Application Goes Yard

Sometimes the prospect is easy:  "You shall be holy, for I am holy." (1 Pet. 1:16b) Excellent; my work is to pursue holiness.  The application is apparent.  Sometimes, though, things are more difficult:  "For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place." (Is. 43:3) Where is my application?  Have you seen my application?  It must be here somewhere, but it simply is not apparent.

If my entire goal in studying the Bible is unlocking practical application, the only seeds that will germinate in my studies will often be those of frustration, because immediate application is not always forthcoming.  My marching orders are simply not there, so Scripture, which is purportedly God-breathed, does not seem so very useful after all.  This, see, is the major problem:  God did not fashion His revelation - write it, as it were, on tablets of steel - merely to provide moral direction.  If this is your purpose in approaching the Bible, I might recommend Mother Goose instead - it will require far less study and discipline, and will usually have more pictures.

No; the purpose of the Bible is to reveal God and His character (often spelled g-l-o-r-y).  God creates.  He judges.  He sustains.  He saves!  He promises.  He delivers.  God is the constant in His Word - the only constant; amen?  He is the theme, the central thread.  If I reduce the Word down to "What should I do?", though, I see that the Bible in my hands is nothing more than a pretty mirror.  I have taken something that is so overwhelmingly God-centered that it can prostrate a soul in eternal worship, and have managed to reckon it as something man-centered by focusing upon myself.

Let us not mistake here.  Does God give me instruction in His Word?  Abundantly and definitively so, and you shall never (I pray) find me making light of His commands.  Behind every command, though, is the character of God.  Look again at the 1 Peter quote above - I am to be holy because of His holiness.  And would I indeed rush out to follow His commands, were I not convinced of the extraordinary truths about God which pervade His Word?  Would I concern myself with obedience if I did not understand that He is full of wisdom and care, power and justness?  The Bible is about God, His name, and His work.  All else - not only in the Word, but in creation - flows from this.

Where, then, does this leave the concept of application?  Does it lessen its importance, blunt its proliferation?  On the contrary, a veritable application juggernaut is created, one that goes far beyond the others, and that must come before the others.  This application is worship.  Think on this - it does not matter what passage I read, be it narrative, epistle, poetry, or law, I can always, always trace things back to the Lord, and there is always some facet of His character which beams out with dizzying brilliance. 

The first step, then, is always to worship and to marvel at the glory before us.  We can do this with any part of Scripture - look for this before anything else.  Look for God on the pages of His Word.  If the passage in question has further applicational derivatives, we will thus find ourselves in a far more humble and joyful frame, and will desire to obey the application from a pure heart.  If, however, the passage is devoid of any other application, as is the case at times, we do not come away from the Word disappointed, because we have seen our God, have grown to know Him just a bit better, have worshipped, and have trusted. 

The application of worship is monstrous.  It is undeniable theocentric; it approaches God's book on its own terms.  It forms an excellent and indispensable starting point in the quest for application, and it is unashamedly sufficient as application when it needs to be.  It tells us that, yes, there is worth and depth in coming away from Scripture with the simple awe of seeing God as He is, even without adding three more line items to the applicational checklist. 

God's Word and the Passionate Non-Pharisee

Not so long ago, we discussed the danger of pulling apart the strands of love and truth in the lifeline called Christianity.  As "knowledge" is frequently and foolishly vilified in many churches of today, it seems desirable to harken back to this subject from a slightly different path, to create a short tally of the immense and enlivening benefits that arise from understanding God's Word.  Psalm 119, unsurprisingly, has much to offer in this matter.  Here are four actions, all crucial to the believer, which an understanding of God's Word unlocks for us.  I will state them as commands to frame their critical nature in our lives; amen?

1.  Apprehend His glory.  "Make me understand the way of Your precepts, so I will meditate on Your wonders." (v. 27) We are happily used to seeing God's glory in the pages of His book, but perhaps it does not always occur to us to see His glory in His precepts.  Situated in those commands, though, are such wonders as His unwavering righteousness, His absolute wisdom, His sovereign hand, and His untiring justice.  These lie at the very heart of our Lord's character, and they radiate from His Word in very real and personal ways, because those very precepts are what shape our actions and choices as believers.  This is one of the invaluable ways in which God's glory becomes infused in our mission as His people - this is glory that we cannot afford to forgo.

2.  Passionately discern.  "From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way." (v. 104) Here again, understanding is centered around the precepts in God's Word, but here the result is hatred of "every false way."  This is discernment of the most powerful sort.  It is discernment that informs literally every moral decision we must make, and it is discernment that is founded in a ferocious and dogged pursuit of God's righteous standards.  Notice the psalmist does not say, "I do not really like every false way"; he says, "I hate every false way."  Evil is repugnant to him; it offends him and excites a vehement and passionate reaction. He hates what is evil because he cherishes what is good (cf. Phil. 4:8).  Dare we attempt this class of spiritual discretion without understanding God's Word?  This is not sterile and pharisaical book knowledge, friends.

