Post by Admin on Aug 14, 2023 0:14:25 GMT -5
The Necessary End of all Bible Study
We do not really understand the Bible unless we understand it doctrinally, and we do not truly understand our doctrine, unless we understand it biblically. There is a direct correspondence between spiritual growth and a knowledge of doctrinal truth. Mark the words of Maurice Roberts, Editor of “The Banner of Truth Magazine”:
Growth in Christian grace is closely related to our growth in theological knowledge.If our progress in doctrine is poor,either because we hear poor preaching or do not care to read books on Christian doctrine, we shall hardly advance in a true knowledge of God and of his thoughts. Doctrine, after all, is just a word for God and for his works and ways as these are divinely revealed to us in holy Scripture. And ignorance of God is, of all forms of ignorance, the most serious and the most common. Conversion brings to us a true and saving knowledge of God, but it does not remove all our ignorance at a stroke. Conversion is the first knowledge of God. It is real light, but it is as yet only the peep of day. Vast increase of light and knowledge are possible to the converted man. Such increase is to be achieved as a rule only by deep and prayerful study of the Bible and the great books such as Calvin’s Institutes or the writings of the Puritans.
The end result of Bible study is doctrinal truth consistently applied to the life. This is the necessary end of all true Bible study, and any Bible study is seriously defective and even false that does not culminate in the application of doctrinal truth to the life!
All and every blessedness pertaining to the Christian life flows to us through the Scriptures by the Spirit of God. And it all comes to us through the blessedness of humble obedience to Divine truth. If we truly love God, we will love and study his Word, and if we love God and his Word,we will lovingly obey his Word. What blessings we miss, what chastening we invite and experience, and what needless suffering we experience because we will not study, understand, apply and experience in our lives the fruit of humble submission and obedience to the Word of a loving and gracious God!
Maurice Roberts, Editor of The Banner of Truth Magazine, The Christian’s High Calling, Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2000,
p. 32.
God intends for Every Christian to be a Bible Student
What is God Doing?
What is God doing in the life of every single believer?
What is his purpose?
How can we account for or explain the great variety of Christian experience, with its trials, opposition, inconsistencies and sin, disappointments, unanswered prayer, spiritual warfare, and Divine chastening? The answer is, that God is in the process of conforming each one of us to the image of his Son, and so has foreordained us to “good works” (Rom. 8:28–30; Eph. 1:3–14; 2:8–10).
This process commences at regeneration and will only be concluded in our glorification (Rom. 8:17–23). It is in this
preordained context that we must view the Christian life and experience! Whatever we think, do or say either brings us closer to this goal or necessarily puts us in the way of Divine correction and discipline (Heb. 12:4–8).
How much time has been lost, energy expended, and trials endured needlessly simply because some have ignorantly thought
that salvation was conversion⎯simply an event, an experience, the work of a moment⎯or that God would overlook sin in the lives of his own, or that the Christian life was one of options!
Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and turning from a life of sin in repentance are only the beginning, the very first steps in a pilgrimage that cannot end until we stand glorified and completely redeemed⎯body, soul and spirit⎯in the very presence of God. Such truth should transform our lives, govern our thinking, sanctify our motives, mitigate our suffering, determine every human relationship, and quicken our feeble efforts to live as Christians
⎯those who are being conformed to the image of Christ.
The Place of Bible Study in God’s Purpose
Because of this high and glorious goal of being conformed to the image of Christ, and so being foreordained unto good
works, there are certain necessary issues:
• We must be a holy or sanctified people (Eph. 1:3–5; 1 Thess. 4:3; Titus 2:11–15; 1 Pet. 2:9).
• We must grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18; Phil. 1:9–11; 3:10–15).
• We must mortify sin (Psa. 119:11; Rom. 8:11–13; Col.3:5).
• We must have a proper understanding of the Scriptures in order to interpret and apply them correctly (2 Tim. 2:15).
Note: The word translated “study” in our English Bible, which makes this the primary text for Bible study, does
not necessarily convey the full significance of the Gk. The term spou ,dason (spoudason), aor. imp., denotes “give the
utmost diligence with a sense of urgency and determination.”
The wording of the Gk. is that our primary diligence and obligation are God–ward, that we are to be skilled craftsmen (e vrga ,thn, ergatēn, either skilled craftsman or laborer) who have absolutely no need to be ashamed (a vnepai ,scunton, anepaischunton, an intens. term with the a privitive and the intensive e vpi ,), correctly handling
(o vrqotomou /nta) [lit: orthotomounta, cutting straight], andso correctly interpreting the Word of truth. Paul was a
skilled craftsman in cilicium, the dark goat’s hair fabric of the Roman Cilician Province. He knew the utter necessity
of making a straight or correct cut. The utmost determination and skill are required in the careful and
consistent interpretation and application of Scripture.
