What Is This Book?
20 minute read
In 345 AD a young man named Augustine was born to a Christian mother and a pagan father. As he grew older, Augustine became a deep-thinker – a philosopher who was always searching for meaning. The problem was that he was searching in the wrong places. Augustine sought to find meaning in his accomplishments on one hand and on wild pleasure-seeking on the other.
While Augustine grew more and more disillusioned and discontent, hi mother prayed persistently that he would turn from his destructive ways and turn to Jesus. One day, in the midst of his despair, Augustine went to a garden in Milan to think. It was there that he heard a child’s voice singing, “Take up and read. Take up and read.”
And that is what he did. He began to read the Bible and found himself in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, Chapter 13 where Paul exhorts his readers to throw off or shed their sinful ways and clothe themselves with Christ. Augustine was pierced to the heart by those words and Paul’s message was a turning point for him.
He ultimately became a Bishop in the church. And to this day, he is considered to be one of the most influential theologians in history.
And then there’s Isabella Baumfree. She was born into slavery in 1897, and though unable to read and write, she heard the Bible read and taught in her Methodist church.
She was captivated by the Bible’s message of truth and justice, and in her twenties, she had a spiritual awakening. She sensed the call of God on her life and changed her name to Sojourner Truth. For the rest of her life, she was a powerful voice for the abolition of slavery and the rights of women using the Scriptures as the foundation of her cause.
Or consider the story of Rosaria Butterfield. She was an English professor at Syracuse University in the 1990’s and she was a vocal and vehement critic of Christianity and of the Bible. A local pastor, Ken Smith, challenged Butterfield to read the Bible before she criticized it, so she did – three times through.
The words of Scripture began to work in her until, as she put it, “…the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I.” Her former beliefs were overwhelmed by the message of the Bible, and she began to write about her passion for sharing the Gospel through “radical, ordinary hospitality.”
And one other story – that of a young man who was a teenager in the late nineties. He had grown up in a Christian home, but like so many other teens had begun to question his faith. He took some wrong turns and floundered for a while but ended up in a Christian college where he played football.
One of the football coaches took an interest in this young man and made a point of sitting by him on the bus on the way to games. The coach would ask where he was reading in the Bible, and the young man knew enough to make up and answer. After a while, he grew tired of lying to the coach, so he began to actually read the Bible.
In the space of two to three months his faith was reignited. He changed his major from business to ministry and ultimately became a pastor with a passion for helping emerging adults find their way on their faith journeys.
I know this story well, because it is my son’s story.
What is this book that has the power to transform lives?
Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and author of the small but profound book, Opening the Bible, said this in reference to a quote by Karl Barth: “When you begin to question the Bible you find that the Bible is also questioning you. When you ask ‘what is this book? You find that you are also implicitly being asked: “Who is this that reads it?’”
[May I suggest you pause and pray before continuing]
It is the best-selling book of all time hitting the best-seller list year after year. The Guinness World Records estimates that over 5 to 7 billion copies of the Bible have been printed and distributed.
It was written by about 40 different authors writing in various locations over a period of around 1500 to 1600 years. And it contains many different genres of literature including history, prophecy, poetry, allegory and narrative.
These are facts about the Bible, but it is so much more than this. Before we delve into the question of what the Bible is though, perhaps we should consider what it is not.
It contains commands from God, but it is not a rulebook. It provides guidance for our lives, but it is not a “manual for life” in the sense that we can’t look up our current issue in the index and find a fix on page 27.
The Bible is also not a textbook, though many western thinkers attempt to treat it as one. As Scott McKnight points out, in the west, we use information from textbooks to pass a test or help us in our careers. In other words, we seek to master the text. But in the case of the Bible, doesn’t it make more sense for the text to master us?
The Bible is also not a collection of sentimental or pithy, wise sayings, though there are plenty of those in the Bible. The entire book of Proverbs, for instance, is made up of short pithy bits of wisdom.
So what is this book?
The author of Hebrews tells us that it’s a scalpel, sharper than a two-edged sword. It can divide “soul and spirit,” “joint and marrow,” and it cuts right down to reveal our deepest thoughts and desires.
James describes the Word of God as a mirror that shows us what a mess we are. We then have the option of either walking away and doing nothing about our messiness or gazing into the mirror of Scripture and doing what God says. James says that in continuously facing the mirror and obeying God we find freedom and we experience God’s blessing.
