KNOWING THE BIBLE
Chapter 3
THE THEME, THE CENTRAL THOUGHT
AND THE SUBDIVISIONS OF THE BIBLE
Read and pray: “This is a great mystery, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:32)
THE CENTRAL THOUGHT
In Christianity there are many books of exposition on the Bible. Most of them say that the central thought of the Bible is Christ. But today, according to the light we have received, by His mercy, we feel it is insufficient to simply say that the central thought of the Bible is Christ.
We must remember the words of the apostle Paul: “This is a great mystery, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:32). Therefore, we must say that the central thought of the Bible is Christ and the church. The Bible does not only reveal Christ Himself; it also reveals the bride and the Body of Christ, which is the church.
Without a doubt, the whole Bible shows us Christ. But at the same time, it also shows us that Christ needs a church, just as man needs a wife. From the very beginning, the Bible reveals this in type—that it was not good for Adam to live alone. From the New Testament we know that this typifies the fact that Christ needs a bride. Thus, at the beginning of the Bible, not only is Adam revealed to us, but also how Eve was produced out of Adam to become his bride, and how the two became one.
There was Adam and also Eve. The apostle said that this is a great mystery, but that he was speaking of Christ and the church. In the Bible, we cannot see Christ without also seeing the church. Many speak of Isaac and forget Rebekah. But there was Isaac and also Rebekah. In the Bible there is the story of God contacting man through Christ, but we also see man occupying a very important position.
The central figures in the Bible are not only God in Christ, but also man as the bride of God in Christ. The universal couple is God and man. In the universe God is the only man, and man is His counterpart. If man does not have God, he is like a widow. If God does not have man, it is as if He were “single.” In the universe there must be the marriage of God with man.
For this reason, the first scene presented in the Old Testament is the story of a man seeking a wife. That man typifies Christ, and Christ is the embodiment of God. That wife typifies the church, and the church is a group of men saved by God from among humanity to be built up by Him. Throughout the Old Testament, God always placed Himself in the position of a husband toward His people. God treated the Israelites as His wife. Later, the Lord Jesus came.
John, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus, not only presented Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but also testified that He who has the bride is the Bridegroom. John not only presents the Lord Jesus as the redeeming Lamb, but also as the Bridegroom who has the bride.
Then, in the Epistles, the apostle Paul says: “I betrothed you \[the saved ones] to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Co 11:2). He also says that the church is for Christ just as Eve is for Adam.
In Revelation, at the end of the entire Bible, there is a proclamation that the marriage of the Lamb has come. When the New Jerusalem appears, it is said that she has been prepared and adorned for her husband. This is the union of God with man.
All the redeemed people and the Redeemer become one as the mystery of the universe, which is Christ and the church. Therefore, the central figure of the whole Bible is this mysterious couple. God and man become one, just as man and woman become one flesh. Man and woman becoming one flesh typifies God and man becoming one.
Christ is God becoming one with man, and the church is man becoming one with God. God comes in His Son, Christ, in order to become one with man. Man is built up in His Son as His church, in order to become one with God. This oneness, this mysterious union, is Christ and the church, and also the union of God with man. This is the central thought of the Bible.
We can speak of the central thought of the Bible in another way. Christ is the living word of God, and the Bible is the written word of God. Christ is the content of the Bible, and the Bible is the explanation of Christ. If we take Christ out of the Bible, it will become an empty book, like an empty vessel without its content.
At the same time, no one can properly know Christ without knowing the Bible, because the Bible is the explanation of Christ. Only when someone reads the explanation in the Bible can he understand and know what Christ is.
The Bible tells us that everything that is of Christ has been put into the church and is expressed through the church. Therefore, the central thought of the Bible is Christ and the church. It is insufficient to know only Christ; we must also know the church. The Bible shows us that the central and universal figure has both a head and a body. The Head is Christ, and the Body is the church. Therefore, Christ and the church are the central thought of the Bible.
Enjoy more:
Hymn - C85
“Romance of a universal couple”
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