Knowable Word

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What Kevin DeYoung’s Book Launch Taught Me About Bible Study

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Taking God at His WordIs the Bible enough for whatever we face in our churches today, be it bulimia, self-mutilation, conscientious doubts, or cultural differences? Is it true that God is still speaking through the pages of this ancient book?

Last weekend, I joined more than 500 others at a book launch event hosted by Westminster Bookstore. Kevin DeYoung’s new book, Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me, addresses what we should believe about the Bible by examining what the Bible says about itself. Westminster Bookstore partnered with DeYoung to hold this one-day event to promote both the book and the critical truths within.

I could multiply praises for this event, but let me get right to it.

DeYoung inspired us to have confidence in the text of Scripture. He inspired us to inspire others to have confidence in the text of Scripture.

It sounds so simple, but we so easily drift.

  • Though you believe the Bible, do you long for a mystical experience with God? Perhaps to hear from someone who’s been to heaven and back? Perhaps to hear his voice calling you through private letters written just for you?
  • Do you trust that God has spoken now in his Son and that we need no further prophet, priest, or sacrifice (Heb 1:1-4), or do you feel safest when someone else tells you what to think?
  • Does this book speak life to you, or do you feel the need to supplement it with study guides, commentaries, or other expert guidance?
  • As you lead or teach, do you communicate that people must come to you with their questions? Are you in danger of leading primarily with your personality and not with the truth?
  • Are you seeing other people learn to study and teach others, or do you prefer to be seen as the guru with the best answers?

Now I’m not saying that DeYoung encouraged us to separate ourselves from the church or from the historical insights of others. Nor would I urge such a thing.

But, are you able to compare everything you hear with the Scripture? Do you have confidence that these precious words have been spoken by God the Holy Spirit for your growth in grace? Do you understand that Scripture’s authority lies in the text, and not in your experience of the text nor in the teaching you sit under? Do you see that when you pay closer attention to these Spirit-spoken words, the Lord Jesus Christ (the Morning Star) will rise in your heart (2 Peter 1:19)?

Though I appreciated DeYoung’s messages at last week’s conference, I’m sure I’ll forget most of what he said soon enough. But he explained the books of Hebrews and 2 Peter in such a way that I don’t think I’ll ever read them the same way again. He explained these books so clearly that I don’t need to hear DeYoung’s messages again. I have the text itself, and that’s enough.

That said, I highly commend his book to you. Not simply because it has the words “knowable” and “word” in the title, but because it will unravel for you the riches of how God views his own word. It will inspire you to love God’s word the way God himself does.

I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. (Ps 119:16, ESV)

It is impossible to revere the Scriptures more deeply or affirm them more completely than Jesus did. Jesus submitted his will to the Scriptures, committed his brain to studying the Scriptures, and humbled his heart to obey the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus, God’s Son and our Savior, believed his Bible was the word of God down to the sentences, to the phrases, to the words, to the smallest letter, to the tiniest specks—and that nothing in all those specks and in all those books in his Holy Bible could ever be broken. (DeYoung, Kindle location 1330)

Though I received a free copy of DeYoung’s book at last week’s conference, I purchased the Kindle edition so I’d be able to give the hard copy away. It’s that good.

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The Amazon link above is an affiliate link, so if you click it and buy stuff you’ll help ordinary people learn to study the Bible at no extra cost to yourself.

Fight for the Main Point

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The main points of the Bible are the ones worth fighting for. Often, however, Christians disagree over things other than the main points. And while we’re not wrong to draw conclusions about secondary, debatable, or implied points, such conclusions must never drown out the Bible’s main points.

Alex Indigo (2008), Creative Commons

Alex Indigo (2008), Creative Commons

The Pharisees demonstrate the problem. As the fundamentalists of their day, they cared about God’s truth. They wanted to glorify God and live lives pleasing to him. They passionately protected important doctrines, and they went to great lengths to win converts and change the world.

But in the process of remembering good things, they forgot the best things.

They attended Bible studies to improve their lives, but they didn’t embrace Life when God sent him (John 5:39-40).

They promoted God’s moral standards to a degenerate, fallen world, but they plotted harm on the day designed for doing good (Mark 3:1-6).

They put God first over every relationship, but they neglected God’s own wishes for human relationships (Matthew 15:3-6).

