Christ-Centered Biblical Theology

by Graeme Goldsworthy

The appeal of biblical theology is that it provides a "big picture" that makes sense of the diversity of biblical literature. Through the lens of biblical theology the Bible ceases to be a mass of unconnected texts, but takes shape as a unified metanarrative connecting the story of Israel with that of Jesus. It presents the whole scene of God's revelation as one mighty plan of salvation.

For fifty years Graeme Goldsworthy has been refining his understanding of biblical theology through his experiences as a student, pastor and teacher. In this valuable complement to his Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics, Goldsworthy defends and refines the rationale for his approach, drawing especially on the work of Australian biblical scholar Donald Robinson.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies, Christian, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Graeme Goldsworthy is an Australian Anglican and Old Testament scholar. Now retired, Goldsworthy was formerly lecturer in Old Testament, biblical theology and hermeneutics at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of "According to Plan" (IVP, 1991), "Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture" (Eerdmans, 2000) and "Proverbs: The Tree of Life" (CEP, 1993). Goldsworthy has an MA from Cambridge University and a ThM and PhD from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia.

Reviews

[Bob Hayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

In recent years biblical theology has enjoyed something of a comeback. A robust, Christ-centered, confessional variety of biblical theology is becoming more and more widespread and influential. And if we wanted to find someone to thank for this development, Graeme Goldsworthy's name would come up on anyone's short-list. His books "Gospel and Kingdom", "The Gospel in Revelation", and "Gospel and Wisdom" touched a nerve in the 1980s, and his later book "Preaching the Gospel as Christian Scripture" was picked up by many a Gospel preacher. Some have bristled at what they think is his wild approach to typology. And indeed, for many who pay attention to this theologian from down under, his approach to the Bible is nothing short of revolutionary. His redemptive-historical approach to the Bible has made the Old Testament come alive to thousands of rank-and-file Christians the world over.

"Christ-Centered Biblical Theology: Hermeneutical Foundations and Principles" is Goldsworthy's latest book, and in it he traces some of the influences to his thought. Along the way he gives a history of evangelical biblical theology and weighs the relative merits of competing approaches. He details the tripartite division of redemptive history that he inherited from his mentor, Donald Robinson. And by the end of this book, he has demonstrated just how careful and faithful his approach to Scripture really is.

Goldsworthy begins by explaining the problem. Biblical theology opens the way to a "big picture," grand view of all of Scripture. Yet too many view it as a "lame duck" and a distraction. Goldsworthy's faith in the potential of biblical theology stems from his simple faith in the entire Bible being "the one word of the one God about the one way of salvation through the one savior, Jesus Christ" (pg. 19). Drawing from his mentor, Donald Robinson (also a professor at Moore Theological College in Sydney) Goldsworthy sees a threefold structure to Scripture:

--Creation to Solomon's Temple (The Kingdom of God revealed in OT history)
--Solomon's Decline to the end of the OT era (The Kingdom revealed by the prophets in a future, glorified, Israelite form)
--The New Testament inauguration of the Kingdom (The Kingdom revealed in Christ)

He develops this further:

"The Old Testament... can be represented as a manifestation of promise and blessing reaching a high point in David's Jerusalem as the focal point of the land of inheritance, in Solomon as David's heir, and in the temple representing the presence of God to dwell among and bless his people. After Solomon's apostasy it is history primarily as a manifestation of judgment... overlaid with the prophetic promises that the Day of the Lord will come and bring ultimate blessing and judgment... It takes the person of Jesus, his teaching and the proclamation of his apostles to restore hope in the original promise of God." (pg. 25)

Goldsworthy addresses some of the objections to his approach as he traces out its foundation throughout the book. But at the onset he points out his pastoral concern in this whole debate. He is concerned with the simplistic way that so many Christians handle the Bible.

"Many have learned one particular way of dealing with the Bible and have not been exposed to a comprehensive biblical theology as an alternative. Some acknowledge that the Bible is a unity and that the heart of it is the gospel of Christ. But they have never been shown, or have tried to work out for themselves, the way the various parts of the Bible fit together. Reading the Bible then easily becomes the search for today's personal word from God, which is often far from what the text, within its context, is really saying.... Too many Christians go through life with a theoretically unified canon of Scripture and a practical canon consisting of favourite and familiar snippets and extracts removed from their real canonical context." (pg. 29, 37)

The heart of the book is Goldsworthy's romp through Scripture looking at its structure and storyline. He is convinced that the New Testament provides a model for how to interpret the Old Testament faithfully, but he focuses on the Old Testament's own use of earlier Old Testament themes and writings. The Old Testament creates the typological categories that the NT authors pick up. I found this point most intriguing, and cannot help but reproduce Goldsworthy's quotation from Donald Robinson to this regard.

