Here is a piece of wisdom I heard recently that should transform the way you and I read our Bibles. It was Richard Hays's first point on a talk entitled The Art of Reading Scripture Faithfully:
The Bible is about God.
What's that? It's not primarily about me and my salvation? It's not simply about what's relevant to me? It's not a tool I can use to help me accomplish my purposes?
No sir. As much as I want the Bible to be a book about me, it isn't. The first question I usually ask when I approach a text is, how does this apply to me? Or, what is this text saying about me? Now of course those are pertinent question to ask of any passage of Scripture, and they have their place in Bible reading. But the Bible -- as simple as this sounds -- is about God, and approaching it with that thought front and centre will actually be the key to finding out where we fit in to this dramatic story concerning our Creator. After all, God is the one with the plans and purposes, and more importantly, He is the one with the power to achieve them. Therefore reading Scripture with Him as the subject makes sense practically as well as theologically. Think of an orchestral analogy. If I learn only the parts relevant to me and play them on my own, the piece won't sound very impressive. But if I fall in line with the rest of the orchestra and place the supreme value on the collective (as originally envisioned by the composer and guided by the conductor) rather than my own individual part then the music will sound as it is supposed to sound and I will be caught up in something much more brilliant than I had ever imagined when I sat playing the triangle on my own.
Back to the Bible. This book we have is, among other things, a documentation of various revelations of God throughout history. He is Creator, He is the covenant maker, He is the Redeemer of the people of Israel, He is the Law giver, He is the Judge, He is the Holy King whose glory fills the earth, and definitively, He is the man Jesus. The pages in our Bibles are full of these self-revelations of God; revelations of His character and His purposes. And yet all I want to know is what can God do for me? Well, it should please us self-centred people to know that God can do (and has done) something for us individually. But the scope of the Bible is much bigger than my personal relationship with God (though it certainly incorporates that). The Bible is about God, and His relationship with creation. N.T. Wright makes this simple and yet absolutely crucial point in his book on Justification. We are not the centre, with God orbiting around us. God is at the centre, and our lives revolve around Him.
That's the first step to reading Scripture faithfully. It's about God.
The Bible is about God.
What's that? It's not primarily about me and my salvation? It's not simply about what's relevant to me? It's not a tool I can use to help me accomplish my purposes?
No sir. As much as I want the Bible to be a book about me, it isn't. The first question I usually ask when I approach a text is, how does this apply to me? Or, what is this text saying about me? Now of course those are pertinent question to ask of any passage of Scripture, and they have their place in Bible reading. But the Bible -- as simple as this sounds -- is about God, and approaching it with that thought front and centre will actually be the key to finding out where we fit in to this dramatic story concerning our Creator. After all, God is the one with the plans and purposes, and more importantly, He is the one with the power to achieve them. Therefore reading Scripture with Him as the subject makes sense practically as well as theologically. Think of an orchestral analogy. If I learn only the parts relevant to me and play them on my own, the piece won't sound very impressive. But if I fall in line with the rest of the orchestra and place the supreme value on the collective (as originally envisioned by the composer and guided by the conductor) rather than my own individual part then the music will sound as it is supposed to sound and I will be caught up in something much more brilliant than I had ever imagined when I sat playing the triangle on my own.
Back to the Bible. This book we have is, among other things, a documentation of various revelations of God throughout history. He is Creator, He is the covenant maker, He is the Redeemer of the people of Israel, He is the Law giver, He is the Judge, He is the Holy King whose glory fills the earth, and definitively, He is the man Jesus. The pages in our Bibles are full of these self-revelations of God; revelations of His character and His purposes. And yet all I want to know is what can God do for me? Well, it should please us self-centred people to know that God can do (and has done) something for us individually. But the scope of the Bible is much bigger than my personal relationship with God (though it certainly incorporates that). The Bible is about God, and His relationship with creation. N.T. Wright makes this simple and yet absolutely crucial point in his book on Justification. We are not the centre, with God orbiting around us. God is at the centre, and our lives revolve around Him.
That's the first step to reading Scripture faithfully. It's about God.
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