Fully Devoted: The ConclusionSample

Jesus Is King

At the beginning of this study, we introduced four principles intended to help us read the Bible more wisely. Those principles are:

1. The Bible is God’s Word for us but it wasn’t originally written to us.
2. The Bible is meant to be read literately, not just literally.
3. The Bible is meant to be read in passages and not just in pieces.
4. The Bible was written to transform us, not just to inform us.

Those are really helpful principles, but after you finish this study it may be difficult to remember all four of them as you continue on your journey of studying the Scriptures as a student of Jesus.

With that in mind, we want to give you one statement to help you summarize those principles in a way that will be easy to remember long after you wrap up this study.

Are you ready?

Jesus is King and context is everything.

It’s a simple statement, but the truth it communicates is a big deal. Today, we’re going to look at the first half, Jesus is King, and then tomorrow we’ll walk through the second half, context is everything. By the end of these two days, you’ll be able to walk away with a simple and memorable way to study the Scriptures.

Jesus Is King

The Bible is a story that leads to Jesus and invites us to become like Jesus. From Genesis to Revelation, Creation to New Creation, it’s all about Jesus. Every step of the way, God is inviting us to learn a little bit more about who He is and who we are. And all of this is revealed most clearly through Jesus, the visible image of our invisible God, the Word made flesh.

When most of us hear the “Word of God,” we think of the Bible. What you may not know, though, is that “the Word of God” means so much more than just the Bible.

John opens his Gospel by describing Jesus as the Word. Was he trying to say Jesus is the Bible? Not quite. Instead, John was drawing upon the Jewish and Greek understanding of the logos—the wisdom and reason that gives form and meaning to the universe. The Jewish people would hear this and think of the wisdom and creative power of God that was present when God created the world. John’s Greek readers would have seen this and thought of the divine mind they believed governed the universe.

In the opening of his Gospel, John shows his Jewish audience and his Greek audience that Jesus is the wisdom and creative power of God that has been there from the beginning and He is the divine mind that governs the universe. He is the Word, the logos, in human form.

It can be helpful to think of the Bible as the “written Word,” and Jesus as the “living Word.”

Why does this distinction matter? Because the truth of God does not contradict itself, regardless of the form it takes.

His written Word will always be consistent with His spoken Word and with the living Word.

In our journey of discipleship, we may find ourselves thrown off by what seems like a contradiction between the written Word and the character of Jesus. If we do, that’s a good indicator that we’re missing something—because every word that God has spoken, the Spirit has inspired, and Jesus has embodied declares the same truth about God and His creation.

There will be times when what we read about God in the Old Testament seems totally out of sync with the way Jesus reveals God in the New Testament. So much so that some people have believed they are separate beings altogether or that the Jewish authors just got it wrong. But that’s not the way Jesus saw things. Jesus saw Himself as the continuation and the fulfillment of the Jewish Scriptures. He didn’t come to throw them out, but to bring the people of God back to the heart of the story He has been writing from the beginning.

The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the “exact representation” of God and He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

What does this mean for us? It means we start and end with Jesus. We’re His students and He is our teacher. As the living Word of God, Jesus shows us what God is really like and what the Scriptures really teach. We let Jesus show us how to interpret the rest of the Bible and we read the rest of the Bible as a unified story that leads to Him and helps us become more like Him.

One of the most important questions we can ask is: Does the way we understand the Bible look like Jesus, and does it make us more like Jesus?

If the answer is yes, then we’re more than likely on the right track. And the second part of that question is just as important as the first. The mark of our spiritual maturity is how closely our lives resemble the life of Jesus.

Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did. 1 John 2:6 NIV

This is why we never forget that Jesus is King. Reading the Bible wisely means learning to read it like Jesus does and learning to live more like Jesus lives.

Journaling Questions

• What verse or verses stand out to you the most in today’s reading? Write them in your journal.
• Does the way you understand the Bible look like Jesus and make you more like Jesus? What would need to change for that to be true?
• What’s a passage of Scripture you’ve struggled to reconcile? Wrestle with that in light of the principles we’re learning this week.

Memory Verse

“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 NIV