Honest Questions - #10

Before I put my copy of Inspiration and Incarnation to one side, I wanted to give this series a little personal touch. So far I’ve attempted to present Enns’s material in as impartial a light as possible, not trying to sway the reader one way or the other. Besides, Enns’s provocative proposals speak for themselves really, so they don’t need me and my couple of cents getting in the way. But get in the way I shall.

I’m sure it’s obvious already, but I found Inspiration extremely helpful. And not helpful in the sense of strengthening my own assumptions about the Bible, but helpful because it tore down some of those assumptions and built up some sturdier ones. My conviction that the Bible is God’s word has not deteriorated; quite the opposite in fact. But what I mean when I give Scripture this most esteemed title has surely changed, and changed in a positive, healthy way - in a way that “fits” with how Scripture itself behaves.

Like many people, I’ve often thought of the Bible as a collection of “timeless truths” dropped down from heaven which are to be understood (and agreed with) upon careful interpretation and spiritual guidance. As for the stories in Genesis, I’ve read them as if they were originally written for the modern reader, all the while making the outlandish (though unsaid) assumption that someone like Abraham thought like a 21st century man.

Enns’s book has opened my eyes to just how, well, silly that kind assumption is. Why should I expect God to talk to Abraham not as a Babylonian steeped in the culture of his day, but as a modern scientist? It’s absurd, and yet debates about creation rage on, predicated on this feeble assumption made by both sides, liberal and conservative alike.

Also, in thinking about the creation accounts from a purely “modern” perspective, I’ve actually missed the force of what was going on back when Genesis 1 and 2 were articulated - YHWH was implicitly claiming that these other rival creation stories did not tell the real story -- the true metanarrative for the world, if you like -- and more importantly, the gods contained within were not worthy to be worshipped. The god of Abraham was basically saying “I am the creator, and it was simply my good desire that brought about all that you see. This is the starting point.” He drove His point home by taking the stories Abraham grew up with and transforming them into reasons why YHWH alone should be loved and worshipped. This is the power of story, as potent today as it was back then.

None of this proves that Scripture is God’s word of course, but it does show us that God’s word to us comes in ways that we can understand. He condescends to our forms of communication, and speaks words that mean something here and now to particular people. His adoption of our limitations is not beneath Him, but rather an example of His great love for us.

Undergirding all of what Enns writes is the Incarnational Model. As Jesus is both divine and human, so is the Bible. Strangely enough, the church in general has had little problem articulating the deity of Jesus; it’s his humanity that gives us the most headaches. Jesus was hungry? Jesus was thirsty? Jesus didn’t know the answer to certain questions? Jesus was a carpenter? Jesus died? We don’t quite now if/how we should embrace these things, because they appear to us so un-Godlike.

The human marks of the Bible can be similarly problematic. Would God really speak through a category of literature we know as “myth”? Would He really adopt the cultural limitations of the day? The answer affirmed by the Incarnation is “Yes and amen”. The human way of life is not beneath the creator, for it is He who created it and said that it was “very good”. Not only should this transform our understanding of Scripture, it should also deeply humble us and stir up thankfulness in our hearts.

Inspiration and Incarnation is a challenging read, both for those with a high view of Scripture and for those with a low view. It doesn’t try and find a place for us to rest somewhere in the middle, but instead tries to find fresh ways of thinking about what it means for the Bible to be God’s word. When it comes to Scripture, we can’t affirm anything much greater than that it is the word of God, therefore all of this is extremely relevant to the average person who engages in Bible reading. The way we read this most popular of books is partly based on our understanding of the term “word of God”. Enns paints a picture of this term that is linked with the eternal Word, Jesus, which is helpful in answering our honest questions, and which ultimately leads to a clearer portrait of the God of the word; the God who descends.