Reading the Bible (10)

 This is the conclusion of my introduction to reading the Bible, contained in a handout to my church a few years ago. I hope it has been helpful.

God says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,” Isaiah 55:9.

When we resort to rationalization in response to God’s Word, when we try to explain away what God has said so that it will fit our lives rather than having our lives fit God’s Word, when we try to conform God’s Word to the world and what we think it should mean, when we try to do these things we have clear signs that we are approaching the Scriptures from a human point-of-view. The fact is, as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians Chapter One, that the Gospel is foolishness to the world; part of the world says “prove it,” and the other part says “that’s crazy, it doesn’t make sense.”

That is the nature of the Gospel and that is the nature of the world. Our choice is who we will identify with, Christ or the world?

This passage teaches us that God wants to reveal Himself to us and that He has given those who trust in Christ His Holy Spirit so that we can know Him and know the things He has freely given us. Also, since we are in Christ, that is, since we live in Christ and Christ lives in us, we have the mind of Christ. That is, we have an organic relational union with Christ, and in that union His thoughts, His mind, His way of seeing, lives in us. As we allow His mind to renew our mind (Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 4:20-24; Colossians 3:1-4) the Scriptures come alive to us and we begin to understand life from a spiritual perspective rather than from an earthly naturalistic point-of-view.

            The Bible is a supernatural book and we look to the Holy Spirit to reveal God and Christ to us through its pages. However, that does not mean that we disengage our minds nor does it mean that we can be lazy when we approach the Bible. Throughout Paul’s letters to Timothy he encourages Timothy to study the Scriptures so that he can clearly understand them (see 2 Timothy 2:15 for an example). In the Old Testament we also see God commanding His people to know His Word (for example see Deuteronomy 6:1 – 9).

            God wants to draw us to Himself through His Word. He wants to teach us to view life from His perspective. He wants to teach us to compare spiritual things with spiritual things, not with earthly things that are passing away. He wants to prepare us to be a people for eternity. He has given us His Holy Spirit; we have the mind of Christ, so that in our dependence on Him our minds can be transformed into His image. The Bible is God’s Holy Book, it is the most powerful book ever written, and when it is illuminated by the Holy Spirit it will change our lives.

            God’s way of thinking will always be foolishness to the world, and it will always be foolishness to our natural way of thinking – but there is a wisdom that God desires to impart to us, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. Will we live our lives with God in this wisdom?