READING THE BIBLE AS (8): Signposts to Christ & the Gospel

In this series of posts we’re exploring the different ways the Bible confronts the reader and the appropriate response to each.

#8 – READING THE BIBLE AS SIGNPOSTS TO CHRIST & THE GOSPEL

I used to read the Bible as a long, strange book of OT stories (e.g., David & Goliath, Noah and the Flood, Daniel in the Lion’s Den) that taught moral lessons but had little to do with the New Testament’s focus on Christ and the Gospel. Yet, we are very mistaken if we believe Christ and the Gospel only enters the story of the Bible in the New Testament. In fact, the entire Old Testament — Law and Prophets — serve as sign posts pointing us forward to the Christ who would come.  The OT is but “types and shadows” (Heb 10:1; 8:5) of the reality that came in Christ “in the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4). 

Jesus himself is the proof of this point.  Jesus said to the religious Bible teachers who knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). This is a radically bold claim by Jesus!  Yes, according to Christ himself, all the OT Scriptures have himself as their ultimate goal.  And, as this incident seems to suggest, some people will read the Bible again and again and somehow miss Jesus who is found penetrating every page. 

Again, Luke tells us the story of the couple on the road who encountered the risen Christ and had their eyes opened to see Jesus penetrating the entire OT:  “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Yes, Jesus showed them how the entire Book was pointing them to himself.  

READING THE BIBLE (7): As Confrontation & Summons

 

In this series of posts we’re exploring the different ways the Bible confronts the reader and the appropriate response to each.

#7 – READING THE BIBLE AS CONFRONTATION & SUMMONS

There is a brand of preaching and Bible reading in vogue today that fosters a “positive thinking” or Reader’s Digest approach to God’s Word.  Basically, many people just want to hear heart-warming sermons that make us feel good about ourselves.  Many read the Bible looking for an inspiring story and a warm fuzzy.  This shouldn’t surprise us in the least.  The Bible itself warns us that “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim 4:3).  Well, the likes of Joel Osteen and other “prosperity preachers” have stadium-sized churches packed each week with people getting their ears tickled.

Yet, God’s Word to us doesn’t always have shiny wrapping and a big red bow attached.  God’s Word isn’t always warm and fuzzy. God’s Word sometimes needs to hit us like a ton of bricks.  Sometimes we need a wake up call or a holy confrontation.  When we open our Bibles we are faced with a library full of holy confrontations and summons — stories that confront a person with God’s command and summons people to new tasks.

READING THE BIBLE (6): As God’s (Crazy) Family Album

In this series of posts we’re exploring the different ways the Bible confronts the reader and the appropriate response to each.

#6 – READING THE BIBLE AS OUR FAMILY ALBUM

Ever look back at your parents’ year books and laugh and gag at how ridiculous they appear? Ever read the embarrassing notes your friends scribbled in the margins of your year book? Acne covered faces, scrawny legs and awful hairdos. Many of us would like to bury or burn ours. Yet they are a part of us. That is our past and those are the people who shared our journey.

The Bible is our family album, the diary of our ancestors, the carefully preserved yearbook of all of our long-lost relatives in the faith. These are the men and women who have gone before us, paving the way, testing the waters, making mistakes that we will hopefully learn from and, most importantly, providing examples of imperfect yet real faith in God. I am so grateful that God didn’t sugarcoat the Bible and airbrush all the players. We find ordinary people — warts and all.

Let’s see: There’s David the murderous adulterer “after God’s own heart.” The dishonest schemer named Jacob. Abraham sends his wife Sarah into Pharaoh’s harem to save his own neck. Moses has a speech problem. Solomon, the “wisest man who ever lived”, had a womanizing problem and lifestyle that would make Hugh Hefner blush. Yet God still used him to pen a lot of wise proverbs.

The prophets are like our crazy, embarrassing uncles from down south who we’re ashamed to claim. You know: Isaiah runs around naked for a couple years. Jeremiah is on prozac in his constant battle with debilitating depression. Ezekiel was cooking up food over a fire of human excrement. Jonah gave God the finger and ended up getting in a big fishing accident…

READING THE BIBLE (5): As Practical Guidebook for Life

In this series of posts we’re exploring the different ways the Bible confronts the reader and the appropriate response to each.

#5 – THE BIBLE AS GOD’S PRACTICAL GUIDEBOOK FOR LIFE

The most popular approach to Scripture in modern-day America is to search it for practical principles for daily living. The Bible is God’s “Handbook for Life”, “Survival Manual”, “Guidebook for Living” or, even more basic, the acronym “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. Well, the Bible certainly does serve this purpose.  Consider the Proverbs for starters:

“Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young” (Prov 1:2-4).

Here we have an entire collection of inspired God-fearing nuggets of practical wisdom to apply to our lives. As we examine the culture around us few would argue with the claim that good old-fashioned wisdom, discipline, and insight are a rare commodity. And who wouldn’t benefit from some fresh pointers on how to “live disciplined and successful lives” and do “what is right, just and fair”?  Such Scriptures speak marvelously to the nitty-gritty details of life — money management, parenting advice, healthy conflict management skills, work ethic and a storehouse of moral guidance and sexual warnings.  As a youth pastor I believe the emerging generation is overstuffed with knowledge and information but lacking the wisdom to rightly filter and apply it to their lives.

