Search Articles by Category or by Scripture
How to Read Scripture
If we believe the Scriptures are infallible, supreme, and sufficient, then we also understand the form in which Scripture is delivered to us is aligned with God’s plan. The Bible is presented to us as a grand narrative revealing the redemptive purpose of God, relating stories like the beauty of creation, the tragic introduction of sin and its destructive power, and the winding road of redemption.
If we believe the Scriptures are infallible, supreme, and sufficient, then we also understand the form in which Scripture is delivered to us is aligned with God’s plan. The Bible is presented to us as a grand narrative revealing the redemptive purpose of God, relating stories like the beauty of creation, the tragic introduction of sin and its destructive power, and the winding road of redemption. These stories are told in the context of king’s palaces and prison cells, through the lives of fishermen and prophets. The characters of Scripture are unassuming men and women, always in the minority, whose lives play out in the Bible for the sake of our salvation. The inevitable conclusion of this redemptive story is divine victory because of the triumph of God’s sovereign will, summed up in our Savior’s words, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
This narrative, however, does not end at the cross. The book of Acts tells the story of the early church, recounting victories, and not shying away from the struggles and defeats of the brave men and women who blazed the trail for the church today. When we read the Bible as a narrative, we allow ourselves to become immersed in the story. We identify with the characters and sympathize with their struggles. These stories are not fairy tales. They happened to real men and women living in the moment, walking by faith, not having the luxury of knowing how their stories would end. This is the reason we can identify with the characters in Scripture. They are just like us—ordinary, fallible, imperfect people.
There is an ebb and flow about the Bible that is comforting. The Scriptures are not packaged or systematic. The story of redemption meanders through a variety of cultures, languages, and literary genres. Not all the books of the Bible are written in narrative form. The Psalms are songs and poetry. The Epistles are letters written to churches and individuals. In the books where the primary form is not a narrative, the text is still part of a bigger picture that tells the story of God’s redemptive purpose.
Knowing how to read the Bible is of fundamental importance if you are to arrive at a correct and well-rounded understanding of what the text reveals. The process of reading and extracting the correct meaning of the text is known as exegesis. Eugene Peterson describes exegesis as “the discipline of attending to the text and listening to it rightly and well.”[1] Peterson continues:
Exegesis introduces another dimension into our relation to this text. The text as story carries us along, we are in on something larger than ourselves, we let the story take us where it will. But exegesis is focused attention, asking questions, sorting through possible meanings. Exegesis is rigorous, disciplined, intellectual work. It rarely feels "spiritual." Men and women who are, as we say, "into" spirituality, frequently give exegesis short shrift, preferring to rely on inspiration and intuition. But the long and broad consensus in the community of God's people has always insisted on a vigorous and meticulous exegesis: Give long and close and learned attention to this text! All our masters in spirituality were and are master exegetes. There's a lot going on here; we don't want to miss any of it; we don't want to sleepwalk through this text.[2]
Exegesis applies to all readers of the Bible, not just ministers who prepare a sermon. Giving the text its full and proper attention is a discipline everyone who reads the Scriptures must do. Too many preachers of the gospel do not give due diligence to the intentional reading of the Scriptures, making biblical exposition in the pulpit nearly impossible.[3] We all must read the Bible with care, and with a prayerful mind, absorbing every bit of revelatory truth God has for us at that moment.
[1] Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006), 50.
[2] Ibid., 50.
[3] See chapter ten for a full discussion on expository preaching.
The Sufficiency of Scripture
Until I enrolled in a biblical counseling course at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I had never distinguished between the supremacy of the Scriptures and the sufficiency of the Scriptures. John Babler and Frank Catanzaro taught this class, driving home the point the Scriptures are not only supreme, but also sufficient for everything in life.