• We must have an inclusive, and very practical grasp of the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16–17).
Note: The first issue is that the Scriptures are the very Word of God, and therefore have absolute authority (pa /sa
grafh . qeo ,pneustoj [pasa graphē theopneustos], “every Scripture is God–breathed”).
The second issue is that every major area of life is covered in a very practical sense: doctrine, reproof,
correction and instruction in righteousness.
The third issue is that through this inclusive, authoritative ministry of the Scriptures, the individual becomes
symmetrically developed (i [na a ;rtioj h =| o ` tou / qeou / a ;nqrwpoj [hina artios ē ho tou theou anthrōpos] ), “in
order that fully–limbed [symmetrically–developed] might be the man of God” (pro .j pa /n e ;rgon a vgaqo .n
e vxhrtisme ,noj [pros pan ergon agathon exērtismenos]),and to every good work completely out–fitted.”
• We must apply the Scripture to our own experience in a very practical and consistent manner (2 Tim. 3:16–17;Phil. 2:12–16).
Note: “Work out” (katerga ,zesqe, pres. imp.,katergazesthe), “constantly seek to bring to its logical conclusion,” i.e., Christ–likeness in the life, as connoted by the context of v. 5–16 and directly taught in Rom. 8:29.
The God–ordained means of grace for all these is the inscripturated Word of God. This means that every Christian
must seek to become a very serious, thorough and consistentstudent of the Bible!
What are the Right Purposes for Bible Study?
Why study the Bible? Is such study optional?
Must it necessarily be intelligent and consistent? What is Bible study supposed to do? What is its purpose?
The following are the main correct reasons:
To Glorify God
The first purpose for Bible study is that this is one of the primary means by which we are to glorify God (1 Cor10:31).
An understanding of and an alignment to the Scriptures is at thevery heart of true Christianity. We cannot glorify God in any other aspect of our lives if we are defective at the point of understanding and being faithful to the Scriptures. Apart from the Bible, we would neither rightly know God nor have any idea how to live to and for the glory of God.
Private, personal Bible study and prayer are the primary means of grace for the Christian. If we truly love God, we will love his Word, we will pray, and we will grow in both grace and knowledge. Those who do not love God or his Word, who do not learn his commandment to obey them are simply unconverted persons (Acts 20:32; Col. 3:16; 2 Tim. 3:15–17; 2 Pet. 3:18; 1 Jn. 2:3–5, 15–17, 20, 27; 4:19; 5:2–3, 10–13).
To Commune with Christ in The Scriptures
There is a very definite place for an academic approach to the Scriptures. To truly and properly understand the Bible, we must gain knowledge through other sources and develop certain necessary skills. But there is also a sanctified and proper devotional aspect that ought to be aimed for. The academic should undergird this, but not supplant it. Through the Scriptures, coupled with meditation of Divine truth and prayer, we are to commune with the Lord Jesus Christ and be refreshed in mind and spirit. It is not enough to have the mind filled if the heart and spirit are never touched with Divine truth and its implications.
The end of the study of Scripture is doctrinal truth
—and that truth experientially brought home to the heart and applied to the life.
The things of God are all great and mighty things, and they should exert a great and mighty influence upon us in every
way. The Bible is not a quarry for scholars to research in and nothing more. It is not a textbook for religious education only.
It is not simply a fountain of proof–texts. It is a God–given account of how he himself has taken steps to redeem us from death and hell, to translate us from darkness unto light, to lift us from sin to grace and from grace to glory at last. All of this stupendous divine plan is concentrated on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior. He is its Alpha and its Omega. He is its Yea and its Amen. Surely we cannot, dare not, must not allow ourselves to read the Bible, which speaks of him, and not also make it our regular rule and practice to feel some of his love to us as we read it….
One of the reasons why men read the Bible and feel nothing as they read it is that they do not approach it in the
right way and with the right understanding. We should see Christ in the Bible everywhere….To read the Bible with
academic, critical or other interests to the forefront of our minds is to miss the mark and to lose the blessing. We are above all to read the Bible so as to ‘meet’ Christ in it. It is because we are too often ‘fools and slow of heart’ to believe that the Scriptures all point to Jesus that we put them down without our hearts having been stirred within us.
