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How to Approach The Word of God: GOD First

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By Mark VanOuse

 

How should a person approach God’s holy Word, The Bible?  What should they be looking for?

Fundamentally, The Bible is about GOD, not me or anyone or anything else.

This is tremendously important. Most Christians approach the Bible as being about them, not God. They go to the Bible to “learn about life” or “how to live the Christian life”.

They are not alone in this error. People made the same mistake in Jesus’ day. Jesus, in speaking to the Jews — the people of God, the ones to whom God had made promises, including the bringing of the Savior, the ones who so missed the day of visitation that they wanted to kill Jesus — had this to say:

John 5:39-40 (NKJV)

[39] “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.[40] “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

We see two key things in this text:

  1. They made the mistake of thinking that the scriptures could somehow give them eternal life. In other words, they searched the scriptures to somehow teach them how to live eternally. That THEY would somehow do something and by doing many somethings, by virtue of their doing obtain eternal life.
  2. Jesus corrected their flawed thinking so that they would understand that scripture does not point to what they would do to get eternal life. They made the same error that the rich young ruler made when he came running up to Jesus seeking what he must do to inherit eternal life (Mark 10:17). That’s the same error that Eve fell into at the fall. She was seduced into thinking that she needed to be wise, by virtue of knowing good and evil, so that she could be like God (Genesis 3).

The scriptures testify of a PERSON, the Lord Jesus. Look again at John 5:39-40:

[39] “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.[40] “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

God’s answer is not me and what I do.

God’s answer is HIMSELF and what HE DOES and has already accomplished through Jesus Christ!