When there is promise of a great piece of pie or shortcake or the like following dinner, one might be tempted to hustle the main course, or even shortchange it, in order to get to the prize at the end. Don’t even the bumper stickers tell us, “Life is short; eat dessert first”?
I’m reading, as some of you know, John Stott’s classic exposition of the atonement The Cross of Christ. Of it’s four sections, the last is called “Living Under the Cross”. I have my eyes on that section, I long to get there and read this godly scholar’s reflections about life lived in the shadow of the cross.
But one ought not hustle dessert. The main course sets the context for the end. As Stott leads me through the biblical texts expounding the atonement, and brings solid support to our understanding of things like propitiation and justification, we are made ready to comprehend the concrete application which follows.
My metaphor may break down here, but in this I think dessert sticks better once the main course has been digested.
The dessert like application of biblical truth should never be detached from the meaty comprehension of the truth itself. Neither should the truth be spread across the table without some pie at last to set off the sweetness of the meal.