Sometimes Jesus condemns them for doing the wrong things, but sometimes he condemns them for neglecting the best things. Consider this judgement in Matthew 23:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matt 23:23-24, ESV)

Notice that they should have continued tithing. They weren’t expected to exercise justice, mercy, or faithfulness instead of giving 10%. They were expected to exercise justice, mercy, and faithfulness in addition to it. They always drank skim milk, but then got caught eating too much ice cream.

Today, we likewise can get distracted from the Bible’s main points. The worst distractions are not bad things but good things. They’re not false teaching but true teaching. They’re not opposed to God’s kingdom but in favor of God’s kingdom. These distractions consist of things that should concern us, but they’re not the only things that should concern us. Nor are they the main things that should concern us. We should reserve plenty of bandwidth for the weightier matters.

For example, we study Genesis 1 and focus our discussion on the length or literalness of the days of creation. We spend so much time on the “what” that we forget to seek the “why,” and we mistakenly believe we know the “why” because we’ve discovered the “what.” We might get the “what” (“What is the length of each day?”), and we should try hard to get the “what.” But we must press on to get the “why” (“Why does the author tell the story of creation as a sequence of 7 days?”). We must not neglect the fact that God’s creative process sets the pattern for our lives on earth (Mark 10:6-9, 2 Cor 4:5-6, Heb 4:1-5). And we must not ignore Jesus—the creator, light, life, word, sustainer, ruler, subduer, multiplier, author of faith, image of the invisible God, and firstborn of all creation.

For another example, we study Hebrews 11 and trumpet the heroes of faith. And rightly so, as the text recounts their lives with much fanfare. But we must not miss the main point. It’s a faith hall of fame and not a works hall of fame. The point is not so much to show the greatness of these heroes as it is to show their smallness. We should fix our gaze on these heroes, but only as long as we keep Jesus in our field of vision. The heroes huddle around us, bearing witness to the real Hero, Jesus (Heb 12:1-2).

Finding a passage’s main point is hard work, but we must fight to get it. And once we’ve got it, we must fight to keep it.

Jesus is Your Resume

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This is a guest post by my friend and co-worker Dan Miller, who has a video blog at Video Verses.  You can follow him on Facebook.

 

suitAs a Christian, the best work you’ll ever do for God’s kingdom is believe in the work of Jesus.

Do you agree with that?  Or do you work under the assumption that child-like faith in Jesus is a good thing…but it belongs on your résumé somewhere below the great number of people you’ve managed?

If that is what your résumé looks like, Jesus is not hiring.

That’s been His policy all along, and yet there’s hope.  Just look at the Bible’s most capable manager.

Joseph.  A man who, no matter what life threw at him, seemed unstoppable.  Sold into slavery as a teenager in a foreign land, he rose to manage the estate of a powerful man.  Then after being framed and losing everything, he rose from “neglected prisoner” to “essentially the most powerful man in Egypt.”  His rise came during a devastating time: a famine that could have leveled the entire world.

Fortunately for the world, Joseph was the right man for the job.

Joseph led Egypt to store their abundance before the famine hit, so they could feed themselves, the nations, and the world.  Including the brothers who were so unkind to him and the person who had framed him.

In a nutshell, Joseph rose from convict to savior of the world.  How would you like that on your résumé?

Now, stop planning your financial future for a moment, and consider Hebrews 11, the “who’s who” of the Old Testament.  To no one’s surprise, Joseph made it in there.  What do you think was on his résumé?

By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:22, ESV)

That’s it?

Yes.  According to the writer of Hebrews, this is the most important thing to know about Joseph’s life’s work.  Back in Genesis 12, God made a promise to Joseph’s great-grandpa Abraham.  This promise continued through the line, but as awesome as Joseph’s life was, the promise didn’t come true during his lifetime.  Rather than questioning God and dying a bitter old man, Joseph believed God.  He believed so strongly, in fact, that he denied himself a prominent burial, instead saying, “Descendents, take my bones to the Promised Land yourself.”  About 500 years later, they did.

God always keeps His promises.

