ANOTHER REASON THAT THE BIBLE IS ACTUALLY THE WORD OF GOD

There are many reasons to believe that the Bible is the Word of God – miracles, fulfilled prophecies, internal and external consistency, changed lives and societies, the very nature of Scripture, along with our very personal reasons. However, I just want to focus here on just one form of evidence – the Gospel, which unifies the entire Bible.

The Gospel or the Good News is actually highly offensive. It is the last message that we humans would invent if we want to attract people to our new religion. It informs us that we are all such sinners that we are headed to damnation without it. It demands that we not only believe this about ourselves and our fellow humans, but that we also believe that the Messiah is our only hope. As such, it is highly invasive, even imperialistic and exclusive of all other faiths. A more marketable message might say, “You can keep your old faith as long as you also accept Jesus,” but the Gospel forbids this.

Nevertheless, for those of us who receive this offensive message, we come to find that this is the very News that we need, the missing part of the puzzle of humanity:

·       So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32; ESV)

The Gospel sets us free in many ways. But how can a message so offensive to our self-esteem set us free? First, we have to see that we are in bondage, held captive by delusions more limiting than chains. I think that Jesus’ parable about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector can illuminate this.

The Pharisee, an esteemed religious leader, should have been enjoying freedom. He had seemingly arrived. However, like the rest of humanity, he was in bondage to his inner yet invisible needs to obsessively prove himself:

·       He [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’” (Luke 18:9-12)

Ostensibly, the Pharisee had entered the temple to pray to God. However, he was actually praying “with himself” according to the Greek. He was so imprisoned to his need to justify himself that he wasn’t even praying to God. Instead, he was trusting in his own righteousness. But did he really trust in it? Not really! In order continually prove that he was a worthy person, he had to disdain others and, therefore, “treated others with contempt.”

He was a person in bondage to himself but didn’t know it. Therefore, he felt the ever-pressing need to prove himself, even in the temple, in presence of God – “I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”

We have no reason to doubt that he did fast and tithe. However, he was unwilling to confront the way that he had been deceiving himself to convince himself of his superiority and merit. He was shackled to chains of his own making and was unwilling to see how he too had fallen far short of God’s standards of truth and of love.

However, a despised and sinful tax collector had also entered into the temple to pray. However, he lacked the self-esteem of the Pharisee. Therefore, he couldn’t even look up but cried out for the mercy, which he knew that he didn’t deserve:

·       “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”

He was so broken that self-delusion had failed him. He was unable to believe that he was free and entitled to anything good from God. However, he was the one who found mercy:

·       “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)

Jesus’ lesson was both offensive and counter-intuitive. Even His disciples had been convinced that the Pharisee was entitled to God’s blessings. They were typical men who only were able to see superficially. They were unable to see the Pharisees’ chains – his self-deception, self-righteousness, entitlement mentality, and captivity to always having to prove himself. Consequently, this parable had little impact on them. Right afterwards, they once again demonstrated their failure to see reality from Jesus’ perspective by baring children from coming to Jesus for His blessings:

·       Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:15-17)

How dare these little children presume that they were entitled to Jesus’ blessings! They had no accomplishments to show for themselves as had the Pharisees. Jesus, therefore, corrected them. The little children were actually the type that the Lord sought for His Kingdom. Therefore, His disciples had to become like them. But how? What did they have that the disciples lacked? Elsewhere, Jesus identified their humility (Matthew 18:1-4), their willingness to acknowledge that God’s mercy was all about God and not about their merit.

The Pharisees and Jesus’ disciples are typical of the rest of us. We are in bondage to our need to prove ourselves. We boast of our accomplishments, money, character, and whatever other commodity that might win us respect. We are driven and deceive ourselves about who we really are. Therefore, we need to be humbled before God will exalt us.

I had also been this way. Even after Jesus came into my life, I carried many old ways of thinking. I was convinced that He saved me because I deserved it. Had He blessed me at this time, I would have been reinforced in my sense of entitlement. Instead, He had to first tear me down to show me my utter need of His mercy.  I began to see what we all know – that there is something terribly wrong with ourselves, even though we cannot face it directly. Instead we cover over our painful and festering psychological/moral sores with mere fig leaves and positive self-affirmations of our goodness.

I had been devastated by this growing awareness. However, the Good News gradually freed me. It informed me that it isn’t about my non-existent righteousness but about His:

·       I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

I can now accept the fact that I am totally unworthy of His mercies, and this is liberating. I no longer have to prove myself and to wear a front. I am freed from this most basic need to look towards the needs of others, assured that Christ accepts me as I am.  I can be transparent and even laugh at myself. I no longer have to run from the real me because He loves me.

How does all of this prove that the Bible is the Word of God? I have found that the most offensive message, a message that is normally distasteful to humanity, is the very Good News that I needed, the message that has set me free, a message that we humans wouldn’t have invented. It is also a message that threads together the entirety of Scripture into a unified whole.