Rethinking the B.I.B.L.E.

For about the past year I have been challenged to rethink so many views, beliefs and opinions that I have held for a long time. There have been a number of contributing factors to this "rethinking" process that I have been going through and I can't remember what the first domino was that has set off this chain, but I felt this one was of key importance.

Is the Bible our Instruction Manual?

Have you ever heard of the Bible referred to as the B.I.B.L.E. or the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth? While I realize this moniker has been considered helpful for Sunday School classes I feel that this may be a harmful nickname.

I don't want to get overly philosophical, but I feel it is important for us to notice that if we view the Bible as our instruction manual then it becomes primarily about us. The purpose of an instruction manual is to tell you how to best use the device that the manual was written about. The instruction manual for my TV remote tells me how to program the remote so that it will be useful. If the Bible is the Basic Instructions (for us) Before Leaving Earth, notice that this makes the Bible primarily a book that is meant to tell us how to be useful here on earth. I don't want to ignore the fact that the Bible absolutely has instructions for us as believers, but are the instructions the primary reason why God gave us the Scriptures?

As already mentioned, if the instructions are primary then it would seem that the Bible is all about us, it is a book about how we are supposed to live better lives and be better people. Now at first glance this may seem like a reasonable thought, but the entire Old Testament records the failure of the Israelites to keep the Law - the instructions for how to live. It seems that if God's plan to make us better people was to be brought about by giving us the Law or instructions for life, that His plan has failed.

Now as Christians today we know that it was never God's plan to 'fix' us with the Law. Paul is very clear in his letter to the Galatians that the Law was given to lead us to Christ (3:24). Every Christian I know wholeheartedly agrees with this, but we continue to fall back into looking at the Bible as the B.I.B.L.E..

The evidence of this is how we read and study our Bibles today. Most of us have heard and practiced the Observation, Interpretation and Application method of Bible study. I certainly don't want to get rid of this method because I use it too, but if we approach the Scriptures this way without first settling why God gave us the Bible we will tend to Observe and Apply the wrong things. If we view the Bible as an instruction manual then we will tend to Observe the instructions and then Apply them to our lives missing the far greater purpose that God intended.

Why did God give us the Bible? How should we read it?

If the Bible is not primarily an Instruction Manual then why did God give it to us? This is a huge topic but for our purposes lets consider the following: God didn't have to create us, but He did knowing full well that man would fall. God didn't have to save us, but Jesus came and died for our sins. These are the two most pivotal events recorded for us in the Bible because without creation we don't exist, and without a Savior we are all condemned to die for our sins. So it would seem that the Bible is primarily God's revelation of Himself as our Creator and Savior. A better way to summarize this would be that the Bible is the story of God's plan of redemption.

Now let us reconsider the Application aspect of Bible reading and study with this as our backdrop. How do we Apply a story to our lives? Sure there are timeless truths and principles for us to learn from, but if we are to honor the heart of God's purpose for revealing Himself to us in Scripture they will be secondary. So what is our response to be?

To illustrate this, in Exodus 19 we read about when the Israelites are gathered at the base of Mt Sinai and God 'revealed' Himself in a cloud over the mountain with thunder and lightning and the sound of a trumpet (19:16; 20:18), and it says that all the people in the camp trembled. The Israelites experienced a partial revelation of God's power in the events of that day and they were awe struck.

While the Israelites trembled at a partial revelation of God's power, today we read our Bibles while looking back from this side of the cross which reveals to us the gospel, which Paul tells us is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom 1:16). Our first response to reading and studying the Scripture should be worship. As we read we should join in the chorus of, "I'm amazed, I am amazed, at what Your Word tells me You did. I'm amazed, I am amazed, You gave it all so I might live. I am amazed with You!"

Yes, there certainly are instructions in the Bible however, they play a distant back seat to the story of God's plan of redemption. The true Application of the Word of God to our lives is first and foremost that we would respond in worship to our magnificent Creator who also came to be our all-sufficient Savior.