The Biblical conviction: In and through words spoken (subsequently written in the Bible) to and by the prophets and apostles and supremely by Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, God has spoken, using language to tell people things (revelation).
God’s word spoken by direct self-disclosure to individuals in history – to Abraham, Mose, Peter, Paul, and others – was directly authoritative to their own belief and behaviour. They believe what He has told them and know it to be true because God does not lie and He is a God of truth.
Similarly the same authority is attached to all that God prompted His chosen spokesmen – prophets, wisdom writers, poets, apostles and Jesus Christ Himself – to declare orally to others in His name. Their authority is primarily and fundamentally the authority of the God whose truth they were relaying in the verbal form to which He Himself had led them
Verbal inspiration conferred direct divine authority on the words spoken by God’s messengers, requiring their hearers to receive what they heard as from God Himself. The same authority belongs to what they wrote, in the books that now constitute the Bible.
What God says to man and does for man in the present is no more than a particular application of what He said to the world and did for the world once for all through the man Christ Jesus. It is God, speaking in Christ, and God’s word spoken through Christ, that is ultimately authoritative. So when we listen to the word preached, or study the word in the Scripture, we must appreciate that it is God speaking to us to help us grow in our faith and to do His will in our lives. It is paramount therefore that we carefully evaluate whether what we hear or read are indeed the true words of God Himself and not the interpretation of man. Hence the stress on proper exegesis, understanding the context, appreciating what was intended by the writer in Scripture in his communication. The Holy Spirit is the One who illuminates the Scripture; there is no place for not asking for His help and enabling in understanding, and certainly there ought to be the doing of God’s Word and not just the hearing of it.
When we receive clearly the spoken and written communication of God through His appointed individuals, we must not dismiss them lightly. The Word of God is a light to our feet and a light to our path – it will keep us from straying from the narrow way.
Jesus in John Gospel said that He is the good Shepherd and His sheep listen to His voice and acknowledge it. They would not listen to the words of false shepherds. He, the good Shepherd, knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him. This reminds us of Matthew 7 when Jesus told those who claimed association with Him and activities done in His name to depart from Him, for He does not know them – instead they were to go to their real master, the devil.
It is the reverent listening to His Word, disciplined and diligent study of the Scripture that contribute to us knowing Jesus and Jesus knowing us, i.e. the fostering and nurturing of our relationship with the Master. Then the practical application of the Word, first received in our minds, then reaching to our hearts, and finally being exercised in our will and choice that is so very important is our growth to maturity in the Lord.
THEOLOGY AND THE WORD OF GOD
Some believers today do not see the need for theology (study and knowledge of God); in fact, theologians are called to see that God’s pure truth flows abundantly where it is needed, and their task is to filter out ‘pollution’ and wrong doctrines which will damage the spiritual health of Chrisians and the church.
On the other hand, theology today has become simply the voicing and discussing of any and every notion about God and religion -good and bad, old and new, familiar and strange, true and false and many theological institutions intend to keep it that way.
Moreover, many theological institutions have employed teachers who operate on the assumption that the students’ learning is best served by challenging whatever Bible-based certainties in the classroom. This has a negative effect of impoverishing churches which need to hear their preachers (who graduate from such institutions) preaching and teaching certainties rather than doubts.
We need to return to the word of God in the Bible.
The quantity of theological notions in one’s mind, even correct notions, does not say anything about one’s relationship with God. The fact that one knows a lot of theology does not mean that one’s relationship with God is right or is going to be right. There is a great difference between knowing notions, even true notions, and knowing God.
So here we have the dilemma facing the church: we need to help Christians to understand and appreciate sound and correct doctrines (theology), but we may end up having graduates from theological institutions called to minister in the churches more interested in dwelling on further intellectual pursuits rather than ministering in helping believers to grow to know God, as they grow in their assimilation of the truths of the Bible. The other concern is how much time is helpful in helping church members to study the Bible and what amount of time is needful to ‘educate’ members on the sound doctrines of the church (which include the appreciation of church history and the evolving and ‘battle’ for truth in theological doctrines in the history of the church).
