I’m excited about Crossway’s new 12-week Bible study guides—for groups, classes, or individuals—called Knowing the Bible. It tries to bring together gospel-centered biblical theological, sound doctrine, and legitimate application in a faithful and accessible way, under the editorship of J. I. Packer.
In this video introduction Dr. Dane Ortlund, an editor for the series as well as a contributor, explains what makes it unique:
You can download a complete free copy of Dr. Ortlund’s guide to the book of Mark to get a feel for the series.
Each book contains the following:
- Reflection Questions designed to help you engage the text at a deeper level
- Gospel Glimpses highlighting the gospel of grace throughout the book
- Whole-Bible Connections showing how a passage connects to the Bible’s overarching story of redemption culminating in Christ
- Theological Soundings identifying how historic orthodox doctrines are taught or reinforced throughout Scripture
Bryan Chapell says:
This Knowing the Bible series is a tremendous resource for those wanting to study and teach the Bible with an understanding of how the gospel is woven throughout Scripture. Here are gospel-minded pastors and scholars doing gospel business from all the scriptures—this is a biblical and theological feast preparing God’s people to apply the entire Bible to all of life with heart and mind wholly committed to Christ’s priorities.”
Graeme Goldsworthy writes:
These Knowing the Bible volumes introduce a significant and very welcome variation on the general run of inductive Bible studies. Such series often provide questions with little guidance, leaving students to their own devices. They thus tend to overlook the role of teaching in the church. By contrast, Knowing the Bible avoids the problem by providing substantial instruction with the questions. Knowing the Bible then goes even further by showing how any given passage connects with the gospel, the whole Bible, and Christian theology. I heartily endorse this orientation of individual books to the whole Bible and the gospel, and I applaud the demonstration that sound theology was not something invented later by Christians, but is right there in the pages of Scripture.
Volumes available thus far are: Mitchell Kim on Genesis, Drew Hunter on Isaiah, Justin Buzzard on John, Greg Gilbert on James, and Jared Wilson on Romans.
You can read sample chapters from each here.
Another round will be available in June/July 2014, with Kathleen Nielson on Ruth and Esther, Doug O’Donnell on Psalms, Lydia Brownback on Proverbs, Drew Hunter on Matthew, Justin Holcomb on Acts, and Ryan Kelly on Philippians. Eventually the whole canon will be covered.
