All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95), published by The Lockman Foundation

If you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus, how do you learn and apply Scripture to your life? Do you do it in a haphazard, careless, way, or do you devote yourself to the teaching of the apostles, as the first Christians did (Acts 2:42)? If you’re devoted to understanding Scripture correctly, so that you can learn to live more like Jesus, do you use a set of biblical principles in your learning? Do you know what those principles are? If you’re at all unsure how to use Scripture to study and apply Scripture, then the present study will help.

In our last study, we looked at the main truths that the apostles present to us when they explain the most significant works that God is accomplishing in history, culminating in the life, resurrection, and heavenly work of the Lord Jesus. The reason for focusing on the apostles is that they are the main sources of truth about the Lord Jesus and His teaching that we have, since one of the requirements for an apostle was that he had to be an eyewitness of the resurrected Lord (Acts 1:21-26; 1 Jn. 1:1-3). As Christians, we’re not only to follow the clear teachings of Jesus and the apostles, but to also learn from, and apply those Scriptures which require more than a surface-level reading. Therefore, we must learn to study Scripture the way that the apostles did, since they learned to study it from Jesus.

The main question that we will ask in this article is “how did the apostles learn how to understand the Scripture that they had?” From answering this question, we’ll be able to find out the basics of, 1) how to understand the Old Testament, and 2) how to learn the meaning of any portion of Scripture.

In this examination of the apostles’ growing understanding of what God is doing through Jesus, we’ll see four ways in which the apostles learned the meaning of the Old Testament (OT) Scriptures. These ways provide us with a few principles for our own understanding of Scripture. The main methods that God used to teach the Old Testament to the apostles are as follows:

  1. Through the direct teaching of the Lord Jesus.
  2. Through direct experience of the fulfillment of prophecy.
  3. Through direct revelation from the Holy Spirit.
  4. Through diligent discussion about its fulfillment and application.

The Lord Jesus’s Explanation of the Scriptures

As we’ve already noted, the key to understanding the Bible is to read it as preparing, describing, explaining, and applying God’s work of redemption through the Lord Jesus. In other words, Scripture is primarily about Jesus, and can only be understood based on the redemption He’s purchased, is currently effecting in people’s lives, and will eventually perfect. Likewise, the apostles only came to understand the meaning of the Old Testament from the teaching of the One about whom it was all about.

Why did Jews who had known the sacred writings since childhood require the God-man to explain it to them? Because God wanted most of the attention to be on His Son when He came, and not on the Scriptures themselves. Thus, He deliberately concealed certain truths about His redemptive plan for the universe until He sent His Son, who is the very Word of God, and the ultimate Prophet. This is the significance of the events on the Mount of Transfiguration. Although both Moses and Elijah appeared to three of the disciples, and were talking with Jesus as He displayed His divine, heavenly, glory through a manifestation of light, God the Father manifested Himself in the form of a cloud, and told them, “’This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!’” (Lk. 9:35). God was pointing out the primacy of the teaching of Jesus, as being more important, fuller, and explanatory when compared with the revelation available through Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets, or OT.

However, due to the hardness of the disciples’ hearts, resulting from the influence of the Jews’ overwhelming apostasy, unbelief, and corruption of the teaching of Scripture, there was very little significant truth that they learned from Jesus during His pre-cross life. Over and over again, He taught the same truths to them, which they failed to believe fully, instead holding on to false notions about the work of the Messiah. This false concept of the Messiah mainly consisted of Him coming to Israel to establish an earthly, prosperous, and powerful kingdom through the conquest of the Roman government, in order to fulfill certain promises of a Jewish kingdom that would have dominion over the entire world. Of course, Jesus taught that His kingdom wasn’t of this world, but was a spiritual kingdom which was being established through His teaching, His death, and His resurrection, and would be carried on by His disciples using the power of the Holy Spirit. But the disciples failed to believe this until what He had promised had come to pass.

The first most important narrative recounting Jesus’s explanation of the Old Testament concerns some disciples who were leaving Jerusalem after Jesus’s death and resurrection, and visited by Jesus Himself to point out to them that these events were prophesied:

“’But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.’ And He said to them, ‘O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.’” (Lk. 24:22-27)

In this passage, we find the unbelief and dullness of the disciples put on display. These two disciples were amazed that Jesus had risen from the dead. However, they should have expected this – not only from Jesus’s own promises – but from the Old Testament itself. Accordingly, Jesus calls them “foolish men and slow of heart to believe”. If they had believed what the prophets had foretold, then they would have understood that it was “necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory” through His resurrection (v. 26). And because they failed to believe what they had learned from the Old Testament prophets, Jesus – although unrecognized by them (v. 16) – used all the Scriptures of the OT to “explain to them the things concerning Himself” (v. 27).

