Lesson One: Hermeneutics

There are some truths that are of first importance in understanding the message of Christ.
Someone has referred to this as the hierarchy of truth. Some truths are more important than others. These truths are at the core or essence of Christian learning and living. The New Testament itself makes it very clear that there are priorities. In his first letter to the Corinthian Christians the apostle Paul told them that the message of first importance is the gospel, the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NASV

Another priority in the New Testament is the internals, the things in the heart. Jesus taught that it's the things of the heart that motivate us to do the things we do. If the heart is not right, what we do externally will be in vain:

"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders." Matthew 15:18-19 NASV

Jesus had strong rebuke for the Jewish leaders of His time regarding this very thing:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. "You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. "Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Matthew 23:25-28 NASV

But, how do we receive the good things in our heart?

"for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." Romans 10:10 NASV