3.  Fervently obey.  "Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart." (v. 34) At first blush, this is very obvious - we understand the Bible and we therefore obey God - but look again.  Not only does it help us to obey, but to obey with all our hearts.  This is fervent, zealous obedience, as opposed to begrudging, joyless obedience - as John describes it in 1 John 5:3:  "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." 


We must examine this more closely for a moment - how indeed can a book accomplish such zeal as we see in the discernment and obedience described here?  First, it is because God's people read His book in the company of the Holy Spirit, who works powerfully through the Word.  We recall how similar the commands of "be filled with the Spirit" and "let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you" truly are (Eph. 5:18 & Col. 3:16).  God's Word and God's Spirit work together, or they do not work at all (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-14).

Second, as we read God's Word, and God's Spirit works within us, we encounter none other than God Himself on the pages.  We behold His priorities, His perfections, and His precepts, and so we are given all the reason in the world (or properly, in Christendom) to love His beauty, to understand His commands, to pursue His righteousness, and to fear His judgments.  This is why we had to begin this blog with God's glory - it is the impetus, the force that imparts true spiritual momentum.


4.  Partake of true life.  "Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live." (v. 44) As God's Word is immutably righteous, being laid down and preserved by He who is immutably righteous, it imparts spiritual life to those who understand it.  We do not, as Moses tells us, "live by bread alone," but rather, "by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord." (Deut. 8:3b) We cannot be pulled out of our Ephesians 2:1 spiritual death into Ephesians 2:5 spiritual life without an understanding of the Word.  Once God has given us life, we cannot grow and continue in that life without an understanding of the Word.  Would we scoff or ignore the very book that unlocks life itself?  By no means.

God has blessed us beyond measure with His Word, and it becomes us in every respect to seek a knowledge of it.  We must not fear becoming Pharisees simply for poring over its wealth, but we must see it as the divinely-appointed flame that truly ignites our hearts.  As a final note, do you see how every last one of these blessings (God's glory, obedience, discernment, and spiritual life) represents something that is beyond our natural inclinations?  We would not give glory to another, would not trouble to improve our discernment, and so forth, were it not for the work of the Spirit through His Word.  It is remarkable how the Lord turns us right side up, with powerful blessings which come through the Bible.

Knocking the Narratives

I suppose that I, in the course of reading the Bible, could stick solely with the historical accounts, in a bid to keep things interesting and lively.  Of course I could.  In fact, I freely admit that I have fallen prey to this sort of (insert adjective of choice here, reader - wrong, silly, incomplete, shallow, faulty, even faithless?) thinking in the past.  We need to make fuller use of God's Word - pull more fruit down off of the divinely-planted tree and feast, as it were. 

I am confident you will not argue this point with me, my friends, since all Scripture is inspired by our omnisapient Lord and is useful for His saints, as Paul told Timothy (2 Tim. 3:16).  No; the problem here is that we sometimes take the other stance, is it not?  Sometimes we become averse to the narratives because we sense that they will somehow belittle our otherwise impressive spiritual profundity in the eyes of others.  "My studies are currently taking me through Hebrews; what about you?"  "Well, um...actually, I was just reading about Cain and Abel this morning...in my Fun Adventures with Jesus Bible.  Do you want to watch the video with me?  Mark Hamill and Richard Thomas do all the voices." 

Of course this is silly as well, and I doubt that you will argue this either, but we can still prove it from Scripture.  Psalm 111:2 & 4a proclaims, "Great are the works of the Lord; they are studied by all who delight in them...He has made His wonders to be remembered."  In other words, we cannot knock the narratives.  God does unforgettable things so that we will take notice, take interest, and take delight.  He desires for us to absorb ourselves with the narratives because they reveal Him.

Can we indeed discern any act on His part that has not been less than incredible?  The very breath I just drew demonstrated His sovereignty over the created order, His faithfulness to His own counsel, His grace to a sinner, and His blessing to one of His elect.  My life should be a running prayer of thanksgiving and praise!  Every second reveals another breathtaking vista of divine glory. 

We find, incredibly, that there is no such thing as doxological neutrality with God's works.  We can rejoice over all of them.  Not only do they reveal His wonderful character, but they underscore with an inimitable uniformity that He does everything perfectly.  Not one deed has ever fallen short, has ever flown astray - each is comprehensively guarded by total deity.  So we may rejoice at His works for their glorious perfection as well.

