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Foundational Beliefs about the Bible

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What must you believe about the Bible in order to properly study the Bible? Joel Beeke and Michael Barrett suggest that we cannot avoid this question:

When we view the Scriptures through faith, we do so with a set of beliefs that we take for granted to be true. These presuppositions are essential and inevitable. It is absolutely impossible to come to the Bible with an open mind. Liberal scholars often claim they approach Scripture with an open mind in order to evaluate the Word of God and judge its accuracy. In reality they come with the presupposition that human reason is superior to divine revelation. That is not an open mind; it is a closed heart that evidences a mindset predisposed against God and truth. Man cannot stand as the judge of Scripture; Scripture stands as the judge of man. As believers, we must come with an open and receptive heart to receive and believe what God says.

And if we believe that God’s word is true, then we must also believe the things the Bible says about itself.

…every time we open the Scripture, we must do so with awe and reverence generated by the certain knowledge that the Bible is not an ordinary book but the very Word of the eternal God, whose veracity is beyond question or doubt. The Bible is not what men define it to be; it is what God declares it to be. Men can believe that or deny that, but they cannot alter that. The premise that the Bible is the inspired, authoritative, infallible, sufficient, and effective Word of God should be the foundation for the study of Scripture. All truth has its source in God and, consequently, His truth is universal and timeless. Although times change, truth is changeless. Although applications of truth can vary, truth is constant. This is good reason to make the Bible a subject for study.

In their brief article, Beeke and Barrett explain what it means for the Bible to be inspired, authoritative, infallible, sufficient, and effective. I commend their reflections to you.

Check it out!

ESV Chronological Bible: A Fresh Way to Read

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To study the Bible well, we must learn to read the Bible well. To read the Bible well, we need to develop good habits. And one such habit is to find ways to keep the text fresh. Beware the danger of growing so familiar with the Bible that you can no longer observe it accurately.

One way to foster a fresh approach to the text is to read the entire Bible in a different order. And one of the most useful ways to order the Biblical is by chronology. Crossway has done just that for us with their recent release of the ESV Chronological Bible.

Why a New Bible Instead of Just a Reading Plan?

Chronological reading plans have been circulating for many years now. For years, I’ve been recommending one for our annual Bible reading challenge.

The thing with a plan, though, is that you’ve got to constantly flip around in your Bible. That might go quicker if you read a digital Bible, but it still adds a significant amount of time to hop from passage to passage.

Now that I’ve gotten the ESV Chronological Bible in my grubby hands, I can sigh with delight at the ease of simply reading from one page to the next, with the chronological reading order served up like a 365-course meal.

How is the Plan?

This is not the first “chronological Bible” to appear under the sun. I’ve seen others (in other English translations) but have generally declined to purchase them for one major reason: They’re typically enslaved to chapter divisions. When I flip through a chronological Bible that refuses to break texts down any smaller than complete chapters, I quickly lose interest.

Where’s the fun in that? A single chapter of, say, a gospel could have 5 to 8 scenes in it, each of which is paralleled in different ways in other gospels. It’s difficult to get the truly chronological feel of the larger story when the parallel accounts are not actually parallel. For example, Matthew 8 portrays Jesus:

  • healing a leper
  • healing a paralytic
  • healing Peter’s mother-in-law
  • turning down would-be disciples
  • calming a storm
  • casting demons from men into a herd of pigs

In Mark’s ordering of these events, those events occur in the following chapters:

  • chapter 1
  • chapter 2
  • chapter 1 (even before the leper)
  • not present
  • chapter 4
  • chapter 5

So if you’re only reading full chapters at a time, it is not possible to sync up these events in a useful way.

In contrast, the ESV Chronological Bible is no respecter of chapter divisions. At times, you get chunks as small as two verses. And at other times, you’re reading entire books with no interruption. For example, after beginning with Genesis 1-5, you get the first 4 verses of 1 Chronicles. But a little farther into the plan, you get the entire books of Job, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy without interruptions.

