I grew up the son of a pastor. I went to Sunday school every week. I went to Christian school. I read my illustrated bible as a five year old, got my NIV Study Bible when I was ten. I memorized all the names of the minor prophets in grade 3. The Bible has been a big part of my life.
Bible Reading Can Be Hard
But for a lot of years Bible reading has been a struggle for me. Oh, I’ve had decent stretches, where I really tried to get serious. I’ve started out optimistically in January, determined to stick to my new shiny reading plan. And, by the grace of God, I’ve had some good times.
all too often reading my Bible has been reduced to a duty or chore.
But all too often reading my Bible has been reduced to a duty or chore. And, if I’m honest, it’s often felt more like a mix of dusty, old history and a long list of demands on me than anything. Some days it bored me. Some days it buried me with guilt for being bored the day before (among other things!). One day it would be confusing. The next frighteningly clear in its requirements of me.
Now, if anything feels like a mix of boring irrelevance and getting punched in the gut with guilt and fear, it’s hard to keep going with it, to say nothing of longing for it.
Anybody relate? But what if it could be different? What if something could change this for us; deeply change it so the Bible became precious and truly exciting? What if it could be something we longed for? What if it wasn’t boring or irrelevant or scary or tiring? What if it could be intimately relevant, fantastically freeing, brilliantly empowering and deeply satisfying?
Here’s What’s Changing It For Me
The good news of Jesus is awesome and has some truly incredible news to share. And here are three things it tells us that have made a big difference for me in my Bible reading.
Anyone who believes and accepts Jesus is:
• Included in Jesus’s death
His death dealt with and paid for every bit of the accountability and guilt for our sin. He finished it for us. He left it all in the grave, over and done with forever. (2Cor 5:14, Rom 6:6, Gal 2:20, 1Pt 2:24, Rom 8:1)
• Included in Jesus’s perfect life
We have been given, joined to, hidden within, clothed by, and united in Jesus’s perfect, righteous life. So whatever he is, we now are. (2Cor 5:21, Rom 5:17, Col 3:3-4, Rom 6:10-11, 1Cor 1:30)
• Made heirs of God
Because we’re in Jesus’s life, we are adopted as children of God and made fellow heirs with Jesus. Whatever he has, we now have. (Rom 8:17, Gal 3:29, Gal 4:7, 1Cor 3:21-23)
“The believing soul can boast of and glory in whatever Christ has as though it were its own, and whatever the soul has Christ claims as his own.”
– Martin Luther
The gospel tells me that Jesus took my life, with all its failures and ugliness, and in its place has given me his perfect life. What is now “my life” is his perfect life and so I can say like the apostle Paul:
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Gal 2:20
That means I share in all his inheritance as well. Now, purely by the mercy and love of God’s grace, whatever is true about Jesus is also true about me.
“We as believers are joined to our Lord such that what is true of him becomes true of us.”
– Bill Kynes
I should just stop there. The implications of this are so huge we could (and should!) just soak in it for days, years, ages to come.
The gospel is crazy-amazing, mind-blowing, world-shocking news. If we’re not yet having our head totally spun by the gospel, we’ve got a lot more to discover! Which is exciting too!
Okay, sorry, what was I saying?… right, Bible reading.
From A Different Position
When I’ve started to take the gospel seriously in these three ways–my solo life is dead and gone, my life now is in Christ’s perfect life, so all that’s true of him is true of me– then I’ve begun to read the Bible from a very different perspective, a different position than I used to.
Instead of reading it as “lonely, independent me”–applying it to my “own” performance, feeling the weight of guilt on my shoulders piling up and a growing anxiety that I’m not pleasing God enough and afraid I’m not understanding or obeying enough and feeling ever more weary from the whole experience–instead of all that, I can read it as someone who is “in Christ”.
Demands Fulfilled, Rewards Won
Suddenly the commands in the Bible to be holy and righteous and pure, I find are already fulfilled for me. Like in Psalm 34 for instance:
“The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.” Ps 34:15
The life which is now mine is holy and righteous and pure, it is perfect because Jesus was and is perfect. Jesus kept and fulfilled every law and command of God (Jn 8:29). There was no sin in him (1Pt 2:22). He did and continues to do everything right and good and holy and pure and glorious (He 1:3, Phil 2:8-9, Rm 5:19).