As we pursue the study of sound doctrines and growing accurate knowledge of God’s revelation in the BIble, it is helpful to remind ourselves that God is great, transcendent, and that He loves us and desires to help us grow into the likeness of His Son. We need to continue to remind ourselves that we are the original sinners saved by grace, and we are still righteous sinners, who, if we do not keep in touch with God, and with Christ, and look to the Holy Spirit to guide and teach us, can go far wrong and astray in our Christian life.
DOCTRINAL FALLACIES AND SUBJECTIVISM
We are all inclined to subjectivism in our theology. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and the God-centred approach which the Bible makes to problems of life and thought is in the highest degree unnatural to the minds of sinful and self-centred men. This is perhaps one of the main reasons why God’s people and the church has been led ‘astray’ even by sincere men who are generally positive in their desires to lead with theology consistent with God’s revelation in the Scripture and through the Holy Spirit.
It is entirely natural for sinners to think of themselves as wise,not by reason of divine teaching but through the independent exercise of their own judgment, and to justify their fancied wisdom by adjusting what the Bible teaches to what they have already imbibed from other sources (including their own ponderings and readings). Professed reinstatements of the faith in modern terms often prove to be revisions of the faith to make a square with popular intellectual fashions.
This process of assimilating God’s revealed truth to the current religious and philosophical opinions of men is the essence of the speculative method in theology which Scripture repudiates and rejects. Note that this we all constantly do, more or less; for sin is present with all of us (even with believers and we are all righteous sinners and not perfect saints). As usual with sinful habits of mind, we are largely unconscious of our lapses, and become aware of them only as we test ourselves by Scripture and as God to search our minds and teach us to criticise our own thinking. This is a discipline that none may shirk; unfortunately, many with such lapses have comparatively ‘good minds’ and, coupled with their charisma and ‘idolised personalities, they tend not to be open to criticising their own thinking and ideas. With the devil in the background, and the ‘unshakable’ pride and lack of humility present and growing, such ones continue in not only advocating their theology, but also affecting others who are unfortunately easily swayed by ‘every wind of doctrine’, especially if they come from those whom they admire (and have the ability to argue their cases convincingly).
NO SYNTHESIS BETWEEN THE GOSPEL AND NON-CHRISTIAN SYSTEMS IS PERMISSIBLE. The gospel is complete in itself; to supplement it with extraneous ideas is not to enrich it, but to pervert it. Depending on the degree of departure from the gospel, the judgment from God against such ones (as well as those who follow them) may be rather severe and serious, even though they may have elements of truth in their theology.
In our study of Galatians, we will recall apostle Paul standing up to apostle Peter who withdrew from eating with the Gentile believers when certain Judaizers came along. Paul opposed communicating a gospel-plus gospel where circumcision is additionally required for converts to be saved. Paul even used a very strong term “Anathema” toward those who preach a gospel that is different from the authentic biblical gospel.
A helpful book to read is ‘Exegetical Fallacies” by D.A, Carson ( a Biblical scholar well versed in the Greek and Hebrew language). The Greek language is not an easy language to master. Carson wrote on Word-study Fallacies, Grammatical Fallacies, Historical Fallacies and more.
In his conclusion, Carson wrote that a little self-doubt will do no harm and may do a great deal of good (particularly when preachers allude to Greek words and grammar to support their doctrines even though they are doing it wrong). But too much will shackle and stifle us with deep insecurities so much so that we may overlook truth itself.
Hence, his closing words: we will not go astray if we approach the BIble with a humble mind and then resolve to focus on central truths (1 Tim. 2:15).
DOCTRINAL FALLACIES – WHY SO RAMPANT?
Whence comes the impulse to trust and follow the leading of human reasons in religion, rather than be content simply to take God’s word for things? Whence comes the impulse to exalt reason over revelation, and the sense of outrage which is so often felt when the authority of reason in religion is challenged? The answer is invariably: this spirit springs from sin ( exacerbated by the manipulations and activities of the evil one).