"The blessings of God's End-time are described in the Old Testament for the most part in terms drawn from Israel's past history. The day of the Lord would be Israel's history all over again, but new with the newness of God. There would be a new Exodus, a new redemption from slavery and a new entry into the land of promise (Jer. 16:14, 15); a new covenant and a new law (Jer. 31:31-34). No foe would invade the promised inheritance, 'but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid' (Micah 4:4). There would be a new Jerusalem (Isa. 26:1, Ez. 40) and a new David to be God's shepherd over Israel (Jer. 23:5, Ez. 34:23,24) and a new Temple where perfect worship would be offered and from which a perfect law would go forth (Isa. 2:2-4, Ez. 40-46). It would not be too much to say that Israel's history, imperfectly experienced in the past, would find its perfect fulfilment 'in that day.' Indeed, nothing less than a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth, could contain all that God has in store for the End (Isa. 65:17)." (pg. 173 -174 [quote is from Donald W. B. Robinson, "The Hope of Christ's Coming" (Beecroft, New South Wales: Evangelical Tracts and Publications, 1958), pg. 13]).

When Goldsworthy looks at typology, he takes great care not to endorse a "no-holds barred" approach. While he advocates a macro-typology recognizing that "there is no aspect of reality that is not involved in the person and work of Christ." On the same hand, he argues that seeing "the pomegranates on the robes of the Israelite priest" as "types of the fruits of the Spirit;" or even "the redness of Rahab's cord" as a "type of Jesus' blood," is to pursue "fanciful, non-contextual associations that avoid the real theology behind these things" (pg. 186-187).

Throughout his book, Goldsworthy compares and contrasts his approach to biblical theology with several other evangelicals of note: Geerhardus Vos, Edmund Clowney and Dennis Johnson, Willem VanGemeren, William Dumbrell, Sidney Greidanus and others. He also details Donald Robinson's approach and legacy. In his assessment of differing approaches, he doesn't portray his view as the only faithful one, but as one faithful approach among many.

He doesn't provide a biblical theology in this book, but sketches the background for how to pursue a biblical theology. He does address a few issues more directly, since they focus on Robinson's legacy. One of these is an interesting discussion of the continuing distinction between Israel and the Church in the New Testament. He explores Robinson's contention that there remains a distinction between new Israel and the Church. The Gentiles get the blessings promised to Gentiles in the OT, while the blessings promised to Israel are experienced by the believing Jews in the NT era. Both groups of people are then subsumed in the new revelation of God's intent to make a new man, a new people for himself (cf. Eph. 2).

"Christ-Centered Biblical Theology" manages to keep from being merely a last word from an old theologian. There are memoirs and reflections, to be sure. But the over-all thrust of the book is to equip the reader to pick up the torch and take biblical theology into the new millennium. Numerous charts and diagrams help communicate the concepts of the book, and Goldsworthy ends with a litany of possibilities for furthering the discipline of biblical theology.

This book will kindle a fire in many hearts for biblical theology. And for those who are familiar already with this important discipline, it will stimulate further reflection on the structure of Scripture and the centrality of the Gospel. I hope it will find a broad audience, and that a new generation will carry on Goldsworthy's work.

Disclaimer: this book was provided by Inter-Varsity Press for review. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice foray into evangelical BT and exploration of various attempts at an evangelical BT. However, since it was published in 2012, some things are a little dated considering several very important evangelical BT's have come out since (Hamilton, Gentry-Wellum, Schreiner, Beale, etc.). The best part was the interaction with the Vos-Clowney schema and criticisms of their minimizing of David.

Recommended for those familiar with this conversation and key issues. I would not recommend this as an introductory BT but probably something more like Goldsworthy's earlier stuff like According to Plan or Gospel & Kingdom.