Later on in this Gospel, Luke provides us with another of the most important records of Jesus’s explanation of the OT for His disciples. While they’re gathered in a private room, He suddenly appears among them, and demonstrates to them that He’s been physically raised from the dead by eating some food in their sight (vss. 36-43). Then, Luke writes,

“Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you . . .” (Lk. 24:44-49a)

In this event,  the Lord had to remind the disciples, which included the apostles, that He had already told them about all the OT prophecies that had to be fulfilled by Him, and His work. However, it took His physical appearance to them to convince them that Scripture had indeed promised His death and resurrection.

But He didn’t stop with his appearance. He needed to explain to them what was “written” about Him, and His work, in the OT. There are four separate truths that the Lord affirmed were foretold by the OT. First, the Scriptures taught that “the Christ [or Messiah] would suffer and rise again from the dead” (v. 46). Second, they prophesied “that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations” (v. 47). Third, since Jesus said that the Scriptures pointed forward to the proclamation of His message of repentance, He also implied that they included the fact that the disciples would be “witnesses” of Jesus’s death and resurrection, most notably the Book of Isaiah (v. 48). Finally, as Jesus had already told the apostles at the Last Supper that He would give them the Holy Spirit, He was reminding them in verse 49 that the Father had promised in the OT to give His people the Holy Spirit (Joel 2; Ezekiel 36, etc.).

In this account, Jesus gave the disciples a summary of what the OT taught, but He had more to teach them. That’s what Luke goes on to describe in his sequel to his Gospel, the Book of Acts. In his introduction to the story, he speaks of Jesus’s post-resurrection interaction with the apostles by stating,

“To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3)

Following His previous method of teaching, Jesus must have not only described God’s kingdom with new revelation, but used the Old Testament to show how it described and promised the establishment and advancement of the kingdom. But also note the duration of His teaching of the apostles. This teaching required over a month to communicate. By the end of that time, the students were well-versed in the basic teachings of the OT about God’s kingdom through Jesus. Once Jesus had thoroughly explained the OT to them, He ascended into heaven, so that He could send the Holy Spirit to live inside of them, and to empower them to testify about Him (Acts 1:8-9). Nevertheless, they still had a lot to learn. In order to learn more of what the OT prophesied, they would need the Holy Spirit, and more experience.

The Apostles’ Experience of the OT Promises

Although included in the apostles’ teaching by Jesus Himself, a second way in which the apostles learned the meaning of the OT was by their own experience. This is evidenced by two significant events in their lives. The first is the treachery and destruction of Judas Iscariot, which is recollected by Peter later in Acts 1:16-22:

“’Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry . . . For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘LET HIS HOMESTEAD BE MADE DESOLATE, AND LET NO ONE DWELL IN IT’ and, ‘LET ANOTHER MAN TAKE HIS OFFICE.’ ‘Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us – beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us – one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.’”

In this passage, we can see that Peter used his experience of Judas’s betrayal in order to interpret the quotation from Psalms. He knew that the man spoken of referred to Judas, since Judas fit the description perfectly. And he also knew that someone needed to replace Judas, since another Scripture prescribed that very thing.

To give another example of how the Lord used the apostles’ experience to show them the meaning of the OT, let us consider the beginning of Peter’s explanation of the manifestation of the Spirit’s outpouring on the Day of Pentecost, where he proclaims,

“. . . this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:

‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy.’” (Acts 2:16-18)

How did Peter know that this prophecy from the Book of Joel was being fulfilled on that day? Not only because the Lord had promised such a thing, but because he had experienced exactly what Joel had described. Luke says that all of the disciples were “speaking of the mighty deeds of God” in languages that were unknown to them, thus prophesying by the power of the Spirit (v. 11). Further, Peter himself was prophesying as he began his sermon. But mere experience of promised events wasn’t enough for the apostles to understand all that the OT had witnessed to. Direct supernatural revelation was also used to increase their understanding of the Lord’s teaching in the OT.

