How to Read the Bible Through the Lens of the Gospel

Five Principles for Studying the Bible

Before we explore how to apply our understanding and love for the gospel in our Bible reading, let us begin with five essential principles to keep in mind whenever we engage with God’s Word. These principles will guide us in deepening our comprehension, enriching our study, and ensuring that our reading remains grounded in the truth of the gospel.¹

1) Start with Prayer

On one difficult passage J. C. Ryle wrote, “All portions of Scripture like this, ought to be approached with deep humility, and earnest prayer for the teaching of the Spirit.”² That is good advice for approaching tough texts, but it is also good advice anytime we approach God’s holy Word. Brothers, let us pray before we read!

2) Think of the Original Readers

The Bible is authoritative for all people in all times and in all places. But confessing Scripture’s authority is not the same as knowing how—practically speaking—to submit ourselves to Scripture’s authority. It is easy, but simplistic, to assume that everything an inspired author says to his original audience can be treated as a simple command for us today. To be sure, sometimes a text is directly applicable. We, no less than the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, are commanded to have no gods before the Lord. But sometimes God’s instruction for us is more indirect. For example, when our Lord predicts the destruction of the temple and then commands “those who are in Judea [to] flee to the mountains” (Matt. 24:16), he means that the Jewish Christians who live in Jerusalem in AD 70 should run for their lives when the Romans invade.

But, elsewhere, Christians are called to endure trials rather than to flee (e.g., 2 Cor. 1:6). Jesus’s instruction, therefore, should not be turned into a universal command to flee when trouble comes our way. If we seek to interpret the Bible rightly, our interpretation must first be based on the author’s original intention to his original readers.

3) Study the Context

As we read, we seek to understand who wrote the book, when it was written, to whom it was written, and why it was written. That is the historical context. The literary context is important as well. Literary context simply refers to what surrounds a text and where the text is found in the book. For example, Jesus told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31), in part, as a rebuke and warning to the Pharisees, who “were lovers of money” and who “ridiculed” Jesus (Luke 16:14) after he taught the parable of the dishonest manager (Luke 16:1–13), which concludes: “You can not serve God and money.” In summary, if we know the historical and literary context of the passage, we can have a better understanding of its meaning.

4) Let Scripture Interpret Scripture

Because we believe that “all Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16), we expect that the Bible’s recording of historical people and events is accurate, its narrative cohesive, and its theology coherent. One of the truths rediscovered in the Reformation was Scriptura sacra sui ipsius interpres, which is Latin for “Sacred Scripture is its own interpreter.” The principle is that we use explicit or clear sections of Scripture to help us understand a more implicit or less clear section. So, as we read the Bible, let the Bible itself help us understand its proper meaning and application.

5) Read Through the Lens of Love

Augustine taught that our understanding of Scripture must always be guided by our love for God and neighbor. Of course, Augustine’s direction is based on Jesus’s answer to the question, “Which is the great commandment in the Law?” (Matt. 22:36), namely, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37–40). The whole of the Old Testament (“all the Law and the Prophets”)—and, we can add, all the New Testament too (see Paul on love’s fulfilling the law in Rom. 13:8–10)—should be read through the lens of love. So, let the Lord’s lawful love lead!

Five Principles for Reading the Whole of Scripture Through the Lens of the Gospel

Having offered five principles to apply when reading God’s Word, we turn next to five ways to read both the Old and the New Testament through our knowledge of who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

1) Keep Christ as the Center

How would we define the gospel? We can take a look at Jesus’s summary to his first followers:

“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:44–48)

To Jesus the gospel is grounded in the Old Testament; witnessed in history; centered on his sufferings, death, and resurrection; and proclaimed to the nations so as to require a response: to repent of sin and receive, through faith in Christ, the forgiveness of sins. According to Jesus, the gospel about him is the unifying interpretive center of the Scriptures. So, as we read, we should always ask: How does this passage declare, reflect on, or apply the gospel?

2) Read Backward

Jerome wrote, “To be ignorant of the Scripture is to be ignorant of Christ.” If we know nothing of the Word of God, we will know nothing of the Son of God. Jerome’s saying, however, can be reversed to make an equally pointed observation:

“To be ignorant of Christ is to be ignorant of Scripture.” Isn’t this the claim of Jesus himself in John 5:39–40? There he rebuked the Pharisees with these words: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” Life does not come through biblical literacy. Life comes through Jesus.