In short, I’m thrilled with the plan followed by the ESV Chronological Bible. It is not identical to the plan I’ve recommended on this site, but it follows a very similar philosophy.

With this chronological plan, you’ll read the prophets right after reading the historical events that led to their writing. Books like Jeremiah, that jump back and forth in time, are rearranged so you can grasp the order of events better. The gospels primarily follow the sequence of events as presented in Mark and John, with Matthew and Luke rearranged to fit. However, when an episode has parallel accounts, they’re always presented in canonical order (Matthew’s version first, then Mark’s, then Luke’s, then John’s). The latter half of Acts is interrupted by the epistles, according to the time they were written.

Two Things This Bible is Not Good For

There are a few things that people normally use a Bible for, that you should not expect to find here:

  1. Extensive Bible study. This will not be your go-to Bible for digging in, deepening study, or marking up. Because the reading order is so jumbled up, this Bible is simply not designed for you to take to church or small group to follow along or participate in a discussion. The chronological format makes it quite difficult to even locate any given text. You have to go to the Scripture Index in the back, find the text you’d want to read, and then find the page it’s on.
  2. Grasping the flow or arguments of books. Again, the text is all jumbled up. So you will not come away from this Bible with a better grasp of the main point or argument of Jeremiah or Luke. Likewise, you will get a great idea of the differences in gospel accounts of the feeding of the 5,000. But you’ll need another Bible to put those differences to use with respect to the larger arguments of each gospel.

Two Things This Bible is Exceptional For

  1. Reference. If you are studying a passage in another Bible, you might call upon the Chronological Bible to figure out which other Bible passages speak to or at the same time as your text. For example, let’s say you’re studying a psalm. The Chronlogical Bible places that psalm near the historical narrative describing the same set of events. You could get good historical context for the prophets and epistles in a similar manner.
  2. Reading. The main thing the Chronological Bible is designed for is for reading. That is the genius of this format. It gives you permission to read the Bible voraciously, and to simply keep reading. For that reason, I believe this Bible would be even better if it were presented like a reader’s Bible, without verse or chapter numbers (except perhaps in the margin). The single-column format, without section headings, encourages readers to drown themselves in the living and abiding word of God.

Additional Features

The entire Bible is organized (chronologically, of course) into 365 selections, each of which can be read in about 10 minutes. Before each selection there is a simple timeline to help you get your bearings in the chronology. There is also a brief paragraph summarizing the texts for that reading.

At the back of the Bible, there is a table of weights and measures, along with a chart explaining the Hebrew calendar. One index lists all 365 readings with text references, so you can get an overview of the plan and how it works. A Scripture Index helps you to locate a particular Bible passage by page number.

Then, in addition to 15 maps (the sort you’ll find in any study Bible) there is a beautiful fold-out timeline of the entire history found in the Bible. This timeline is color-coded by period, providing lists, names, and dates for the patriarchs, judges, Israelite oppressors, kings of Israel, and kings of Judah. With this gorgeous graphic, you can locate your text or any major figure in the chronology at but a glance.

Conclusion

I eagerly commend to you the ESV Chronological Bible. I plan to make much use of it for my annual speed read in the new year. Crossway graciously sent me a review copy of the TruTone (imitation leather) version, which lays quite flat on any page, making the reading experience all the more pleasant. I expect the hardback version to have just as strong of a physical presence.

Disclaimer: Amazon links are affiliate links. If you click them and buy stuff, you will provide a small commission to this blog at no extra cost to yourself.

Why Memorize a Whole Book

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Beth Myers memorized the entire book of Romans and lived to tell us about it. She found the following benefits of such lengthy memorization:

  • Discovery of passages hidden in plain sight
  • Understanding of the Scripture
  • Weapon against anxiety
  • Love of Scripture
  • Duty becomes delight
  • Renewal of the mind
  • Keen sense of the love of Christ for me
  • A soaring of my spirit

Perhaps this is worth trying for yourself. Let Myers encourage you to consider it. Check it out!

