Christ Is the Heart and Power of the Scriptures (1)

The scope of the whole Scriptures is Christ.
What are all the Scriptures without Christ? The law is a dead letter; and indeed, so is the gospel without Christ. He is that Spirit which gives life to all the Scriptures. Moses without Christ is but a shadow without a body, or a body without a soul. Take away Christ, what was the brazen serpent? What was the ark? What were the sacrifices? What is all? Is not Christ all in all in these? The kings and priests and prophets, they were types of Christ; all the promises were made and fulfilled in Christ. The ceremonial law aimed at Christ; the moral law is to drive us to Christ. Christ is the Spirit of all. And the Scripture without Christ is but a mere dead thing; it is but a shell without a kernel.
Christ is the also the Spirit of the Scriptures, of all truths, of all ordinances. We can therefore reconcile the Scriptures with one another when they seem to contradict. The law is said to be a dead letter, a 'ministration of condemnation' (2 Cor. 3:6, 9), but in Psalm 19:7 it says, 'The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.' These texts are reconciled in this way: the law is said to be dead, and it is so without Christ, without the Spirit who gives life; and the gospel, too, is 'a savour of death' (2 Cor. 2:16). But the law is 'perfect' and able 'to convert the soul' when the Spirit goes along with it.
We can also understand why we obtain more comfort at one time than another from an ordinance, and why it benefits one person and nor another. This is from the presence or absence of Christ. Why does the reading or hearing of the same thing affect one, and not another at all? The substance of the thing is the same, but the Spirit is not the same. The Spirit goes with the one, and not with the other. The efficacy and fruit of any ordinance depends upon Christ’s being present in it, who is that Spirit that quickens.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 9-10, 15-16 [13, 19-20]
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