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Book Review- How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens

Many people have been taught to read their Bibles as a collection of isolated books. The books spans over millennia and many different cultures. How do these books fit together? Does the Bible have an organized, coherent theme? Or, are we simply doing a biblical jig-saw puzzle without the picture?

Michael Williams believes that the Bible should be read redemptively. Or, to put it another way, he believes that the Old Testament looks forward to Christ’s work then the New Testament describes Christ’s work and then explains all of its implications. Williams is Professor of Old Testament at Calvin Theological Seminary and a member of the NIV Committee on Bible Translation. In his book, How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens, he sets out on a task to help ordinary Christians see the person and work of Christ in every book.

The concept sounds simple but the task, in my opinion, is a bit daunting. We have 66 books in the Bible. Some are very long books (i.e. Genesis) and some are short (i.e. Ruth). Some are very complicated (i.e. Ezekiel) and some are more straightforward (i.e. Mark). Williams aims to take every book and introduce it, explain its basic objective and them, and then show how it points forward or reflects Christ. He does this in about 4 pages or so per book. Some may want more detail but I don’t think this is the point of this book. If you want to study in more depth perhaps a NT/OT Survey or a commentary may be helpful. This book is aiming to remind us of what the book is basically about and then how it points forward to Jesus. Even this runs close to 300 pages!

I agree with Williams’ thesis and practice. I too want to see people read the Bible with Christ at the center. However, when I picked up the book I will admit that I thought it was going to be repetitive and predictable. I was pleasantly surprised when I did not find that this was the case. Williams writes in a fresh way that shows he is himself impressed with Christ and seeing him in all of the Scriptures. It is this modeling of his own Bible reading and his rich observations that serve the reader well. This may be a book that you prefer not to read straight through but rather keep at arm’s length when you are reading your Bible or preparing to teach or disciple others. It also may serve as a rich introduction to seeing Christ in all of the Scriptures.

Discounted copies of How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens are available at Amazon (Kindle).

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