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February 18, 2008 The Drama of Redemption! by Wm. Graham Scroggie
Books are my friends and companions in life and ministry. I love to read. After many years of pastoral ministry I have discovered that one of the most important things I can do for myself and for the Lord’s ministry is to READ! I did not always understand the importance of reading, though.
In my spirit I believed that all I needed to do was to be busy in ministry and the Lord would enlighten me and instruct me by His Spirit. Following that thinking, I thought reading and studying would not really be all that important since “Christian ministry is Spirit directed and Spirit driven.” How could reading be that important? I thought that all I really needed to do was “the work of the ministry!” I realized long ago the error of this thinking and am now an avid, if not ferocious, reader.
For a few weeks I am going to be presenting some “nuggets” from Dr. Scroggie’s great book, The Drama of Redemption! He starts with this statement:
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“Christian leadership must know its Bible better than any other book. Bread is baked, not for analysis but for consumption. A house is built, not to be surveyed and criticized but to be inhabited. The Bible is given to us that we might know God, and live the life that He has planned for us.”
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Scroggie mentions on page 30 that “Christ is the Sum and Substance of the Biblical Revelation!” I love that statement! Here is the continuation of his thoughts along these lines:
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“No more convincingly are the unity and progress of the Biblical revelation demonstrated than in the fact that Christ dominates the whole revelation. This is not imaginative, but real; it is not a wishful theory, but a satisfying fact. The evidence of the fact is manifold, and can be presented in various ways. For example,
- His Human Pedigree,
- His Redemptive Program, and
- His Divine Person which are revealed in the New Testament “historically”, are revealed in the Old Testament “prophetically”, not in any general or doubtful manner, but in great and exact detail.”
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Consider what Job said, “Oh that I knew where I might find Him,” (Job 23:3) and then what John said, “We have found Him!” (John 1:45).
THIS IS WHAT THE SCRIPTURES ARE ALL ABOUT! It is in reality the “Drama of Redemption!”
Scroggie said it well in these final observations for today:
- “In the Old Testament Christ is predicted;
- in the Gospels He is present;
- in the Acts He is proclaimed;
- in the Epistles He is possessed; and
- in the Revelation He is predominant!”
As we study we find that God’s Plan for the ages is simply that God takes many parts and makes the whole! Every part of the Bible is necessary. The sum of the parts equals the whole. Redemption is the major theme! Christ and His work is the “CHIEF SUBJECT” - the gospel of grace, man’s greatest need!
Blessings, Pastor Ed Sears
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