Even in its diversity, the Bible is tied together
by the theme of God’s grace, and we can see this in every book of the
Old Testament.
There is always a danger of squeezing the Bible into a mold we bring
to it, rather than letting the Bible mold us. There could hardly be more
diversity within the Protestant canon—diverse genres, historical
settings, authors, literary levels, ages of history.
But while the Bible is not uniform, it is unified. The many books of the one Bible are not like the many pennies in the one jar. The pennies in the jar look the same, yet are disconnected; the books of the Bible (like the organs of a body) look different, yet are interconnected. As the past two generations’ recovery of biblical theology has shown time and again, certain motifs course through the Scripture from start to end, tying the whole thing together into a coherent tapestry—kingdom, temple, people of God, creation/new creation, and so on.
But while the Bible is not uniform, it is unified. The many books of the one Bible are not like the many pennies in the one jar. The pennies in the jar look the same, yet are disconnected; the books of the Bible (like the organs of a body) look different, yet are interconnected. As the past two generations’ recovery of biblical theology has shown time and again, certain motifs course through the Scripture from start to end, tying the whole thing together into a coherent tapestry—kingdom, temple, people of God, creation/new creation, and so on.
While the Bible is not uniform, it is unified.
Yet underneath and undergirding all of these themes is the motif of
God’s grace, his favor, and love to the undeserving. We can see the
grace of God in every book of the Bible, throughout both the Old and New
Testaments. Continue at Dane Ortlund
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