[Todd Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book that will definitely be required reading for my biblical theology class. Though much of the book reads like a tribute to Goldsworthy's mentor, Donald Robinson, there is still enough of substance to make this the gold standard on "how to do biblical theology." Goldsworthy makes the convincing case for a canonical biblical theology, arguing that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit makes some sort of strong continuity (an organizing center) likely. Slightly less convincing were his arguments for a 3-epoch approach (Genesis to Solomon, Solomon to Christ, and Christ to new creation - it seemed that many of his arguments against the Mosaic Covenant being paradigmatic for biblical theology could have been equally applied to the Davidic).

[Rick Dugan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re tasked with teaching God’s word on a regular basis, this is essential reading. A danger of contemporary biblical teaching is that it often draws straight lines from Scripture to the believer rather than from Scripture to Christ. We don’t study the life of David, for example, to find helpful principles for Christian living today. David points us to Christ. The Old Testament is about Jesus, not us. Reading the Bible in this way is known as “biblical theology.”

Biblical theology begins with the Bible. It begins with the presupposition that the Bible is a divinely inspired record of God’s self-revelation in history and that it is trustworthy. Its foundation is the Word made flesh: Jesus. This implies a unity to the Bible in spite of its diversity in language and genre. Biblical theology believes that God is working out salvation in history, which is under his sovereign control. This history is recorded in Scripture. Therefore, there is a structure to the Bible, and biblical theology is an attempt to identify and unpack the message of this structure.

Goldsworthy defines biblical theology as “the discipline that seeks to understand the theological message, or messages, communicated through the variety of literary phenomena within the various books of the Bible.” (308) It “Is the study of how every text in the Bible relates to every other text in the Bible” (323) and “how every text in the Bible relates to Jesus and his gospel.” (326) “But since Christ is the mediator who makes the Father know, biblical theology is also theological and not solely Christological.” (329)

Biblical theology identifies Jesus as the link between the Old and New Testaments. The Law and the Prophets are authoritative for the Christian today in that they are about Jesus. They testify to him and, as Jesus said, they cannot be broken. Understanding the unity of the biblical message and Christ as its interpretive key gives us a greater understanding of the gospel and its outworking in our lives. If Christ is the interpretive key of Scripture, it follows that he is the interpretive key to history and to each of our lives.

With this background of biblical theology, Goldsworthy proposes three stages through which we read biblical history. The first stage consists of history from Abraham to the Temple (Solomon). The second stage describes Israel’s faithlessness, the resulting exile, and the prophets’ prophecies of judgement and hope. The third stage is the fulfillment of these prophecies in Christ – his life, death, resurrection, ascension and return in glory. There is a continuity in all stages for the Church.

Goldsworthy provides many helps for understanding Christ as the center of both the Old Testament and New Testament, and surveys the history and development of biblical theology. He concludes with helpful conclusions about biblical theology that provide the Bible teacher with handles that help us get over the presuppositions we bring to the biblical text, and includes warnings about the limitations of systematic theology and word studies. He then provides basic hermeneutical tools for reading and teaching a text through the lens of Christ-centered biblical theology.

When equipping teachers and preachers, I’ve often said, “Your sermon isn’t finished until you’ve gotten to Christ and what he's done.” In a time when many sermons provide little more than good advice, we need to be reminded that there is nothing more relevant than Christ and his work in our lives. Using the Bible to lead people to Christ nourishes their souls and satisfies their hunger and thirst for righteousness. Reading and teaching the Bible through a Christ-centered grid of biblical theology, preaching Christ and him crucified, is the most relevant, life-giving, hopeful way of teaching.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some great stuff in this book. I loved the call to have a biblical theology, one that sees the Bible as a whole, not bifurcated into O.T. theology or N.T. theology. Goldsworthy holds true to the veracity and the authority of Scripture which was both encouraging and powerful. He is basically building his foundation on another man, Donald Robinson, who was once a teacher of his. So the issues I have with the book are with Robinson's hermeneutics. Although it is stated that Robinson is rigidly faithful to the Word I wondered at times. There are many issues I have with the book but I will touch on two.

The first problem I had with the book was the undue emphasis on typology. When Christ becomes the center of the Bible for some it means that Jesus is read into every verse. I am not sure how that works out. It can lead people to see things that actually deflect from the intended meaning of the text. Is the story of David and Goliath a type of Christ? Some who hold to Robinson's ideas would say yes. But then my question is if David becomes a type of Christ to save impotent Israel, what does that mean for the Philistines? Are they not important in the heart of Christ? Didn't he come to not only save Israel but the Gentiles as well? It gets sticky.

