Preachers rarely speak about imagination, yet every sermon depends on it. We picture the world of the text, sense its movement, feel its tone, and follow its argument. A sanctified, Scripture-governed imagination is essential for faithful exposition—and recovering a text-driven hermeneutic is the key to redeeming it.

A Reformed Doctrine of Scripture Shapes the Expositor’s Imagination

Imagination must never roam free. For the expositor, imagination is always tethered to God’s self-revelation.

Authority means Scripture governs every sermon. Imagination may enliven our understanding of the text, but it can never improve upon it.

Clarity means the Bible is not a fog requiring creative embellishment. God speaks to be understood.

Sufficiency means Scripture provides the materials for faithful exposition. Imagination serves what is there, not what we wish were there.

Unity means every passage belongs to the larger redemptive story centred in Christ. This gives imagination a right horizon, not a licence for speculation.

Imagination Is Inescapable (and God Given)

We imagine when we visualise Abraham walking toward Moriah, hear Paul’s urgency in Galatians, or feel the tension of a parable. Imagination is the God-given capacity to enter the world of the text and perceive its movement.

Different genres demand different imaginative engagement:

• Narrative: scenes, pacing, dialogue
• Poetry: imagery, metaphor, parallelism
• Prophecy & Apocalyptic: symbol, contrast, intensity
• Epistles: tone, logic, argument flow

Imagination does not add meaning but perceives meaning already present. It is the bridge between careful exegesis and faithful proclamation.

When Imagination Goes Wrong

Speculative Imagination

This is imagination off its leash—allegory untethered from authorial intent, fanciful symbolism, and sermonic creativity unrelated to the inspired text.

Minimal Imagination

Others flatten everything into propositions. Poetry becomes bullet points; narrative becomes a doctrinal summary. The sermon is accurate but parched.

Both errors reveal a failure to let the text shape how we think and feel.

Recovering a Text-Driven Hermeneutic

A text-driven hermeneutic means reading the text on its own terms, in its own shape, and with its own emphases. It honours authorial intent, literary form, and canonical context.

Key commitments include:

• Letting the structure of the text govern your outline.
• Allowing imagery and movement to influence tone and delivery.
• Letting genre determine how you enter the passage.
• Using biblical theology to guide, not override, the immediate text.
• Preaching Christ where the text leads, not where imagination wanders.

How the Spirit Renews the Expositor’s Imagination

The Spirit illumines the mind and softens the heart. A Spirit-renewed imagination perceives the richness God has placed in the text.

• Reverent: submitted to the text
• Alive: sensing beauty and gravity
• Christ-centred: shaped by biblical theology
• Pastoral: applying truth with compassion

The Fruit: Exposition That Is Clear, Convictional, and Alive

When imagination is governed by Scripture:

• Sermons gain clarity, because the movement of the text is perceived.
• Illustrations gain honesty, because they arise organically.
• Applications gain precision, because the text’s aim is felt.
• Preaching gains warmth, because the preacher has inhabited the passage.

Conclusion: Prayerful, Text-Formed Imagination

The expositor does not need a more creative imagination, but a more Scripture-saturated one. The prayer is simple: “Lord, let me see what You have revealed; let me feel what the text feels; let me speak what You have spoken.”

Faithful exposition grows where imagination is captive to the Word of God and shaped by the Spirit of God. May our imaginations be ruled not by novelty or sentiment, but by the beauty and authority of Scripture.