How Can I Know Christ as a Person and Not Just as a Concept?

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: Joining us this week on the Ask Ligonier podcast is the host of Things Unseen, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson. Dr. Ferguson, how can I know Christ as a person and not merely as a concept?

DR. SINCLAIR FERGUSON: Well, this is a great question: How can I know Christ as a person and not just as a concept? And at first sight, it might seem a strange question because Christ is a person, so why would it be that we might just think about Him as a concept?

I think part of the answer to that, strangely enough, is it sometimes does happen to people who get really interested in studying the text of the Scriptures, and also people who get really interested in studying Christian doctrine, that instead of looking in the direction to which both the Scriptures and Christian doctrine point us, we tend to look at the text only. We become interested in what the words mean. We become interested in the literary forms. We become interested in the extent to which we’ve come to understand the text, and similarly with Christian doctrine, and we tend to lose sight of Christ Himself.

So, I think it’s important always to be reminding ourselves that the text of Scripture is given to us in order to point us to God the Trinity and to point us to God the Trinity through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, if you think of what Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, where he underscores that the Scriptures are given for doctrine, reproof, correction, training in righteousness, all of that is based on the fact that he’s just said to Timothy that the Scriptures have made him “wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 3:15–16). So, the important thing, I think, to remember is that the Bible is not just a book of facts. It’s not just a book of doctrines. It’s the means God has given to us, the means through which He speaks to us, to bring us into communion and fellowship with Himself.

I find a couple of great statements by Calvin and Luther very helpful here. First of all, Martin Luther: Luther says that we go to the Scriptures the same way the shepherds went to the manger, in order to find Christ. And I think if we remember that little statement, it will be a great help to us. And then something that Calvin writes in his Institutes that’s been a phrase that has stuck in my mind: Calvin speaks about Christ clothed with the garments of the gospel. So, think about it this way: if you describe what somebody looks like—their height, their complexion, someone who’s attractive to look at, someone who dresses really nicely in a way that’s completely appropriate both to their personality and to their looks—that’s the idea Calvin is using here, and he’s saying that’s how we should think about Christian doctrine.

So, there are some great words in Christian doctrine. Reconciliation is one of them. Adoption is one of them. Justification is one of them. Sanctification is one of them. But we mustn’t abstract these things from the person of the Lord Jesus Himself. They’re actually all different ways of describing who He is, what He has done for us, and what we discover in Him. And I think when we begin to think that way, it becomes helpful to us.

And if we’re really struggling, then let me suggest four books and one text, four books and one text. So, what are the books? The books are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It’s not accidental, I suspect, that God has given us four Gospels. He didn’t give us two letters to the Romans. The letters to the Corinthians are quite different from each other. There’s an emphasis here in the texts that God has given to us that subliminally, at least, say to us: “Keep your eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus. Get to know Him.” And the place where we get to know Him best—we get to know His clothing, as it were, how to think about Him, how to have categories to describe Him, for example, in the letters of Paul, how to live for Him, in Paul and Peter and so on—but I think we get to know Him best by reading and reading and rereading the Gospels.

And the text? The text is Hebrews 13:8, which to me has become, I think, increasingly important for our understanding. It’s the famous verse where the author of Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And I’ve come to say that I think many Christians assume that means it’s a kind of long way of saying Jesus is eternal. But what the author is actually saying is the way Jesus was yesterday, from His point of view, in what earlier in the letter he’d called “the days of His flesh,” is the same way He is today. And I think when we grasp that, it gives a new sense of joy and excitement when we read the Gospels to read all about Jesus and to remember that He is exactly the same today.

So, I remember when I was a young Christian, we used to sing:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

And when we go to the Scriptures the way the shepherds went to the manger to find Christ, then I think that’s what begins to happen.