The written word and the living word

This is an article I wrote for my first website back in 2006......


The Bible keeps its place as the world's best selling book. It has been translated into far more languages than any other work. Despite many attempts to stamp it out, it keeps springing back. Voltaire stated that the Bible would die out in France within a generation - 100 years later his former home was a Bible distribution centre. It was thrilling for me, when I was a teenager, to read about Eastern Europe in "The Book they couldn't ban", all about Bibles being distributed around countries under the noses of the authorities, at the risk of imprisonment. 

What makes the Bible so important to so many people? Many are violently antagonistic towards it - no ordinary work of literature could arouse such opposition. Committed believers know well the value of the Scriptures, and treasure the Bible as the Word of God. There are many others in between to whom I would appeal in this article. Indifference to the Bible is not a fair attitude.

To say that the "Bible is a good book" or that "Jesus was a good man" misses the point entirely. Either the Bible is what it claims to be, and so demands our complete allegience, or it is worthless and deserves nothing other than contempt. There can be no honest middle ground. It is pointless to read the Bible purely as a work of literature. So then, what is the key to unlocking the message of the Bible?

The key to the Bible is the person of Jesus Christ. Without Him, the pages remain dead and lifeless. With Him in His rightful place the whole book takes on the character given to it in Hebrews - it "is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword....". 

Let's tackle the Old Testament first. So full of laws and wars, no wonder many people dismiss it as bloodthirsty and irrelevent for today. Very well, for now we'll just home in on some small sections which are widely accepted to be Messianic prophecies, that is, direct foretellings about the life of Jesus. There are in fact around 360 of them, about one for each day of the year, by no means insignificant. They range from his birth through to his suffering, death and resurrection. They were fulfilled to the letter in the unfolding of the gospels. There is no argument that the Old Testament was completed many years before the birth of Jesus, there is in fact long period of silence for 400 years. This fulfilment of many specific prophecies should carry a lot of weight. Maybe this is enough to switch on a little light into the apparent darkness of the Old Testament.

But wait. Now we have only just started to put Jesus into the Old Testament. The Book of Hebrews can help. It makes clear that none of the myriads of sacrifices in the Old Testament were worth anything except as pictures of what was to be accomplished by Jesus. The same goes for the whole of the tabernacle and temple system. Many characters clearly point ahead to Jesus in some aspects of their lives - Joseph and David, for example. 

Yes, much of the Old Testament is meant also to reveal the mess mankind was in after the fall. Evil acts and motives are not swept under the carpet. Even the finest of characters have their faults - the Bible is honest even about its heroes. The Bible reveals the truth about ourselves as needy sinners, as well as what God wants us to know about Himself.

When Jesus was alive the New Testament was yet to be written. Jesus referred to almost every book of the Old Testament and clearly accepted its authority as the Word of God. In Luke 4, He took up the scroll from Isaiah, and after reading it stated "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing". He referred the subject of the passage to Himself. At the end of Luke, "beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself".

Now the there is enough to bring the light flooding into every page of Scripture.

So Jesus is the key to the Old Testament as well as the New. But we must make sure we are dealing with the true Jesus of the New Testament. Many people consider Him an example, a great teacher and a good man. All these attitides totally miss the point. Jesus set Himself forward as far greater. Just consider the "I am" statements of John's Gospel, including "before Abraham was I AM" (John 8:58). He clearly claims to be the Son of God. Later, in 1 Timothy, He is entitled "God manifest in the flesh". In John's Gospel, Christ is introduced as the Word - "the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us".

And so we reach the point where the written word and the living word meet. The Bible is the written revelation of God, adequately and completely fulfilling this role. The Bible warns against any taking away from or adding to the written word. The written word faithfully proclaims Christ, and Christ lived out the written word in every detail.

The heart of the Gospel message and the stated mission of Jesus concerns His perfect life, His death on the cross, and His resurrection. The Gospels are unlike any other biography in the proportion they devote to the final days of the Lord's life, and His death. Jesus said on various occasions that He would be taken, suffer many things, be killed and that He would rise again on the third day. 

This is where the message of God in His Word and in His Son meets us as ordinary people in our lives. As sinners we deserve death and eternal separation from God. Sin cannot enter His presence. Jesus came to die in our place, fulfilling in one sacrifice all the pictures presented in the Old Testament. (Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures - I Cor 15). As He was without sin, it was impossible for death to hold Him, so He arose in the power of an endless life. (He was buried, and He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures - I Cor 15). This is the truth that assures believers of the new life that we have through Him. 

The Gospel of John uses simple language. Key words are words such as light, life, love, know, believe, truth. Here, in association with Jesus, they have a full and pure meaning that brings immense power and depth to the message. Jesus is presented in many ways, as Shepherd, Saviour, Lord, Prince, King, Son of Man, Son of God. He completely fulfils all these, and indeed adds greater dignity to each of these titles.

This is explanation for the enduring hold of the Scriptures around the world. They are a unique presentation of a written Word inextricably bound up with a Person presented as that Word made flesh. The message is entirely intended to reach us in our lives with transforming power. Our sin and the penalty of death is removed, the assurance of new and eternal life is given. We are invited to believe, trust and even know God and the truths He reveals, and to believe, trust and know Jesus personally. Truly something living and powerful, and still relevant for every individual across the world today!