How the Reformation Gave us the Bible

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Barry Waugh takes advantage of the anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 theses to reflect on how the Reformation put the Bible into the hands of God’s people.

Owning Scripture was not only pricey but possession could lead to imprisonment or execution. Fourteenth-century forerunners of the Reformation such as John Wycliffe of England and one of his followers in Bohemia, Jan Hus, were persecuted for providing Bibles in the common language of their people. In the case of Hus, translation work contributed to the heresy case against him resulting in his execution at the stake. In the next century, William Tyndale was hunted down wherever he set up his printing press as he moved from place to place to clandestinely provide Scripture in English. He was eventually caught, strangled, and burned at the stake for publishing the Word in the vernacular. Lives were sacrificed for the translation and distribution of Scripture. If Wycliffe, Hus, and Tyndale could return to visit their homelands today they would likely be encouraged by the availability of the Word, especially with digital Bibles accessible on a variety of devices, but they would also be discouraged by the common indifference to and ignorance of Scripture.

Along with the history lesson comes some helpful advice regarding Bible reading.

Check it out!

Announcing our 2024 Bible Reading Challenge

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We believe one of the best ways to learn to study the Bible is to read it. A lot of it. Over and over again. That won’t give you everything you need to understand it, but it will get you quite a long way toward the goal. As in marching through Kadesh all the way to the peaks of Pisgah. All you have to do is look down toward the valley, trust that God meant what he said, and finish the job from there. Don’t listen to those fools who speak of giants and grasshoppers. Just look at the size of those grapes. And the size of the God who gives them.

If you’re not sure what I mean by all this Kadesh/Pisgah stuff, then maybe this is your year to read the entire Bible in 90 days. Milk and honey are yours for the taking. Not the under-the-tongue sort (Song 4:11) but the flowing-land sort (Deut 26:9). Though, of course, there is a theological connection between the two.

But I digress and perhaps ought to get to the point.

The Challenge

I’m writing to announce our 9th annual Bible reading challenge. The challenge is to read the entire Bible within 90 days. If you wish, you may begin today. Regardless of when you begin, your 90-day period must end no later than March 31, 2024.

And why—you ask—would you embark on such a strange venture? (“Has the day finally come,” they inquire, “when the Lord has struck with madness the riders of this horse we call the blogosphere?” Zech 12:4) I can think of at least three reasons.

  1. Your grasp of the Bible’s big picture will surge like a COVID case count in winter.
  2. Your reward in heaven will be great.
  3. We’ve got a sweet set of prizes to urge you on in the present age.

All who complete the challenge are invited to fill out the form below (which we’ll share repeatedly as the twilight of March draws nigh). One grand prize winner will be selected at random to win an ESV Wide Margin Reference Bible in Top Grain Leather, generously provided by the good people at Crossway Bibles. Yes, you read that right: This Bible has top grain leather. This is one of those gorgeous “premium” Bibles that might not normally fit the budget.

One additional winner will be selected to receive a one-volume reader’s Bible of their choice. Physical prizes are limited to the continental United States. Winners in other parts of the world will receive a $50 Amazon gift card via email.

If you’d like a checklist to help you stay on pace, here are three. You may make a copy and update the dates, if you plan to start on a date other than January 1.

  1. Canonical Order
  2. Chronological Order
  3. Hebrew OT & NIV Sola Scriptura NT Order

Or here is an iOS app that can help you track your plan. You may also want to consider making a reading plan in the Dwell listening app if you prefer audio.

You may now begin any time, and may this be the ride of your life.