The Bible is also a window through which we see Jesus. The Anglican Bishop, N.T. Wright says that when the New Testament writers use the phrase, “the Word of God” it is “ultimately shorthand for Jesus the living embodiment of God’s creative and saying ‘Word.’” John, in his Gospel, backs up Wright’s observation when he writes his opening lines:
“In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.”
The phrase, “Word of God,” is not just a synonym for the written Scriptures. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. Jesus is the pinnacle of Scripture – the apex of the Bible. The Old Testament points forward to Jesus and the New Testament points back to him. As one of my favorite preachers, the Rev. Dr. Ray A. Medina, says, “Jesus is the center, the fulfillment, and the final interpreter of Scripture.”
Apart from Jesus we cannot understand the Bible. That’s why I’m such a proponent of spending regular time in the Gospels. They contain the life and ministry of Jesus, and they contain his very words. Consistently reading the Gospels helps us develop a Jesus lens for the rest of Scripture.
The Bible is a scalpel, a mirror and a window, but it is also the epic story of God. It spans the history of the world from creation to fall and curse, to the incarnation and the subsequent death and resurrection of Jesus, it continues all the way to the second coming of Jesus and the ushering in of new creation.
So if the Bible is all of these things, why doesn’t every Jesus follower read it every day?
Well, let’s be honest. The Bible can be confusing and difficult to read. It contains other-worldly scenes in which God draws back the curtain to show us what’s happening in the spiritual realm. And it contains the very thoughts of God which God said (through the prophet Isaiah) are higher than our thoughts.
Often as we read the Bible, we come away with more questions than answers. But then, faith begins with a question. Thomas Merton explains that in our faith journeys we tend to go more from question to question than answer to answer. To put it another way, the more we know about God and the Bible, the more we realize we don’t know.
The Bible can also be disruptive and even downright disturbing. If you’ve never been disturbed while reading Scripture, may I suggest that you aren’t reading it correctly?
It is disturbing in part because it contains a stark, naked account of the failings and errors of humanity. But it is also one of the primary ways God speaks to us, and that is wonderful. But when the Creator of the world speaks a response is required and even demanded. And that can feel disruptive and uncomfortable.
In the words of Thomas Merton: “There is in a word, nothing comfortable about the Bible – until we manage to get so used to it that we make it comfortable for ourselves. But then we are perhaps too used to it and too at home in it. Let us not be too sure we know the Bible just because we have learned not to be astonished at it, just because we have learned not to have problems with it. Have we perhaps learned at the same time not to really pay attention to it?”
If the Bible can be hard to understand and even disturbing at times, why even try to read it?
Moses told said to the Israelites, “These are not idle words for you. They are your life.” The words of Scripture are life to us because they reveal Jesus to us. And Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life.”
We also read the Bible because the Holy Spirit uses Scripture to show us who we really are and who God intends us to be. Consistent time in the Word is essential for knowing ourselves and living a life of meaning and purpose.
Last week we explored John 10 and thought about Jesus as the good shepherd whose sheep recognize his voice. As I said previously, the Bible is one of the primary ways God speaks to us, but if we don’t soak ourselves in Scripture and learn to recognize the voice of Jesus, we aren’t likely to hear all the God has to say to us. It is possible to miss out on God’s direction for our lives, and that is tragic.
How do mere humans approach a book such as this?
First, we simply read it – whether we fully understand it or not. God is able to speak even when we are confused, so we just dive in. And it is a good idea to start with the Gospels so we can develop the “mind of Christ” that has been given to us and develop a Jesus lens for understanding the rest of Scripture.
Without the mind of Christ, we can justify just about anything from the Bible. Wars have been justified. Aggression has been justified, and hatred of those who don’t think or act like we do – all of these have been done “in the name of Jesus.” When we read, especially the Old Testament, without looking through the eyes of Jesus, we can and will misinterpret Scripture. Apart from Jesus, we simply cannot understand the Bible.
So read deep and wide. Immerse yourself in a passage of Scripture and let it soak into you. But also read the whole Bible. If you begin in three places, Genesis, Job and Matthew, you divide the Bible into three, roughly equal sections. And if you spend five minutes a day in each section – a total of fifteen minutes a day – you will finish the entire Bible in about three years.