God sovereignly purposes His revealed works for the continued joy of His people.  And if God is indeed sovereign, then we know that He had each and every one of His children in mind when He made His momentous plans.  So then I, Josh Linn, as a child of God, am fully intended to, fully equipped for, and fully capable of meeting with my God in the accounts of His wonders which He preserves in Scriptures.  I can continually meet with Him, and I can continually honor Him for the record He has given us!  Feast, then, Christian, upon the narratives which divine hands have kept for us!  Feast and be satisfied.

A Painless Pointer on the Greek

WARNING:  If you have a stack of blank flash cards at the ready, please put them aside.  Conversely, if you are pushing away your laptop in disgust, pull it back in.  I did say "painless." 

English sentences are constructed fairly rigidly.  I could say, "Fairly rigidly are constructed sentences English," and you might understand me, but, once you got past the fact that I was speaking like Master Yoda, you would admit that I simply am not being very clear.  It is either confusing or unintelligible, since we derive the meaning of our sentences, in part, from the order in which we arrange the words within them.  For instance, if I say, "He made his friend the captain," it means something completely different than, "He made the captain his friend."  Only the order dictates the meaning here; it determines (for you grammar geeks) what the direct object and indirect object are.

This is not the case nearly so often in the Greek, where nouns and verbs are modified to demonstrate their function in a sentence.  This means they can be moved about within the sentence without impeding clarity. 

Yes, Josh, but what is the point of this?  Why does it matter?  It matters because the syntactical flexibility afforded by Greek grammar effectively emancipates word order from its enslavement to sentence meaning.  The word order does not help to define what the sentence means, so Greek authors used word order for something else entirely:  emphasis.¹  If there were a word or phrase they sought to stress, they would put it at the beginning of a sentence or clause.  Thus word order can be an additional clue as to the author's focus or intent.

The issue we must confront is that in our English Bibles, these emphases are not always elucidated.  Sometimes they do not survive translation, because the English equivalent either would not make sense, or would sound, once again, like Frank Oz's diminutive Jedi creation.  It can be well worth the effort, though, to discover the word order from the Greek.

Consider a few examples which I will quote from both the 2001 English Standard Version and the 1898 Revised Young's Literal Translation (which generally seems to reflect a rather stringent adherence to original word order - I did verify both of my examples in the original Greek, but cannot speak regarding the entire translation.  And of course I do not recommend it as a primary Bible, as it does not account for the legitimate archaeological or lexical advances made by conservative biblical scholarship over the past century or so).

1.  Matthew 7:22

• ESV:  "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'"
• RYLT:  "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, lord, have we not in your name prophesied? And in your name cast out demons? And in your name done many mighty things?"

This is familiar - Christ describes how some unbelievers will attempt to convince Him of their sincere deservedness of heaven.  Two major word order differences are evident.  First, the ESV recounts the actions these people supposedly carried out, each followed by "in your name."  However, the original word order has the phrase "in your name" moved out to the beginning of each clause, as seen with the RYLT.  The ESV, then, would suggest that these unbelievers will point to what they did as proof of their deservedness of eternal blessing (prophesying, casting out demons, and mighty works); however, the original Greek indicates that they hang their hopes more on how they did these presumed works (in Christ's name).  This adds a sobering layer of tragedy of their foolish assertions:  not only do they believe they have worked their own way into heaven, but they believe that it was all carried out for the Lord. 

Second, the ESV begins the verse with, "On that day," while the RYLT starts out, as the Greek does, with "many [people]."  It would seem, then, that Christ's concern is not to emphasize that people will voice their own desperate deception on the day of judgment, bur rather that there will in fact be many such people who are deceived.  This is in keeping with verse 21, where Christ begins by saying, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven." (ESV) Not everyone will enter; in fact, many will prove to be hypocrites.  These are nuances, perhaps, but sobering ones that enrich the text; no?

2.  Colossians 2:6

• ESV:  "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him."
• RYLT:  "As, then, you did receive Christ Jesus the Lord, in him walk." 

This one is a simpler example.  There is a subtle shift in the final clause of the sentence; the original Greek, reflected in the RYLT, draws out an emphasis upon Christ:  "in him walk."  There is, once again, a stress not upon the what, but the how.  Everyone walks in some manner or another (cf. Phil. 3:17-19), but our receiving of Christ should prompt us to walk in him.  Don't just walk; walk in him, brothers and sisters! 


As I said, it is often worth the effort to find out the original word order in the Greek as a part of our New Testament studies.  Tools like the more literal Bible translations, or even some online interlinear Bible tools (like this), can help us in this task without requiring us to be fluent in Koine Greek.  However we do it, though, it can help us to get into the minds, and into the hearts, of the biblical authors, and capture just a bit more of the Lord's revelation.

And there's nothing wrong with that at all.


¹ Mounce, William D.  Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar.  2nd Edition.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan. 2003.  pp. 31-32.

God's Word Is Not a Haymaker

"Well...the Bible has been translated so many times into so many different languages over the years that it becomes effectively impossible to know what the Bible originally said." 

