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NOTES
Have you given up on reading the Bible? Don’t. The Bible is not broken. Nor is it some ancient relic like an Egyptian mummified skeleton, to be studied only by those with special skills and peculiar fascinations. The Bible can work for anyone. It’s message is forever true and always useful. But there are reasons why the Bible may not be working for you and in this post I want to explore them as well as a common misconception.
Before their day starts, Dave and Dan sit down at the breakfast table with their Bibles and cups of coffee to engage with God for an hour. Forty-five minutes fly by for Dave, but they feel like an eternity for Dan. Dan stops before the hour is done feeling as full and satisfied as you’d be after a few bites of dry Kale. Dave is sad his hour is over, but feels like he just had a spiritual breakfast of steak, pancakes, hash browns, and eggs. Now, both attend the same church, had the same amount of sleep, sat at the same table, drank the same coffee, and read the same Bible translation. So why the different experiences? Why did Dan walk away empty and Dave full?
Well, I think there are typically three kinds of problems that keep the Bible from working in your life.
First, there are technical problems keep the Bible from working for you. These are practical problems. Problems that have to do with technique and knowledge. For example, your mind might wander and you have difficulty focusing and you can’t trace an author’s flow of thought from chapter to chapter. Paul wrote, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” at the beginning of Romans 8, but if you don’t know what the earlier chapters are teaching, then you’ll miss the force of his meaning in chapter 8. Why did he say, “therefore”? What did Paul write in chapters five, six, and seven to make him say there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus? Sidenote: if you don’t know, it’s worth discovering. Not only is it important to understand an author’s flow of thought in a single text, but also in the whole narrative of the Bible. Even though the Bible contains 66 texts with more than 40 authors, key themes and allusions thread each piece and tie them all together forming a single story. So it’s helpful to know what Isaiah wrote about Christ, even though he wrote 700 years before Christ, in order to understand what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John teach concerning Christ. One technical problem might be something as simple as not understanding Bible-study methods, which help you properly study the Bible so that you come to an understanding of what it means and how it applies to your life. Another technical problem might be something as sophisticated as not understanding the significance of a Greek or Hebrew word—on the cross Jesus said it is finished! But there are two verb tenses in Greek available to John to communicate Jesus’ statement. John used the perfect tense instead of the aorist tense. Using the aorist tense would have kept the focus on the event, but using the perfect tense expands the focus of Jesus’ outcry to the consequences of Jesus’ death. Technical problems are the easiest problems to fix. All you need is some time, some tools, and maybe some teachers and you’re well on your way to understanding and enjoying God at a deeper level than you ever have.
Second, spiritual and moral problems keep the Bible from working in your life. For example, if you go a year without praying, without reading your Bible, without worship at church, and then if you attempt to engage with God, he might feel a bit distant and the experience might feel a bit awkward. It’s like a boyfriend ignoring his girlfriend for a year and then attempting to go out on a date afterward. Picking up where he left off will be a bit tough. Another example of this problem might be a willful sin. A willful sin is an action you know to be wrong but you persist in it anyway. Watching pornography three times a week will absolutely affect where your mind drifts to during Bible reading and prayer, how you look at women during worship, during work, during working out, and your day-to-day sense of God’s presence. If a girlfriend keeps lying to her boyfriend and the boyfriend consistently catches her in her lies, that will have an affect on the relationship. Likewise, willful sins against God affects our sense of God’s presence. Moral problems and spiritual problems are personal problems because they are heart problems. They require intentionality, humility, confession, and change—which is repentance. Repentance means a change in lifestyle. It means a turning away from that action or practice or attitude and a turning to God. To return to our date example, imagine you go on a date even though the relationship has been tense. You’re at the same table, you’re in the same space, but the relational connection has been broken and it needs to be restored before that date can be enjoyable. Thankfully, God is not hardened against you and frowning and wanting you to fail and hoping you won’t come to him. God wants the relationship to be restored. That’s the whole reason he sent Jesus. For those struggling with heart problems and not getting the Bible to work in your life, God has made all the moves to restore the relationship. You aren’t alone. You aren’t destined to feel cut off from God forever. Christ and his people want to help you in your move toward God so that you can connect with him and engage with him as you study his word.
So, first there are technical problems, which are like hand problems. Second, there are spiritual and moral problems, which are like heart problems.
Third, there conceptual problems that keep the Bible from working for you. Conceptual problems are perspective problems. They’re head problems. These problems are like technical problems, but they’re way more problematic because conceptual problems distort nearly your whole perspective to keep you from reading the Bible. These problems are like wearing green colored glasses that make everything you see green. For example, if you read the Bible assuming there is no God, you’ll take language about God to be mythical inventions, hallucinations, or wishful thinking. You will explain away and obfuscate clear teachings—clear passages—in the Bible from beginning to end. Assuming God doesn’t exist is a massive conceptual anchor that colors how you read the whole Bible. Another assumption might be assuming Jesus never claimed to be God, which insinuates the New Testament writers distorted and lied about his teaching.
Now, those two assumptions are obvious. If you hold them, you will read the Bible in a way it is not intended to be read and you will not get out of the Bible what it intends to give you. But there’s another assumption that is far more subtle, far more pervasive, but almost just as drastic and destructive. I call this assumption heaven-aimed Christianity. This kind of Christianity assumes God made us for heaven and sent Jesus to save us from the earth so that we can live with him forever in heaven. What’s wrong with heaven-aimed Christianity? Well, first let me say what’s right about it. God did send Jesus to save us and the earth is corrupt and certainly contains problems that we need saving from. But heaven-aimed Christianity is wrong because it downplays our inward sin that needs to be transformed. Heaven-aimed Christianity is also wrong because it assumes we will stay in heaven forever and because it neglects God’s full purpose for us in this life before we die. First, in this life, God gives us the freedom, energy, and wisdom to overcome sin—not to be perfect, but to live above its constant power. Second, God takes Christians to heaven immediately when they die, but God says he will create a new heavens and new earth for Christians to eternally inhabit. Third, regarding God’s purpose, we’ll explore that in the videos to come.
These kinds of conceptual problems definitely keep the Bible from working in your life. The way to fix these is to learn the key teachings of the Bible and to keep spending time in God’s word with good tools and good teachers.
Alright, let’s recap. Why is it that you sit down to read the Bible and it feels like God is distant and you walk away feeling empty? Well, I mentioned there are three main problems that keep the Bible from working in your life. First, there are technical problems. Second, there are moral and spiritual problems. Third, there are conceptual problems. They’re all very common and they’re all as I call them problems.
God gave us his word in order for it to work in our lives. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The Word of God is alive and powerful.” It works in our lives. It convicts. It restores. It reproves. It comforts. It heals. It saves. It secures. God’s word is for you. If you aren’t in the word, turn to it. If you are in the word, but it isn’t quite working for you, well, I hope something I’ve said can be some help.
Thank you for listening. I’m Aaron Massey.