So I can read Psalm 34:15 and know that my life is righteous, and so “the eyes of the Lord are toward” me and “his ears toward” my cry always.
What could’ve been a troubling demand upon me, transforms into an awesome promise.
“Everything Jesus Christ has done is now legally true of you.”
– Tim Keller
Suddenly the life of Jesus in the Bible isn’t simply an impossible standard or example I must strive to mimic, as best as I can, so God won’t be too disappointed or dissatisfied with me.
Instead his life story is my life story too. A description of his life is a description of mine as well. Reading of Jesus now is like reading my new life’s biography.
Suddenly his instructions to us are transformed into his gift to us. Like in Matthew 5:
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”
Matt 5:44
This can sound like a really daunting command from Jesus. But he did and does it perfectly. Jesus always loves his enemies and prays for those who persecute him. And since his life is our life and whatever is true of him is now true of us, this command transforms into a description of the life we now have in him. And so we “may be sons” of our Father in heaven.
What would’ve been a terribly daunting task, becomes another treasure in the gift of Christ’s life to us.
Freedom in His Story
“The name of Jesus is sufficient to name us. The story of Jesus is sufficient to be our story. He liberates us from self.”
– Scott Sauls
I’ve realized that for a lot of my life I had approached the Bible largely as an individual, outside the life of God. So the Bible became primarily one part history textbook and one part rule book. It seemed to be about God and distant places, distant times and distant people. So, I tried to use it as a set of instructions and model diagrams for me to follow. It became a tool for self-improvement. It was hard, futile work.
But now that’s changing. I’m beginning to see it as the eternal story of the life I now have, the story of God and Christ Jesus who is my life. I’m beginning to see it as a list of the treasures of my inheritance–full of all the promises of God for his beloved children and his holy people, who I am now part of because I belong to Jesus.
No Fear of Guilt
I’m able to read the Bible now without fear of condemnation, of being buried with guilt and shame. Because I know Jesus has taken all my guilt and accountability for my sin and was buried with it for me, leaving it dead in the grave forever. No longer is the Bible peppered with threats against me, but full of the wonders and victories of Jesus for me.
Already Pleasing
I’m able to read the Bible now without fear of God being unsatisfied or displeased with me. Because I know that Jesus has given me his perfect life and righteousness and just as God is so pleased and satisfied with Jesus (Mt 3:17), so he is with me.
“God’s righteousness has been given to me as a gift. He now sees me according to how Christ has lived, not on the basis of what kind of week I’ve had.”
– J. D. Greear
This can totally transform how I think and feel about the Bible and how I read it. I can be finally free to truly enjoy and even long for God’s word.
It contains the fuel of our freedom–the gospel, the inventory of our inheritance–the riches and glory of Christ, and the still-unfolding story of our good Father, the lover of our souls, our King and our very life.
When we begin to see this for real, reading the Bible can cease to be a duty we need to do to keep God’s favour, and it can cease to be a reluctant, irrelevant chore we’d rather avoid. The Bible can become intimately relevant, fantastically freeing, brilliantly empowering and deeply satisfying. It really can!
Heart Enlightened
So let me implore you, hear and remember the gospel: that for all those who are in Christ Jesus he took all your guilt, gave you his perfect life, and made you heirs to all that is his. You’re included in his death, his prefect life and his inheritance. Now whatever is true of Jesus, is also true of you–forever.
Let’s ask the Holy Spirit, who dwells in every one of God’s kids(2Cor 1:22), to reveal ever more deeply in our minds and hearts the fullness and implications of his good news, so that we might walk in the freedom we have, longing for his word and discovering more of our true life in Jesus, with all the treasures we now have in him!
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,
the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people
Eph 1:18
Thank you.
Really enlightening article Scott! Bless you.
Great article,Scott!!Blessings.