To Know the Will of God
The Bible reveals the general will of God and often his specific will to all men, especially the believer (Ex: 20:1–17;
Eccl. 12:13–14; Matt. 22:36–39). The spiritual nature of Bible study is presupposed in knowing God’s will through the study of his Word. The end result is conformity to God’s will through the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures know nothing of a mere abstract or theoretical knowledge but only a concrete or experiential knowledge of God’s will, i.e., the will of God is only truly known and enjoyed as we submit and conform to it (Psa. 119:11; Rom. 12:1–2)!26
To be Obedient to God
A right understanding of the Scriptures is essential for intelligently knowing the revealed will of God, which, in turn, is necessary to our complete, willful and loving obedience (Rom. 2:17–20; Eph. 5:15–17; 1 Thess. 4:3; 5:18; 1 Jn. 2:3–6). Apart from the Scriptures we would be left to our own ideas, prejudices and feelings. True Bible study is meant to bring us into faithful obedience to the Word of God.
To Grow toward Spiritual Maturity
True spirituality is primarily intellectual and then practical
— not mystical, emotional or irrational. It is primarily intellectual Maurice Roberts, Op. cit., pp. 147–148.
Rom. 12:1–2 is based upon the foregoing doctrinal content of Romans chapters 1–11.
The Apostle’s reasoning is that we must spiritually prepare and conform to God’s will in order to see how blessed it is in and for our lives “…read the Bible in a spirit of obedience and self–application.
Sit down to the study of it with a daily determination that you will live by its rules, rest on its statements, and act on its commands.
Consider…‘How does this affect my…course of conduct?’….That Bibleis read best, which is practiced most.” J. C. Ryle, How Readest Thou?,pg55 because we must intelligently grasp the Scriptures through which the Holy Spirit ministers grace and brings us to spiritual maturity (Acts 8:3028; Eph. 4:11–1629; Phil. 1:9–11; Col. 1:28–29; 2 Pet.3:18). It becomes practical as the grace of the Holy Spirit works through the Word to conform us to the image of Christ. There is a very necessary and proper place for the feelings or emotions, but this is in the context of Divine truth; conversely Divine truth has no place in the context of the emotions, i.e., we must not have to become emotional to receive or reject Divine truth. The emotions are meant to be responsive, not determinative. This balance must be emphasized in our present age of religious irrationality!
The following discussion of true spirituality, although lengthy, is to the point and stated in the simplest terms with
reference to its character and results in the experience:
It is hard to say what Christian spirituality is. It is not equivalent to giftedness because there are eloquent and
talented people who are full of themselves. It is not the same as theological exactness because those who are less correct in their understanding of the truth are sometimes strong in grace and love to Christ.
Spirituality is not something which can be measured by studying one aspect of a person’s life, but by taking account of
all aspects. It is roughly equivalent to what we mean by ‘Christian character’. It is the measure of our spiritual renewal after the image of Christ himself.
Our assessment of our own and others’ progress in spirituality must begin with the realization that there is a basic
distinction to be made between what a man has by nature and what he has by grace. One man has a naturally clear intellect, another a naturally accurate memory, a third has a naturally charming temperament. These are all valuable assets but their possession does not prove spirituality, still less spirituality of Philip did not ask the Ethiopian eunuch, “How do you feel about the Bible?” But rather, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
Note that spiritual maturity is not nebulous, but primarily intellectual, as it centers here not only on love, unity and spiritual growth, but also on doctrinal knowledge and maturity.high order. It proves natural charm and natural talent and nothing more. Such talent is to be found also in the unconverted.
Spirituality, however, is proved by the presence in the soul of those graces which are not natural. These are such
characteristics as humility, fear of offending God, delight in communion with Christ, love of souls, ambition to glorify God and to enjoy him, love towards other believers as one’s brethren, repentance for all known sin, frequent confession to God and longing for the eternal state of glory. Such things as these cannot arise out of natural inclination or temperament because they require the supernatural energies of the Holy Spirit to produce and promote them. There is, of course, an infinite distance between what is natural and what is supernatural…The least Christian is in a different category from the most devout non–Christian. The work of God in the most charming and respectable unbeliever is not qualitatively as excellent as the work of God in the weakest of his own true children. The lowest spark of grace in any man places him in a spiritual class far above all natural excellence. ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit’ (John 3:6).
It seems to human wisdom to be offensive to say that a man cannot cultivate himself so as to be pleasing to God.
After all, man can pray and preach, read the Bible and take the Lord’s Supper, go to church services and even become an
authority on some aspects of religious study. But all of this falls short of spirituality because it is not the outcome of that act of the Holy Spirit which we call the new birth and which alters a man radically in his whole nature.
To be religious and not spiritual is to be in the most dangerous state of soul possible to man in this life. Christ has
the sternest warnings for such persons. He denounces their religious condition to be that of whited sepulchres (Matt.