Official Rules

Here are the rules:

  1. You must read (not scan or skim) all 66 books of the Protestant Bible. You may choose the translation and reading plan (canonical, chronological, etc.). You don’t have to stop and meditate on every detail, but the Lord sees and knows when you are being honest about reading and not skimming. Listening to an unabridged audio Bible is acceptable. You may also use any combination of audio and visual reading, as long as you’ve read or listened to the entire Bible within the allotted time period.
  2. You must read the entire Bible within a 90-day period.
  3. The last day of that 90-day period must be between November 4, 2023 and March 31, 2024. If you’d like to understand why we recommend such fast-paced reading, see our Bible reading plan for readers.
  4. To enter the drawing, you must fill out the survey below, letting us know the dates you read and what you thought of the speed-reading process. Your thoughts do not have to be glowing, but they should be honest; you’ll still be entered into the drawing if you didn’t enjoy your speed-read.
  5. Any submissions to the form below that don’t meet the requirements or appear to be fabricated will be deleted. For example: multiple entries with different data, date of completion not between November 2, 2023 and March 31, 2024, “What I thought about the experience” has nothing to do with Bible reading, or date of completion is later than the date of entry submission (please don’t try to enter the drawing if you plan to read the Bible; only enter once you have completed reading it).
  6. In the first week of April 2024, we will randomly select 2 winners from those who have submitted the form. We will email the winners to get their shipping addresses. If a winner does not respond to our request for a shipping address within 1 week, a new winner will be selected in their place.
  7. The first prize winner (if continental US) will receive a copy of the ESV Wide Margin Reference Bible in Top Grain Leather. The second prize winner (if anywhere in the US) will get their choice of a one-volume reader’s Bible (While these are not your only options, we have reviewed the following: ESV, CSB, NIV.). Any winner who does not qualify for a physical prize will receive a US $50 Amazon gift card via email.
  8. Unfortunately, though they are terrific people doing marvelous work for the sake of Christ, staff members of DiscipleMakers are not eligible to win the drawing.

How God Directs His People in the Book of Numbers

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A few weeks ago, I finished reading the book of Number 20 times in a row. From that reading, my draft of the main point is “Yahweh sees his people through the wilderness, though not in a manner any of them hoped or expected.”

Douglas Allison recently posted an overview of Numbers, where he proposes a similar main point: “I have taught that the big idea of Numbers is that Yahweh is his people’s guide to the promised land.”

Allison defends his main point through an outline of the book and an explanation of benefits for reading the book.

As we read today, we can be confident that the same God who led the Israelites through the wilderness in Numbers is the same God who will see us home. Yahweh was Israel’s guide to the Promised Land. And he has not left us without a guide.

Check it out!

Your Conscience Requires an Eternal Inheritance

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Previously, I proposed that Jesus is the best thing for your conscience because he provides an eternal redemption and he promises an eternal inheritance. This is what Hebrews 9 is all about. Last week I explained our eternal redemption in Heb 9:1-14. Now it’s time to see the eternal inheritance in Heb 9:15-28.

close up photography of concrete tombstones
Photo by Mike Bird on Pexels.com

The Promised Eternal Inheritance

Hebrews 9:15-28 states its main idea right at the beginning, in Heb 9:15: That which awaits the beneficiaries of Jesus’ new covenant is a “promised eternal inheritance.”

‌Now the way an “inheritance” worked back then was very similar to how it works now. An inheritance is the thing you receive when your parents or grandparents pass away. A person spends their life building up an estate.‌ And when they die, they pass that estate on to their heirs in portions.

‌That’s what this text is saying that Jesus does.

‌The text has been talking about a “covenant” (Heb 9:, 15), but in Heb 9:16, he’s suddenly talking about a “will.” At least, it feels sudden to us, but it’s not sudden at all.

‌You should know that the original Greek word for “will” (Heb 9:16-17) is exactly the same as the original Greek word for “covenant” (Heb 9:15, 20, etc.). This one Greek word could be used in a variety of ways, and we need two English words to capture the sense of it.

‌But a “covenant” and a “will” are closely related concepts, and the author plays off those concepts here in this text.

  • “He is the mediator of a new covenant…” (Heb 9:15)
  • “For where a covenant is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.” (Heb 9:16)

‌What he’s saying here is simply that an inheritance cannot pass on until the person owning it passes away. And that’s exactly what happened with Jesus Christ.