Perhaps you have heard just such a statement as this, and you have been certain that it could not be true, but you have not known how to respond.  Or perhaps it sowed a seed of doubt in your mind, and you filed it under the "Things To Investigate Someday After the Kids Are in Bed" file - a file that sometimes grows, but never shrinks.  Or perhaps you know exactly what the answer here is.  I certainly cannot say what opinion you might hold on this matter, but I would like to address it briefly, and not so simply you know how to argue with an atheist, but so your esteem for your sovereign, superintending Lord will grow.

Let us, for the sake of simplicity, deal with the New Testament as an example.  I will start by saying that we possess none of the originals (or autographs) of the New Testament writings; all are copies that were created no earlier than roughly the second century (by which time, of course, the New Testament had been completed, and all the apostles had died).  And I shall not sport with anyone's credulity by suggesting that these copies are in 100% agreement.  There are different readings of given passages, for certain.

So far, this sounds like fodder for skepticism - scoffers are sharpening their knives - but this is far from the case.  In truth, we almost never have the autographs of ancient literature, and must determine what the original was from the copies at hand (hence the discipline of textual criticism).  This is the norm with ancient literature.

So what of the New Testament copies?  Are they useful for these purposes?  It seems clear that relying upon copies that were laid down decades or centuries later would be a dubious enterprise.  However, our understanding of most ancient writings rests upon the use of no more than a few dozen copies that were penned at least 500 years later.  If we have a body of ancient New Testament manuscripts that, as of about a year ago, numbered some 5,800 in the Greek and over 10,000 more in other languages, and that begin possibly from as early as the late first century, then we have vastly more with which to work, and vastly more from which to be certain, than we do from any other ancient writing.  The New Testament is uniquely striking amongst its contemporaries for the weight and antiquity of the manuscript support it enjoys.

There is a good foundation, then, for coming at the true wording of the New Testament, especially when we consider that those who seek to create a good and accurate representation of New Testament Scripture do not merely look at the latest translation to hit the market, and fretfully work to tweak it in order to form it to current literary or cultural trends.  Solid Bible translators go back to the manuscripts and seek to derive an understanding from them.  It is not a game of "telephone" across centuries, languages, and continents - they get as close to the source as they can, and they apply science, scholarship, and a healthy dose of common sense as they do so. 

This "common sense" element merits a bit of discussion here.  What I mean is that in the discipline of textual criticism, common sense plays a key role in seeking to answer the vital question:  how will we determine which reading of a particular passage is the best; that is, the most accurate to the original?  We have already mentioned that there are variations between the different manuscripts at times, and while most are trivial and minute, there are those which are anything but.  How then do we conclude what the original must have said?

The answer lies with a number of common-sense principles, a few of which I will list here.

• The older reading is likely to be more reliable than the newer, there having been less time for errors to have been introduced.  This is not absolute, of course, because there is usually nothing to prove that, say, a second-century manuscript was not copied ten times, while a fifth-century manuscript was copied only once or twice from a much older manuscript. 
• The reading which is more difficult (unless the more difficult reading is due to an obviously nonsensical copying error) is more likely the original, as opposed to the reading that is smoother and fits into the overall passage better (i.e. has fewer rough edges).  A scribe, when copying a manuscript, would not render a passage more confusing, but might on the other hand seek to elucidate it with paraphrase, additional explanation, or word substitution. 
• The reading that is shorter is more likely the original than the longer reading.  Again, a scribe would hardly excise a phrase, but would ostensibly add clarification.
• The reading that could most easily have given rise to the alternate readings is probably the original.  Scribes would sometimes endeavor to harmonize the gospels by adding to one gospel account what was contained in another, or would add phrases to strengthen the devotional or theological thrust of a passage.

Note that the maverick acts of these early copyists which I have just related are not to be condoned, whatever their intentions.  There is an incredible presumption in seeking to augment the clarity, the unity, or the flow that God has built into His perfectly-delivered Word, as though the Holy Spirit somehow came up wanting in His mission to bring forth the divine and unbreakable Word (cf. John 10:35). 

In actuality, as I believe Daniel Wallace once pointed out, these variations between manuscripts actually aid in the endurance of Scripture, rather than hurt it, because in the prolific quantity of the manuscripts, spread across centuries, we are given a record of the alterations which were made to the Holy Word through the centuries, and can therefore determine what the original said.  Were we given only a uniform army of writings from which to base our Bible translations, we could not know with any certainty if we were looking at the original vintage, or something more corrupted. 

All this being said, it is left simply to conclude that God has shown Himself careful and mighty in the preservation of His Word.  In so doing, He has faithfully kept it "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:16b-17) It would not be amiss, my friend, to take a moment to thank Him for His excellent work, this grace in the protection of His divine revelation!  His Word is not a haymaker; everything about it is intentional, and tends to His glory, and our good.



