Chapter IV: The material of Scripture is the holy things reduced to writing by the will of God, which are contained in t
CHAPTER IV: ON THE MATERIAL OF HOLY SCRIPTURE
§ 52. For the sake of teaching, we can call the material of Scripture divine things [res] consigned by God’s will to writing. These are included under the general title “divine revelation.” We can divide them in various ways: (1) Into histories and dogmas. (2) Into Law and Gospel. The latter are the two chief and primary points of divine revelation to which all things taught in Scripture can be referred (Isa. 8:20; John 1:17; Rom. 3:27; 10:5; Gal. 3:21). The Law is the teaching of works, and to it pertain examples of obedience and disobedience, rewards and punishments, promises given to the obedient and warnings directed against the disobedient. The Gospel is the teaching of faith, and to it pertain the prophecies of the Old Testament about the person, office, and benefits of the Messiah; also the types of sacrifices and other [people] foreshadowing Christ; the accounts of the evangelists about Christ’s conception, birth, circumcision, Baptism, sermons, miracles, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God; also the promises of God’s grace, the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life, promises made because of this Mediator to those who believe in Him, the great majority of which occur in the writings of the apostles. (3) We can also divide them into things we must believe, things we must do, and things for which we must hope. (4) We can divide them into mysteries of faith and precepts of life, etc.
§ 53. Because “the end of the Law” and the kernel of the Gospel is Christ (Rom. 10:4), therefore the ultimate goal and, indeed, the center of Scripture, to which all things are referred, is Christ Jesus. Ps. 40:7: “In the head of the book it is written of Me.” (In Heb. 10:7 this is rendered 
[“in the head of the book”]. Some say that the volume is called a 
[“little head”] metaphorically from its appearance when the body of a book is rolled and wrapped, as were the books of the ancients, as if it were a sculpture with a head.) Luke 24:27: “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” John 5:39: “You search the Scriptures because it is they that bear witness of Me.” John 5:46: “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me.” John 20:31: “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” Acts 3:18: “What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets (namely, that Christ would suffer), He thus fulfilled.” Acts 3:24: “And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came afterward, also proclaimed these days.” Acts 10:43: “To Him all the prophets bear witness,” etc. Just as man is the epitome of the entire universe and the center of created nature, so Christ is the epitome and center of all Scripture, the Alpha and Omega, with whom all things in Scripture begin and in whom they all end. That is why John begins his writing with Christ: “In the beginning was the Word,” etc. (John 1:1), and ends it with Christ: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Rev. 22:21).
§ 54. The sacred things set forth in Scripture are contained in books published by divine inspiration. Consequently, the material from which [materia ex qua] of Scripture, considered formally, can by no means inappropriately be claimed to be the structure and series of the books of the Bible. You see, Scripture exists of the number of those things that are one through a collection of its parts. In this place, therefore, we shall have to discuss the various divisions of the books of the Bible, almost all of which have been taken from the efficient cause and material.