Reading the Bible in 2024

 

This is my annual reflection on reading the Bible in the coming year. I feel somewhat like Peter when he wrote, “I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder…” (2 Pt. 1:13).

 

The nature of the Bible is a mystery to me, a Divine mystery. I cannot explain the dynamics of reading the Bible in the Holy Spirit, but I can describe the dynamics in some measure. This mystery is akin to what Jesus says in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

 

The Scriptures, rightly received, are the breath of life in Jesus Christ. I say, “rightly received” because the Bible is more than data, it is more than information, it is more than “basic instructions before leaving earth,” it is more than an “owner’s manual.” The Bible is so much more than an interpreter of current events – and it is tragic when we view the Bible in any of the foregoing manners.

 

Why is it tragic?

 

Because the Bible, rightly received, reveals Jesus Christ, His Father and our Father, and the blessed Holy Spirit. God reveals Himself through the Scriptures and draws us into the Holy Trinity; He draws us as individuals, as husbands and wives, as families, and as His People. We simply cannot see and understand the Scriptures without the Holy Spirit working within us – see 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16.

 

Just as the scribes and Pharisees knew the Bible of their time (what we term the Old Testament) and yet did not know Jesus, so the professing church today claims to know the Bible but often does not actually know Jesus Christ. Those professing churches that claim to adhere to the Bible would do well to keep what Jesus says in John 5:39 - 40 before them:

 

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”

 

I am reminded of the concept of having perceived values and actual values. Perceived values are what we think and say we value; actual values are what we actually do.

 

I have been reading the Bible for almost 60 years now and it is more exciting to me than ever for I am seeing Jesus more clearly than ever – His Light shines brighter and brighter through His Word as His Presence fills me and envelopes me. It breaks my heart that the professing church has so many substitutes for Jesus and the Bible, it just about crushes my soul that we are so easily distracted and entertained with high-gloss cheap Christianity with its therapeutic focus on our wants and needs and desires rather than on Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

 

The first line of Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship is, “Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace.” Later in the chapter Bonhoeffer writes:

 

“Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord’s Super without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ.” (Italics mine).

 

And I suppose I should say that reading a verse for each day, or reading a devotional book each day, is not the same as reading the Bible – the Scriptures are written to reveal Jesus Christ and to transform us into His image, the patterns and structure of what we read matters, the connected images matter, reading the Bible as a unity matters.

 

Can we cook food on a grill that only has one piece of charcoal? Can we cook food on a grill that has many charcoal brickettes if those brickettes are not close together, if they are not touching? Is it not foolish to think that the fire of God’s Word will live within us if we only put one piece of charcoal on the altar of our hearts each day? One verse today, maybe a short passage tomorrow, then another verse or two the following day?

 

What has happened to us? How have we come to live in this opium den of enculturated slumber?

 

The world needs us to be the incarnation of the Word, the world needs His Word to live within us and through us – and we, as the Body of Christ, need this from one another.

 

It is nice to celebrate Advent, but if the Incarnation is not to continue within us – as Jesus clearly taught (see John chapters 13 – 17) - then why celebrate Christmas? The Word of God is continuing to be made flesh in those who will receive Jesus Christ coming to them through His Word.

 

Will you live for Jesus today? Will you live in His Word?

 

Mark 8:34 – 38; 12:28 – 34; Psalm 1; Psalm 2; Psalm 19.