Getting the Most Out of the Bible 4

[HKHaugan]

The Bible is only as effective as the faith in Jesus we bring to it. Anything less reduces it to just another religious book. The Bible is a spiritual, personal and relational development manual. It takes faith to understand it, to embrace it and to share it. Its authenticity and contents are not measured by the response it gets but by the Lord God who authored it.

Again it is how open we are to the Bible that determines the benefits it offers. Jesus gives us a method to achieve that openness. It’s called parable. As you read Jesus’ parables it becomes apparent His goal is to get us to shift our mind from worldly thinking to spiritual thinking, from secular principles to biblical principles, from fear–laced self-protection to faithful motivation and fearless action. This means we assess every next moment in a spiritual framework. Because it is all about Jesus from Genesis to Revelation we consider Him as its context and let the Holy Spirit open it for us.

What we are hoping for in this process is that the Bible’s principles will pop into our minds as we live from moment to moment, which is by the way the work of the Spirit, and we respond spiritually. Obviously we can’t demobilize ourselves until we get a leading. The purpose of being in the Word on a regular basis is to shorten the interval between a perception and a response. Jesus did this perfectly that’s why we turn to Him in Scripture. The more we read it the more our mind opens to the Spirit of God enabling us to respond creatively as Jesus did. He, being conceived by the Spirit, did it perfectly. His life is the example and the reality of the way to live spiritually. His teaching gives us the principles by which a positive evaluation and response come about.

So how did Jesus teach us to think spiritually? One specific way was Parable. This is how Jesus hit the nail on the head so to speak. A parable takes a familiar image and uses it to describe a spiritual reality. If we start with Jesus Himself we see a living parable. From Him proceeds the idea of seeing all physical existence as a parable. We see the Bible as a parable. We see the stories and teachings in it as parables. Language is a parable. Each of us is a parable. We use the parable idea when we describe sacraments. “A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” Baptism with water and the Lord’s Supper with bread and wine are worship parables. Think how they convey a spiritual message.

A parable takes something out of visible reality to describe something from invisible reality. A cuddly kitten can evoke a feeling of affection. A bridge can signify the connection between friends. A ring given in marriage seals a relationship. A handshake is an extension of the willingness to know another person. In literature poetry is an attempt to share an impression that goes beyond the words expressed. The same is true of a painting, a sculpture, a movie, a book or an architectural project.

The ability to see the invisible in the visible is Jesus’ way of getting us to think spiritually, to believe spiritually, to trust spiritually and to act spiritually.

In reality Jesus is a spiritual artist, architect, author, poet and sculptor in the imagery of His life and teaching. He brings the spiritual dimension into definition, reason and application. His goal is the recovery of each heart to His Father through the Spirit. This is what John means when he said that, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).”

As an example of this parabolic approach let’s liken Jesus to the conductor of a symphony who has the responsibility to direct an overall program. What is that conductor’s task? It’s to supervise and direct a collaboration of sounds to reach the hearts of the listeners so that they perceive and celebrate beauty, emotion and oneness as they partake in an existence where time and self are lost in appreciation of the moment. He is in charge of organizing and blending the musical score and the musicians each with personal training and practice, the behind-the-scenes management, the planning, the rehearsals, the audience and the details. He anticipates the issues and problems in preparation, making allowance and satisfaction for individual needs. When put together it all has to be undertaken as the composer designed. It has to be performed in such a way as to convey the composer’s intention and touch the hearts of those in the audience. He has to convey his spirit’s grasp of the spirit of the composer and engage the spirit of the audience.

The Bible is like the score of a symphony that the director has before him. Its theme is Jesus and the salvation He brings. Each book is a chord, a note, a phrase and together, directed by Him and played by us His musicians, His music rolls across the universe. The Bible is the great parable and He is its author. The Bible enables us to be part of the symphony the Father is playing through Jesus in the stream of the Spirit.

Taking this to the next level we want to see the physical structures in the Old Testament as the first movement describing God’s reality. The Old Testament is a parable about Jesus beginning the recovery of God’s creation. The first thing to see is God’s main priority for us, the reclamation of the heart. The problem of the heart is shown in Gen. 6:5-6. Man’s heart was totally lost. God’s heart was in pain for His people. The prophets bemoan the condition of the human heart. So God’s plan of recovery is centered on the heart. It is a three-part plan that covers the entire framework of the Bible, the land of Israel (parallel to the Kingdom of God), the city of Jerusalem (the community of hearts) and the Temple (the heart of God and our heart). These three are the visible pictures that depict spiritual reality. Israel is the heartland, Jerusalem is the community of hearts and the Temple is the individual heart. This is what we mean when we say we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

When God calls Abraham He calls Him to be the father of a heart people. That is the beginning of the restoration of the individual heart to God. Then He calls Moses to bring the heart people into the heartland that will be governed by God’s Law to bring them into spiritual shape. After this the temple for God’s heart is built to ready the people to receive Him personally. When He comes in Jesus His teaching and life all point to the heart of God in the individual. This is God’s way of preparing the human heart to be the temple in which God resides through the Holy Spirit. It is Jesus who will be the eternal temple. The goal is to be a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (1Peter 2:9).”

The Law is the beginning structure to restore the heart to God through worship, to restore the body to be a healthy environment for the heart and a new social system for healthy heart relationships.

The writings are the history, the personal stories and meditational means to help identify the problem of separation from God and one another and open the heart to the Holy Spirit’s healing and wholeness.

The prophets are the correctors the Lord sends to be spiritual watchdogs. Sin is self-deceiving as well as relationally deceptive. Prophets appear when the people and their leaders compromise themselves with the world and need to be brought back into alignment with God. Again Jeremiah is a good prophetic example when he notes that the heart is deceptive above all things but also gives us all hope when he says “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart (24:7),” and further “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people (31:33).”

What we have in the Old Testament is the preparation for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, God in the flesh who said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all you soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 1):27)” and “A new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (Jn.13:33).”

The New Testament like the Old Testament has three parts, the presentation of Jesus as Savior and Lord, the work of the Holy Spirit and the mission and ministry of the Body of Christ. Revelation is the epilogue, the summary of the whole Bible and the end of the story, the crescendoing climax of the grand symphony.

Just as the conductor of a symphony directs the orchestra to move an audience the purpose of the Bible is to awaken, call and transform the mind, the heart and the spirit of each human being to be like Jesus, the perfect Son of God who is the perfect human image of God (Heb.1:3) and to be part of and function in a family called the Body of Christ. That is the work of the Holy Spirit through Jesus. “So the beat goes on” until He returns.