I am almost done with the first volume of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics. It has been an amazing read. Below is a quote I like from early in the book. It shows Bavinck’s precision in thinking something through that at first blush seems right. Throughout this chapter he has been talking about the task of dogmatics (theological study) and how dogmatics should be organized. Here is Bavinck’s definition of dogmatics: Dogmatics can be defined as the truth of Scripture, absorbed and reproduced by the thinking consciousness of the Christian theologian. Here is the quote where Bavinck explains why Christ cannot be the way we organize our theology.
However, the christological organizing principle is subject to even more objections [than the Trinity as organizing principle]. However attractive it may seem at first sight, it is still ununsable. It often rests on the false assumption that rather than Scripture the person of Christ specifically is the foundation and epistemic source of dogmatics. However, we know of Christ only from and through the Scriptures. In addition, though Christ is quite certainly the central focus and main content of Holy Scripture, precisely because he is the midpoint of Scripture, he cannot be its starting point. Christ presupposes the existence of God and humanity. He did not make his historical appearance immediately at the time of the promise [in Eden] but many centuries later. It is, moreover, undoubtedly true that Christ revealed the Father to us, but this revelation of God through the Son does not nullify the many and varied ways he spoke through the prophets. Not the New Testament alone, nor only the words of Jesus, but Scripture as a whole is a Word of God that comes to us through Christ.
What struck me about this quote is how many modern Christians do exactly what Bavinck says we should not do; separate Christ from the Scriptures or elevate the words of Jesus above the rest of the words of the Bible.<>