The Reception of the Spirit’s Revelation

A third way in which the apostles learned the meaning of the OT was by the direct revelation provided by the Holy Spirit in various forms. Jesus had promised this to His apostles during the Last Supper, when He said,

“’I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” (Jn. 16:12-13)

In these verses, the Lord promises that the Spirit would disclose to the apostles all the truth. Included in this truth is not only the teaching of the Old Testament, but also new revelation that would be received by the apostles. However, since the Old Testament in some way prophesies all of New Testament truth, this had to have included truths that were revealed in the Old Testament as well.

We find a clear example of the Spirit teaching an apostle the true meaning of the OT in the account of Peter’s change of mind regarding the acceptance of the Gentiles into God’s people. This is first brought about by the Spirit sending a vision to him, which reveals two truths from the OT which he should have already understood. Peter recounts his vision, and the event accompanying it, to some Jewish Christians who chastised him for visiting Gentiles, in Acts 11:5-12:

“’I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky; and it came right down to me, and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘by no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’ This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky. And behold, at that moment three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brethren also went with me and we entered the man’s house.’” (Acts 11:5-12)

Peter confessed what he learned from this vision to the people to whom he was sent when he said,

“’You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.’” (Acts 10:28)

Thus, from the vision that he saw, he came to the conviction of two things – 1. that all foods were clean, and 2. that all people were clean, in the sense that they were available to the Lord to be saved by Him. The Lord had already taught the disciples that all foods were clean, when he asked them,

“’Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?’ (Thus He declared all foods clean.)” (Mk. 7:18-19)

We can conclude from this that Peter should have already known that all foods were clean. In addition, he should have known that there was no uncleanness in Gentiles forbidding him from associating with them, and of even welcoming them into God’s family. The major hint of this should have been the fact that the Lord had commanded the apostles to make disciples of all the nations, or Gentiles. Nevertheless, the dullness that we saw at the end of Luke still remained within Peter’s thinking. Hence, it took a miraculous vision to convince him that the Old Testament teaching on being clean and unclean was merely a picture of the cleanness of holiness, and the uncleanness of unholiness. Now that Jesus had come, and had brought purity to those things which were unclean through His miracles, He actually fulfilled the clean/unclean principles. This left no basis for making spiritual distinctions between people based on their relationship to the OT Law, or their ethnicity.

One thing we must be clear about in examining the direct revelation of the Spirit to the apostles is that this revelation wasn’t usually completely new, or independent, in relation to the revelation that they’d already received. They were diligent students of the OT Scriptures. So, just as we do today, they had the ability to study the OT for themselves, and to see its meaning in the light of Jesus’s redemption, pre-ascension teaching, and His post-ascension teaching through the Spirit.

Although Peter was personally convinced that Gentiles were no longer to be considered unclean, and could be saved in exactly the same way as Jews, it still took a further instrument of interpretation for all the apostles to understand the non-binding nature of the Law of Moses, and the liberty from it that the Lord had bought them. This last teaching instrument for the apostles that we see in Acts is that of community and conversational study, which is exemplified by what’s known as the Council of Jerusalem.

The Discussion of the OT’s Meaning

A crisis came in the apostles’ developing understanding of the meaning and applicability of the OT when a group of false teachers went to the predominantly Gentile assembly in Antioch, and preached to them that their salvation was dependent on keeping the Law of Moses through circumcision (Acts 15:1). In response, the apostles Paul and Barnabas, who were overseeing that assembly, debated with these false teachers, and, since they had come from Jerusalem, where most of the other apostles were, they were sent to Jerusalem to make sure that the Jerusalem apostles hadn’t compromised the gospel by adding circumcision (Acts 15:2; cf. Gal. 2:2-5). The result was a leadership council convened to discuss and determine the nature and authority of the Law of Moses. Luke records it like this:

“When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.’

The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, ‘Brethren, you know that in the early days God mad a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we belive that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.’

All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, ‘Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,’ SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO. Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles . . .” (Acts 15:4-19)

The question that this leadership council sought to answer was, “is the Law of Moses binding on believers?” This was directly prompted the opinion of some believing Pharisees that it was “necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses,” “them” being the Gentile believers. Because this erroneous conviction came from men who were so highly educated and respected, the leaders of the Jerusalem assembly thought it necessary to make sure that it wasn’t necessary to command believers to keep the Law. The fact that these leaders had to meet to determine the truth of this opinion shows us that they had failed to understand the preeminence and priority of Jesus in salvation, and the abolishment and fulfillment of the Law by Him (v. 6). In fact, it seems that some were in agreement with the Pharisees, since Luke says that there was “much debate” (v. 7).