References:
Tenney, Merrill C.  The Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible.  Vol. 5.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan,
     1976.  pp. 712-713.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2012/03/21/an-interview-with-daniel-b-wallace-on-the-new-testament-manuscripts/

http://danielbwallace.com/2012/03/22/first-century-fragment-of-marks-gospel-found/

The Final Blow of Scriptural Authority - Complete Authority

Yes, I know I had called this little series "The 1-2 Punch of Scripture Authority," but, admittedly, after a snappy 1-2 combination, a boxer likes to have a final, devastating punch (for the record, in spelling the word "boxer," I have just depleted my entire fund of knowledge surrounding boxing).  With this in mind, there is a third sort of authority which the Bible enjoys, according to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Consider it a postscript.

We have looked mainly at verse 16 thus far, but verse 17 brings it all to a close:  "...so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."  The Bible is divinely authoritative, and it is universally authoritative, in order that it may thrust into the hands of all believers any and every spiritual tool needed "for every good work."  It is, therefore, completely authoritative; that is, it is by itself sufficient to guide us in all matters of righteousness.  When we open its timeless pages, we throw wide the doors of the only arsenal we will ever have or will ever need in this struggle for holiness, and every weapon is divinely powerful and eternally sharp.

Consider the lasting comfort that should infuse our souls as we take this in.  All of our righteous needs have been gathered into one definitive source, and are there protected against the incursions of unrighteousness.  We are kept, then, from the ignoble listlessness of pursuing human solutions to problems that our imperfect natures simply cannot surmount.  The world is fully crowded, in every corner and crevice, with methodologies that endeavor to promote righteousness apart from God and His effusive transcendence, which is itself the only way to defeat and overcome sin.  We expect this of the world, but we must throw off these foolish tendencies as God's children.  Should the utter failure of the world to deal with unrighteousness not suffice to cause us, both as individuals and within our churches, to cling with a fearful tenacity to God's Word?  Should it not prove to us a hundred times over that the world's methods can only oppose and mock scripture?

So the Bible has much to say, then, about avoiding evil and embracing good.  What of those deeds, though, that are neither good nor evil?  What has our Lord to say about morally neutral works?  Interestingly, this is a concept that is entirely foreign to the pages of the Word.  Paul demonstrates this truth in 1 Corinthians 10:31 - "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  In other words, there is a moral component of every act, because God can be remembered or forgotten, acknowledged or scorned, blessed or cursed, in everything we do.

Thus God's Word diffuses its brilliance to every last circumstance and choice that confronts us, and that brilliance comprehends every decision we must make.  Praise be to our Father, who would lavish us not with an unbroken chain of events in which we might both praise Him and grow to trust and love Him, but with His own book, which will never fail to steer us from the rocks of moral folly!

The 1-2 Punch of Scriptural Authority - Second, Universal Authority

(Continued from Part 1 of the series found here)

Let us extract another truth about the Bible's authority from 2 Timothy 3:16-17, this one a bit less obvious.  First, a reminder of the passage itself:  "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

We see that God's Word is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" for the "man of God."  Note the communicative quality of these four actions; these actions are visited upon a person by another person.  In the case of the Bible, of course, the person originating these actions may well be the Holy Spirit, but it is important to establish that people, God's subjects, are called in the Word to carry out these sorts of things as well.  Says Paul to Titus, "But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1), and the word translated "doctrine" is the same is Paul's word for "teaching" in 2 Timothy 3:16.  We all recall, of course, how Paul urged fathers to raise their children "in the discipline and instruction [training, in 2 Tim. 3:17] of the Lord." (Eph. 6:4b)

The import of this line of thought is that we cannot approach 2 Tim. 3:16-17 without understanding that people, God's people, do this teaching and reproof and so forth.  To be sure, the Holy Spirit is behind all such endeavors, and He does work directly from scripture to the believer's soul, but He is also present and active as the preacher preaches, as the brother admonishes, and as the sister encourages, if these actions are founded in God's Word.  If this were not so, there would be no call for spiritual gifts, and no commands in scripture to exercise them. 

Here is the substance of the matter, at long last.  There are those for whom the Word of God is to their hearts like a cloud is to their eyes, whose vaporous form may be regarded as any of a thousand distinct shapes.  To such people as these, scripture may whisper one word of truth to one person, and quite another, perhaps even the opposite, to a different person, and how could we name either as untrue?  Who are we to suggest that this could not be the case?  Do we dare set up ourselves as experts on how God uses His own divine Word? 