‌So those who trust in Christ and join his new covenant receive a promised eternal inheritance (Heb 9:15). But they can’t actually get it unless the one who promised it dies (Heb 9:16-17). Heb 9:18-22 references Exodus 24, where the first covenant was activated in those copycat, earthly places by constant death. But the new covenant was activated in the real place—heaven—by just one death (Heb 9:23-26).

‌Sometimes people think of the Old Covenant as being real and physical, and the new covenant as being spiritual and invisible. But this text looks at the differences differently:

  • The old covenant was only figurative. The one making the covenant didn’t actually die. He had to kill an animal as a substitute to activate the covenant. And since it was only figuratively forgiving sins, the sacrificial deaths had to occur over and over again.
  • But the new covenant is the thing that is real, not symbolic. Therefore only one death had to occur, since it fully and finally activated the will, so the heirs could receive the inheritance.

‌So what is the point of all this?

‌You can know your redemption is real and eternal, because the Lord Jesus died, activating his covenant, and passing on his full estate as your inheritance.

‌Application

‌Stop trying to cleanse your conscience through good deeds or religious activity! You can’t silence the inner voice of accusation by attending services or performing rituals. And you’ll never do enough good deeds to balance out the sin you have committed.

‌Instead, look to the inheritance that belongs to you because the Lord Jesus died.

‌And that begs a crucial question: What is that inheritance? What is it that we get after Jesus died that we couldn’t have gotten before he died?

‌The Old Testament people of God had the land of Canaan as their inheritance. They lost that inheritance when they rejected God as their God. But what is our inheritance under the new covenant?

‌Well, that’s what the author ends with: the general principle that all people die and face judgment (Heb 9:27), applied specifically to Jesus (Heb 9:28). Jesus himself died, and will one day face judgment. Though in his case, the judgment he faces will not be brought against him. It is his own judgment to put the world to rights and save his people from injustice.

‌And who will those people be? How can you tell who will be saved by him on the last day when he returns?

‌He “will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb 9:28).

‌Right here, the author informs us of what we inherit. The thing we get, now that Jesus has died, is Jesus himself. We are those who are waiting for him. Eagerly.

‌And if you’re tempted to think that’s lame and anticlimactic, because that’s not the sort of inheritance you were hoping for, and you wonder where all the fortune and glory is—

‌Then you need to go back to chapter 1 of Hebrews and remind yourself of who Jesus is.

‌It is no small thing to say that Jesus is yours. That he is your inheritance. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Jesus is the one who upholds the universe by his word of power. He created the world, and he is the heir of all things.

‌And when he is your inheritance, everything that is his becomes yours. And you belong to his God and Father.

‌So as a final application: Let’s test your conscience right now.

‌If you found out that Jesus was returning this afternoon, how would you take that development? Would you embrace the news eagerly, as the solution you’ve been waiting for? Or would there be a nagging voice in your head that springs to life, reminding you of the grave danger you are in, rehearsing all the things you’ve left unresolved?

‌Would you feel as though Jesus’ return would cut you off from experiencing something “better” that you haven’t experienced yet?

‌I encourage you to wait for the Lord Jesus to return, and to wait eagerly. As you look ahead to his return, you ought not be wracked with guilt, anxiety, or distress. You can serve him now with a clear conscience, because you wait eagerly for him to become fully yours then, when he returns. He’s already dealt with your sin and that of the world. Now you’re just waiting for him to clean up all the undesirable effects of it.

‌Your eternal inheritance is the Lord Jesus himself, your great high priest. He provides you with the assurance that your redemption is eternal. And because of his eternal redemption and eternal inheritance, your conscience is clean.

‌Not just for a little while, but now and forever.

‌Jesus is the best thing for your conscience.

Watch Out for Silly Putty Bible Study

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Consider the following scenario. What do you think could be the problem with it?

…a Christian woman who has been praying for her family’s conversion stumbles upon Acts 16 during her quiet time. Her eyes settle on Paul’s response to the Philippian jailer, who asked, “What must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,” Paul answered, then added, “you and your household” (vv. 29–31).