23:27), persecutors (Luke 11:47–51), hinderers of men from salvation (Luke 11:52), hypocrites (Matt. 23:13), ‘serpents’
and a ‘generation of vipers’, who cannot ‘escape the damnation of hell’ (Matt. 23:33).
Such language is a reminder to us that a purely nominal religion is worse than useless. It is a fearful snare to the soul and leads away from God under the pretext of serving him. It causes ‘the light in us to be darkness’ (Matt. 6:23). It leaves us children of the devil while we imagine ourselves the children of God (John 8:41,44). It will at last shut the door of heaven forever against us even though we have convinced ourselves that we are safe (Matt. 7:2 1; 25:10–12).
Let a man become a church member without the new birth and the probability is he will be secure in his church membership till he wakes up in a lost world. Let a man become a preacher, a divinity professor, a missionary, a
church historian, a moderator, an assembly clerk, a printer of Bibles—all without the new birth—and such persons are only twofold more the heirs of hell than they would otherwise have been (Matt. 23:15). However hard it is for us to take in this doctrine, there cannot be the least doubt that it is the plain and obvious teaching of Christ in many places of the Gospels.
Spirituality therefore comes first and must be put at the top of all our priorities. The preaching of our blessed Saviour is remarkable for the emphasis it places always on the need for man to be spiritual. The beatitudes, for instance, are a word picture of the spiritual man. Then, too, the judgments Christ passes on men’s behavior and men’s attitudes show that his all–seeing eye searches after one thing in man—spirituality.
When a person came to him with spirituality of soul he received commendation and blessing. When any came without it they departed much as they had come.
A lack of spirituality is the hidden cause of so many of the evils which vex the church of Christ. It accounts for a great deal of the theological and spiritual confusion to be seen on every hand. It explains how leading churchmen can deny the virgin birth and scoff at the physical resurrection of Christ. It accounts for the way in which churches subscribe to orthodox articles of faith and then ignore them in practice. It is the reason why office bearers take vows at the time of ordination and then conveniently forget them. It explains how those who are high in church office can on occasion be low in personal integrity. It accounts for the way men may hold the mystery of the faith with an uneasy conscience and with a bad reputation.
It accounts for all the compromise and all the moral fudging we see in church and state. Unspirituality is a taproot of every sort of hypocrisy and duplicity. There is little hope that society will ‘get back to basics’ till it is faced up to and dealt with biblically.
There are degrees of spirituality among those who are spiritual. The new birth makes all those who are the subjects of it into spiritual men. But spiritual men differ in their measure of spirituality. The difference in this case is that of the measure of their progress….
If spirituality is first in importance, it follows that it should be that which we seek first for our own souls. It involves the active and deliberate co–operation of the Christian with those processes of grace within him by which he becomes ever increasingly renewed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. In particular, it may be viewed as a bending of every part of the soul towards the one aim of living unto God in this life.
Spirituality comes to us with difficulty and it involves us in costly self–discipline. It is a discipline, however, which yields precious fruit and well repays the effort. Each faculty of the soul needs to be daily schooled to behave in a particular way. The intellect (or mind) has to be daily trained to absorb the truths of holy Scripture till the habit of our thoughts is to judge all we hear and see by Scripture light. We cannot trust the judgment of the press or the media too far. The Christian must constantly unscramble the maze of facts which he hears, and attempt to pass all that he knows through his mind in the light of Holy Scripture.
The feelings and emotions also of a self–disciplined Christian must be trained to react appropriately.Our emotion
sought to vary as we hear and read God’s Word.The promises of God are to evoke comfort, gladness and hope; the
threatenings of Scripture should lead us to tremble and respect the justice of God; the laws of God should make us
strict and dutiful, and they ought to fashion our conscience till it habitually loves obedience and protests at lawlessness. The will–power of the Christian requires to be daily urged to perform each duty till it is done as well as strength and time will allow. Of course, when all is done we shall still need to remind ourselves that we have done nothing yet as we ought to do and that we are, at best, but ‘unprofitable servants’ (Lk. 17:10).
No small part of spirituality consists in our attitude to ourselves. Here is where the difference between Christian and
Christian betrays itself. It is painful but essential in our progress towards true spirituality that we should mortify our natural excess of self–love. This begins with the way we think of ourselves and ends with the way we speak of ourselves.
The pattern we must follow is that of the Apostle Paul who admits to a constant warfare in his soul against his own
corruptions (Rom. 7:14) and whose self–judgment is that he is ‘less than the least of all saints’ (Eph. 3:8), ‘the chief of sinners’ (1 Tim. 1:15) and ‘the least of the apostles’ (1 Cor.15:9). Such language is genuine evangelical humility. It is not the false modesty of religious formality but the realization, which we should all heartily share, that apart from God’s grace we are nothing.
