I had a good day today down in Maesycwmmer in Wales meeting with some welsh brethren. Good to see fellow blogger Guy Davies among them.

We were there to hear Richard Gaffin give three lectures on Biblical and Systematic theology, Christ in the Old Testament, and The Resurrection in the Theology of Paul.  All excellent and I may make some more detailed comments at a later date.

Amongst the many things learned today, it was good to be reminded what Scripture is. It is the record of the history of revelation where it describes what God has done and it explains why he did it. It really is the drama of redemption.

I mention this because it struck me with some force that failure to understand what the Bible is, especially with reference to the OT, makes it impossible to interpret it properly. The OT  is not part of a systematic theology manual, delivered to us in a higglety-pigglety state which we have to sort out into a system, as though God had not quite got round to it.

Nor is the OT  a repository of moral examples to follow or avoid, with a few prophecies that relate directly to Christ buried away. This simply leads to a form of nugget-hunting which is at the same time baffling and unsatisfying.

It is important to note that neither of these approaches bear any resemblance to the way Jesus and the apostles looked on the OT.

I’ll write more later.