Preaching Christ from the Old Testament—Sydney Greidanus

INTRODUCTION

Our faith is not a contemporary experiment. At times, the immediacy of the moment overwhelms the realization that the work of God has unfolded in equally complex moments in history. From Christ’s post-resurrection commissioning of the Christian church, every generation of spiritual leadership has shared the task of proclaiming the unchanging Word of God in changing circumstances. Maintaining a myopic view of modern ministry isolated in a single generational context detaches contemporary preachers from the wisdom that can be learned from the historical church. Sydney Greidanus writes chapters three and four of Preaching Christ from the Old Testament to highlight the Christological Old Testament homiletic philosophy and methodology of the Christian leaders of the ancient, Reformation, and Post-reformation church age.

the church in all stages of its history has endeavored to preach Christ from the Old Testament as well as the New

While this review will focus on chapters three and four of Preaching Christ in the Old Testament, the esteemed professor Sydney Greidanus in the wider context of his book, provides a handbook for considering the philosophy, history, and practical development of Old Testament exposition that exalts the central theme of Scripture—Christ. Since the Apostles, the Christian church has recognized—with few exceptions—that Christ as the Word incarnate is the center and the totality of the written Word of God. However, Greidanus admits that those holding the Christo-centric conviction on preaching in the modern and historic church “are not all clear what it means to preach Christ” (3). From the far-stretches of allegorizing everything to the strict limitations of literalism, the method and scope of unfolding Christ in the Old Testament has experienced a widely divergent practice. In chapters three and four of Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, Greidnaus surveys the strengths and weaknesses of the homiletic methodology of several prominent figures from Christian history.

HISTORICAL SURVEY

The author’s overview of leading figures like Irenaeus, Origen, Chrysostom, Luther, Calvin, and Spurgeon yields considerable insight into Old Testament Christ-centered preaching. Firstly, Gredianus convincingly evidences that the historic church nearly universally saw Christ as the central theme of the Old Testament. For example, the author says that Irenaeus believed “Christ is the heart of Scripture” (80). Likewise, the influential and controversial Origen was “concerned with preaching Christ from the Old Testament” (83). Additionally, the evangelical favorite Church Father, Chrysostom, according to Greidanus, held that the “messianic… was implicit” in the historical witness of the Old Testament (97). Furthermore, and not surprisingly, the author shows the reformers Luther and Calvin to hold that the Grace of God in the coming Christ is central to all the varied genres of Old Testament writing. Although the homiletical methods of these historical leaders varied, Greidanus convincingly shows that the historical New Testament church preached the Old Testament and preached it Christo-centrically.

Secondly, in his survey, Gredanius places each historical preacher on the spectrum from wild allegorizing to strict literalism. The author skillfully expounds the merit of each man’s approach while articulating their weaknesses. A notable commonality revealed by the author is the popularity of the allegorical method in Old Testament Christocentric preaching throughout Christian history. The subjective allegory made popular by Clement and Origen of Alexandria became the dominant homiletical method for preaching Christ from the Old Testament in the pre-reformation millennium of the church. While Christ is present through allegory at moments in the Old Testament, context and authorial intent should restrain overactive imaginations. The early Roman Catholic church largely abandoned the plain hermeneutic of Scripture in favor of interpretations that went far beyond the biblical text. The great reset of the Reformation largely course-corrected Old Testament interpretation and homiletics—moving from wild allegory to textual integrity. Gredanius shows Luther and Calvin practiced a Christo-centric homiletic yet maintained biblical integrity in their hermeneutics. Modern homiletics can benefit from the lessons learned from these ancient ministers.

HERMENEUTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Finally, Gredanus shows that the often employed typological and allegorical method for preaching Christ in the Old Testament devalued the biblical text. Indeed, the author affirms that Christ must be preached, but He must be preached with integrity. Eisegesis is a dangerous hermeneutical failure, even if the imposition on the text is a “road to Christ.” Faithful preachers will bind their message to the text endeavoring to find God’s intended road to his redemptive purposes. The road to Christ is present, but textual fidelity can not be sacrificed on the altar of imagination—even if well intended.

Although the author does not promote one historical example as the standard, he favors the more literal hermeneutic of Antioch. The Christo-centric philosophy of Chrysostom and John Calvin closely aligns with the homiletical principles advocated by Greidanus in Preaching Christ from the Old Testament. However, the author’s primary intent is not to expose the dangers of allegory from historical examples; rather, he desires to convince the reader that “the church in all stages of its history has endeavored to preach Christ from the Old Testament as well as the New” (176). The author’s survey connivingly argues that preaching Christ from the Old Testament is more than a contemporary hermeneutical method. Preaching that reveals Christ on every page of the Bible is the church’s historical position.

CONCLUSION

Greidanus’s overview of historic Old Testament Christocentric preaching is extremely beneficial. The author shows that preaching Christ in the Old Testament has been the church’s historical position and fairly articulates the strengths and weaknesses of each nuanced approach. His balanced overview enhances the author’s credibility. I would recommend chapters three and four of Preaching Christ from the Old Testament for those who want to grow in a historical understanding of the priority and practice of Christian preaching from the Old Testament. I found Gredianus’s research and assertions informative, cautionary, and encouraging.