in Christ: Andrew Fountain's blog

The value of a “redemptive-historical” approach to Scripture is that it does not flatten the Bible and ignore the historical epoch into which the revelation was given. Instead, attention is paid to the progress of revelation.

• This has huge implications for understanding the Gospels
• The preaching of Jesus does not include an explicit proclamation of substitutionary atonement
  
  • The reason being, of course, because it hadn’t happened yet!
  • (Although some places, like the Son of Man being “lifted up” in John 3:14 do hint at it)
• For this reason, Jesus’ preaching is generally pretty much ignored when people discuss the Gospel message
• However, according to R.H. principles of the progress of revelation, what is revealed first is foundational and not lesser in value
• My conclusion is that the study of Jesus’ preaching is of immense importance
  
  1. The key phrase is “Follow me!” which Jesus unpacks as “repent” and “believe”
  2. The concept of the Kingdom is much more prominent
  3. The only thing “missing” is an explanation of the mechanism by which a just God can forgive us—the cross
     
     • This will be supplied later in the apostolic preaching, but it is not necessary to understand it precisely in order to follow Jesus

Following Jesus

• The word Follow is very interesting because to follow someone or something is a combination of trusting and obeying
  
  • The whole “Lordship controversy” would have been avoided if everyone had examined the preaching of Jesus
  • (This relates to the idea that you can accept Jesus as Saviour without accepting him as Lord, and still be saved.)
• I came across an English news story recently that illustrates the word “follow”:

“Robert Jones said he trusted his navigational system and continued to follow it when it told him the steep, narrow footpath he was driving on was a road.”

His BMW nearly plunged down a 100ft cliff in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, on Sunday. He was only stopped from falling after the vehicle rammed into a wire fence. Police and rescue teams then spent nine hours recovering his car following the incident.

The 43-year-old, who works as a driver, said he relies on his sat nav for his job and described the incident as a “nightmare”.

He told the Halifax Evening Courier: “It kept insisting the path was a road, even as it was getting narrower and steeper, so I just trusted it.

“You don’t expect to be taken nearly over a cliff.” Mr Jones added: “I guess I’m just lucky the car didn’t slip all the way over the edge.” Mr Jones now faces court action for driving without due care and attention.

Notes and audio are continued here: The Gospel pt.1 - Following Jesus