If Jesus is the best there is from God, if He
was sent to communicate the truth about God, how is the rest of the world who
wasn’t there at the time going to get in on it? How are the acts of God on
behalf of the human family before and after Jesus’ time going to be known and
understood and vicariously experienced? How are the stories about God through
many different revelations going to be heard? How are the billions of people
not immediately privy to God’s communications through the prophets and
ultimately Jesus (people who weren’t there at the time) going to be in on God’s
revelations? The transmission of stories for millennia was by mouth. People
told the stories to each other and from one generation to another. I remember
growing up on stories about my dad. He told them to me and my brother every
night at bed time. I loved hearing about his escapades as a kid, the good and
the bad, his successes and his punishments. I learned some valuable lessons
about life through those stories. And when I became a father to three children,
I told those same stories to them. They learned about their grandpa and the same
life lessons.
Eventually, the stories about God and God’s
dealings with people were written down. The effectiveness of transmission could
be a bit more controlled that way. And more generations could benefit from the
life lessons. One of the authors of the New Testament, the great theologian and
missionary Paul, described the value this way:
“These things happened to them [the people God
dealt with in the Old Testament times] as examples for us. They were written
down to warn us who live at the end of the age. If you think you are standing
strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different
from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation
to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out
so that you can endure.” (1 Corinthians 10:11-13)
The value of written Scripture is to provide us
lessons about life – as we see how God dealt with people in times past, we learn
how God can deal with us in our own human dilemmas and journeys. Written
stories that tell about human successes and failures and how God relates to
them empower us with courage and tenacity in our faith. Stories provide us with
emotional connecting points and in that way offer life transformation in our contemporary
setting. Reading about how God’s story intersects with humanity’s story helps
to give significant perspective on our individual lives and has the potential
to build our personal faith in God.
Paul wrote extensively in order to help people
remember the truths he taught them while he was living among them. Since he
traveled so much, he wrote letters constantly and sent them to the various
groups of believers he nurtured. He encouraged, reminded, rebuked, taught,
consoled, reprimanded, loved on, and warned with his letters and written stories.
He was prolific. And he often referenced the written Old Testament Scriptures
of his day that many of his people read and were familiar with.
Writing to a young man who had studied under him
and had become a fellow spiritual leader to some of the believers, Paul
reminded Timothy of the value of scripture: “You have been taught the holy
Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the
salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by
God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong
in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is
right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2
Timothy 3:15-17)
God has chosen to communicate Himself through
the written word, the stories of His interactions with people through the ages,
in hopes that people would find comfort and encouragement in trusting Him and
his leading. God wants to be known. He desires to be understood. And so He
communicates.
But this form of communication isn’t without its
pitfalls, either. Generations removed from the actual recorded events have to interpret
what they read. They have to learn who recorded the stories, what that author’s
intent was, who the author was writing to, what the setting surrounding the
writing was, what language the author originally wrote in. And then we have to
also recognize that the original author’s manuscripts no longer exist and were
copied and then copied and copied again and again by transcribers and scribes
as best as possible, but with the potential of the scribes either inserting
their own personal bias into the process or simply making copy errors (as the
tedious process was all done by hand).
So every written story simply has its inherent
limitations. But the stories still have their transforming power. Is it
possible that God uses even the most tentative of processes, often fraught with
potential weaknesses, to still communicate the truth about Himself? One of the
closest followers of Jesus, Peter, seems to think so. Reminding the readers
that he was an original eye witness to Jesus’ life, he described the whole
revelation process this way: “Because of that experience [seeing Jesus and
hearing God’s voice on several occasions], we have even greater confidence in
the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what
they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place, until the
Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts. Above all, you
must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own
understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the
Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:19-21)
Peter suggested that, in spite of the very human
instruments that God used to communicate the stories about life and God’s
interaction with people, God’s Spirit infused the process. What does that mean?
It means that God is still in the stories. Reading the stories shines the light
of Jesus’ life into our hearts. Transformation happens. Trust grows. Faith develops.
And God is experienced.
There’s another very subtle danger with the
written words of Scripture. Jesus confronted it head on with the religious
leaders of his day. They were big on Scripture, memorizing entire books and
passages and reciting them in front of people to show off their spiritual veracity.
But is it possible to know Scripture backwards and forwards and still miss the point?
Here’s how Jesus put it: “You search the Scriptures because you think they give
you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me
to receive this life.” (John 5:39-40)
What was Jesus getting at? The whole point of
Scripture (the written stories of God’s interactions with people) is not to
provide religious information to satisfy the cravings of spiritual junkies.
It’s not to be a tool to show how religious and knowledgeable someone is. It’s
not a weapon to hit someone with to coerce them into behaving a certain way. Scripture is for the purpose of
experiencing Jesus’ life, of knowing Jesus and the God Jesus came to reveal.
The stories about Jesus and about God are primarily transformational not
informational. They are tools from a God who longs to be known, to be trusted,
to be embraced and experienced.
We can never completely understand and know the
Divine. God is bigger and greater than we can imagine. God is cloaked in infinite
mystery. We can only be in awe of that Mystery and Unknowing. But because God
has chosen to reveal himself in some ways, we can also be in awe of what we do
encounter and see about God. In the end, is there anything more awe-inspiring
than pure Love?
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