Then I was totally perplexed at Robinson's perspective of baptism. He says it was really not an important ritual and only was for the Jews. Robinson uses support from the life of Paul who downplays it in I Corinthians. But my question arises when I read Jesus' words, since he is the center of all Scripture, what does he say? "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". It seems clear that this is not just a Jewish thing.

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book helped me better understand where Goldsworthy is coming from as he thinks about the Bible and formulates his biblical theology. There are some wonderful sections in this book, particularly when he discusses the place of the Wisdom literature in the overarching story of the Bible, which whet my appetite for more on that. My complaint about this book is the same that I had with Gospel and Kingdom: everything hums along nicely until you reach the New Testament, and then suddenly the expectations that biblical history and prophetic eschatology instilled into you are radically transformed into something else (that may bear typological resemblance to what was expected, but is nonetheless other than what was expected. And that's just wrong). Also, in Goldsworthy's summary of the New Testament, he entirely omits any mention and discussion of Acts 3:19-21, which is an inexcusable omission. Such a text is about as relevant as it comes when thinking about Christ's relationship to prophetic eschatology.

This book really doesn't argue for its positions, but simply states them. Helpful in understanding Goldsworthy's views and how he got them from Donald Robinson, but not the most helpful book in grasping their justification.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goldsworthy is a modern theologian, and professor at Union Theological Seminary. In his book, he provides a helpful overview of the luminaries of BT, including Vos, Clowney, Roberts, and VanGemeren. He generally does not take the epochal approach, but a *typological* approach to BT.

That is, everything in the scriptures are evaluated in a diachronic manner as either (1) a symbol of Christ in the time it was used, (2) a type of Christ which is a prophecy of future fulfillment, or (3) the fulfillment in Christ. This three stage approach not only can be loosely superimposed over the entirety of scripture [(1) The Pentateuch and Wisdom books, (2) the Prophets, and (3) the New Testament], but can be applied to individual types of Christ in the Old Testament, such as the Passover lamb or Moses' caduceus in the desert.

While his summary of existing work is helpful, his presentation of his typological approach is confusing, wordy, and not clearly organized. His illustrations are confusing and unhelpful. It was difficult to understand his simple approach due to his meandering and unorganized prose.

[Andrew Fendrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for seminary. This gets 5 stars from me, with dozens and dozens of highlights, underlines, and notes to prove it. The 5-star review doesn't mean I agree with everything Goldsworthy said, but I can't deny this summary of biblical theology is going to stick with me for a long time to come. He clearly and simply articulates the basics of biblical theology in a way that draws everything upward to Christ, as I believe all of Scripture does.

[Luke Schmeltzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goldsworthy is an evangelical Anglican from Australia who adds his own unique flavor to modern biblical theological studies. What he had to say about the nature and method of BT was usually very good, but the book spends a lot of time explaining how his particular school developed in contrast to others. I just wish he spent more time explaining and applying his methodology, but I know he does so in other works.

[Philip Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goldsworthy has been one of the most influential theologians in my life. In this book he reveals his influences and opens his approach to comparison with others. It is an involved read that takes time to digest but if you are serious about the discipline of Biblical Theology then it is an important read.

[Adam Kareus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another work from Goldsworthy which goes over the overview of biblical theology. Some good principle and practices. I have read much by Goldsworthy and they get repetitive, but all still good. Biblical theology has become a passion of mine the last 3 or so years.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good stuff (his recap of the history of BT) but tough read.

[Aaron Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for any serious students of Scripture.

[Braley Chambers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, not as helpful or as well written as some of his other books.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good things, but I did not appreciate his writing style. Some parts of the book were painfully slow, while he seemed to conveniently dismiss pretty significant passages that would seem to throw a wrench in his thesis in quite a cavalier way.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is biblical theology possible? Is there any unity to the sixty-six books that make up the Bible? Aren't any attempts to do this bound to distort the contributions of particular books, or simply leave things out?

Graeme Goldsworthy has devoted his academic career to answering the first question in the affirmative. This book sums up the approach he and his colleagues at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia have taken. In many ways, the book serves as a tribute to Donald Robinson, who mentored him and pioneered the approach he elaborates in this book.

Goldsworthy's schema is centered around Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise made to Abraham that saw partial fulfillment in the history of Israel from exodus to the kingship of David, then reversal during the period of the prophets, who looked forward to a coming restoration and fulfillment of Israel's hope, and comes to ultimate fulfillment in Christ.

