HOW I KNOW THAT THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD

There are many reasons for this. Here's one - the Bible gives me the very truths I need for peace of mind and well-being. Here's an example:

I had been a very jealous person and even carried this jealousy into my Christian life. I resented those who seemed to be more spiritual than I, those who were clearly blessed, and those who were recognized for their spiritual contributions.

Meanwhile, I was tormented by what I was beginning to see about myself. I was seeing that I was totally unworthy of receiving anything from God, apart from punishment, and yet I was powerless to do anything about it. I even hated others more in the midst of my helplessness. I was sure that while God loved them, He disdained me. How could He not!

However, the Word of God was at work within me. I began to see things that I had never seen before - that God's love didn't depend on my worthiness but His alone. I was assured that we are all one in Christ and co-heirs of everything that belonged to Him; that I didn't have to worry about my performance or worthiness.

He assured me that He wanted to give me the world and would withhold nothing of any value from me. (I had been afraid, that even if I did make it into heaven, I would make it as the chimney-sweep and would suffer from eternal jealousy and resentment.)

God's reassurances have changed my jealousy into a concern for my brethren, now wanting only the best for them.

How has this transformation occurred? Through His Word:

• Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)

However, this is no mere mental exercise. Such a transformation can only occur as the Holy Spirit enlivens these truths for us, convincing us of their surpassing value and verity. I praise God for what He has done for me through His Word!

Transformation, Growth, and Christian Maturity

From where does growth come? It is product of God, the Spirit bearing fruit in our lives (Gal. 5:22). As the branch must be attached to the base and roots in order to bear fruit, we have to be attached to our Lord (John 15:4-5). Without Him, we can do nothing.

Nevertheless, our efforts matter. Paul described the Christians he was growing as “our letter”:

• You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone. It is clear that you are Christ’s letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh. We have this kind of confidence toward God through Christ. ⌊It is⌋ not that we are competent in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence is from God. (2 Corinthians 3:2-5)

After declaring them “our letter,” Paul then insisted that they are “Christ’s letter, produced by us” and written by the Spirit. Well which is it? Does growth come from Paul or from the Spirit? Both! But it is the Spirit working through Paul. Paul therefore confessed that he could do nothing on his own:

• But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Paul confessed that even his strenuous efforts were the work of grace. Consequently, he could not take credit even for his labors! Instead, it was a matter of God working in him to produce His fruit (Phil. 2:13).

The Spirit uses certain means, foremost of which is the Word:

• Like newborn infants, desire the pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it for ⌊your⌋ salvation. (1 Peter 2:2; also Rom. 12:1; Acts 20:32; 2 Peter 1:2-3; Psalm 1) 

Paul understood that the Word of God was the tool of the Spirit. Therefore, he entrusted the Church to this Word:

• “And now I commit you to God and to the message of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. (Acts 20:32) 

But this work of the Spirit does not preclude our obedience, our responsibilities. We must pray (James 4:1-3) and meditate on His Word if we want to receive (Psalm 1). Nevertheless, we thank God for nourishing our heart to accomplish these responsibilities:

• [Jesus] the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, develops with growth from God. (Colossians 2:19)

What are these “ligaments and tendons” through which God grants growth? That’s us – the Body of Christ. In order to maximize growth, we need to be connected. How?

• But speaking the truth [of Scripture] in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head—Christ. From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

If our muscles are to receive their nutrients, they must be connected to the blood vessels, and the blood vessels to the heart, and the heart to the lungs and stomach. These pull in nutrients from the outside. As the Body does its job, it channels the grace of God (the growth nutrients) to the rest of the Body. Foremost among the nutrients is the “speaking the truth in love.” Why love? If the truth is spoken in the context of love, it is better understood and received. How can we receive the message of truth when we are entrapped by bitterness! However, when we are experiencing the love of the Body, our mouths and ears are open to the next morsel of food.

Why are we not open to the brethren? Why does the food of the Word not find fertile soil among us? Perhaps we are too full.

Imagine being hunted down by ISIS and the only comfort we can find is among our brethren. How different would things be! Thank God for the trials!