We do not really understand the Bible unless we understand it doctrinally, and we do not truly understand our doctrine, unless we understand it biblically. There is a direct correspondence between spiritual growth and a knowledge of doctrinal truth. Mark the words of Maurice Roberts, Editor of “The Banner of Truth Magazine”:
Growth in Christian grace is closely related to our growth in theological knowledge.If our progress in doctrine is poor,either because we hear poor preaching or do not care to read books on Christian doctrine, we shall hardly advance in a true knowledge of God and of his thoughts. Doctrine, after all, is just a word for God and for his works and ways as these are divinely revealed to us in holy Scripture. And ignorance of God is, of all forms of ignorance, the most serious and the most common. Conversion brings to us a true and saving knowledge of God, but it does not remove all our ignorance at a stroke. Conversion is the first knowledge of God. It is real light, but it is as yet only the peep of day. Vast increase of light and knowledge are possible to the converted man. Such increase is to be achieved as a rule only by deep and prayerful study of the Bible and the great books such as Calvin’s Institutes or the writings of the Puritans.
The end result of Bible study is doctrinal truth consistently applied to the life. This is the necessary end of all true Bible study, and any Bible study is seriously defective and even false that does not culminate in the application of doctrinal truth to the life!
All and every blessedness pertaining to the Christian life flows to us through the Scriptures by the Spirit of God. And it all comes to us through the blessedness of humble obedience to Divine truth. If we truly love God, we will love and study his Word, and if we love God and his Word,we will lovingly obey his Word. What blessings we miss, what chastening we invite and experience, and what needless suffering we experience because we will not study, understand, apply and experience in our lives the fruit of humble submission and obedience to the Word of a loving and gracious God!
Maurice Roberts, Editor of The Banner of Truth Magazine, The Christian’s High Calling, Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2000,
p. 32.
God intends for Every Christian to be a Bible Student
What is God Doing?
What is God doing in the life of every single believer?
What is his purpose?
How can we account for or explain the great variety of Christian experience, with its trials, opposition, inconsistencies and sin, disappointments, unanswered prayer, spiritual warfare, and Divine chastening? The answer is, that God is in the process of conforming each one of us to the image of his Son, and so has foreordained us to “good works” (Rom. 8:28–30; Eph. 1:3–14; 2:8–10).
This process commences at regeneration and will only be concluded in our glorification (Rom. 8:17–23). It is in this
preordained context that we must view the Christian life and experience! Whatever we think, do or say either brings us closer to this goal or necessarily puts us in the way of Divine correction and discipline (Heb. 12:4–8).
How much time has been lost, energy expended, and trials endured needlessly simply because some have ignorantly thought
that salvation was conversion⎯simply an event, an experience, the work of a moment⎯or that God would overlook sin in the lives of his own, or that the Christian life was one of options!
Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and turning from a life of sin in repentance are only the beginning, the very first steps in a pilgrimage that cannot end until we stand glorified and completely redeemed⎯body, soul and spirit⎯in the very presence of God. Such truth should transform our lives, govern our thinking, sanctify our motives, mitigate our suffering, determine every human relationship, and quicken our feeble efforts to live as Christians
⎯those who are being conformed to the image of Christ.
The Place of Bible Study in God’s Purpose
Because of this high and glorious goal of being conformed to the image of Christ, and so being foreordained unto good
works, there are certain necessary issues:
• We must be a holy or sanctified people (Eph. 1:3–5; 1 Thess. 4:3; Titus 2:11–15; 1 Pet. 2:9).
• We must grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18; Phil. 1:9–11; 3:10–15).
• We must mortify sin (Psa. 119:11; Rom. 8:11–13; Col.3:5).
• We must have a proper understanding of the Scriptures in order to interpret and apply them correctly (2 Tim. 2:15).
Note: The word translated “study” in our English Bible, which makes this the primary text for Bible study, does
not necessarily convey the full significance of the Gk. The term spou ,dason (spoudason), aor. imp., denotes “give the
utmost diligence with a sense of urgency and determination.”
The wording of the Gk. is that our primary diligence and obligation are God–ward, that we are to be skilled craftsmen (e vrga ,thn, ergatēn, either skilled craftsman or laborer) who have absolutely no need to be ashamed (a vnepai ,scunton, anepaischunton, an intens. term with the a privitive and the intensive e vpi ,), correctly handling
(o vrqotomou /nta) [lit: orthotomounta, cutting straight], andso correctly interpreting the Word of truth. Paul was a
skilled craftsman in cilicium, the dark goat’s hair fabric of the Roman Cilician Province. He knew the utter necessity
of making a straight or correct cut. The utmost determination and skill are required in the careful and
consistent interpretation and application of Scripture.
