Proclaiming the Kingdom
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Our Young Earth: Arguments for Thousands of Years
At stake in the question of the earth’s age is faithful exegesis of the biblical text aligned with a faithful interpretation of the scientific data. Because no one but God was present at the beginning, and because the Bible is God’s inerrant word, Scripture holds highest authority in answering questions of time and space. Scripture’s teaching on a subject must bear guiding weight in assessing all matters related to the created sphere.
Podcast: Relating Moses’s Law to Christians
I recently appeared on the Theology for the Church podcast. Caleb Lenard and I discussed a progressive covenantalist perspective on how Christians should apply Moses’s law today. We discuss whether the tripartite division of the law should be adopted, what laws apply to Christians today in what ways, how to read the law through the lens of Christ’s fulfillment of it, and more. Listen to the podcast here.
Does the Law of Moses Matter for Christians Today?
Instruction through the Lens of Christ
Moses matters for Christians, and yet he spoke in a context that’s very different from our own. The old covenant is not the covenant we’re under. We are under the new covenant. So all of Moses’s instruction matters but only through the person of Christ. That is, none of Moses—none of the laws—are directly binding and guiding for Christians, but all of Moses’s laws guide and direct us through the person of Christ.
Book Announcement: Delighting in the Old Testament
All Christians can enjoy Jesus and the hope of the gospel in the Old Testament. I argue this in my book, Delighting in the Old Testament: Through Christ and for Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024). Here is a basic overview of the book:
Introduction: Ten Reasons the Old Testament Matters for Christians
Part 1––READING WELL: HOW JESUS HELPS CHRISTIANS INTERPRET THE OLD TESTAMENT
Part 2––SEEING WELL: HOW JESUS’S BIBLE TESTIFIES ABOUT HIM
Part 3––HOPING WELL: HOW JESUS SECURES EVERY DIVINE PROMISE
Part 4––LIVING WELL: HOW JESUS MAKES MOSES’S LAW MATTER
Conclusion: Tips for Delighting in the Old Testament read more…
10 Reasons the Old Testament Matters to Christians
Is Christ really part of the Old Testament message? Should I, as a believer in the twenty-first century, claim Old Testament promises as mine? Do the laws of the Mosaic covenant still matter today for followers of Jesus? In short, is the Old Testament Christian Scripture, and if so, how should we approach it?
To understand the Old Testament fully, we must start reading it as believers in the resurrected Jesus, with God having awakened our spiritual senses to perceive and hear rightly. As Paul notes, Scripture’s truths are “spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14) and only through Christ does God enable us to read the old covenant materials as God intended (2 Cor. 3:14). This, in turn, allows our biblical interpretation as Christians to reach its rightful end of “beholding the glory of the Lord” and “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:14–18). Thus, we read for Christ.
4 Ways Jesus Fulfills Every Old Testament Promise
When Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Law and Prophets, he is actualizing what Scripture anticipated and achieving what God promised and predicted (Matt. 5:17; 11:13; Luke 16:16; 24:44). Truly every promise in Scripture is “Yes” in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20), and in him God secures every blessing for believers (Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:3).
Yet Jesus fulfills the Old Testament’s promises in more than one way, and this means Christians cannot approach Old Testament promises all in the same manner. Believers must claim Scripture’s promises using a salvation-historical framework that has Jesus at the center. Christ is the lens that clarifies and focuses the lasting significance of all God’s promises for us.
With a firm grasp of the progress of salvation history, this accessible guide helps Christians interpret the Old Testament, see how it testifies to Jesus, believe that Jesus secured every divine promise, and understand how Moses’s law still matters.
Help! I Don’t Enjoy Reading the Old Testament
Nurturing Delight
The Old Testament (OT) is big and can feel daunting, especially because it is filled with perspectives, powers, and practices that seem so far removed from Christians today. While we know that the psalmist found in it a perfect law that revives the soul, right precepts that rejoice the heart, and true rules that are altogether righteous (Ps. 19:7–9), we can struggle to really see how spending time in the initial three-fourths of the Christian Scriptures is really “sweeter than honey and dripping of the honeycomb” (Ps. 19:10). How can we nurture delight in the OT? read more…
The Story of God’s Glory in Christ
“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son” (Gal. 4:4), and now we are living at “the end of the ages” (1 Cor. 10:11; cf. Rom. 13:11). Jesus opened his ministry by “proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’ ” (Mark 1:15). Isaiah anticipated the good news of God’s end-times reign through his royal servant and anointed conqueror (Isa. 40:9–11; 52:7–10; 61:1–3), and Jesus saw his own ministry realizing it. His kingdom message continued after his resurrection (Acts 1:3) and was shaped by the testimony that to faithfully “understand the Scriptures” means that we will see the Old Testament forecasting the Messiah’s death and resurrection and his mission to save the nations: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45–47; cf. Acts 1:3, 8; 3:18, 24; 10:43).[1]
A Month in Deuteronomy
Over the next several weeks, the GearTalk Biblical Theology podcast will enjoy A Month in Deuteronomy. Hands to the Plow’s Creative Director, Mark Yaeger, has also designed some great cover art that may serve your ministry as you teach through this amazing book. Deuteronomy occurs in the Bible’s first division (= the Law), so the first gear is in blue in the first speech balloon; yet all Scripture’s gears (= Law, Prophets, Writings, Gospels and Acts, Epistles, and Revelation) influence or draw on Deuteronomy, which is why all the gears are colored in the second speech balloon. read more…
Fathers Discipling Children
God calls Christian dads to do our part in making our children disciples of Jesus––followers who love God with all their heart, being, and substance and who view reality and live lives in light of Christ’s supremacy over all things. Discipleship in this sense is not restricted to “spiritual” matters but encompasses all of life. Discipleship is about education in its most ultimate sense––the act of shaping a proper world-and-life view and passion that glorifies God. This is my goal as a father.
DeRouchie’s Audio & Video Sites
with Tom Kelby & Jason DeRouchie
Where DeRouchie serves as Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology
Where DeRouchie Serves as Content Developer and Global Trainer