Fortunately, we need not be experts at all; we need only read what His Word actually says.  If, as we have discussed, believers are to teach and correct and train one another, and if indeed scripture is useful for all of these purposes (as it has purported itself), then, quite plainly, scripture is universally authoritative.  It does me no good to try to teach my fellow believer from the Bible if he can in turn deftly repudiate my words merely by saying, "Yes, but this is not what the Word means to me!"  It must bear precisely the same significance and meaning for all of us, or else we cannot employ it for any useful purposes with one another, and it becomes, then, nothing but a sad lie.  To take things still further, if we cannot utilize the Bible for useful purposes with one another, then neither can we utilize it for loving purposes!  Consider this for a moment.

There are two key conclusions from the Bible's universal authority. 

First, it shapes our hermeneutics.  I find, all of a sudden, that my own opinions have absolutely no bearing on the meaning of scripture, because I have stopped working to unlock its personalized meaning just for me, myself, and I, and I have begun instead to think about what it means to its divine Author.  There must be some common basis by which all of us might unlock the meaning of scripture, and our quest to find this out tends to evict fanciful intruders from our thinking. 

This is the reason we lean so completely upon such ideas as the literal interpretation of scripture.  While a literal understanding establishes itself on the immovable bedrock of the text, any sort of figurative approach languishes in the mirey muck of human opinions, and so is endlessly debatable.  This is not to suggest that some figurative approaches are not superior to others, or that no portions of scripture are figurative, but we will permit our literal understanding of the Word inform us when it is being figurative.

We also must consider the human authors of scripture - how they used vocabulary and grammar, and how they developed their ideas.  We also examine the original intended audience; what would this letter have meant to them?  We look at the whole of scripture, of which God is the superintending Author; we know it must be in total accord with itself.  Context, language, history, theology - we cannot divorce scripture from these crucial components and expect to come away with a right or complete understanding of God's Word.  Beware, then, of any preaching that pointedly ignores these - many a pastoral hobbyhorse has been ridden across this very terrain, and it is an arid terrain indeed.

Second, it changes our accountability.  I do not maintain that the hermeneutic upheld above clothes us in scholarly invincibility, but this approach makes it clear that we are endeavoring to allow God to speak through His Word, not ourselves.  Thus conviction, but not pride, should be our familiar companion as we hold to our understanding of God's Word:  we believe what we believe with clear reasoning and humbly-sought certainty, but we are ready to unflinchingly amend our understanding if careful study of scripture shows it necessary. 

On one hand, a passionate, assured, humble, literal hermeneutic should help to prevent us from jealously guarding ideological strongholds which the Lord has never even entered.  On the other, as we discuss the things of the Word with those who hold to different hermeneutics (and so maintain very different beliefs), it tends to turn every biblical disgreement into a discussion on how we interpret scripture, which is, of course, the more fundamental issue - the one that must be resolved if certainty and steadfastness are to come. 

The 1-2 Punch of Scriptural Authority - First, Divine Authority

As believers devoted to God's Word, we are not afraid to beat the drums that have been sounded throughout the life of the church.  We know that the truths of scripture are never worn out, exhausted, or depleted by anything, be it time, culture, science, human progress, demonic intrigues, or all such things en masse.  Scripture is just as fresh, urgent, and applicable to our lives as ever it was in ages long past, so we gladly tread the selfsame paths that our fathers have beaten through a hundred generations.

With this in mind, I do not in the least mind sharing a few thoughts that are, if not novel, at least crucial and basic and cherished.  Peter did this very thing in his day, did he not?  Consider 2 Peter 1:12-15.  At any rate, were the truth told, in such a day as this, when we fight off the double envelopment of liberal scholarship and relativistic apathy, these truths may come as novelties - not because they are new, but because they are not heard nearly so often as they once were. 

We will say some words about the authority of scripture, then, using a classic text.  2 Timothy 3:16-17 makes several categorical statements regarding the authority of God's Word:  "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."  I would like at this time to briefly consider the more commonly-celebrated element of scriptural authority here; namely, its divine origin. 

If scripture is inspired by God, or, as the English Standard rightly has it, "breathed out by God," this means of course that its origins lie, incredibly, with a God who cannot be false (Titus 1:2).  Although sinful, finite men lifted their pens and wrote the Bible from their own hearts and minds, yet God superintended its creation with such utter precision and specificity that His flawless character and omnipotent care sponged away any traces of fallibility, such that the end result was a divine revelation without error.  Do we trust this work of grace that we call the Bible as much as its divine origin would demand?  Do we believe its truthfulness in all matters?  Are we glad in our hearts; do we marvel that the Word of God is truly the Word of God? 

