This is no distant God launching abstract truth missiles in our direction. This is a God who chooses to walk on two legs and dwell in the midst of His people.
Peter Mead, Pleased to Dwell,
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The promises of God aren’t meant to press us into hard labour. They aren’t meant to drive our noses down into the Bible in a desperate search for the right information (in John 5:39-41, Jesus called the Pharisees out for that!). Yet, trusting myself just comes so naturally!
If we read the Old Testament and only see behaviour requirements we are missing the point. But if we read the Old Testament and only see promises that must be trusted, we can still fall short of God’s intent. If believing God’s promises become a work that we do, then we have lost the heart of the Old Testament. God never intended Abraham or David to do the work of believing in unseen promises. He always invited them to trust not only His word, but to trust Him, the Promiser.
Peter Mead, Pleased to Dwell,
What are all the promises of the Bible there for? To point us up to Jesus’ face and bring our souls to trust in Him.
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How would you describe the Bible if you were put on the spot? What’s the first word or description that comes to mind? Sometimes we may know the right answer, but actually we’ve not been living in that right answer. It might be good to ask how you feel when you read your Bible. Is it boring, scarry, assurance stealing, or anxiety heightening? Maybe those feelings can be a helpful barometer of our true view of the Bible.
It’s not for nothin’ that when Peter describes God’s Word, he says that it’s good news – the Gospel (1 Peter 1:25)! God’s solution to our wrong views of the Bible isn’t us discovering the right view and putting it into practice. The seed of the New Birth is the Seed who nourishes us in our new lives. Saved with Jesus’ blood, raised through Him, through the living and abiding word (1 Peter 1:19-21, 23). Peter says that Christians “have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God…” (1 Peter 1:23). The Bible is good news because that’s what it is! It’s pointing us to Jesus as the source of our new life!
How does the Bible as good news of the life-giving Jesus change how you think about the Bible, and how you are affected when you read the Bible? Let me know!
As a final thought, I just want to carry on from the quote at the top. This is something I really enjoy seeing – how Jesus has been so gracious since the beginning in drawing near to walk with us…
Back in Genesis 3, who were Adam and Eve hiding from, then speaking to? It was God, walking in the garden to meet and talk with them. And since the Bible is clear that nobody has ever seen God the Father, then the LORD that they saw must be the LORD they were invited to look for. One day the Christophany (an appearance of Christ) would truly become flesh and dwell among them!
Peter Mead, Pleased to Dwell,
When the LORD added His P.S. to the promise of Genesis 12, in verse 7 we are twice told that the LORD appeared to Abram. The promise of the seed was made by God in person! The interaction that led up to Abram believing God and getting quoted in Romans was not mere trust in words, but it was trust in the Person who led him outside to show him the stars! The LORD appeared to him again in chapter 17:1; and again in 18:1, and in 18:22 we see that conversation continuing. In fact, the LORD appears at least seven times in Genesis.
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Standing Before God, This We Are and No More 