The Word of God: Hidden Glory

God hides His glory in the humblest of places, like the birth of the Savior and Creator of the world in smelly, manure-filled stall. What good could come from such a stench-filled place! Curiously, He did the same thing with the most concentrated, life-transforming wisdom this world has ever known. He placed it in a book written by human hands, in human language, portraying more human failings – the Bible.

Had not the shepherds been  alerted by angels to this strange event, they might have passed by Jesus’ manger only to laugh in scorn at the poor family “cursed” to give birth in such squalor. Failing to see the glory contained within its pages, passers-by, even seminaries, now scorn the Bible as a mere human document.

I just lifted from the web a saying ascribed to Martin Luther:

• The Bible is alive; it speaks to me. It has feet; it runs after me. It has hands; it lays hold of me!

Whether or not Luther actually wrote these words, I think they indicate that there is glory in its pages – a glory that will be perceived only by heavenly intervention.

Jesus referred to its cleansing hands that have laid hold to us and won’t let us go:

• You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. (John 15:3) 

He prayed to the Father “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). In a glorious way, this Word is able to cleanse and sanctify us. It did so for Moses after He had spent 40 days and nights with the Lord. His face had been so transformed that it glowed, and he had to cover it.

Some people wrongly think that the glow was merely the product of being with God all that time. However, according to Scripture, it was a product of the Word, “because he had spoken with the Lord” (Exodus 34:29). And when He finally spoke with the Israelites, there was not a word about his incredible mountain-top experience. Instead, it was all about God’s words.

This is because God stands behind this Word. Paul calls it “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16.) Later, he reiterates the power of this Word to cleanse believers of their sin and its tarnishing effects:

• Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word. (Ephes. 5:25-26) 

How can mere words cleanse? They can’t, apart from the Holy Spirit. In the hand of God, the Word is able to make surgical incisions to expose and remove cognitive malignancies:

• For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

These malignancies consist of our sinful thinking that opposes itself to both life and God.

Peter describes this saving Word as “living and enduring,” imbued with divine attributes:

• For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." [Isaiah 40:8] And this is the word that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23-25)

It is so incredible that Scripture is endowed with divine attributes, that many want to deprive Scripture of this honor. They do this by pointing out that Christ is the Word of God (John 1:1). However, in no way does this verse suggest that there is only one Word of God – Jesus – and therefore, Scripture cannot also be the Word of God.

However, Peter explicitly states that this Word of God which saves is that very Word “that was preached to you” (1 Pet. 1:25). There is no getting away from the fact that God uses Scripture to evoke understanding and miraculously transform us. In this regard, Peter makes a radical statement we tend to gloss over:

• Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:2-3)

Amazingly, God imparts to us every spiritual blessing through the knowledge of Him! This can happen in very simple ways.

For decades, I had suffered from severe depression and panic attacks that left me utterly devastated. Nothing could lift me out of these attacks. I was left utterly powerless. Many nights, I could not sleep, pray, or even read the Bible. When I did read the Bible, I could only understand the simplest statements. However, on a number of occasions, I would read a simple statement like, “And the Lord heard him.”

I experienced nothing short of an explosion as the Spirit made these words come alive for me. The depression was swept away as if they were no more substantial than scattered crumbs. I knew that my God had heard me and nothing else mattered!

I had many such experiences, However that had been many years ago. After the depression and panic attacks shriveled away, these intense illuminations also bid me farewell, but not what they had taught me.

How Do We Experience God?

We no longer see the church as a place to learn about God but a place to experience God. Likewise, discipleship has been replaced by therapy; meditation on Scripture has been pushed aside by meditation on our inner states and visualizing God. Brennan Manning writes:

·        “The first step in faith is to stop thinking about God in prayer…” “Contemplative spirituality tends to emphasize the need for a change in consciousness…we must come to see reality differently.” “Choosing a single, sacred word…repeat the sacred word inwardly, slowly, and often.” “Enter into the great silence of God. Alone in that silence, the noise within will subside and the Voice of Love will be heard.” (The Signature of Jesus – Quoted from Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing, 83).