• We must have an inclusive, and very practical grasp of the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16–17).
Note: The first issue is that the Scriptures are the very Word of God, and therefore have absolute authority (pa /sa
grafh . qeo ,pneustoj [pasa graphē theopneustos], “every Scripture is God–breathed”).
The second issue is that every major area of life is covered in a very practical sense: doctrine, reproof,
correction and instruction in righteousness.
The third issue is that through this inclusive, authoritative ministry of the Scriptures, the individual becomes
symmetrically developed (i [na a ;rtioj h =| o ` tou / qeou / a ;nqrwpoj [hina artios ē ho tou theou anthrōpos] ), “in
order that fully–limbed [symmetrically–developed] might be the man of God” (pro .j pa /n e ;rgon a vgaqo .n
e vxhrtisme ,noj [pros pan ergon agathon exērtismenos]),and to every good work completely out–fitted.”
• We must apply the Scripture to our own experience in a very practical and consistent manner (2 Tim. 3:16–17;Phil. 2:12–16).
Note: “Work out” (katerga ,zesqe, pres. imp.,katergazesthe), “constantly seek to bring to its logical conclusion,” i.e., Christ–likeness in the life, as connoted by the context of v. 5–16 and directly taught in Rom. 8:29.
The God–ordained means of grace for all these is the inscripturated Word of God. This means that every Christian
must seek to become a very serious, thorough and consistentstudent of the Bible!
What are the Right Purposes for Bible Study?
Why study the Bible? Is such study optional?
Must it necessarily be intelligent and consistent? What is Bible study supposed to do? What is its purpose?
The following are the main correct reasons:
To Glorify God
The first purpose for Bible study is that this is one of the primary means by which we are to glorify God (1 Cor10:31).
An understanding of and an alignment to the Scriptures is at thevery heart of true Christianity. We cannot glorify God in any other aspect of our lives if we are defective at the point of understanding and being faithful to the Scriptures. Apart from the Bible, we would neither rightly know God nor have any idea how to live to and for the glory of God.
Private, personal Bible study and prayer are the primary means of grace for the Christian. If we truly love God, we will love his Word, we will pray, and we will grow in both grace and knowledge. Those who do not love God or his Word, who do not learn his commandment to obey them are simply unconverted persons (Acts 20:32; Col. 3:16; 2 Tim. 3:15–17; 2 Pet. 3:18; 1 Jn. 2:3–5, 15–17, 20, 27; 4:19; 5:2–3, 10–13).
To Commune with Christ in The Scriptures
There is a very definite place for an academic approach to the Scriptures. To truly and properly understand the Bible, we must gain knowledge through other sources and develop certain necessary skills. But there is also a sanctified and proper devotional aspect that ought to be aimed for. The academic should undergird this, but not supplant it. Through the Scriptures, coupled with meditation of Divine truth and prayer, we are to commune with the Lord Jesus Christ and be refreshed in mind and spirit. It is not enough to have the mind filled if the heart and spirit are never touched with Divine truth and its implications.
The end of the study of Scripture is doctrinal truth
—and that truth experientially brought home to the heart and applied to the life.
The things of God are all great and mighty things, and they should exert a great and mighty influence upon us in every
way. The Bible is not a quarry for scholars to research in and nothing more. It is not a textbook for religious education only.
It is not simply a fountain of proof–texts. It is a God–given account of how he himself has taken steps to redeem us from death and hell, to translate us from darkness unto light, to lift us from sin to grace and from grace to glory at last. All of this stupendous divine plan is concentrated on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior. He is its Alpha and its Omega. He is its Yea and its Amen. Surely we cannot, dare not, must not allow ourselves to read the Bible, which speaks of him, and not also make it our regular rule and practice to feel some of his love to us as we read it….
One of the reasons why men read the Bible and feel nothing as they read it is that they do not approach it in the
right way and with the right understanding. We should see Christ in the Bible everywhere….To read the Bible with
academic, critical or other interests to the forefront of our minds is to miss the mark and to lose the blessing. We are above all to read the Bible so as to ‘meet’ Christ in it. It is because we are too often ‘fools and slow of heart’ to believe that the Scriptures all point to Jesus that we put them down without our hearts having been stirred within us.
