Lieutenant Dan
Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?
Forrest Gump:
I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir.

I am not using that quote or question from the famous Forrest Gump movie, in the normal sense, in which it is often used. By that, I mean we are not specifically trying to evangelize someone in this series of articles. Although, evangelism or converting someone to Christianity should be the Christians overarching concern. The sense in which I am using that famous quote is to teach already converted believers how to study the Bible or rightly divide the word of truth.

Just as Forrest Gump in the fictional movie didn’t know he was supposed to be looking for Jesus, many Christians today do not know they are supposed to be looking for Jesus in order to understand the Bible, especially the Old Testament.

Don’t take my word for it, take Jesus’ own words for it, as recorded by John, when the Jews confronted Him, regarding by what authority He acted and taught.

John 5:39

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

Looking for Jesus in the Bible scriptures is the only way to rightly divide the word of truth.

God himself has given us the standard or paradigm for “rightly dividing the word of truth.” That standard is Jesus Christ. When we impose a standard other than Jesus upon the scriptures we are in effect changing the context of all the scriptures. So, by default we no longer have a context for interpreting scripture, but rather we have imposed some pretext upon God’s word.

Last week, we concluded by promising to look for more events in the Old Testament which point forward to Jesus. Since we have already used up 324 of the 500-600 words we try to keep our articles to, we will point out the event or type of Christ this week and examine it in more detail next week. Here goes:

Genesis 2:99 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Jesus is prefigured in “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,’ contained in the above verse.

See you next week. I hope!

"Forrest Gump Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2018. Web. 2 Feb. 2018. .