A great quote from the third installment of Mark's series:
Christianity is based upon God’s revelation in history. Though God often whispers in our hearts when we are quiet enough to listen or moves our hearts when we make them available to him, our faith does not rest upon our subjective perceptions. It stands upon the rock of God’s self-revelation throughout the ages, a revelation that is recorded in Scripture.Did you catch that? Christian faith is about the Word of God.
But don't be confused about what that means. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus of Nazareth, the ultimate self-disclosure of God is the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God--and normative for Christian faith--because it faithfully, trustingly records God's self-disclosure, first to ancient Israel and ultimately to the world through Jesus Christ.
Everything recorded in the Old Testament led to Jesus.
Everything in the New Testament either tells us about what happened when Jesus, God in human flesh, came to the world, then died, rose, ascended, and sent God the Holy Spirit to help us lead the Christian life in this world and in the world to come.
The Bible is the Word of God because it comes for those us who live the 21st.-century world as the cradle, the tomb, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, and the place where we get the clearest view of God and God's intentions for us. The Bible shows us Jesus, the Word of God. He, in turn, is "the way, the truth, and the life" as Jesus Himself says. In the Bible we get a view of Jesus and it is connection with Jesus that makes the Christian life possible.
This is why Mark Roberts is absolutely right: Anyone, Christians already or non-Christians examining Christian faith as a possibility for their lives, is well advised to explore the Bible's witness about Jesus, the Word of God, to see what the content and contours of that faith might be.
Read Mark's series. I think that you'll enjoy it.
2 comments:
I like the clear statement that "Christian faith is about the Word of God." It truly is.
Of course, what do you mean by "Word of God"? Martin Luther had quite an ability to engage and critique Scripture in a manner that would make many modern Christians nervous. Would we be willing to call James an epistle of straw, or comment that Revelation is not very revealing, in the way that Luther did? No, I don't think we would today, because I think we've overly conflated the printed/written Word of God with the Living Word of God. Luther, who commented that the Bible is the manger in which the Christ Child laid, kept the two - written word, living word - more separate than we do today.
Great point, Chris~
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