Whom Do We Preach?

Trevor, my good friend, brother and roommate, and I had a great conversation last night about the place of Biblical exegesis and citation in writing. These thoughts sprung from that conversation as well as my time in Colossians 2 this morning.
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...I wanted to clarify my thoughts on writing and when one should or should not cite scripture. I am a huge proponent of writing as an art; in fact, it is one of my favorite personal pursuits. Thus, poetry, fiction, and even creative non-fiction does not, and usually should not, be explicit biblical exegesis; they are completely different genres. For C.S. Lewis to pull out a biblical citation in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe would be like a baseball player going to bat with a tennis racket; the absurdity of the sight would detract from the beauty and purpose of the writer's (or batter's) intent, not to mention that it just wouldn't work in either case. On a side note, as a Christian writing in these genres, I believe without a doubt, a writer's pursuit should be revealing truth which ultimately leads to Christ, but that is a tangent worthy of another discussion. In these genres, more often than not, you will not see biblical exegesis, a reality which I will not debunk.

However, when a Christian writer takes on the task of teaching and instructing other Christians or defending the faith, his attempts must be saturated with the Word of God. They must be drenched in the Word for three reasons, because it is mandated by God, because the Word of God contains the message of Christ, and lastly, because the Word of God is life and salvation for the elect.

We see in the Word that we are commanded to preach the Word of God, publicly and constantly.(1 Timothy 4:6-13, Deuteronomy 31:11-13) A good minister, teacher, or writer must be "constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine,"(1 Tim 4:6) and he must also share that nourishment through his teaching. He must share the Word.

Moreover, the Word of God is about Christ; it is fulfilled in Him! (Luke 24:27) If all things were made by Him, through Him, and for Him, we must know everything about our Savior, Christ Jesus. Jesus is the Gospel, He is the good news.(2 Timothy 2:8-9) The good news of Christ is contained in the words of the Bible, God-breathed scripture.

Finally, the good news of Christ contained in the bible has the power to save. If we are to fulfill the Great Commission, the first thing we must do is preach the Word of God which has power, through the Holy Spirit, to regenerate hearts and cause rebirth.(James 1:18) The Word of God saves and through Christ only is there true knowledge that leads to salvation. All the mysteries of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him. Every believer must be taught Christ so that no one is persuaded by lies or falsehoods.(Colossians 2:1-4)

Christ is so great and so glorious; how can we preach anything other but the Son of God incarnate, crucified as the propitiation for our sins, resurrected, and seated in glory at the right hand of God the Father. There is nothing more glorious than the completeness of knowledge and truth wrapped up in Christ. There is nothing else to teach but Him. He is lovely, wrathful, beautiful, terrible, and He is glorious!