But God had a bigger, better promise, and the name of that promise is Jesus.  In John 3:16, Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me will not perish, but have eternal life.”  The real goal for God’s people was not land acquisition, but restoration to the holy God who made us, whom we betrayed.  This restoration came totally through Jesus, who is alive and well, interceding for us despite our best efforts to stop Him.  He has given us new life and a glorious new mission – to proclaim HIS name.  He’s also given us the strength for the mission.

That’s the point: your belief in Jesus’ work is the greatest work you will ever offer the world.  In other words, it’s not just at the top of your résumé, it is your résumé.

So as you live the rest of your life, remember that faith in Jesus is your greatest weapon, and your greatest danger is faith in anything else.

Be Specific in Your Application

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hidingBible study is perfect for people like me who fear exposure.  We who love to mince words and divert attention feel right at home in some churches because it’s easy to deceive spiritual people with high-minded platitudes.

“How are you today?”  “I’m too blessed to be stressed.”

“What did you think of the sermon?”  “It was pretty good.  I like the pastor.  He’s easy to listen to.”

“How would you like to grow this year?”  “I don’t pray enough.  I need to pray more.”

“I need to love my family.”

“I’d like to be a witness to my coworkers.”

And on and on and on.

We hear God’s Word all the time, but we often respond so generally that we rarely change.  But God wants to change specific people in specific ways.  So we must be specific in our application.

The Apostle John wrote a letter to churches infiltrated by false teachers.  These teachers were slick.  They were full of vague platitudes like “We know God” and “We love God’s people,” but something was seriously wrong beneath the surface.  True believers were second-guessing themselves and their assurance of eternal life because these teachers claimed to have critical inside knowledge unavailable to the masses.

John tackles the issue head-on at the beginning of the letter:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8, ESV).

In other words, anyone who refuses to acknowledge that he is a sinner is utterly deceived.  There is no fast-track with God that can eliminate sin this side of glory.  Anyone who claims otherwise does not live in reality.

But notice which error John exposes next:

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us (1 John 1:10).

In other words, when confronted with a specific sin, anyone who covers it up, shifts the blame, or denies it calls God a liar.  This person does not understand God’s Word.

What is the point?

John says that those who understand God’s Knowable Word will acknowledge two things:

  1. They have sin (as a general fact)
  2. They have sinned (in specific instances)

It’s not enough to trust in Christ to forgive your sin, if you are not willing to ‘fess up to the details.

This means that our application of Scripture must be specific.  Platitudes aren’t enough.  General principles will go only so far.

Skull detailsWhat does it mean to apply the Bible specifically?

  1. Point your finger at yourself before you point it at anybody else.  You’re not qualified to help others grow in Christ unless you are growing in Christ yourself.
  2. Focus on your heart more than on your behavior.  Don’t apply the Bible shallowly.  Figure out what you desire or believe, and work to change those desires and beliefs.  Don’t worry, your behavior will follow.
  3. Know your next steps.  Don’t be satisfied with your application until you’ve identified specific steps you can take to address the issue.  When you close the Bible and walk away, what will you do to put the application into practice?  How will you remember these lessons in the midst of temptation?
  4. Make progress measurable.  How will you know if you did the application or not?  “Pray more” is not measurable.  Next week, can I ask you if you prayed more?  Prayed more than what?  How?  When?
  5. Put off and put on.  Think of application as a process of stopping certain things and starting other things.  Put off the old self and put on the new self.  Don’t focus on stopping sin without actually replacing it with godliness.
  6. Don’t be lame.  It’s easy for application to become mechanical or to miss the point (“tomorrow I’ll set my alarm 10 minutes early and pray…”).  Ask others who know you, “what do you think I most need to grow in?”  Target those areas.  Don’t miss the point of what God wants to do in your life by focusing on irrelevant minutiae.

God’s Knowable Word is a piercing Word.  It rips us apart and puts us back together.  It identifies exactly what is wrong with the world: me and you.  It shows us the solution: Jesus.  It gives us hope that we can break the patterns of brokenness and replace them with more life-giving options.  Let it speak to the details of your life (Heb 4:12-13).

The Difference between a Main Point and a Summary

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A main point is not the same thing as a summary.

In Bible study, it’s important to find the author’s main point.  If you miss the main point, you’ve missed the main point.  You’ll get caught up in secondary issues, questionable interpretations, or divisive doctrines.

