your Law, “I have said you are gods”? If he called them”‘gods,'”to whom the word of God came– and the Scripture cannot be broken– what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, “I am God’s Son”‘”? (John 10:33-36).
Jesus reinforced that truth in this more-familiar statement . . .
“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:28).
WILL THEY LEAD YOU TO ERR?
The Sadduccees set a verbal trap for Jesus. Whose wife will a seven-time married woman be in the resurrection? (Mark 12:19-23).
Jesus responds, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” (Mark 12:24) In other words, Piper writes, “If you knew [the Scriptures] and the power of God they teach, and the implications they carry for the resurrection of the body, you would have been protected in this matter” (p. 104). So, knowing the Scripture will keep us from error in the issue they’re addressing.
JESUS DEFEATS THE DEVIL WITH THE WORD
Jesus considers God’s Word true and powerful. Here he relies on it to defeat the adversary, and, in so doing, becomes a model for us.
The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” (Matthew 4:3-10).
JESUS’ ESTIMATE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A LITMUS TEST FOR SPIRITUAL SIGHT
“[Jesus’ showed that if you don’t believe God’s Word in the Old Testament, there is a kind of blindness that will keep you from seeing the truth about hell and about Jesus” (Piper, p.106).
There are two occasions when Jesus called attention to this peculiar nature of the Old Testament. First, the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Both die and go to different places. The rich man begs Father Abraham to warn his brothers of this place of torment. Abraham replies, “They have Moses and the Prophets.” “Not enough,” says the rich man. Show them someone resurrected from the dead.” Abraham answers, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:22-31).
In other words, “ . . . wherever there is a spiritual deafness to the voice of God in the Old Testament, mere external miracles will not cure that spiritual deafness” (Piper, p. 108).
Second, John 5:39-47 . . .
“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
Piper concludes, “This means that Jesus believed there was a kind of self-authenticating beauty and truth in the Old Testament that proved to be the litmus test of whether you were spiritually prepared to see the glory of Christ when he reveals himself in history and in the gospel” (p. 109).
JESUS SAW HIS LIFE, DEATH AND RESURRECTION AS FULFILLMENT OF SCRIPTURE
Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.” (Luke 18:31-33).
A few other examples—Mark 11:15-17; Matthew 13:13,14; Luke 4:16-21; Mark 9:11-13; John 13:18; Luke 22:37.
HIS ESTIMATE IS SUPREME
“Jesus had an unparalleled position in history for making such an estimate. His relationship with the Old Testament was unique. He was there at its composition, guiding the prophets (1 Peter 1:11), and then he came into history and looked at the very book he guided into being . . . He alone, in all of history, was active as an author, a theme, a fulfillment, and an assessor of the Old Testament. Therefore, his assessment carries extraordinary force” (Piper, p. 112).
* * *
With Piper, we’re asking, “Is the Bible completely true? Is it so trustworthy in all that it teaches that it can function as the test to all other claims to truth?” In this and a few preceding chapters, we’re asking those questions of the Old Testament.” Here we‘ve learned Jesus answers with a resounding yes.
So when we open and read it (even some of its “strange” spots), we can trust it as true. In a culture that refers to truth as opinion, we can say with Jesus, “These Hebrew Scriptures are true truth!” In a life marred by suffering and pain, we can stake our lives on this Word.
Jesus did.
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