If you spend twenty minutes a day in each section, depending on how fast you read, you will finish the entire Bible in around 54-75 days. I know this is true because I did it one summer with a group of high school students. For me it was a “whoosh” experience that exposed the narrative arc of Scripture to me in ways I had never seen before.
Read the Bible, and also study it! But be sure you are studying with the right motives. Don’t study Scripture to get smarter or to win an argument or debate. Study to know Jesus more and more. Seek out people who are ahead of you on the journey and learn from them. But don’t just take what others say at face value, be like the Bereans and check it out for yourself.
There are so many tools for studying the Bible right in our pockets. Online you can find Greek interlinear versions of the New Testament, and Hebrew interlinear versions of the Old Testament. These are literal translations. And there are multiple other translations online as well as many, many commentaries that can help you grow in your understanding of Scripture. But remember to be like the Bereans and investigate what others say.
It is also vital to find a Spirit-shaped faith community where you can take advantage of learning experiences. St. Luke’s is a faith community with leaders who soak themselves in Scripture and listen to God on behalf of the community. Never take that for granted. Listen when they bring the message and learn from them.
Read the Bible and then let the Bible read you. Engage in spiritual practices that help the Word get into you rather than just you getting into the Word. Practices like Lectio Divina and spiritual imagination can help us hear God in deeper and fresh ways.
When you begin your time in Scripture each day, start by asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you read. And then when you finish reading, ask yourself two questions: “What do I believe God is saying to me today?” and “What am I going to do about it?”
Just a couple of cautions. First, stay humble. None of us knows all there is to know and our understanding of Scripture will grow and change as God grows and changes us. When we allow the Holy Spirit to shape us through the Scriptures, some of the long-held beliefs we hold dear will be challenged. We will most likely have to do some deconstruction of faulty beliefs, and this can be challenging for us and for those around us.
So secondly, give grace. Accept that people are in different places on their spiritual journeys. Pray that God would continue to enlighten you and them.
The Bible played a major role in my faith journey. When I was first married, my husband and I attended a church that took the Bible seriously and taught it well. We had so many spiritual inputs while we were in that church. But then we moved to the desert, and in many ways the place to which we moved was not only a physical wilderness but a spiritual one. We had a hard time finding a good church and making Christian friends, and I began to feel desperate. I turned to the Bible and started reading it on my own, and then I found Bible Study Fellowship and learned to study the Bible. I also encountered Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God study which was a spiritual fork-in-the-road for so many people of my generation.
I began spending more and more time in Scripture and I learned to recognize when God was speaking to me through the Bible. My faith grew exponentially during that period and ultimately the trajectory of my life was changed.
There was one other element that had a deep impact on me during those years. A woman came to town to share her story and that story has stayed with me ever since. She was a young mom named Margy Palm who attended a spiritual retreat in the late 1970’s. On that retreat she had a profound encounter with Jesus. After returning home to San Antonio, Texas she dove into the Bible. She spent literally hours a week reading Scripture and writing down passages when she sensed God was speaking to her. She kept a notebook of these Scripture passages with her at all times.
In 1981 she was abducted from the parking lot of a retail store by a man who had brutally murdered several other women. During her eight-hour ordeal, she listened to the voice of God that she had come to know so well. She did whatever she sensed the Holy Spirit told her to do sharing Scripture with the man and praying for him. At one point, in response to a prompting from the Holy Spirit (though she had no experience with demon possession) she laid hands on the man’s head and commanded the evil spirits to leave him.
At some point during the day, the man surrendered his life to Jesus. And at the end of eight hours he let her go free, unharmed. She handed him her notebook and left. Later, when law enforcement officers came to arrest him, they found him sitting peacefully reading the Scriptures in her notebook. The man surrendered to them without resistance.
What is this book?
It’s a window that reveals Jesus to us. It’s a scalpel that cuts through to expose our deepest thoughts and desires. It’s a mirror that shows us who we really are and who God intends us to be. It’s the living Word of God that has the power to shape us and transform us.
My hope in writing this is two-fold. If you already have a habit of reading the Bible, I pray that you will receive a new wind of encouragement and a fresh word from God. If for any reason you haven’t developed a practice of reading Scripture, I pray that your appetite has been whetted.
God will speak to you through the Bible if you come with the right motives, and God’s words are creative and generative. In the Bible you will find Jesus. And he will lead you to life.