Ironically, “thinking about God” is the essence of all prayer and worship. We endure the hard times by thinking of Jesus (Hebrews 12:2); we reconfigure our lives according to our Scriptural understanding of God (Phil 3:3-8); we are even transformed as we contemplate God (2 Cor. 3:18 – 4:6). Jesus promised that we are freed by this truth of God:

·        To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32

We are never admonished in Scripture to meditate on a magical “single, sacred word” but on truth:

·        Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:8)

According to Scripture, we grow and are transformed, not by any techniques or visualizations, but by truths that the Spirit applies to our heart and mind:

·        In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. (1 Tim. 4:6)

·        Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. (1 Peter 2:2)

·        And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Why did God devise salvation – a saving relationship with Him – through acknowledging the truth instead of through spiritual techniques? A Samaritan woman informed Jesus that the essence of their religious differences were a matter of geography. The Samaritans worshiped on Mt. Gerazim and the Jews worshipped on Mt. Zion. However, Jesus insisted that true worship – true relationship – had to be based on truth, the nature of God:

·        “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:22-24)

Consequently, we are not free to worship or approach God in any manner that feels right to us. We have to approach the Almighty according to the truth of His Being.

This should be obvious to us. I am not even free to love my wife in the way that feels right to me. I must love her according to who she is. I cannot love her because she might remind me of my first flame. Such a “love” is not an adequate foundation for a relationship. Nor can I love her by visualizing a sexier woman or through the repetition a sexy word or through pornography. I must love her as she truly is. Love has no other foundation apart from truth.

If we are going to connect to God, we have to do it through the truth that He has revealed to us.  Instead, the church has been seduced by all manner of mystics. One popular one is the deceased Henry Nouwen who wrote,

·        “The quiet repetition of a single word can help us to descend with the mind into the heart…The way of simple prayer…opens us to God’s active presence.”

However, “the quiet repetition of a single word” does not follow the pattern of Scripture. Instead, it is the truth of Scripture that transforms us. The Apostle Paul affirmed this truth in many ways:

·        "Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:32)

In fact, Jesus had warned against mindless “repetition[s] of a single word”:

   

·        And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. (Matthew 6:7)

According to Jesus’ thinking, the church is returning to paganism – the pursuit of the ultimate experience. Interestingly, Moses had had the ultimate mountain-top experience. It was so intense that his face literally glowed. However, it didn’t glow because he had merely been with God. Instead, it glowed “because he had spoken with the Lord” (Exodus 34:29). He had been transformed by truth.

Knowing the primacy of God’s truth as the basis of transforming experience, Moses didn’t share his feelings and experiences with his brethren, the Israelites. He didn’t give them a how-to course on “Experiencing God.” Instead, he conveyed to them the very Words of God.

I don’t mean to demean feelings and experiences. We all crave them. However, I hope to understand them in their proper context. I have never been able to conjure up an experience of God. However, I often do feel very intimate with Him when I contemplate who He is and what He has done for me. It is because of these truths that I feel grateful and energized. Likewise, when I think about all that my wife is and what she has done for me, I treasure her.

I certainly don’t want to limit the experience of God to just these experiences. Actually, I even thank God for the severe depression I had undergone for many years. Sometimes it was so crippling, that I was only able to crawl into bed with my Bible. Sometimes I was so tormented that I couldn’t read or even pray. At other times, it felt like I was reading mere empty words. However, there were also times that the words of Scripture became magically alive for one moment. For example, I might read a very simple verse – “And the Lord heard his prayer.” Light came bursting down upon me so miraculously, so intensely, that the depression was driven away as the sun drives away darkness.

I have no formula for this or a technique to bring about such an experience. I just have my God and the knowledge that He loves me and is working in my life even when it feels like He has abandoned me.

I also learned lessons from my encounters, bringing me back to the primacy and the all-sufficiency of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 1 Cor. 4:6-7) and the Spirit who works through it.

Our God cares about truth. That’s why He has ordained that all spiritual blessings would be conferred through the medium of Scripture:

·        Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:2-3)

Meanwhile, Manning and the other mystics assure us that if we “enter into the great silence of God. Alone in that silence, the noise within will subside and the Voice of Love will be heard.” However, our Lord doesn’t require mystical techniques, but repentant souls who are willing to love Him by meditating on His Word:

·        Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him…If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. (John 14:21-24)