I’ve got the ESV blog on my reader because it sometimes leads to neat places. Today, it announced more Bibleforlife promos. Because it caught my eye (due to local associations) I couldn’t resist listening to the “Barlow Girl” promo on Isaiah 61 (is that a music group or something? I have no idea).

It was breathtaking. How many Reformed seminary students would dare use Isaiah 61.1 as a description of the calling of all Christians, when it is put to “other” use by Jesus? Who would dare claim to be the object of a Messianic prophecy?

Well, maybe, making “everything point to Christ” is really only a job half-done when speaking of faithful Biblical hermeneutics! Here’s Jesus interpreting a passage of Scripture:

Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.

Here’s my conclusion, if Jesus Himself says that Psalm 2 is a prophecy about us, as well as about him, then this great stuff about the Christian calling as found in Isaiah 61 is pretty far beyond criticism.