“Artist” by Kate Swayze
“We may read many truths in the Bible, but we cannot know them savingly, till God by his Spirit shines upon our soul.” — Thomas Watson
I’ve long been amazed that there exist biblical scholars, those who are supposed to be most “in the know” about what the Bible is and is about, who just don’t get it. How in the world could a Bart Ehrman, world-renowned agnostic professor of New Testament at the University of North Carolina, seem so adept at missing the entire point?
We all do well to remember that the Bible is first and foremost a story. It begins with the creation of heaven and earth, and it ends with “happily ever after,” the final defeat of evil, the restoration of the cosmos, and the marriage of heaven and earth, God and His people living together in peace, joy, and intimate relationship for eternity. We have to enter our reading with that understanding. It is not primarily a recipe book for how we are to behave. It’s certainly not a book that’s there to reinforce our notions of how the world ought to operate.
Here’s my real point: I am ashamed to say that I used to kind of enjoy looking down on people like Bart Ehrman. But the truth is this: I’ve never had his level of knowledge of the Bible, and there’s an excellent chance I never will. And until very recently, I too had what I can only now describe as a wooden relationship with Scripture.
I mean, I got certain parts of it, but the great bulk remained sterile and unmoving. I could, with God’s grace, read John 3:16 and understand that this verse was vitally important. (There’s a reason our Sunday School teachers had us memorize it!) But then I’d read, I don’t know, about God’s leading the Israelites through the desert on their way to the Promised Land, and I’d feel that I was reading a history book about a group of people long ago and far away, unconnected to the life I was living out day to day.
I think that most Christians today way-underestimate the importance of the Holy Spirit. If we mention Him at all, even in a church setting, it’s often uncomfortable, sometimes even weird.
This is ridiculous. The Spirit is a person, a vital member of the Trinity, a person just as the Father and the Son are persons. He’s not this shadowy ghost who’s only incidentally, and on special occasions, involved in the life of the believer.
It wasn’t until the Spirit entered that the words of the Bible came alive.
Think of it this way: You can know all about a particular human being, their name, where they were born, where they grew up. You can read their writings, hear their speeches, be told stories about them. You can see photographs. But you’re still on the outside. And then one day you actually meet them, enter their life. Maybe you start by going to lunch or spending an hour with them around a campfire. Only at that point can you begin to say that you know them.
The Bible was like that for me. I knew a good deal about it. I had dutifully taken the time to read it, took classes in college, participated in Bible studies. I could relay lots of facts about it. But when the person of Holy Spirit came upon me, when I invited Him to my reading, I finally started to know the Bible in a shockingly personal way. This was no longer a book about them: I was in the story. Passages would now almost jump from the page, almost as if the words were illuminated in gold. True meaning arrived.
The next time you sit down with your Bible, start by inviting the Spirit to come, first to clear your mind of anything that prevents you from hearing what God is trying to tell you, and then to open your eyes and ears.
I think you’ll be amazed.