Which Is Better?

 

When reading Scripture, when preaching and teaching, which is better? To ask, “Is this passage true?” Or to ask, “How is this truth manifested? How do we see this truth working out in our lives? How do we see Jesus Christ? How do we respond in obedience to this passage?”

 

The disciple of Jesus Christ receives the testimony of God, and the Holy Spirit bears witness to God’s testimony, God’s Word. We are the sons and daughters of God our Father, Jesus Christ is our brother, the Holy Spirit lives within us – the Trinity lives within us and we live within the Trinity; ought we not to learn to speak and listen and respond to the Word as partakers of the Divine Nature?

 

Do I sit in judgment on the Word of God, or do I bow before His Word?

 

If I sit in judgment on one aspect of God’s Word, then do I not sit in judgment on all aspects of His Word…and do I not teach others to do so?

 

If I seek validation of His Word from the wisdom of man, even from the wisdom of “Christian man,” in one aspect of His Testimony (such as the Resurrection), do I not seek validation from the wisdom of man for all aspects of His Testimony? Am I not modeling this way of validation for others?

 

This is not to say that we do not share our testimonies regarding our pilgrimage in His Word, our voyages of discovery, our challenges, and the transforming work of the Spirit within us; but this is not the same as asking the Church, “Is this Scripture passage true?” and then looking to testimony outside the Bible for validation.

 

To accept God’s Testimony as our ground of being is to live in the koinonia of the Holy Trinity. Accepting His Testimony we can then query, “How do we see His Word manifesting itself in our lives, in the Body of Christ, in history?” Accepting His Word, we can then teach and demonstrate how His Word is expressed within us, the Church, the world, and creation.

 

This goes to the heart of epistemology, and the essence of Biblical epistemology is supernatural (1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16), with its ground in the Trinity (John chapters 13 – 17).

 

Do we teach our people to sit in judgment on the Word, or to sit under the Word and to respond in obedience to the Word? Do we teach our people to seek validation from the wisdom of men, whether regenerate or unregenerate men? (1 Cor. 2:5).

 

There is a vital difference between asking, “Is this Bible passage true?” and then seeking the answer outside the Testimony of God (the Bible); and receiving the Bible passage as True, as God’s Testimony, and then acknowledging the witness of others to the Truth, demonstrating how the Living Word works within others to the glory of Christ.

 

For the Christian, seeking validation of the Bible outside the Bible may be akin to, “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now seeking perfection through the flesh, the natural?”