To Know the Will of God
The Bible reveals the general will of God and often his specific will to all men, especially the believer (Ex: 20:1–17;
Eccl. 12:13–14; Matt. 22:36–39). The spiritual nature of Bible study is presupposed in knowing God’s will through the study of his Word. The end result is conformity to God’s will through the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures know nothing of a mere abstract or theoretical knowledge but only a concrete or experiential knowledge of God’s will, i.e., the will of God is only truly known and enjoyed as we submit and conform to it (Psa. 119:11; Rom. 12:1–2)!26
To be Obedient to God
A right understanding of the Scriptures is essential for intelligently knowing the revealed will of God, which, in turn, is necessary to our complete, willful and loving obedience (Rom. 2:17–20; Eph. 5:15–17; 1 Thess. 4:3; 5:18; 1 Jn. 2:3–6). Apart from the Scriptures we would be left to our own ideas, prejudices and feelings. True Bible study is meant to bring us into faithful obedience to the Word of God.
To Grow toward Spiritual Maturity
True spirituality is primarily intellectual and then practical
— not mystical, emotional or irrational. It is primarily intellectual Maurice Roberts, Op. cit., pp. 147–148.
Rom. 12:1–2 is based upon the foregoing doctrinal content of Romans chapters 1–11.
The Apostle’s reasoning is that we must spiritually prepare and conform to God’s will in order to see how blessed it is in and for our lives “…read the Bible in a spirit of obedience and self–application.
Sit down to the study of it with a daily determination that you will live by its rules, rest on its statements, and act on its commands.
Consider…‘How does this affect my…course of conduct?’….That Bibleis read best, which is practiced most.” J. C. Ryle, How Readest Thou?,pg55 because we must intelligently grasp the Scriptures through which the Holy Spirit ministers grace and brings us to spiritual maturity (Acts 8:3028; Eph. 4:11–1629; Phil. 1:9–11; Col. 1:28–29; 2 Pet.3:18). It becomes practical as the grace of the Holy Spirit works through the Word to conform us to the image of Christ. There is a very necessary and proper place for the feelings or emotions, but this is in the context of Divine truth; conversely Divine truth has no place in the context of the emotions, i.e., we must not have to become emotional to receive or reject Divine truth. The emotions are meant to be responsive, not determinative. This balance must be emphasized in our present age of religious irrationality!
The following discussion of true spirituality, although lengthy, is to the point and stated in the simplest terms with
reference to its character and results in the experience:
It is hard to say what Christian spirituality is. It is not equivalent to giftedness because there are eloquent and
talented people who are full of themselves. It is not the same as theological exactness because those who are less correct in their understanding of the truth are sometimes strong in grace and love to Christ.
Spirituality is not something which can be measured by studying one aspect of a person’s life, but by taking account of
all aspects. It is roughly equivalent to what we mean by ‘Christian character’. It is the measure of our spiritual renewal after the image of Christ himself.
Our assessment of our own and others’ progress in spirituality must begin with the realization that there is a basic
distinction to be made between what a man has by nature and what he has by grace. One man has a naturally clear intellect, another a naturally accurate memory, a third has a naturally charming temperament. These are all valuable assets but their possession does not prove spirituality, still less spirituality of Philip did not ask the Ethiopian eunuch, “How do you feel about the Bible?” But rather, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
Note that spiritual maturity is not nebulous, but primarily intellectual, as it centers here not only on love, unity and spiritual growth, but also on doctrinal knowledge and maturity.high order. It proves natural charm and natural talent and nothing more. Such talent is to be found also in the unconverted.
Spirituality, however, is proved by the presence in the soul of those graces which are not natural. These are such
characteristics as humility, fear of offending God, delight in communion with Christ, love of souls, ambition to glorify God and to enjoy him, love towards other believers as one’s brethren, repentance for all known sin, frequent confession to God and longing for the eternal state of glory. Such things as these cannot arise out of natural inclination or temperament because they require the supernatural energies of the Holy Spirit to produce and promote them. There is, of course, an infinite distance between what is natural and what is supernatural…The least Christian is in a different category from the most devout non–Christian. The work of God in the most charming and respectable unbeliever is not qualitatively as excellent as the work of God in the weakest of his own true children. The lowest spark of grace in any man places him in a spiritual class far above all natural excellence. ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit’ (John 3:6).
It seems to human wisdom to be offensive to say that a man cannot cultivate himself so as to be pleasing to God.
After all, man can pray and preach, read the Bible and take the Lord’s Supper, go to church services and even become an
authority on some aspects of religious study. But all of this falls short of spirituality because it is not the outcome of that act of the Holy Spirit which we call the new birth and which alters a man radically in his whole nature.
To be religious and not spiritual is to be in the most dangerous state of soul possible to man in this life. Christ has
the sternest warnings for such persons. He denounces their religious condition to be that of whited sepulchres (Matt.