Until I enrolled in a biblical counseling course at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I had never distinguished between the supremacy of the Scriptures and the sufficiency of the Scriptures. John Babler and Frank Catanzaro taught this class, driving home the point the Scriptures are not only supreme, but also sufficient for everything in life. I expected the class to teach us how to counsel people using biblical principles, but instead I learned how to use the Bible to address people’s problems. The expectation these men had of the Scriptures was inspirational. Giving little credence to secular psychology, they taught the Bible could address every problem we encounter in the counseling arena.[1]
Catanzaro posed to the class many times the following rhetorical question: “What is the intrinsic deficiency of Scripture that makes us turn to other sources to find the answers to life’s problems?” He taught us when counseling people, we should “listen for unbiblical thinking and counter it with biblical truth.” Through the respect and faith in Scripture demonstrated by these two professors, a passion arose in me to communicate to the world the relevancy of the Bible in our culture. Babler and Catanzaro reinforced in me the idea that Scripture is sufficient for every endeavor in life and ministry.
This does not mean we do not read other books. Neither of these professors advocated reading only the Bible. That is not the logical conclusion of biblical sufficiency. They were not teaching biblical exclusivity, but rather the Bible presents to us through a variety of literary forms the theological direction needed for our understanding of redemption and sanctification.
[1] For more on biblical counseling, see John Babler, David Penley, and Mike Bizzell, Counseling by the Book (n.p.: Xulon Press, n.d.).
The Supremacy of Scripture
The genre of Christian literature encompasses a wide range of book titles, topics, and subgenres, including fictional love stories, financial guides, diet and exercise plans, and leadership. We can be helped by books written by Christian authors when based on a biblical model.
The genre of Christian literature encompasses a wide range of book titles, topics, and subgenres, including fictional love stories, financial guides, diet and exercise plans, and leadership. We can be helped by books written by Christian authors when based on a biblical model.
Regardless of how well books are written or how gifted the author, the words on the page are not infallible. It is good and right to read all books with a skeptical eye, expecting the author to back up conjecture with well-reasoned logic and thinking. The author may be inspired, but the ideas he or she communicates are not infallible.
It is impossible to separate influence from the writer’s pen. The life of the reader is changed by the words they read and internalize. The style may be poetic or it may tell a story, but regardless of the form the words take, readers are shaped by what they read. Ideology travels on the wings of paragraphs and sentences.
The Bible is the Spirit of God in writing. This unique quality of Scripture is what makes it infallible. The apostle Paul said all Scripture is “breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16).[1] This gives us insight into the relationship between the Word of God and the Spirit of God. When the Spirit of God was given in Acts 2, the Bible says there was “a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind” (v. 2), and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 4). The word the translators interpreted as Spirit comes from the Greek word pneuma, meaning “the breathing out of air.”[2] Jesus used the word pneuma for both “wind” and “Spirit” when he told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
The fundamental nature of God is that he is Spirit. The Holy Spirit fell upon people with the promise that his presence is for everyone (Acts 2:39). His Spirit moving upon men is also what produced the Scriptures. The Bible is not just good literature or motivational monologue. It is the Holy Spirit in a book, God-breathed words that will transform every life. The apostle Peter writes,
Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20–21)
The Holy Spirit moved and produced the Bible through the pen and parchment of holy men. Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). His Word is the vehicle through which his Spirit travels. The Word of God and the Spirit of God are beautifully intertwined and often indistinguishable.
This is the reason the Bible is supreme over all other writings. It has intrinsic value built into its origin. It is God himself in a book. Everything the Bible declares is true and right and just, and anything ever spoken or written must align with Scripture if we are to consider it truth. It is a book full of inexhaustible revelation. We spend a lifetime reading the same Scriptures repeatedly and never exhaust their revelation declaring the glory of God. There is no limit to the depth of the glory and grace of Jesus Christ.
We know the Scriptures are true because our obedience to them is authenticated by a life full of faith and joy. As we read the Scriptures and allow them to become part of us, they earn our trust. The Savior we find in the Bible is the same God we encounter in prayer and in our daily walk. We read the story of redemption and it harmonizes with the story of our own redemption through Jesus Christ. His faithfulness throughout the Scriptures is consistent with his faithfulness to us. The Word of God is alive, self-revealing, and self-authenticating.
[1] The Greek word the apostle penned was theopneustos. It is the only time this word is used in the New Testament. It is a combination of the word theos (meaning God) and a derivative of the word pneo (meaning breathe or breeze).
[2] Walter Bauer et al., eds., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., ed. Frederick William Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 832.