Goldsworthy considers other schema for unifying scripture weighing their merits and faults and believes this three-fold approach encompasses all the material of scripture while making sense of the particularities of certain corpora and the various themes that run through scripture. He also considers the matter of typology arguing for a "macro-typology" based on his three-fold schema.

He concludes the book with a retrospective on the career and contributions of Donald Robinson to biblical theology and a concluding chapter on his own ideas of how to properly do biblical theology. The former includes some of Robinson's distinctive ideas about Israel and the Gentiles, and about baptism. The latter is a goldmine that includes illustrative biblical theology studies of the temple and of prayer.

In addition to defending the unity of scripture, what I find most helpful is that this is written for pastors and others who care deeply about faithfully preaching the scriptures. Doing so, in my experience, involves more than careful exegesis of a particular text. It involves the careful relation of a text to the whole of scripture and especially to the salvation story centered in Christ. It is this which distinguishes Christ-centered and God-exalting preaching from the moralizing and inspirational preaching in many of our churches. Moore Theological College has equipped a generation of Australian Anglicans and now has a campus in Latin America that resulting in a profound influence in the Spanish speaking world. My hope is that such influence will only continue to grow!

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle pretty much says it all about this book and Biblical theology. Don't look for theology itself, or examples of how the OT and NT interrelate, or types/antitypes, etc. Goldsworthy focuses instead on the underlying principles that help us to make such connections, such as:

-revelation is not like a gradual dawning but a revelation in stages
-the OT story is built on the promise of salvation and what that means for the world
-the NT presents the person/work of Jesus Christ as fulfilling the promises/hopes of the OT
-the OT continues to be relevant
-this is based on presuppositions of the inspiration and authority of the Bible as the word of God

This may sound like basic stuff, but it's highly debated and often ignored. If you attend a church that preaches this carefully, praise the Lord.

He starts by asking, is there one unifying theme in Scripture--covenant, kingdom, people of God, etc.? If you pick one, can you say it is THE theme and that every book in the canon addresses it in someway? Goldsworthy's answer is redemption in Christ, what we sometimes call Heilsgeschichte, or salvation history, which isn't surprising if you've read anything else of his. But of course it is still productive to trace any of those other themes, and many others, throughout the Biblical story.

Another question: what is the high point of the OT? Why does it matter? Identifying it will help you to best understand the ups and downs of the OT narrative, and draw connections to the high point of the NT. While many (Vos, Clowney) argue for the Mosaic dispensation to be the high point, Goldsworthy argues (and he's right) that it's the reigns of David & Solomon. The rest of the OT is an attempt to get back to how things were then (which of course is only accomplished in X, but not in the way they expected!).

His chapter on typology was weak. Honestly, you could skip it.

[Daniel Nelms · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly, in my exploration of biblical theology since 2015, this was my first Goldsworthy read. I read so much about him that I feel as though I've already read his works.

In this book he describes the hermeneutical foundations and evangelical presuppositions that are required for a Christ-centered biblical theology. He spends much of his time describing the implementation of what he calls "the Robinson-Herbert schema" or a three-fold approach to the stages of biblical revelation (Creation-Jesus-New Creation).

This short book covers much ground that I often found myself wishing for more depth. Today Goldsworthy's trilogy arrives, and I'm excited to begin it in hopes that I will find that depth.

This book should be an essential read for any pastor in the ministry that is concerned with how to preach Christ from all of Scripture, and how to properly build a healthy foundation of Christ-centered biblical theology. Can't say that I agree with all of it, but you will be very challenged by what you read.

[David Westerfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read and definitely gives a solid foundation for interpretive principles ... only criticism of this book is he spends too much time on others views throughout the entirety. It's helpful and even needed to have some background for sure. But at times it almost felt like it went off the path to the larger point. Other than that, good stuff for sure!

[Nathaniel Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is classic Golddworthy. It elaborates on his three-fold schema and expresses fully his appreciation for Donald Robinson. There is much to appreciate about Goldsworthy's approach. I recommend this book especially to those who have read Goldworthy's previous works.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book to read when developing a workable biblical theology, especially for preaching. If it was longer, it might work more for sermon preparation, but it is great as is form referencing basic discussions in BT that one might want to teach on in churches and educational contexts.

[Joel Day]

loved it. great stuff on biblical theology.