Encouraged by these words, the woman begins to claim the “promise” that her own household will be saved, with the justification that “the Holy Spirit gave me this verse.”

This situation comes from a wonderful article from Greg Koukl about how easy it is to treat the Bible like Silly Putty®—a squishy, doughy substance you make into any shape you want. Koukl’s analysis and counsel is very good.

Check it out!

Your Conscience Requires Eternal Redemption

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Last week, I proposed that Jesus is the best thing for your conscience because he provides an eternal redemption and he promises an eternal inheritance. This is what Hebrews 9 is all about. Let me now tackle the first part of that thesis.

Regulations for Worship and Place

Hebrews 9:1-14 has a tremendous amount of detail‌ because the author is summarizing the entire ceremonial law of Moses for us. But his main argument consists of three pieces.

  • Jesus’ redemption is eternal (Heb 9:11-14),
  • because he provides better worship (Heb 9:6-10)
  • in a better place (Heb 9:1-5).

That’s it. Amid all the detail, that’s all that he’s saying here. Jesus’ redemption is eternal, because he provides better worship in a better place.

The tricky part is to grasp what that means. And in order to grasp what that means, you’ve got to grasp the Old Testament system of worship.

Ruk7, Creative Commons

‌Regulations for Place

Referring to God’s contract with his people in the Old Testament, the author reminds us that the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness (Heb 9:1). He then expands on the place first in Heb 9:2-5. Then he explains the rules for worship in Heb 9:6-7, before bringing the two (worship and place) together again in Heb 9:8-10).

‌With respect to the place, he describes the tabernacle Moses set up.

‌It had two rooms, with certain pieces of furniture in each room. The only doorway takes you into an outer room, with a lamp, and a table with bread on it. There’s a doorway with a curtain, going into a second, inner room, with an altar to produce a sweet-smelling cloud to cover the large golden box containing God’s personal belongings.

‌In Heb 9:5, the author states that “of these things we cannot now speak in details.” What he’s saying is not that the details don’t matter but that they do. We could study them and discuss them at great length. For example, see my series on the tabernacle in Exodus, beginning here.

‌But now is not the time to go into all of those details. The main idea in Hebrews 9 is simply that that old covenant had a place for worship.

This tent, with its two rooms, and all its furniture, provided a place on earth where God could dwell with his people, and they could come and enjoy a relationship with him.

‌Regulations for Worship

But beyond the place itself, we ought to consider the regulations for worship. In other words, what transpired in that place to enable God’s people to worship him?

‌Most people could not enter the tent, but had to remain in the front yard, where gifts and sacrifices were offered. But any priest could enter the first room (Heb 9:6). And only the high priest could enter the second room, and that on only one special day each year (Heb 9:7).

That high priest must offer blood to cover the sins of both himself and the rest of the people. If he tries to enter without the blood of a substitute, he dies.

The ritual described here is called the Day of Atonement, and you can read about it in Leviticus 16.

‌But what is the point? Why do we need to know about the place? And why do we need to know the regulations for worship?

According to Heb 9:8, as long as there is a temple in Jerusalem with two rooms (because the first, or outer room is still standing), that means that there is no way opened into the holy places. In other words, there is no access to God’s presence with his people. There is only a hint or shadow, a tease of his presence.

‌This is symbolic for the present age (Heb 9:9)! At the time Hebrews was written, the temple was still standing. The curtain between the two rooms had torn on the day Jesus died, showing that access was now granted. But the Jews had repaired it, and access to God’s presence was once more denied to God’s people.

The impact of all of this comes at the end of Heb 9:9: When gifts and sacrifices are offered in an earthly place with limited access to God, those gifts and sacrifices cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. The best they can do is provide outward conformity to a ritual code (Heb 9:10).

‌So under the old system, you can conduct worship in a special place, and that worship will clean you up on the outside.

But it can’t do anything for you on the inside.

‌Your sin will still hound you, and your conscience will continue to convict you. That’s how it worked under the old system.

‌Eternal Redemption

But when Christ came along, to be a new high priest, he changed all that.

