Tim Keller’s Guidance on Preaching Christ from All of Scripture

Mitch Chase

Jun 5, 2023

In 2015, Tim Keller’s book Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism was published. Chapter 3 is called “Preaching Christ from All of Scripture.” In light of Tim’s recent death (on May 19, 2023), I revisited this book to reflect afresh on Tim’s wisdom on preaching.

The opening paragraph of the chapter says that preachers should “find how your particular text fits into the full canonical context and participates as a chapter in the great narrative arc of the Bible, which is how God saves us and renews the world through the salvation by free grace in his Son, Jesus Christ.”

Holy Scripture is one Book, and a preacher’s passage fits canonically in it. Christian preaching will involve discerning and reflecting on how that passage contributes to the larger storyline of Scripture. Keller discusses six basic ways of preaching Christ.

First, preach Christ from every genre or section of the Bible.

The various genres of the Bible point to Christ in different ways. “He’s the rock of Moses. He’s the fulfiller of the law—both the ceremonial law, because he makes us clean in him, and the moral law, because he earns the blessing through his perfectly righteous life. He’s the final temple….He’s the true king of Israel—indeed, he’s the true Israel….Now look at the Psalms, the songs of David, in which Jesus is the sweet singer of Israel (Hebrews 2:12). Then go to the prophets, and there he is the promised King (Isaiah 1—39), the suffering servant (Isaiah 40—55), and the world healer (Isaiah 56—66). Go to Proverbs and find that he is the true wisdom of God.”

To summarize the point: “Each genre and part of the Old Testament looks toward Christ and informs us about who he is in some way that the others do not.”

Second, preach Christ through every theme of the Bible.

Keller says, “The Bible is filled with themes that run throughout all or most of its parts and genres. If you find any of the following themes, which thread their way through the entire canon, passing through your particular text, then you can simply ‘pull on the thread,’ looking back to where it began and ahead to its fulfillment in Christ now and on the Last Day.”

What kind of themes? Themes like kingdom, covenant, home and exile, divine presence and worship, rest and Sabbath, justice and judgment, righteousness and nakedness.

As Christian interpreters, we should study the themes of Scripture in light of the person and work of the Savior.

Third, preach Christ in every major figure of the Bible.

Keller writes, “All the major figures and leaders of the Scriptures point us to Christ, the ultimate leader who calls out and forms a people for God. All anointed leaders in the Bible—every prophet, priest, king, and judge who brings about ‘salvation’ or deliverance or redemption of any kind or level—are pointers to Christ, in their strengths and even in their flaws.”

Christ is the better Adam, the better Abel, the better Abraham, the better Jacob, the better Joseph, the better Moses, the better Job, the better David, the better Jonah, etc.

Fourth, preach Christ from every major image in the Bible.

Keller contends, “There are many images or ‘types’ pointing to Christ that are not figures or persons but impersonal objects and patterns. Many of these symbols vividly depict salvation by grace that finds fulfillment in Christ.”

Christ is the bronze snake in the wilderness and the rock that was struck. The ceremonial laws in the tabernacle system reveal Christ. “The Sabbath and the Jubilee laws point to him.”

He is the Passover lamb, the lampstand in the holy place, and temple itself.

Fifth, preach Christ from every deliverance story line.

Keller insists, “We must notice the narrative pattern of life-through-death or triumph-through-weakness, which is so often how God works in history and in our lives.”

Furthermore, “It is not simply the stories of individuals that point us to Christ. The redemptive purpose of God is to redeem a people and renew creation. Therefore, all the major events in the history of the formation of the people of God also point us to Christ.”

Christ led a new and greater exodus. “He led them not just out of economic and political bondage but out of bondage to sin and death itself through his death and resurrection.”

Jesus “underwent the ultimate exile that fulfilled the righteousness of God fully.”

Sixth, preach Christ through instinct.

Keller explains his last point this way: “Though you should employ many of these ways to preach Christ from all of Scripture, too rigid a formula (or set of formulas) results in being predictable. Often the line from the text to Christ is best perceived by intuition rather than composed by a defined method.”

Like learning the ending to a great movie or book, you can’t rewatch or reread it without that ending imposing itself in your mind. “In the same way,” says Keller, “once you know how all the lines of all the stories and all the climaxes of all the themes converge on Christ, you simply can’t not see that every text is ultimately about Jesus.”

Thank you, Tim Keller, for preaching Christ from all of Scripture.

Timothy Keller, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism (New York: Viking, 2015), 70.

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