This negative impulse to believe something other than what God had said is an expression of the craving to be independent of God, which is the essence of sin. Pride (in tandem with sin) prompts fallen mankind to go about, not merely to establish their own righteousness, but also to manufacture their own wisdom. We want to be intellectually autonomous (independent), intellectually self-made men and women.
“For the desires of the flesh act against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh” (Galatians 517).
God in redemption finds us all more or less disintegrated personalities. Disintegration and loss of rational control are aspects of our sinful and fallen state. Trying to play God to ourselves, we are largely out of control of ourselves and also out of touch with ourselves, or at least with a great deal of ourselves, including most of what is central to our real selves.
God’s gracious purpose, we know, is tobring us into a reconciled relationship with himself through Christ, and through the outworking of that relationship to reintegrate us and make us whole beings again.
This “wonderful exchange” whereby Christ was made sin for us and we in consequence are made the righteousness of God in him explains the redemption and atonement secured by Christ in his love for us and the Father (2 Corin. 5:21). However the work of sanctification is not a work of a moment. Rather, it is a lifelong process of growth and transformation; not until then shall we know all that is now shrouded in the mysterious reality of the “unconscious,” or know the end of the split-self dimension of Christian experience – reactions and responses which apostle Paul diagnoses as the continuing energy of “sin that dwells within me” (Rom. 7:20), dethroned but not destroyed (doomed to die but not dead yet). But the indwelling Holy Spirit abides and works in us to lead us toward the appointed goal, and he deals with each one’s broken and distorted humanity as he finds it;
However, we as believers can still reject the work of the Spirit within us and we can grieve Him over and over again (the essence of walking in the flesh as contrasted with walking in the Spirit). We are still righteous sinners; in seeking to exalt ourselves, we seek to put up ‘theology’ and teachings which border on doctrinal fallacies, and with the urgings of the devil, we end up hurting God’s people and going against the kingdom of God in Christ.
PUTTING TO DEATH THE MISDEEDS OF THE BODY
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24)
In the above verse, the ‘flesh’ refers to the earthly part of man. It has its “lusts” and its “desires” (Eph. 2:3). If a man concentrates on these he may be said to “mind the things of the flesh” (Rom. 8:5). And the mind of the flesh ‘is death’ *Rom. 8:6) – it is ‘enmity against God’.The man whose horizon is limited by the flesh is by that very fact opposed to God. In Galatians, Paul wrote that if we live by the Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
In fact, “by the Spirit…put to death the misdeeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13) – it is a matter of negating, wishing dead, and labouring to thwart the inclinations, cravings, and habits that have been in us for a long time. It is “killing our sins” (mortifying our sins). Pain and grief, moans and groans, will certainly be involved, for our sin does not want to die, nor will it enjoy the killing process.
Jesus told us vividly that mortifying a sin could well feel like plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand or foot – in other words, self-mutilation. You will feel you are saying good-bye to something so much a part of you that without it you cannot live.
This exercise of putting to death the misdeeds of the body, however painful, is necessary for life; we must learn to starve those urges and run to our Lord and cry for help, asking him to deepen our sense of his holy presence and redeeming love, to give us the strength to say no to that which can only displease him. It is the indwelling Spirit who moves us to act this way, and who actually drains the life out of the sins we starve. The indwelling Spirit helps us to deal with our indwelling sin; but we have to hearken to the Spirit and respond to his promptings, urgings and enabling to do what pleases God.
Why the detailed description of this process of mortification? Our path to holiness and our transformation into the image of our Master must involve this painful, agonising and prolonged ‘battle’. Our oneness with the Lord and with one another also has to involve this process. The habits of self indulgence, spiritual idolatry, and abuse of others can and must be broken.
In the parable of the sower, the Lord spoke of the seed that fell among thorns -this stands for those who hear the Word, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. Perhaps putting this in modern terms may be helpful for us to grasp the application to ourselves today: life’s worries include personal worries about children, mortgage payments, health, career advancement, or enhanced reputation in the world. ‘Riches’ and ‘pleasures’ may refer to distractions of entertainment, endless holidays in retirement, or ‘experiences of a lifetime’ like fulfilling our ‘bucket list’.
