Christocentric Bible Reading

How many of us open our Bibles and say “Lord, please give me a word for my situation?” Lord, speak to me about this problem or that issue, tell me what I should do, give me a comforting word or an uplifting word, or even a word for my brother or sister who needs your wisdom. God, show me who you’ve called me to be. Reveal my purpose through your word. Reveal my next steps.

As humans, we love ourselves. Lets be real. Horoscopes and tarot card readers thrive because we want to know about us. We want to find self, discover self, and read about self. 2 Timothy tells us that in the last days, men will become lovers of self. We are in the last days and we love us some self. Being fixated on selfish ambitions and the things of this world, we read scripture seeking answers for the things of this world. If someone asked you why God requires us to read the Bible, what would you say?

Seriously, take a second to think about that. Why is it that we read the Bible? What are we looking for when we open up His word and immerse ourselves in the accounts of these lives, these kingdoms, and these eras?

To answer this question – as we answer any question in life – we turn to the scriptures.

John 5:39-40 (ESV) – “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life.” Jesus is telling us here that we are reading the bible searching for eternal life in the words themselves instead of searching for JESUS in the words. I’ll say that again in a different way. We treat the Bible like a manual sometimes. A troubleshooting guide. My heart is broken so I google “scriptures about heartbreak.” My finances are in trouble so I ask Chat GPT to help me find “Biblical wisdom on financial freedom.” We search the Bible in light of the problem instead of looking for the PROBLEM SOLVER – Jesus Christ.

Luke 24:44 tells us that “Everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Proverbs and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Jesus is telling us that every section of scripture points to Christ which means that we should be reading the Bible to find Jesus, not ourselves.

This brings me to the blanket topic of Christocentric Bible reading – reading the Bible with the sole purpose of discovering Christ in scripture. Whatever page of the Good Book that you turn to, you will find Christ there. Jesus who is the living word. Our ultimate example, our cheat sheet to living a full, successful, blessed, and prosperous life here on Earth and collecting our rewards in heaven. Reading the Bible looking for answers to our problems is like trying to read a map to find buried treasure while standing next to the person who buried it. In seeking Him who holds the key, we ultimately find the treasure and so much more.

Let us not forget that we are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 5:1-2). Jesus IS the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). We are therefore made in the image of Jesus so when we read the scriptures seeking Him we inadvertently learn about ourselves along the way. To look strictly for ourselves in the text is to do it backwards. Like playing a game of telephone – you know, when you pass a verbal message down a line of people and by the time it gets to the end it sounds nothing like the original message? Don’t ask the last person, go to the source.

Pick any account in the Bible and find how it reveals to us the character of God, the life of Jesus Christ, or the purpose of the Holy Spirit. They are all one in the same. As an example, we will look at the Book of Ruth.

(Stay tuned for a subsequent post.)