‌Jesus did not conduct his priesthood by entering the earthly temple in Jerusalem (Heb 9:11). He actually went into the true and original tent pitched in heaven! He conducted his ministry in a better place than the Jewish priests.

And he offered a better worship (Heb 9:12). He didn’t bring the blood of goats and calves, but his own blood.

And there’s the main idea of the entire section: Because our priest Jesus conducted better worship in a better place, he secured an eternal redemption. Jesus offered himself once and only once, and it worked!

The proof that it worked is that he doesn’t have to keep doing it! It worked, and our sins were forgiven, and therefore, he has purified our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9:14).

Do you get what this means?

Because Jesus your priest offered better worship in a better place, you can be with God forever. If you belong to Christ, your sins cannot ever be held against you. The accusations of conscience can be done away with forever. You can be free of the inner prosecuting attorney who claims you are a miserable excuse of a human being.

The blood of Christ, applied to the holy places in heaven, speaks on your behalf. It bears witness to the inhabitants of heaven that you are a child of God, and that nothing can ever change that.

You have been bought and paid for. Your redemption is eternal.

Application

If you do not yet follow Jesus Christ, I want you to know that it is possible to clean your conscience once and for all. When that nagging voice speaks up to condemn you for the things you have done, it is probably speaking the truth!

It is not healthy to suppress the voice of conscience. And what Jesus does is not suppress the conscience, but satisfy it.

If that voice speaks up to condemn you, but you have placed your trust in Jesus as your King and great high priest, then there is another voice — that of God’s Holy Spirit — who comes and argues with the voice of conscience. He shows forth the blood of Christ spilled once for all on behalf of sin, and then splashed onto the heavenly tent to make it welcoming and accessible to God’s children for the rest of time.

You don’t have access to God, or to the satisfaction of conscience, unless Jesus is your King and master.

So if you do follow Jesus, and you trust him as your high priest, then you can now serve God with a pure conscience.

You don’t have to worry about when the hammer will fall, or whether you will get swept away in the coming judgment. You have been rescued, redeemed, bought and paid for. And that redemption is eternal.

The blood of Jesus decorates the heavenly tent for the rest of time. And the resurrected Jesus himself dwells there, bodily, for the rest of time.

There is no outer room to keep you out, but only a single room, testifying forever to your eternal redemption. Such an eternal redemption does wonders for your conscience.

‌But That’s Not All

Now that would be wonderful enough — to have a redemption that can’t ever be brought into question. But our text doesn’t stop there.

It’s one thing to have judgment and accusation removed from you, but how do you ever know that it really worked? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a tangible and specific affirmation to signal your newfound security? Something to remind yourself of on those days when the voice of accusation rears back up?

That’s where he goes in the rest of the chapter, which I’ll cover in another post.

Follow Your Heart: Is it in the Bible?

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Yes, it is.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Ecclesiastes 11:9

Mitch Chase wonders what this could mean, in light of all that Jesus, Moses, the prophets, and sages of Israel had to say about not following one’s own heart.

Chase makes excellent use of correlation with other wisdom texts as well as the context of the argument within the book of Ecclesiastes to answer the question. And he arrives at a great place.

The writer, in Ecclesiastes 11:9, is not advocating reckless living but Godward living, decisions made overflowing from a heart that fears and follows the Lord.

The only thing I might add to Chase’s conclusion is that, in light of the joy granted as a gift of God, all throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, “the ways of your heart” here are not only the commands of God that have been written on the heart—but also the personal affections and delights God implants when he shapes a person in his image. In other words, when one fears God, not only their Godward morality—but also their Godward hobbies, vocation, and delights—are unlocked to enjoy to the fullest.

As long, of course, as one never forgets that the Lord remains the judge of our hearts’ delights, such that we might walk in the fear of him.

So go swing a baseball bat, plant a rose garden, or audition for a play—to the glory of your creator. Such things are nothing but vanity in themselves. But the gift of God to those with whom he is pleased is the ability to enjoy such vain things to his glory.

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