One of the most difficult struggles for people in learning to study the Bible is to figure out the author’s main point.  It requires them to learn how to think.  They must learn how to ask good questions, and how to get the answers they need.

In addition, it requires them to learn how to figure out why the passage is there.

The most common counterfeit of the main point is the summary.  It’s not all that difficult to read a passage and summarize it.  We do it all the time.  We summarize news articles, blog posts, novels, and movies.

Note, however, that a summary is not a main point.

A summary may be the climax of observation, but it is not the same as interpretation.

A summary captures what was said, but not why it was said.

A summary restates a passage; a main point explains the passage.

Let me give an example.

In Hebrews 7:1-28, the author writes a profound theology of Jesus’ high priesthood.  There’s your summary: “Jesus is a high priest like Melchizedek.”  He contrasts Melchizedek with Aaron.  He engages with a few obscure Old Testament texts.  He provides fodder for our debates on Bible interpretation, the relationship between old and new covenants, and the relevance of the law.

However, he is crystal clear about his main point.  Look at Heb 8:1, ESV:

“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest…”

The theology serves a purpose.  It ought to inspire hope and confidence.  Those who fear God’s displeasure ought to rest assured in Christ.  Those who presume on God’s graces ought to tremble at their indifference.

The author desires to move his audience to action.  He doesn’t seek to inform their thinking (and then stop there).  He wants to inspire them to set their hope on the only one who can give what he promises.

What does he say?  Jesus is a great high priest, greater even than the Levitical priests.

Why does he say it?  So you might trust him more confidently and draw near to God through him.

Do you see the difference?  Do you see why it’s important to understand the main point (and not just the summary)?  Unless we really hit the main point in Bible study, application remains far off and obscure or disconnected from the text.

The good news is that, once you have a summary of the passage, it’s not complicated to get to the main point.  Just take your summary and ask “Why?”

What to Observe: Structure

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Rock singer Geddy Lee of Rush once said, “That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.”  As the holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Music, I agree. 

Much music is based on an ABA structure.  You start with a musical idea, develop that idea (or go to a second idea), and then return to the main idea.  “Three Blind Mice” is a good example, where the line “three blind mice” represents the A section, and the stuff in the middle is the B section.

Similarly, when we learn how to study the Bible, a good skill to develop is how to observe structure.  It is another thing to observe, after words and grammar.

Let’s observe Luke 2:1-24 as an example.  Look at the flow of the story:

A The pomp of the Roman government and census

B Joseph and Mary give birth to a son

C Shepherds were living out in the field

D An angel appeared with a message about the Lord

E An army of angels appeared, praising God, saying:

F “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace”

E The angels left and went back to heaven

D The shepherds believe the message from the Lord, and they go, sharing it

C The shepherds return to their field, glorifying and praising God

B The son is named Jesus

A The humility of Jesus’ family (who couldn’t afford sheep for sacrifice)

Such an outline, where the second half is sort of a mirror image of the first half, was really common in ancient literature.  One reason why they did it was to make it easier to hear the passage read aloud.  You could hear the story move in towards a climax and then unravel back out.

It helps to observe such things, because the climax of such a structure usually comes at the center.  In this case, we see that God is concerned with his own glory (in contrast to the glory of Rome), and he will use Jesus to bring about peace between himself and those with whom he is pleased.

Other parts of the Bible use more logical structures.  For example, look at Hebrews 2:17-7:28.

I.  Jesus is a merciful and faithful high priest – 2:17-18

A.  Jesus is a faithful high priest – 3:1-6

B.  Application – 3:7-4:14

C.  Jesus is a merciful high priest – 4:15-5:10

D.  Application – 5:11-6:20

II.  Jesus is a high priest like Melchizedek – 6:20

A.  Explanation: how Jesus is like Melchizedek – 7:1-28

This outline covers just a portion of the book of Hebrews.  The entire book is structured similarly: a point is stated, then explained and applied.  The application leads into the next point, which is stated, explained, and applied.

Observing the structure is one step in our study.  Once we see it, we’re better equipped to identify the sections so we can interpret and apply them.

We’ve now had three posts on specific observation skills: observing words, grammar, and structure.  Have you noticed how each post had a common structure?  Check ’em out again, and use your new-found skills when you study the Bible.