23:27), persecutors (Luke 11:47–51), hinderers of men from salvation (Luke 11:52), hypocrites (Matt. 23:13), ‘serpents’
and a ‘generation of vipers’, who cannot ‘escape the damnation of hell’ (Matt. 23:33).
Such language is a reminder to us that a purely nominal religion is worse than useless. It is a fearful snare to the soul and leads away from God under the pretext of serving him. It causes ‘the light in us to be darkness’ (Matt. 6:23). It leaves us children of the devil while we imagine ourselves the children of God (John 8:41,44). It will at last shut the door of heaven forever against us even though we have convinced ourselves that we are safe (Matt. 7:2 1; 25:10–12).
Let a man become a church member without the new birth and the probability is he will be secure in his church membership till he wakes up in a lost world. Let a man become a preacher, a divinity professor, a missionary, a
church historian, a moderator, an assembly clerk, a printer of Bibles—all without the new birth—and such persons are only twofold more the heirs of hell than they would otherwise have been (Matt. 23:15). However hard it is for us to take in this doctrine, there cannot be the least doubt that it is the plain and obvious teaching of Christ in many places of the Gospels.
Spirituality therefore comes first and must be put at the top of all our priorities. The preaching of our blessed Saviour is remarkable for the emphasis it places always on the need for man to be spiritual. The beatitudes, for instance, are a word picture of the spiritual man. Then, too, the judgments Christ passes on men’s behavior and men’s attitudes show that his all–seeing eye searches after one thing in man—spirituality.
When a person came to him with spirituality of soul he received commendation and blessing. When any came without it they departed much as they had come.
A lack of spirituality is the hidden cause of so many of the evils which vex the church of Christ. It accounts for a great deal of the theological and spiritual confusion to be seen on every hand. It explains how leading churchmen can deny the virgin birth and scoff at the physical resurrection of Christ. It accounts for the way in which churches subscribe to orthodox articles of faith and then ignore them in practice. It is the reason why office bearers take vows at the time of ordination and then conveniently forget them. It explains how those who are high in church office can on occasion be low in personal integrity. It accounts for the way men may hold the mystery of the faith with an uneasy conscience and with a bad reputation.
It accounts for all the compromise and all the moral fudging we see in church and state. Unspirituality is a taproot of every sort of hypocrisy and duplicity. There is little hope that society will ‘get back to basics’ till it is faced up to and dealt with biblically.
There are degrees of spirituality among those who are spiritual. The new birth makes all those who are the subjects of it into spiritual men. But spiritual men differ in their measure of spirituality. The difference in this case is that of the measure of their progress….
If spirituality is first in importance, it follows that it should be that which we seek first for our own souls. It involves the active and deliberate co–operation of the Christian with those processes of grace within him by which he becomes ever increasingly renewed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. In particular, it may be viewed as a bending of every part of the soul towards the one aim of living unto God in this life.
Spirituality comes to us with difficulty and it involves us in costly self–discipline. It is a discipline, however, which yields precious fruit and well repays the effort. Each faculty of the soul needs to be daily schooled to behave in a particular way. The intellect (or mind) has to be daily trained to absorb the truths of holy Scripture till the habit of our thoughts is to judge all we hear and see by Scripture light. We cannot trust the judgment of the press or the media too far. The Christian must constantly unscramble the maze of facts which he hears, and attempt to pass all that he knows through his mind in the light of Holy Scripture.
The feelings and emotions also of a self–disciplined Christian must be trained to react appropriately.Our emotion
sought to vary as we hear and read God’s Word.The promises of God are to evoke comfort, gladness and hope; the
threatenings of Scripture should lead us to tremble and respect the justice of God; the laws of God should make us
strict and dutiful, and they ought to fashion our conscience till it habitually loves obedience and protests at lawlessness. The will–power of the Christian requires to be daily urged to perform each duty till it is done as well as strength and time will allow. Of course, when all is done we shall still need to remind ourselves that we have done nothing yet as we ought to do and that we are, at best, but ‘unprofitable servants’ (Lk. 17:10).
No small part of spirituality consists in our attitude to ourselves. Here is where the difference between Christian and
Christian betrays itself. It is painful but essential in our progress towards true spirituality that we should mortify our natural excess of self–love. This begins with the way we think of ourselves and ends with the way we speak of ourselves.
The pattern we must follow is that of the Apostle Paul who admits to a constant warfare in his soul against his own
corruptions (Rom. 7:14) and whose self–judgment is that he is ‘less than the least of all saints’ (Eph. 3:8), ‘the chief of sinners’ (1 Tim. 1:15) and ‘the least of the apostles’ (1 Cor.15:9). Such language is genuine evangelical humility. It is not the false modesty of religious formality but the realization, which we should all heartily share, that apart from God’s grace we are nothing.