“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NIV)
Reading the Bible as if it really were the actual words from God is different—monumentally different—from reading even a piece of Christian theology written by an orthodox Christian author.
When I read the Bible I don’t read it intending to decide whether or not it’s trustworthy or true in what it says—I take that fact for granted. However, when I read a piece of Christian theology by a respected and orthodox Christian writer I do intend to decide whether or not what he’s saying is trustworthy or true. In the opposite sense, I take it for granted that even my favorite Christian teacher can be mistaken.
Not so with the Bible.
I come to the Bible already settled that the words contained therein are all helpful and beneficial to me—the whole of it trustworthy and true because it’s Author is trustworthy and true. This rock-solid, planted in cement with guards posted, settled fact, does not mean I don’t interact with the text by asking questions, thinking about where it came from, and wondering how to make application.
In particularly difficult passages of Scripture I may even find myself wondering how this or that statement could possibly be true. It’s important to note, however, that this wonder about the truthfulness of Scripture is not the same wonder I may have about something Calvin or Augustine or Aquinas wrote. When I wonder about the truthfulness of a particular passage of Scripture my wonder is one that assumes that I’ve not fully understood what’s being said. I take it for granted that the deficiency lies with me; not with the words given by God. When I wonder about something Aquinas wrote, my wonder is one that questions 1) if I’ve understood him correctly and 2) if I agree. I may absolutely understand something that Aquinas wrote about sin, for instance, and yet, at the same time, disagree with what I’ve absolutely understood.
Not so with the Bible.
If I’m convinced that I’ve correctly understood even a difficult passage of Scripture, I may wonder how this could be true but (by God’s grace alone) I won’t come to the conclusion that I disagree with what Matthew or John (i.e. God) wrote.
I write this not because I want us all to be robotic in our rational processing of Scripture.
On the contrary.
I write this because I want us all to be sold-out in our earnest and wholehearted pursuit of what God has said in his written word. I want us to be reading and thinking through it as hard as we can, not allowing any of it to simply pass us by because it seems too strange or too difficult to understand. I want us all to be ready and willing to submit to the trustworthiness and truthfulness of God’s word not simply because someone somewhere (like me) told us it was from him and for us, but because we’ve put in the time to get to know this God by doing business with the Bible.
I want us to read the word of God in order know the God who spoke those words into existence.