In recent days, I have been interacting with many Christian patients who are actually being ‘choked by thorns’, they are choked by worries and concerns of this life – some may appear insignificant like worrying about their families, their children, their health etc but in fact, they are part and parcel of being ‘choked’ without us realising that they are ‘killing’ our walk with God, our joy and peace in Him. The burden: if all these are actually distracting us and diluting our focus on God and our service unto Him, then there is no way we can ‘overcome’ when the real storms of life and spiritual pressures from the evil one come around. Surely, we cannot talk about holiness in God and overcoming in the midst of spiritual warfare in the final hours!!
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HOLY SCRIPTURE (B)
God’s wisdom is something no eye has seen (it is invisible), no ear has heard (it is inaudible), and no mind has conceived (it is inconceivable). It is altogether beyond the reach of human eyes, ears and minds. It cannot be grasped either by scientific investigation or by poetic imagination. It is absolutely unattainable by our little, finite, fallen minds (1 Cor. 2:9).
It can be known only if God should choose to make it known – which is exactly what he has done: but God revealed it to us by his Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10a).
The apostle Paul affirms most forcefully the necessity of revelation. He is simply insisting that the human mind, capable as it is of remarkable achievements in the imperial sciences, flounders helplessly out of its depth when it is seeking God (cf. Isaiah 55:8-9). We cannot know the mind of God if he remains silent. How can we read God’s mind unless he speaks or writes! But God has spoken! He has revealed it to us by his Spirit (1 Cor.2:10a).
In Ephesians 3:4-5, where ‘the mystery of Christ’, including the incorporation of Jews and Gentiles into his body on equal terms, ‘has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets’, who are said to be the foundation on which the church is built (Eph. 2:20). In both texts 1 Cor. 2:10 and Eph. 3:4-5 God is the author of the revelation, the Spirit is its agent, and the apostles are its recipients.
The Holy Spirit knows the thoughts of God (1Cor. 2:11), even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
To sum up, the Holy Spirit searches the depths of God and he knows the things of God – because he is himself God. What the Spirit searched out and came to know, he had revealed it. The searching Spirit became the revealing Spirit: he makes God and his salvation known to the biblical authors. In 1 cor. 2:12, reference is made to what the apostles received while verse 13 refers to what they went on to impart or speak to others. The apostles imparted to others the understanding they had themselves received; thus the Spirit who had revealed God’s plan of salvation to the apostles, went on to communicate it through them to others.
The apostles knew that they were trustees or stewards of God’s revelation. They could not claim a monopoly of God’s truth, or keep it to themselves. Truth is for sharing. So they delivered faithfully to others what they had themselves received – they did it not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:13b).
The Holy Spirit, who searches the depths of God and knows the thoughts of God, and who revealed his findings to the apostles, went on to communicate them to others through the apostles in words which he gave them.He spoke his words through their words, so that their words were simultaneously his. This is the double authorship of Scripture and the meaning of inspiration.
The same Holy Spirit who was active in the apostles who wrote the letters was also active in those who received and read them. The Holy Spirit was working at both ends of the communication process – inspiring the apostles and enlightening their hearers and readers.
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HOLY SCRIPTURE (C)
In the previous sharing, we noted that the Holy Spirit is the revealing Spirit; he is the searching Spirit, and the inspiring Spirit. The apostles were ‘inspired’ by the Spirit ; but to this unique apostolic experience the Spirit added his work of illumination and interpretation which all Christians may experience. ‘Revelation’ and ‘inspiration’ describe the unique, objective process by which the Holy Spirit taught the biblical authors. ‘Illumination’, however, describes the Holy Spirit’s subjective work of enlightening our minds to grasp what they wrote. If the Holy Spirit is the enlightening Spirit (illuminating our minds), and if we have the mind of Christ, why is it that we still disagree with one another?’ We actually agree with one another a great deal more than we disagree, and that we would agree more still if we fulfilled the following conditions:
1. We must accept the supreme authority of Scripture.
2. We must remember that the chief purpose of Scripture is to bear witness to Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners.
