Christocentricism - Christ as the Central Theme

Thursday, 15th February 2007

At the LCEC meeting last month, Pastor B mentioned that for Valentine's Day, the youth would watch a skit based on the book of Hosea. I felt very encouraged because of late, our Pastors have been preaching from the Old Testament. Back In January, Pastor P preached on Numbers, and linked it to John, while Pastor KL preached on Isaiah and linked it to Philippians.

Paul told Timothy that "all" Scripture is inspired by God and is meant to equip us Christians (2 Tim 3:16-17). "All" encompasses every one of the 66 books of the Bible. And there should be a central theme throughout all the books.

St Augustine said, "The Old is in the New revealed. The New is in the Old concealed." What this means to say is that the Old Testament contains hidden or shadows of truths that are revealed in the New Testament, while the New Testament uncovers and fulfills what was mentioned in the Old Testament. For example, the passover as recorded in Exodus 12 is a picture of what Christ would fulfill when He Himself became the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world. Because of His blood that was shed for us, we are being "passed over" from God's judgement.

Pastor KL gave us some very useful tips during his sermon last week about being discerning about what we read and hear. We read in Acts 17:11 that the Bereans did not just accept what Paul said as the gospel truth, but went back to search the Scriptures to confirm or refute what was being preached.

I likewise also use a filter whenever I read a book or listen to a sermon, and that is what I call "Christocentricism" or "Christ as the central theme". The person of Jesus Christ should always be the focus of that book or that sermon. My own personal conviction is that the gospel of grace and the finished work of Christ should be paramount.

However, even if Jesus is not being expressedly exalted or magnified, I will still not throw away the book or disregard the sermon. God can use anyone to bring across His message (even a donkey for that matter, as recorded in Num 22:28-31), so it is in my interest not to "throw away the baby with the bathwater" but to "eat the meat but spit out the bones".

We are doing ourselves a disservice if because of our own spiritual pride, shut ourselves from what the LORD may be wanting us to hear. Hence, even if I may not agree totally with what I hear over the pulpit each Sunday, I will not totally disregard the sermons that are preached but apply the principle of Christocentricism to them.

Coming back to why I was encouraged to hear that Pastor B had chosen Hosea as the topic of his V-day message. V-day is a day set aside to celebrate love (in Chinese, it is called qing ren jie, or lovers' day). He used the occasion to share about a greater love (or rather the greatest love). And what better way to depict this agape love than with the story of Hosea.

Applying Christocentricism to the book of Hosea

So how we we apply Christocentricism to the book of Hosea? Hosea was a prophet who married a woman who ended being unfaithful to him. In spite of her unfaithfulness, he remained faithful to her and continued to love her unconditionally. This depicts the agape unconditional love that Jesus had for us, in that while we yet sinners, He died for us (Rom 5:8).

Speaking of which, do you know that Christ can also be "found" in the genealogy of Noah?

Christocentricism in the genealogy of Noah

There are no insignificant details in the Bible. The Holy Spirit saw fit to inspire Moses to record the genealogy of Noah in Genesis 5. At first glace, it may seem like a real boring historical record. But if we were to look at the meaning behind the Hebrew names from Adam to Noah, a secret message can be uncovered, ie "Man appointed mortal sorrow, the Blessed God shall come down teaching. His death shall bring the dispairing rest, or comfort." Hallelujah!

My earnest prayer is to hear more sermons being preached on the Old Testament (especially obsure passages from Numbers, Deuteronomy and the Minor Prophets), and how and where we can find Christ in them.

So brothers and sisters. Apply the principle of Christocentricism! We can never go wrong if Christ is the central theme! Amen?

Shalom
Malcolm