The Example of Christ
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Rom 15:4
For whatsoever things... This refers to the whole Old Testament Scriptures (1Cor. 10:1-11; 2Tim. 2:15; 3:15-16; John 5:39; Luke 24:44; etc.). Christians presently live under the New Covenant and are not under the authority of the Old Covenant. God’s moral law has never changed and all Scripture is of spiritual benefit.
Gal. 3:24-25 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
might have hope... We know that faith comes by hearing and the hearing must be the word of God. Our hope comes from knowing the word of God. We have said before that the power is in the spoken and written Word of God.
Without the clear and certain promises of the Word of God, the believer has no basis for hope.
Then Paul stated a significant principle concerning the purpose and ministry of the Scriptures: For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us (lit., “for our instruction”). The Scriptures serve to give believers endurance (hypomonēs, “steadfastness in the face of adversities”) and encouragement so that they might have hope (pres. tense, “keep on having hope”; cf. Rom. 5:3-5). As Christians learn from the past (what is written in the OT about others who did not please themselves) they are motivated to endure and be comforted in the present, looking ahead in hope (confidence) to the future.
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