The God Who Speaks

The God who Speaks - Core Study Response 3

Question: 

In the midst of small group a discussion arises about the role of the Bible today. Some talk about how dry and irrelevant they find reading the Bible and how they would much rather God just spoke to them directly. They turn to you and ask what your view of the Bible is?

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What do I think of the Bible? Well I agree with Mike Reeves, when he points out that through the Bible we get to know God. How? Because Jesus makes God known, as shown in John 14:

“Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

(John 14:9 - NIV)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” 

(John 14:6 - NIV)

and the Bible makes Jesus known. Jesus, the Son of God, lived on earth once, ‘in one place at one time’. We are therefore unable to avoid the fact that our ‘only access to Christ’s words on earth are through the content of the Bible as a whole’ (Grudem, ch.2, p.41). As John reports, these words that Jesus spoke to His disciples are vital for redemption:

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

(John 15:3,4,7 - NIV)

It’s worth noting here that, God remains the same yesterday, today and forever (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8, James 1:17) Since God’s character is unchanging and His Word is always fulfilled (Isaiah 55:11, Joshua 23:14) the written accounts of God’s past interactions with His creation will reveal more of His character to you. This is illustrated nicely in Grudem’s analogy: “A man and a woman sitting in a restaurant gazing silently into each other’s eyes over the table are engaging in a much more genuine relationship if they are doing so with twenty years conversation-filled marriage behind them, than if they are on their first date and not yet spoken to each other”. Reading about how God has responded in past situations is therefore still relevant to you today, if you want a relationship with Him now.

You also claim that ‘‘The Bible is irrelevant’ to you. Mike Reeves would say your real issue is that you’re approaching the Bible as if it’s a book all about you, therefore it is not meeting your needs. When we are always  looking for lessons about ourselves and how what we read in the Bible is going to affect me right now, then most of the material would definitely appear irrelevant and boring. The aim of the Bible, however, is not to give you very instant life tips. The fact that is starts with History; goes through whole genealogies; records materials and specific commands to priests and kings; even in the New Testament unfolds in Acts the apostles’ stories, shows the Bible is not about us. Tim Ward’s summarises the role of Scriptures as a whole to be the ‘ongoing form in which God makes His covenant promise to His people.’ That the Scriptures are the means by which ‘the Father articulates the covenant promise he has brought to fulfilment in Christ, which is now offered to the whole world…” (Ward, p.54). As seen in Jeremiah 31, God records His covenant:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,”declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

(Jeremiah 31:31-34 - NIV)

And fulfills it as the author of Hebrews writes, through Jesus:

The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’” Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant. Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

(Hebrews 7:18-25 - NIV)

As Tim Ward summarises, “The death of Christ makes sense only as a climax of God’s faithfulness to His covenant.” (Ward, Ch.3, p.53). The Scriptures here serves the purpose of affirming what Christ achieved on the cross. As Mike Reeves puts it, “Christ is relevant to all.” The Israelites were offending Christ when they sinned, and broke His covenant, as we offend Christ when we sin against Him and His covenant. Grudem writes that ‘people’s view of Scripture is often largely determined by their view of Jesus Christ’. Jesus Himself claims that the whole Bible is about Him; and If you don’t go to Him, you didn’t get the point of Scriptures.

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

(John 5:39-40 - NIV)

All of Scriptures point to Christ and introduces you to Him as Saviour. As Paul wrote to Timothy: 

“From childhood you’ve known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through belief in Christ Jesus”

(2 Timothy 3:15 - NIV)

This still leaves your primary request to be addressed, which was ‘Why can’t God just talk to me directly?’ Tim Ward answers this as the goodness of God that allowed His Word to be written. Copiable, accurate, and able to be unchanged. Arguing that more uncertainty actually would have been caused if the word were not written. God is a God of His word - He caused His revelation to be written - to be life-giving reliably through history. Let’s imagine for a second, a world where God did speak to each believer directly; rather than through His Word. In other words if Jesus’ words in John 16 were addressed to every past and future believer:

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

(John 16:12-15 - NIV)

 If this was the case, then all individual believers (all Christians) can claim that the Spirit has ‘led them to truth’.

An alternative option, would be if Jesus were addressing the future church as an institution; though this option too would mean all teaching authorities of a church could then add further ‘authoritative’ revelation to Scripture and interpret it as they wish. The option that is then left, which would be the most likely option, is that Jesus was addressing His twelve disciples (the apostles) directly and, by a small extension, their immediate associate. If Jesus intended it this way, then it links to why the original apostolic community’s writings are counted towards the canon of Scripture (the New Testament) - this teaching is the earthly Christ’s contribution towards our understanding of the ‘inspiration’ of Scripture “through the obedient work of the Holy Spirit, of words that come from Him and that have their ultimate origin in the Father, to the original apostolic community” (Grudem, p.47)

Revelation 22 also casts a light on all of scripture, bringing the canon to a close:

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto

these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

(Revelation 22:18-19 - NIV)

The Bible is God’s Word written - an account of God’s Word already spoken; similarly to Moses’ tablets of stone. In Grudem’s words, “No fact will ever turn up that God did not know about ages ago and take into account when he caused Scripture to be written. Every true fact is something that God has known already from all eternity and is something that therefore cannot contradict God’s speech in Scripture.” In other words, reading God’s word seems irrelevant to you; remember, if God were to speak to you directly today, it would be in no conflict with His Word already spoken/ written. Nor would it add to anything He has revealed already through Scripture. So God speaking to you ‘directly’ - would not solve your complaint of its irrelevancy. To illustrate this, imagine your maths teacher reading aloud to you His authored textbook daily... the maths that seemed irrelevant before - wouldn’t seem any less irrelevant when hearing it directly from the author. Ironically, however, you show an interest in hearing what God has to say, meaning you must see relevancy in what He says but show a disinterest in having to read it. If that is the case, then I’d recommend getting the Bible on audiobook or hearing it in another manner that you’d enjoy.

In summary, God is relevant as He still presents Himself as a covenant-making God today, through the hearing of His words preached by His disciples (Matthew 10:14-15,40). God the Father intended to give God the Son words that have been given by the Son, in ordinary human language, to his disciples... to then be passed on through the words of the disciples’ (Grudem, p.42) If this is how God intended it, then we should be concerned with hearing any new words from God, but find satisfaction in the revelation God has already given through His written Scripture. Accepting what God has already revealed through His written Word, and continuing doing as the Bereans of Paul’s time did - ‘receiv[ing] the message with great eagerness and examin[ing] the Scriptures every day to see if [Paul’s] teachings were true.’ (Acts 17:11-12)

Written on: Friday 1st November 2019