Reading the Bible (7)

 

Bible Study – Part One

Unlike any other book

 

Now we’re going to consider how to study the Bible. As you might expect, there is a lot that can be said about how to study the Bible, but what we will do is focus on some key principles, some building blocks, which if we always keep them in mind will help us in Bible study.

            The Bible is unlike any other book in existence for a number of reasons. Can you think of any other book that took 1,500 years to write with multiple authors in three languages? (The New Testament is written in Greek, the Old Testament, while written mainly in Hebrew also has some Aramaic in the Book of Daniel). Can you think of any other book that contains prophecies given by multiple men hundreds of years before their fulfillment, which then find their fulfillment in the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of one man within a period of about 33 years? Can you think of any other book that for 2,000 years men and women have died to preserve, died to translate, and lived to share? 

Can you think of any other book that no one has been able to improve upon? Humanity has made advances in 2,000 years in many areas of learning and knowledge, but no one has been able to improve on the teaching of Jesus Christ. And in terms of the person of Jesus Christ, to quote Napoleon, “I know men, and Jesus Christ was no mere man.” From Genesis to Revelation the story of the Bible is the story of Jesus.

Of all the many things that make the Bible the most unusual book in the world, the primary reason is that it is written by God using human agents. This means that when we read the Bible, whether we do lay-of-the-land, study, devotional or memorization reading that the Author of what we are reading is with us to help our understanding. In fact, if we have come into a relationship with Jesus Christ not only is the Author with us but He is in us.

            The following quotation is from John Chapter 14; Jesus is talking to His disciples on the night that He will be arrested:

   JN 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you…JN 14:25 "All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

 

            One of the reasons that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to be in us is so the Holy Spirit can teach us all things. In other words, the Author of what we are reading, once we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, is not only with us but is in us and we can expect Him to teach us what He has written. Approaching the Bible as God’s book, as God’s self-disclosure, as God’s communication to us, as the holy book, places us in a posture to learn to hear from God as we read the Scriptures.

            It is good for us to remember Hebrews 11:6 as we approach the Bible:

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

 

            The Apostle Paul writes the following in his second letter to Timothy:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

 

            Here we see that the holy Scriptures:

1.      Are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ. The Scriptures will open our understanding and lead us to Christ, for Christ is the focal point of the entire Bible. The Scriptures lead us to Christ through faith. Notice the connection between being wise and faith. When the Bible speaks of faith it does not mean blind faith, it means informed faith, faith that is based on understanding and truth. The Scriptures give us understanding, truth, wisdom and illumination.

2.      All Scripture is God-breathed. Another way to say this is; all Scripture is inspired by God. The idea is that God’s breath filled the men who wrote the Bible. More on this later.

3.      Are useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. The image here is that the Scriptures are to form our life and character. While most of us might be okay with being taught, few of us would volunteer for being rebuked and corrected, and yet that is one of the reasons we are given the Scriptures. In the Old Testament prophets, in the ministry of Jesus, and in the ministries of the apostles, we see the Scriptures being used to not only teach in a positive fashion, but we also see them used in straightforward correction.

4.      Can equip us for every good work. Christians are called to grow into the image of Jesus Christ. The Christian life is to be one of continual growth, learning, and maturing of character. God wants us to be women and men who are mature and who can teach and mentor others; God will use the Scriptures to mature us and to help us mature others.

To be continued....