Besides the so-called wisdom literature (e.g., Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job) we find much practical teaching and personal exhortation within the Letters to the churches.  The power of Scripture to be one’s guidebook for righteous living is clear in the pastoral epistles: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Tim 3:16).  In this way the Bible provides us with a moral compass, a standard of right and wrong to measure things by.

READING THE BIBLE (4): As God’s Grand Story

In this series of posts we’re exploring the different ways the Bible confronts the reader and the appropriate response to each.

#4 – THE BIBLE AS GOD’S GRAND STORY

The Bible is God’s Grand Story of his dealings within history — the grand metanarrative of creation, fall, redemption and restoration. We are all characters within God’s unfolding plot, playing supporting roles that either further the divine Author’s purposes or rebel against them. As I have often said, our primary posture toward God is one of humble submission to the His goals for his story and an eagerness to find our role within its pages.

Many, however, have disregarded the basic “narrative structure” of the Bible, refusing to read it as story. Clark Pinnock says it well:

“Even though the Bible is basically a storybook, theology has not bothered to orient itself in that way. It has preferred to play intellectual games and to adopt a rational order for itself, with the result that the story remains in the background as a presupposition that does not call the shots. Theology has been enamored by the rationalist ideal on the (dubious) assumption that people are basically rational beings who need to be appealed to with abstract arguments. This is not only untrue in relation to people, it refuses to take seriously the plain fact that in Christianity truth is in the story.”

Not only does this deny the narrative form of the Scriptures, it fails to see that humans all tell ourselves a particular story in order to make sense of our lives and interpret reality.  N. T. Wright argues that stories are a “fundamental characteristic of worldviews”, which he broadly defines as “the basic stuff of human existence, the lens through which the world is seen, the blueprint for how one should live in it, and above all the sense of identity and place which enables human beings to be what they are.”

As John Eldredge notes in his small book Epic,

“Life doesn’t come to us like a math problem. It comes to us the way a story does, scene by scene… Each day has a beginning and an end. There are all sorts of characters, all sorts of settings. A year goes by like a chapter from a novel. Sometimes it feels like a tragedy. Sometimes like a comedy. Most of it feels like a soap opera. Whatever happens, it’s a story through and through.”

Yes, we are all living our lives within some controlling story — whether we are conscious of it or not.  

READING THE BIBLE (3): As the Revelation of God’s Majesty

 

Isaiah in the Temple (Isaiah 6)

In this series of posts we’re exploring the different ways the Bible confronts the reader and the appropriate response to each.

#3 – THE BIBLE AS REVELATION OF GOD’S MAJESTY

Christians often take the mind-blowing fact of God’s self-revelation for granted. Our faith stands or falls on the foundational belief that God has stooped to reveal himself to his creatures through the limited mode of human language and speech. The Scriptures are the very Word of the God who spoke and the entire cosmos came into being.

How can this stunning belief not continuously leave us with jaws dropped and hearts gripped? And the more we read what God has revealed in Holy Scripture, the more we realize that God does not desire to be hidden from his creatures. His majesty and glory are intended to be beheld by those who are “pure in heart.” His divine attributes are on display in lofty psalms of praise, vivid theophanies that shake the earth and strike people dead, poetic descriptions of God’s creative handiwork, God’s mighty power and mercy revealed in his salvation acts on behalf of his people.

When the reader encounters the Holy God at Sinai, coming down in thick cloud accompanied by fire and thunder, the reader should be struck with holy, paralyzing fear and awe. Likewise, when we read of Isaiah’s encounter with God in the temple (Isaiah 6) the appropriate response is to, like Isaiah himself, stand speechless and overwhelmed by our own sin in the presence of such a holy God. When Scripture paints a picture of God’s train filling the temple, high and lifted up, we ought to join the Angels in crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3).

READING THE BIBLE (1): As Divine Encounter

I want to repost a series exploring the many different ways the Bible intends to speak to us. Depending on the genre or book, style or authorial intent, the reader should be mindful of what response is most appropriate for the particular message at hand.  Not all scripture is designed to evoke the same response. For example, some portions of scripture display God’s glory and majesty (e.g., Isaiah 6; Job 38-39) where the proper response is worship and adoration; while other scriptures (e.g., Proverbs, Epistles) provide practical advice for godly living where the appropriate response is personal application, and so on. Let’s get started.

#1 – THE BIBLE AS DIVINE ENCOUNTER

There is a significance difference between examining God’s written Word on the one hand and having a personal encounter with the Living God through our reading of His Word on the other. It’s the difference between going through an old shoebox full of love letters from your spouse and sitting across the table with them for dinner and intimate conversation. We should be carefully how we approach the Holy Scriptures. When we treat the Bible only as an object to be examined, analyzed, probed, mastered, digested or applied to our lives, we have to some degree placed God’s Word under our control. If we’re not careful, the Word that is said to be “living and active” can become for us merely lifeless ink on a page.

I believe it is a good and healthy practice to approach our reading of Scriptures with the same holy reverence and personal respect we would approach a face-to-face conversation with the Living God himself. We should prayerfully invite and expect God’s real, spiritual presence to show up in power as we meditate on his Word and seek counsel from Him therein.  The real, active presence of God’s Spirit at work in our reading of the text is traditionally called “illumination.”

How does viewing the Bible as Divine Encounter change our approach to reading and studying the Scriptures?