When we think about understanding a passage of Scripture, we can picture an arrow aimed at the bull’s-eye heart of the passage: the purpose and meaning of the text. To hit the bull’s-eye, we must understand the content of the surrounding rings. The outside ring represents the entirety of the Bible (the metanarrative) and its historical and cultural context; the next ring in represents the book that the verse comes from and its literary genre; the ring inside that represents the passage of Scripture, and the dot in the middle represents the heart of the passage.
Outside ring: the metanarrative/historical and cultural context
Second ring: the book of the Bible/literary genre
Third ring: the passage of Scripture
Dot in the middle: the heart of the passage
How to Stay Christ-Centered in Your Bible Study
When reading Scripture, we must be attentive to what God is attentive to. Fitting my own agenda into the pages of Scripture and reading it as a means of understanding myself is easy for me to do. Thinking about what God is actually communicating through His Word takes a whole lot more discipline. I have many cares, but are they the cares of Christ? Instead of orienting the text around my personal circumstances, I need to orient myself around God’s Word.
In our biblical studies, we can become so concerned about being seen or finding ourselves in the text that it’s easy to miss Christ altogether. But when we hit the bull’s-eye of the passage, we will always find Christ there. It is an amazing thing to not only find Jesus in the pages of Scripture, but to be comforted and encouraged by His words and presence! Scripture transforms us.
The Bible’s Unified Message Points to Christ
Staying Christ-centered in our biblical studies is one of the easiest ways to avoid false teaching. The Bible has one unified message that continually points to Christ’s work on our behalf. Our heart’s response to what Christ did should be to worship Him and be transformed by Him. God’s grace has reconciled us to Him and enabled us to be His friends—and to draw others into His grace. As He works in our hearts, we should seek to be unified as one body, the church.
Finding Blessings in Union with Christ
Throughout the Bible, we continue to see that the greatest possible blessing is to be joined with Christ. Our union with Christ changes everything and beckons us to recognize that because of our salvation, we have received every possible spiritual benefit. A quick look at the first chapter of Ephesians, and I am blown away by what I see: in Christ, we have all the blessings that we could ever desire.
The Promises of Ephesians 1:1-14
Here is a glimpse of the amazing promises of Ephesians 1:1-14: Paul says that in Christ we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (verse 3), we are chosen as holy and blameless (verse 4), we are predestined in love (verses 4-5), we receive redemption and forgiveness (verse 7), we are given wisdom and insight (verse 8), and He unites all things to Him and in Him (verse 10). I love what the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible says about this passage: “Our entire blessedness—our victory, our happiness, our hope—is bound up in our being bound to Christ. How foolish, and ultimately disappointed, are those who stoop to drink from any other fountain.”8 When we drink of the Word of God daily, we are placing ourselves in proximity to these blessings. We are deepening our understanding of what Christ did for us and what it looks like to live in light of that. But remember—we are not worshiping our Bible reading or our knowledge of God. Instead we are looking to the Word of God to learn more about our union with Christ so that we can love the God of the Bible.
Practical Ways to Keep Christ at the Center of Study
To keep Christ at the center of my studies, I have found it beneficial to ask myself the following questions about any passage of Scripture I read:
How does this relate to the gospel?
What is the practical application of this gospel truth?
Where does Christ’s life, death, and resurrection fit into what I just learned or am learning?
If you are having a hard time finding Christ in an Old Testament passage, think through whether Christ is being typified in an Old Testament character or whether the passage is foreshadowing Christ or prophesying about Him. Or maybe it contains a promise that will be fulfilled in Christ. Or maybe you can gather information from the passage about God’s character or the way God relates to His people.
Finding Christ in Confusing Times
When I have experienced confusing times in my life, I have looked to the Scriptures to gain clarity. Many times the path is not clear, and instead we find that we are being called to trust, know, and love Christ rather than make one specific decision. Really, Christ is all the clarity we need. Instead of a clear path forward, I have always been surprised how many times God’s Word has urged me to walk the path of faith and to live righteously amid uncertainty. Often I find solace in knowing and loving Christ and trusting His character. Rather than giving me step-by-step instructions, God turns me to His promises and reminds me that I can trust Him in all things. Sometimes God urges me to focus on something I can do, but more often He reminds me of what Christ did for me. He invites me to obey in response to that.
Building a Relationship with God through His Word
In the end, opening up the Bible is about relationship. When you check in with your friends via text messaging, your texts ping off a cell phone tower and then appear on their phones. Similarly, your prayers connect to a real God who responds through His Word. To know Him, we have His Word! To love Him, we have His Word! To be with Him, we get to open up His living and active Word. God is our life, and God Himself saves us. We can encounter the God of the Bible! We want to know more of who God is and to grow in our love of Him. That’s the ultimate goal of diving deep into Scripture.
8. ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), study note on Ephesians 1:3-10.
Adapted from Chasing Sacred: Learn How to Study Scripture to Pursue God and Find Hope in Him by Mikella Van Dyke, releasing in September 2024.