And it is in knowing Jesus that we come to understand the Scriptures rightly. As Paul wrote: “To this day, when [unconverted Jews] read the [Old Testament], that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (2 Cor. 3:14–16). Every book of the Old Testament contributes to our understanding of Jesus, and the revelation of God in the person of Christ enlightens our understanding of the Old Testament. Martin Luther put it this way: “We can only read the Bible forwards, but we have to understand it backwards.”

Reading the Bible should change us.

This is what Mark does at the start of his Gospel. He grounds the “gospel of Jesus” (Mark 1:1) in the Old Testament (Mark 1:2–3). This is also how Philip explains the prophet Isaiah to the Ethiopian eunuch (“Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture [Isaiah 53], he told him the good news about Jesus,” Acts 8:35) and how Paul proclaimed “the gospel”—“that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 1:1, 3–4). When we read our Bibles, we must read the story of Jesus as the story that follows and draws to fulfillment the story of Israel.

3) Look for Biblical-Theological Themes

The Bible is not a disjointed group of sayings and stories that are randomly placed together but a grand story of God’s work in the history of salvation. So when we read the New Testament, we must be aware that the story it presents (the Messiah has come!) draws upon the major themes present in the Old Testament (the Messiah will come)—themes including the kingdom, exodus and exile, priest and temple, and the covenant. These themes, and others like them, develop progressively. They follow a historical trajectory (e.g., God’s promise to bless the nations is fulfilled as the church makes disciples of all nations) but also include typological connections (e.g., Jesus is the Passover Lamb, whose shed blood saves us from God’s wrath). Our task in reading (a tricky task at times!) is to consider how these biblical-theological themes might be present in the passage we are reading and, as a result, how they might connect to the gospel.

4) Live Lives Worthy of the Gospel

Reading the Bible should change us. Before Paul writes “All Scripture is breathed out by God” in 2 Timothy 3:16, he teaches us that the “sacred writings” can “make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). Put differently, the Bible is designed to give its readers saving faith. That is one of its goals. The other is to train us “in righteousness” and to equip us “for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). Bible reading should strengthen our faith and equip and encourage us to live out that faith in the church and the world.

This is the sense of Paul’s exhortation “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27). As Sinclair Ferguson summarizes, “The basic idea is that a life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ expresses in the form of a lifestyle what the gospel teaches in the form of a message. Such a life takes on a character that reflects the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.”³ So, as we read the Word, let us take seriously the call to holiness in light of Christ’s incarnation (2 Pet. 1:1–12, 17) and his second coming (2 Pet. 3:11–12) and heed the Great Commission to “observe all that [Jesus] commanded” (Matt. 28:20). Let us do so through God’s sanctifying power (“Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might,” Eph. 6:10) and the power of the cross (“[Jesus] gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people . . . zealous for good works,” Titus 2:14). In short, our Bible reading should help us live lives worthy of the gospel.

5) Look Godward

Often when we come to the Bible, our goal is application: “How should we live in light of what we have learned?” This is good, but before we get there, we should turn our attention upward—Godward—and ask and answer questions like: What does this passage show us about our triune God and his character? What does God do or say, love or hate? What motivates God to do what he does? How does God show the grace of his gospel (“the gospel of God,” Rom. 1:1)? How in this passage is God glorified, and how might we glorify him? When we read God’s Word, look Godward for glimpses of God’s gracious gospel, and do so for his glory.

Conclusion

Understanding and applying the gospel in our Bible reading is a multifaceted endeavor that requires thoughtful consideration of the principles and ways discussed above. By starting with prayer we acknowledge our dependence on the Holy Spirit to guide us. Recognizing the original readers and the historical and literary contexts ensures that we are interpreting the Scriptures accurately and meaningfully. Letting Scripture interpret Scripture helps us grasp the cohesive and coherent nature of God’s Word. Reading through the lens of love aligns our study with the greatest commandment, ensuring that our understanding and application of the Bible are rooted in love for God and neighbor.

Furthermore, keeping Christ at the center of our reading grounds our study in the gospel, emphasizing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the unifying theme of the Scriptures. Reading backward helps us see the fulfillment of Old Testament promises in the New Testament. By looking for biblical-theological themes we can appreciate the grand narrative of God’s redemptive work throughout history. Living lives worthy of the gospel transforms our reading into practical, holy living, reflecting the character of Christ. Lastly, looking Godward keeps our focus on glorifying God, understanding his character, and embracing his grace.

As we engage with the Bible, may these principles and ways guide us to a deeper comprehension, a richer study, and a life that faithfully embodies the truth of the gospel. Let our reading not only inform us but transform us, leading us closer to the heart of God and his purposes for our lives.

This article is written by Douglas Sean O’Donnell and is adapted from the ESV Applying the Gospel Study Bible for Men.

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