3. We must develop sound principles of biblical interpretation; we must learn to look for the natural sense, the original sense ( as the author intended and his readers would have understood him) and the general sense (in harmony with the rest).
4. We must study Scripture together. The church is the hermeneutical community, in which God means his Word to be received and interpreted. We can help one another to understand it, especially if we reflect on it prayerfully. We could not never do this alone – we need “one another”.
5. We must come to the biblical text with a humble, open, receptive spirit, ready for God to break through our cultural defences, to challenge and to change us. If we come to Scripture with our minds made up and closed, we will never hear the thundercap of his Word. All we will hear is what we want to hear, the soothing echoes of our own prejudice.
We have considered the teaching role of the Holy Spirit in four stages – searching, revealing, inspiring and enlightening. First, he searches the depths of God and knows the thoughts of God, and is therefore uniquely qualified for his teaching role. Secondly, he revealed his findings to the apostles and the other biblical authors. Thirdly, he communicated those things through the biblical authors to others and did so in words, chosen by him. Fourthy, he enlightens the minds of Bible readers to discern what he has revealed to and through the biblical authors, and continues this work of illumination today. So we need to humble ourselves before both the Word and the Spirit/
We have to study the Word, to ponder its meaning and application, but we also need to cry to the Holy Spirit for enlightenment. Humble prayer and diligent study need to be combined. For the Word remains a dead letter until the Spirit brings it to life; the Word and the Spirit belong to each other.
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE
“The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them” (Psalm 89:11).
The sciences neither ask nor answer the questions about the world which the Bible answers.
Scripture, by contrast with the sciences, deals always with the first cause, God himself, and speaks to concerns beyond the scientist’ reach. Science tells us how the cosmic order works; Scripture tells us who caused it to be, and why, and how its Maker is involved with it, and where he is taking it, and what significance any of it has for him.
Scientific inquiry into how everything works fits easily into the biblical frame, but the sciences cannot approach the who and why questions the Bible answers.
The famous Galileo was said to make the following statement: “The Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, and not how the heavens go”. Many scientists subsequently admitted that science can tell us how things work but it cannot address the ‘why’ and the ‘who’ behind it. Many scientists studying space, the microscopic world, and other human body are overwhelmed by what they discover: they marvel at the complexity and vastness of what they found, and they were taken aback by the detailed design and intricacies in what they study, which seems to point that something or someone must be behind all these, and the likeliness of all these happening by chance appear very remote indeed.
The scientific method is to go and look, guess and check. It is an empirical study. The Biblical method is to listen and learn, let God tell you. From science we learn how things happen; from Scripture we learn what they mean. The goals of scientific inquiry and biblical study are thus different. Science studies the way each system works with a view to managing it and developing a technology. Scripture,by contrast, tells about the created cosmos in order to lead us to worship the God who made it, admire the workmanship, praise him for it, and manage everything for his glory. It may come as no surprise that many renowned scientists are also believers in God and Scripture.
We must allow Scripture itself to define for us the scope and limits of its teaching. The Bible is not an inspired “Inquire within upon everything”; it does not profess to give information about all branches of human knowledge. It claims in the broadest terms to teach all things necessary to salvation (2 Timothy 3:15-17), but it nowhere claims to give instruction in (for instance) any of the natural sciences. Scripture provides instruction that is true and trustworthy, not on every conceivable subject, but simply on those subjects with which it claims to deal. We must allow Scripture itself to tell us what these are.
These days the scientist is so venerated that people suppose that his science has taught him what he believes about God. It is a confusion, however, to suppose that it ever was, or ever could be so. Scripture’s sustained focus on the Creator who is behind and beyond the cosmos, transcending it while working in and through it, puts biblical teaching on a different wavelength altogether from that to which the sciences are tuned.