"His Biography"

If quizzed, how much could you tell about the first 30 years of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ? Not much. Scripture tells us precious little about the Savior's earthly life before His ministry began.

If quizzed again, how much could you tell about the last 3 years of his life? Again, not much (at least in relative terms). A full accounting of the Bible's teaching concerning our Lord's ministry years totals far less real time history than we might suspect.

In the Gospels, the Holy Spirit provided all that we need to know for the purpose of entering and experiencing a living relationship with God through the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, as we place Scripture upon Scripture, including both Old Testament and New, a fuller picture of the person and work of Christ emerges. The prophecies and metaphorical illumination of the Old Testament unite with the teaching of the New Testament epistles to complement the Gospels' historical account of our Lord's earthly lifetime. Even more, they declare who He is in the here and now for all who receive Christ's saving grace. "Whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little" (Isaiah 28:9-10).

The Lord Jesus declared that the Bible is fundamentally His biography. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39; emphasis added). Strikingly, He uttered these words when only the Old Testament existed, where never His name was directly mentioned. We therefore open the entirety of Scripture to discover its illumination and declaration of the Lord Jesus. All other facts, truths, doctrines and insights derive their meaning from these central questions: Who is the Lord Jesus? What has He done? What is He doing? And what will He be doing forevermore? These questions answered as we place "line upon line, precept upon precept" will progressively change our lives as we "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18).

God the Father has given His Son "the preeminence in all things," even as He works to "gather together in one all things in Christ" (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:10). He has also given to us His Word that reveals "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8). In the sense of "unsearchable," we will always seem to know very little. What we do discover, however, will fill our being with light, and thrill our hearts with depths of glory we will never plumb. The Lord Jesus awaits us in both Old Testament and New. Let us expect to meet Him there as we open its sacred pages, being "changed into His image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).

"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him."

(Matthew 17:5)