Jesus at the Center

Michael Horton, in Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, p. 142-143:

Apart from Christ, the Bible is a closed book. Read with him at the center, it is the greatest story ever told. The Bible is trivialized when it is reduced to life 's instruction manual. What is the point of the historical books, the Psalms, the wisdom literature, and the Prophets? According to the apostles—and Jesus himself—the Bible is an unfolding drama with Jesus Christ as its central character. As the narratives themselves make plain enough, the Old Testament saints were not heroes of faith and obedience but sinners who, despite their own wavering, were given the faith to cling to God's promise. According to the apostle Paul, the Old Testament itself proclaimed this gospel of free justification in Christ alone through faith alone: "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify" (Rom. 3:21 NIV).

He continues:

Isn't it amazing that, according to Jesus, the whole Bible is about him and Peter says that the angels long to understand the Good News that is (or should be) brought weekly by heralds, but we decide that someone or something else should be the focus of our sermon and worship this week? "Yes, but we already understand all of that," I hear someone saying. Do we? Not if we are by nature self-righteous and self-confident, answering the law with the oath of the Israelites at Mount Sinai, "All this we will do."