Thankfully, Peter took a stand for the true message of salvation when he explained his testimony of God giving the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles through faith, without submitting to the Law (vss. 7-9). Then, he reminded the Jewish leaders that they had been unable to “bear” the “yoke” of the Law, so it was evil to require Gentiles to attempt to do something that was clearly impossible (v. 10). Finally, he reminded them of their settled conviction (“we believe”) that salvation was received simply by the grace, or “undeserved favor,” of the Lord Jesus, both by them and the Gentiles (v. 11).

Next, the apostles that had established the first Gentile assemblies (Paul and Barnabas) provided their own personal testimony of God’s miraculous work among the Gentiles (v. 12). This served as further evidence that God had saved the Gentiles without keeping the Law. It also showed that God had confirmed the proclamation of the gospel in the same way that he had confirmed it to the Jews.

Lastly, the decisive opinion of the council is given by James, who seems to have been the main non-apostolic leader of the Jerusalem assembly. In his speech, he confirms the experiences of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, by pointing out how the OT foretold the addition of the Gentiles into God’s people. He prefaces his quotation of relevant prophecy by saying “with this the words of the Prophets agree” (v. 15). Then, he quotes from the Books of Amos and Jeremiah with a passage that promises the rebuilding of David’s ruined temple (v. 16). This rebuilding is described to be the cause of the Gentiles seeking the Lord, who are characterized as those “called by [His] name” (v. 17). James uses this quotation to show that God had promised to restore the true worship of Himself through the salvation of the Gentiles. In response to this fulfilled promise, he urges that the apostles and Jerusalem elders “do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles” (v. 19). In other words, he concludes, based on the testimony of Peter, and the fulfilled promise of the OT, that the Gentiles don’t have to keep the Law to be saved.

This judgment of James is evidently considered by the council as the definitive decision of the group, since immediately after he speaks, they decide to send a letter by some of their group, explaining the decision, and assuring the Gentiles that they don’t need to keep the Law (vss. 22-29).

From the events of this council, we can learn a few things about our own interpretation of Scripture. First, there will be disagreements among professing Christians over the meaning of essential aspects of Scripture, as was the case with the nature of the Law (v. 5). Second, it may be necessary to debate such matters together, especially among elders (vss. 6-7). Third, it can be helpful for Christians to appeal to their own experience of the truthfulness of a certain viewpoint (vss. 7-9, 12). Fourth, we should always base our interpretation of Scripture on teachings that we know and believe are true, like Peter did (v. 11). Finally, our experience, and the final meaning of Scripture, should always be interpreted by Scripture itself, as James did (vss. 15-17). This, of course, upholds the divine authority of Scripture, as our ultimate verbal standard of belief and practice.

The Keys for Learning Scripture Like the Apostles

From this brief survey of the apostles’ developing understanding of Scripture, we can deduce four main principles for the accurate study and interpretation of Scripture. First, the Person and work of the Lord Jesus is the fundamental body of truth that should ground all of our interpretation. This not only includes what He’s done, but also what He taught. As the ultimate prophet of God, He is the final Interpreter and Teacher of Scripture. Second, like the apostles, we ought to be improving students of the OT. Since the apostles were experts in its teachings, and very often assume its teachings without stating them in their writings, a full understanding of the NT will only come from seeing its references, assumptions, and applications, of the OT. Third, like the apostles, we can learn some of the meaning of Scripture from our own experience. In fact, since Scripture is a revelation of the Lord Jesus and His work, this is the end goal of all our understanding. But it’s also an instrument for interpreting Scripture, since it isn’t primarily concerned with things outside of our everyday existence, but with our lives. Thus, Scripture teaches us in ways that relate to our own experience, giving us a pathway to making connections to realities and truths that would otherwise be foreign to us. This is not to say that, like the apostles, we’ll receive direct revelation from the Holy Spirit, but that He’ll use our perception of events in our lives to shed light on the meaning of certain truths in Scripture. Finally, and most unusually, we ought to follow the apostles in community and cooperative interpretation of Scripture. This means that we don’t study Scripture as isolated individuals, but as members of Christ’s body. As such, we ought to learn from other believers, especially gifted teachers, how to interpret and apply Scripture. Because none of us have arrived at a full understanding of its teachings, it remains incumbent on us to not only study individually, but corporately. Like the apostles, this requires discussion, and perhaps even debate, in order to arrive at a correct interpretation and/or application of Scripture. The goal of our upbuilding of one another is “the unity of the faith,” so this gives us another reason to incorporate many teachers and students of the Word in our developing understanding of that faith.