At the beginning of my freshman year at the University of Georgia, I had determined to be God’s guy. Reading the Bible daily, I thought, was the key to getting me to that goal. The first morning of my college career I picked up my Bible and started reading the Gospel according to Matthew. I read four chapters that day, and four the next, and so on for several months.
I have to confess. I didn’t get very much out of what I was reading. If someone asked, I could tell them the chapters I read, for example, Matthew 9 – 12, but I couldn’t speak with understanding about the content of what I read. Honestly, it was nothing more than words on a page. But why? What was I missing?
It was four years before the answer came. When it did, the Bible came to life. Here is what I learned and what I am continuing to learn.
- The Bible is about Jesus; it is God’s testimony concerning His Son. Jesus put it this way: “These are the Scriptures that testify about Me” (John 5:39). We are to read the Bible to know Jesus and discover all that He has done for us. That is what I missed. I was reading to ascertain the rules and regulations I was to live by in order to be God’s guy. For some reason I was trying to make the Bible about me. But the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, points us to Jesus. The Bible is His story, and when we read it with that understanding, we grow in our knowledge of Him.
- God’s Spirit teaches us the meaning of the Bible. We cannot figure out the mind of God through human intellect, logic or reason. Our finite minds are not capable of such an enormous undertaking. Paul made this point to the Corinthians: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”– 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV). God wants us to know what He has prepared for us. He never intended for His love and grace to be unlocked mysteries. He sent His Spirit to us so that we can understand what He has “freely given us.” Apart from God’s Spirit, we cannot comprehend the meaning of the Scriptures. When reading the Word of God, do so with a dependent attitude, a teachable spirit, trusting God’s spirit to open your heart and mind to the meaning.
- The Spirit of God reveals the meaning of the Bible to us through the lens of the New Covenant. As believers in Jesus, we live in the New Covenant, not the Old. Trying to blend the purposes of these two covenants leads to great confusion. Everything in the Old Covenant was written to point us to the New. The Old consists of shadows and types and examples. In the New Covenant, we see and experience the realities of all that God has for us in Christ. Those days in college, I approached the Bible with an Old Covenant mindset. I was looking for rules, regulations and commandments. I was reading the Bible with a veil over my eyes and I missed Jesus. Seeing the Bible through the New Covenant lifts the veil and enables us to see the glory of God in the face of Christ.
The Bible is unique among all other books. It contains the very words of God, and specifically His word, or testimony, concerning His Son. God wants us to know Jesus and to share His life. The next time you open the Bible, do so knowing that God’s Spirit will take the message of Jesus and make Him real in your heart.
Without the Spirit of God, I could never have understood that the reason that the Word of God is living, (Hebrews 4:12), is because the Word of God is Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1 “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us….” John 1:14
“The Word of God is truth” John 17:17 Jesus is the Word of God and Jesus is truth. These are the truths that set men free, free from condemnation free from the law of sin and death, free from slavery to sin.
“I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me;and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.” John 13;20
So accept the Word of God, believe God’s testimony about his son and be saved.
Good words William. When the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.
Good morning William. I was going to quote John 1:1 myself in response to reading Bob’s “How the Bible Comes to Life”.
The Word = Jesus. Full stop. Strange that so much of the Christian world is missing the point! Thankfully the straight-talk of People to People has assisted me to get it right.
Unfortunately I have yet to find a ministry around here that gets it. Sometimes you think you are listening to someone who seems to understand, and they have been reading the Bible for decades, and then they say something asinine like, “We must tithe”, or “We must keep short accounts with God.”
These statements clang like a bell dropped from the belfry in my opinion. I cannot stand to be relegated to the pew having to listen to such error.
What an affront to the Word! Jesus is not wanting us to be stopping to count out 10 cents every time we see a dollar in our wallet, he wants me! All of me! He doesn’t want me wasting time looking backward beating myself up everyday, He wants me joyfully moving forward every moment loving Him and loving others. That is how the Bible comes to life.
Everyone please listen to today’s “A Closer Look at the New Covenant” radio segment 29 with Bob George and Bob Davis. Our purpose is to share the one Word, the name Jesus. Point out, as Bob Christopher so succinctly described the other day, the “hinge” between the old and new – namely the “death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Point them back to the Bible, God’s testimony concerning His Son, to meet Jesus.
Our purpose is fulfilled where we are. I don’t have to be standing on a podium to do it. Proclaim the Word in whatever trench you find yourself in. What great meaning my life has now.
Well said Myles. I understand your frustration of not being able to find a ministry that gets it, but the reality is, you need only to look in a mirror to find that ministry. God has made you competent as a minister of the New Covenant. You are competent because you know Jesus and the One that sent Him.
There is plenty of opportunity to serve God by speaking truth because of all the error being taught. God tells us that the word is useful for teaching and correcting, but how can you correct unless someone reveals their error. So, when it comes down to it, the only time you really can correct someone is when your are meeting with those that are in error.
Thank God for your faithfulness.
Now that’s a neat thought, William. Like Myles, I’ve never found a ministry around here that teaches straight New Covenant. It’s usually “Law + Grace”… same old same old like most other people have found. I never thought about the ministry being no further away than myself. In other words, bloom where we’re planted? I’ve got some friends I’ve met at various Classic Christianity Conferences that we meet up on Skype on Sunday mornings before church to have Bible Study–each one also not having a home assembly to be a part of. God takes us where we’re at, and equips us for His good work.
The Holy Spirit came alive to me when I was about 35. Before then, my story was much like Bob’s. Totally sincere, but totally lacking ‘something’. When we come to realize the Holy Spirit is living in us, it’s as if someone re-wrote the Bible while we were asleep! Totally cool.
The internet provides wonderful ways to share God’s testimony concerning His Son. Post on Facebook, tweet on twitter, add info to Google+. We have so many wonderful and simple to use tools available to us. For example, this conversation stream could be shared with just the click of a button.
Thanks for sharing this. I will forward it to my facebook page, so people can get a very good insight on this.
I relate to the Bible coming alive. Jesus said you must be born again and that is where it came alive to me. I was a Catholic and a priest gave me it as a penance to read the bible for 15 minutes every evening for a month. I think he knew something. If you do something for 3 weeks, it becomes a habit and it continued for me, but I tried to humanize it. I knew the story, so to speak, but it only came alive when I did. When life came to my dead spirit, It felt like I was walking with the narrative with Jesus. It came alive to me and I couldn’t put the bible down. I carried one with me everywhere and read it every spare minute. I learned that the dynamic of the christian life was being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. I to have had my share of Religion but have a fellowship that is, in my opinion, closely allied with People to People. My own conversion was dynamic and included miracles, and spiritual experiences, and I probably needed those to break through to my pragmatic mind. I wouldn’t trade my conversion for anything, but I wouldn’t want it, nor think it necessary for anyone else. But if Christ is alive, which He is, we can certainly expect to see miracles today. My testimony would curl you hair, so when some say miracles are not for today, for me, your too late. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.