BACK TO THE WHOLE BIBLE

  

It’s amazing all the ways that we can access all of God’s Word in these days.

1.      We have several dozen versions of the Bible available to us in print.

2.      I have a wonderful study program—the Logos Bible Software—on my P.C. It’s only one of many that are available.

3.      There are wonderful websites available via the Internet, such as Bible Gateway, The Blue Letter Bible and others that have all kinds of study helps.

4.      We have the Bible available on our tablets or iPads or we can have a Bible app installed on our cell phones.

Never in history have the Scriptures been more available to more people, and yet there has never been a time in history when the American Church is so biblically illiterate! 

It seems to me that the more access we have to the Scriptures, the less Christians actually value the Word enough to read and study it. Concurrent with the decline in scriptural knowledge, there has been a decline in spiritual vitality among believers in worship, in evangelism and morality.

As the apostle Paul was finishing his letter to the church at Rome, one of his ending statements was: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4, RSV). 

   

What did Paul mean when he penned the words “for whatever was written in former days”? Was he referring to some of the letters that he had written earlier to other churches? No, he was referring to the Old Testament.

This verse contains a principle of great significance for today’s believer. Everything that was written in Scripture in “former days” was written for us. Not only did it speak to the needs of its own day but it is still relevant in our world. Scripture is relevant because it speaks to our deepest needs and it was designed by God to be that way.

It is through the endurance taught in Scripture and the encouragement it brings that we are enabled to live in hope, in the confident expectation that just as God has intervened on our behalf in the past, so He will again! The word “endurance” in this verse is speaking of the power to handle hardship or stress. Our taking in “all the Word” is making a deposit of the power to endure. It is the power of God that will encourage us and strengthen us during hard and stressful times and God wants us to be partakers of what He has provided.

When you separate yourself from Scripture, you are turning a deaf ear to the voice of a heavenly Father anxious to help you and impart strength and encouragement into your life.

What Paul wrote in Romans 15:4 was not a new message for him. Years earlier he had written to the church in Corinth and said: “Now these things happened to them (in the Old Testament) as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11, ESV). 

Years later, just before he was martyred, Paul said to Timothy, “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV).  Paul was affirming that all Scripture is from God Himself, meaning that its teachings are timeless. All Scripture is powered by the Holy Spirit and all Scripture is for us to be taught by—all Scripture!

   

One reason I love reading both the Old and New Testaments is because the Old Testament helps me to understand the New Testament. For example, in the Old Testament, Israel is a picture or a type of the New Testament believer. Egypt represents the world and Israel’s journey through the wilderness represents our spiritual journey as followers of Jesus Christ.

The Bible makes it clear that all of Israel’s battles are illustrations of our spiritual battles today: “Now these things happened to them as an example: but they are written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11). The word “instruction” here is a word that in the original language means “This was written as a warning or as advice meant to keep us from danger or other unpleasantness.”

All these Old Testament examples are meant to keep us from falling into unbelief, as Israel did. The author of Hebrews writes, “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (4:11, KJV). In other words, “Study the Old Testament as well as the New, and learn from Israel’s example. Don’t make the same mistakes they did!”

I think it’s time for us to commit to getting “Back to the whole Bible.”