The Word

That most people find the Bible hard; if not impossible, to understand cannot be denied. Testimony to these difficulties  is too full and too widespread to be dismissed. As a teacher of His Word, this lack of understanding, aside from outright unbelief or hostility, is the most common problem I confront. Many would tell you that there are many reasons and complex answers for this; I respectfully disagree; I believe that most folks find the Bible difficult simply because they have no real relationship with its Author.

The Word of God is not addressed to just anybody. Its message is directed to a chosen few. These few are chosen by God in a sovereign act of election; they were known by God from everlasting to everlasting; and have known Him before they knew life in this world of darkness, ruled by time.  But whatever may have taken place in eternity, it is obvious what happens in time: some believe and some do not; some are  receptive and some are not; some have spiritual capacity and some have not. It is to those who do and are and have that the Bible is addressed. Those who do not and are not and have not will read it in vain -- in the words of our Lord; even the little they have shall be taken from them.

Right here, I know that some listeners will either turn me off, or enter  strenuous objections, and for reasons that are clear to see in every church across the land. Christianity, or more to the point. churchianity, today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is expected to wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims of men. The image of God currently popular is that of a feeble, distracted Father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Saviour in whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest. To persuade these self-sufficient souls to respond to His generous offers God will do almost anything, even using mass marketing and high tech video with contemporary music, while  talking down, and watering down His message to the lowest common denominator imaginable.  This view of things while it often uses flattering and sometimes lovey-dovey terms in praise of God, manages nevertheless to make man, a man other than Yeshua, our risen Lord, the star of the show. Just take a look at any of these mega-churches, or their rock star pastors --- case closed!

The notion that the Bible is addressed to everybody has wrought confusion within and without the body of Christ. The effort to apply the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount to the unregenerate masses of the world is but one example of this. Courts of law and the military powers of the earth are urged to follow the teachings of Christ, an obviously impossible thing for them to do. To quote the words of Christ as guides for policemen, judges and generals is to misunderstand those words completely and to reveal a total lack of understanding of the purposes of divine revelation. The life giving words of Christ are for the sons and daughters of grace, who will receive that life, not for those who merely seek a momentary diversion while leading a life dedicated to chasing and whoring around with the dragon; neither are they given to hostile nations or groups whose chosen symbols are a lion, an eagle, a bear, a crescent, a star, a compass, or the virgin.

Not only does God address His words of truth to those who are able to receive them, He actually conceals their meaning from those who are not. The preacher uses stories to make truth clear; our Lord often used them to obscure it. The parables of Christ were the exact opposite of the modern "illustration," which is meant to give light; the parables were "dark sayings" and Christ asserted that He sometimes used them so that His disciples could understand and His enemies could not. As the pillar of fire gave light to Israel but was cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, so our Lord's words shine in the hearts of His people but leave the self-confident unbeliever in the obscurity of spiritual midnight.

The  power of the Word is reserved for those for whom it is intended. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. The impenitent heart will find the Bible but a skeleton of words without flesh or life or breath. Stephen King, Shakespeare, or Louis La More may be enjoyed without either belief or penitence; we may understand Einstein, Plato, or Stephen Hawking without knowing anything about these men, or truly believing anything they say; but knowledge, penitence, and belief, along with faith and obedience are absolutely essential to a right understanding of the Scriptures. This is why God's Word will always be a mystery to the natural man; for you see, he has turned God's promises upside down, and therefore can see only distortion and delusion. In the world of the natural man, faith follows evidence and is impossible without it, but in the realm of the spirit, the language of His Living Word, faith precedes understanding; it does not follow it. The natural man must know in order to believe; the spiritual man  believes in order to know. We are of a different order. The faith that restores and renews is not a conclusion drawn from evidence; it is a heavenly thing, a thing of the spirit, a supernatural impartation and infusion, not only of belief and confidence, but also of knowledge of Him and a burning desire for His communion, deep within our hearts.

This is what makes us different, we see because it is placed within us to see, we understand, because He is within us, and we know Him. This faith, which is the only key to any effective understanding, reposes in Him; and it comes to us only when He resides within us. To rightly understand the Word is a supernatural act of God, just as much as were Christ's miracles, and His resurrection. These are impossible acts to the natural man; and explain why the things of God will always be a mystery to him.

The simple truth is that without the grace of God; that natural man cannot understand because it was not given to him to understand -- he has chosen darkness, and darkness will be his lot.