And do we obey it as the Word of God?  This is another matter, but one of the first importance.  The Word of God is not one man telling another what to do; nor yet is it an earthly sovereign decreeing laws for his or her subjects.  This is the holy, sovereign Deity, whose anthropomorphic hands encompass all the universe, immovably laying down His commands for the whole of mankind.  He is Creator; He is King; He is Judge - and He did not deliver His book to us as a trifle.  "But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word." (Is. 66:2b; ephasis added)

When Paul therefore makes statements like, "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God" (Rom. 13:1), it is necessary for us to muzzle both the scornful disbelief of modernity and the clamor of excuse in our own hearts.  This statement, along with all of its fellows, did not originate in the mind of Paul; it came first from God Himself.  We find ourselves mocking the divine with our disbelief; indeed, we say, even as the serpent said, "Indeed, has God said...?" (Gen. 3:1) The unchanging and holy Father clothes Himself with an immeasurable glory when He suffers His children to question His Word, even as Adam and Eve questioned it so long ago, without responding to us as He did to our earliest progenitors. 

Patrick Henry once famously said, "Give me liberty or give me death."  We Christians may well say, "Give me scripture, or give me death," for without the divinely-appointed Bible, God is silent.  Salvation is an indiscernible vapor because we do not understand God and His holy character!  How could we ever perceive our need for a Savior without knowing what God expects of us?  How could we discover such a Savior?  We have made many attempts to guess over the years - survey the false religions around us - but our sin-choked hearts assure that this effort amounts to naught but blasphemy.

Gladly, though, God's Word is real and authoratative.  For the one who knows and affirms this, Psalm 119 becomes the glad and perpetual anthem in all seasons of life, for by His Word are we given reverence for God (v. 38), delight in His commandments (v. 47), the pure way of living (v. 9), revival in affliction (v. 50), divine wisdom (v. 24), continual thankfulness (v. 62), illuminating direction (v. 105), hatred of sin (v. 128), worship of God (v. 164), and still far more.  When we understand that God gave the Bible in order to deliver to us a divinely authoratative account of Himself and His glorious character, how wondrous are the results!  This is our lifeline to God, and our only true testimony about Him!  No heart that truly knows this and humbly seeks out the one true God in His Word will be disappointed.

(The series is continued here)

Simple Truth Entreated: The Response of Unbelievers (Part 4 of 5)

Simple Truth Entreated:  The Response of Unbelievers

           

If you are reading this and have not been saved from the just penalty of your sins by Jesus Christ, or if perhaps the force of biblical truth has removed you of all your certainty of your salvation, then do not barricade your heart against the saving truth of the Word  Repentance and surrender to Christ are your only rational recourse.  True, the gospel seeks to invade your sinful heart, to conquer it, and to change it as to make it utterly alien, but you must, you must throw open the gates and let it enter undisputed, or it will kill you someday, and for all eternity.  This gracious offer of the Lord, so real and substantial in this instant, will not endure even a hairsbreadth beyond your own life – what certainty have you beyond this brief moment? 

As Paul implored, “we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20b) We stand to gain nothing in this appeal, excepting joy, whereas you stand to gain “everything pertaining to life and godliness.” (2 Pet. 1:3b) Come; come now, before you draw another breath!  There is no matter of greater importance, nothing of truer urgency, than this matter of the sinful chasm between you and your Creator.  Do not wait for tomorrow when today may yet betray you!  “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31) To die without Christ is to be judged by Christ, without the benefits of His protection or intercession.  He will weigh out your sins, and will justly repay each of them, including the sin of reading this appeal and ignoring it.  You will find yourself consigned to a blind torment beyond the reckoning of art or science, a lonely agony unsatiated by the endless passage of ages.  Surrender all to Christ; admit of your guilt before Him!  Plead His forgiveness, and lay your very life at His kingly feet.

If we urge you in light of His grace, we also charge you on the basis of His sovereignty.  “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30b-31) God not only invites all to repent of their sins; He commands that repentance.  The day of judgment approaches, over which Christ will preside as proven, triumphant Lord, so the command has gone out:  repent now.  God has created this world such that He is Lord over all of it; He sovereignly issues His orders, and it falls to us to obey Him.  Fortunately, He is entirely wise, powerful, and righteous – we need not fear His leading. 

Many objections are commonly made by those who resist the gospel; let us briefly examine but a few:

- Some of you will say, “This is all well and good, but I simply do not believe in God.”  This is merely to say that you believe in yourself, for, as your finite mind cannot account for a God like the One revealed in the Bible, then He clearly must be a fabrication.  So you set yourself up as your own sure authority, and all your life is washed through the filter of your own good opinions.  Do you not see, though, how dangerous this becomes?  An earthworm could hardly conceive of a thinking, feeling, deciding, inventing human being, but this does not render human beings any less real.  Does an annelid’s inability to grasp music or technology make you or I any less real?  Surely not!  Rather, it serves to underscore the vast difference between a worm and a person.  

This vastness looms larger still between us and our God, and we cannot afford to dismiss this reality out of hand simply because it does not reduce to a comfortable human understanding.  In actuality, how disappointing would an entirely comprehensible deity be?  If God were such a one that could be understood completely, He would not be God at all, for this would fully assure us that He was a fabrication of the human mind.  Our inability to fully understand Him should not dissuade us of His reality.

- Some others will say, “Surely; I believe in God, but I cannot believe in your God.”  My friend, my God is the God revealed by the Bible; what better revelation of God and His character would you have?  Your own suppositions?  Another book, perhaps?  When science and archaeology have crushed countless so-called holy books to powder, the Bible stands conspicuously intact, a solitary monument in the midst of so much rubble.  Space does not permit a complete treatment of its enduring character, but I urge you, look into its history.  See how it has been preserved in the face of determined and repeated opposition.  Mark how its truths have not been altered, though it passes through centuries, through languages, and through cultures.  Note how it is the product of dozens of human minds from different eras and different nations, and yet it comes together as a cohesive whole.  You begin to understand that the Bible you hold in your hand is a startling book indeed – it is the revelation of the one true God to humanity, written perfectly by that very God through human agents, and preserved diligently by God against every feeble calamity and opposition that this world could muster.  To understand this book is to see our Creator as He has revealed Himself.

Simple Truth Revisited: The Response of Believers (Part 3 of 5)

Simple Truth Revisited:  The Response of Believers (continued)

3.  Assurance.  This is twofold.  First, our hearts are assured that we are in the faith, if indeed we behold the gospel in all its undimmed truth and do not shrink away or lash out.  If we seek to alter it, to blunt any of its sharp edges, whatever the reason, there is cause for concern.  Are humans not invariably sinners?  Did Christ not endure all of the Father’s punishment for sins?  Perhaps salvation is not pure grace?  Which portion of the Savior’s gospel truth, tell me, dare we adjust?

On the contrary, if we cherish the gospel in its fullness, if we believe that it is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16b), then our lives will evidence this dearly-held belief.   Our pursuit of righteousness, our attitude toward unbelievers, and our service of God’s kingdom and glory all stem from the hardy root of the gospel.  If a love for the gospel is evident in our lives, then assurance will be forthcoming.

Secondly, when we as believers examine the gospel, God’s Word grants us a greater understanding of its precious truths and their far-reaching implications.  Put simply, we are blessed with greater assurance that we believe truth and know truth.  We cannot afford to rely upon an attitude of “I heard this in Sunday school,” or “My favorite pastor says this.”  These words cannot hope to bear the weight of our beliefs amidst the tempests of life, because they hinge more upon human supposition than upon timeless truth.  Only the strength of God’s enduring Word can truly shape our understanding of the gospel and grant us clarity and assurance. 

4.  Purpose.  The gospel not only serves to direct people to God’s life, but it also serves to direct the lives of God’s people.  We have already seen how righteousness is a mandate of the true gospel.  To this, we now add the Great Commission:  “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matt. 28:20a) The gospel and discipleship go hand in hand.  It is gospel truth that frees people and makes them disciples, and it is the righteousness reflected in the gospel that becomes the pursuit of the disciple.  Thus the Great Commission is work that is not content merely to see the lost saved by the gospel; its fuller aim is to see those same people growing in righteousness as active, zealous disciples in whom the gospel continues to grow in their hearts and their priorities. 

Simple compassion for the lost also directs believers to the gospel.  If Christ is, as He Himself proclaimed, the only way of salvation, then we must bring people to Him.  We must display Him and His glory to the unbelieving world.  A common Christian adage is that Christianity is more than knowing facts concerning Jesus – it is about knowing the Savior Himself.  The truth here is healthy and undisputed, but let us take care, lest the axiom sway us too near to a different pole.  People must know the truth about Christ if they are to know Him, and they must know Him if they are to be saved by Him.  This is the substance of statements like Acts 4:12 or John 17:3, and it falls now to the church to disclose the person of Jesus Christ to the world, by imitation of His righteous character, and by proclamation of His saving work.  Is this not the gospel? 

The gospel, then, is not something that Christendom cannot afford to relegate solely to evangelists and new believers.  It is not the life vest that we grab when the plane is hurtling toward the ocean, only to discard once we are safe.  It is our spiritual life’s blood, and every bit as precious to our spiritual health as the blood that courses through our bodies is to our physical health.  Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a believer who could be said to possess too keen a focus upon the gospel, or too complete an obsession on living out its principles and implications.  The idea is impossible.  Sadly, though, it is far, far easier to picture a Christian in whom the gospel does not enjoy the preeminence that so richly becomes it.  An honest Christian sees in the mirror one who could stand to love the gospel yet more, who could wrap his or her life still tighter and more wholly around the gospel, for the glory of the One whom the gospel reveals.   For God’s glory, brothers and sisters, let us strive after this!

“Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel…”

                                          - Paul, from Philippians 1:26-27