Should I ‘Let Go and Let God’ When I Study the Bible? Hermeneutics Part 2

What role do we and the Holy Spirit play in understanding the Bible? Is our task primarily (or ‘only’) to ‘let go and let God’ and ‘be lead by the Spirit?’ Now certainly all believers are lead by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8), but does this negate any human effort? Do our attempts to understand the text of Scripture simply account to nothing more than trying to understand ‘by the flesh?’

Human effort and spirituality are not antithetical. One of the most basic justifications for this is seen in the person of Jesus Christ. Though fully God—completely and wholly divine—he was also fully man, complete with his limitations and weaknesses. To deny Christ’s humanity as though it were beneath him (a form of ancient docetism), is to deny the goodness of creation. Christ’s incarnation was certainly very humbling, but it was not evil. In fact, Paul would want to say that all of creation is good because it was made by a good God (1 Tim. 4:4).  

Here then is the connection between the incarnation and the goodness of thinking: Christ’s full humanity legitimizes our human efforts in understanding Scripture. Sweating, thinking, pondering are all physical acts…and they are good. That the immortal God would become man is certainly an affirmation of the goodness of creation. Those who resist personal efforts of study, therefore, are implicitly attacking the goodness of the humanity of Christ.  

Thus, the distinction between what we often mean by being ‘lead by the Spirit’ or ‘trying to understanding a passage’ is a false dichotomy. There is nothing necessarily less spiritual about analyzing the grammar of a text or the historical context. Conversely, there is nothing more spiritual about refusing to study simply because you believe the Spirit will give you understanding. Matter is good. That includes our brains. As we use them, in total submission to God, we are acting spiritually. 

Why One Cannot Understand the Bible Without Christ

Jesus is the Communicator of the Bible—John tells us in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Word that brought all things into existence is Jesus Christ. Thus, he is the center as the communicator of God’s Word. He gives all created things their meaning and purpose.

Jesus is the Message of the Bible—On his way to Emmaus, when his disciples were having trouble interpreting their Rabbi’s recent death, Jesus rebukes them for not understanding how he lay at the center of the message of the Bible. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). The Old Testament predicts Christ and the New Testament proclaims Christ and preaches how we are to live in light of the Gospel.

Jesus is the Receiver of the Bible—We as receivers are not neutral. Our mind is corrupted and thus we do not understand things as we ought. But precisely because Jesus was God-man, and that through faith we are united to him, we now have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). His mind is now our mind. Thus, as we grow in hermeneutical salvation (thinking more like Christ), we realize that he is also the true receiver of God’s Word.

The Gospel is the only way one can understand all of reality. 

Can We Even Understand God’s Word?

If God’s ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than ours, then can we even understand the Bible?

We can for this reason: we are made in the image of God. Humans reflect God in a way that no animal does. This includes our language. We speak intelligently precisely because we serve a God who is a speaking God. Our thoughts and vocabulary and languages all have their origin in God Himself. Therefore, if God condescends and speaks to us and has it preserved for us in a book, we can know God truly, even if never exhaustively.

As image-bearers, we can have confidence in the understandability of the Bible. 

Why Do I Need to Learn to Study the Bible? Hermeneutics Part 1

“I have the Holy Spirit. Why then do I need to learn to study the Bible? Aren’t thinking and spirituality antithetical?”

Anti-intellectualism is a beast that bears many different heads today. These grotesque distortions of the truth permeate the global church today and severely hamper spiritual maturity in Christ. Heresies spread, truth is minimized, and knowledge that leads to right conduct is not embraced. This anti-intellectual beast grows because many people assume that knowledge is the problem. It is not. It is pride.  In the following blog posts, I hope to identify and slay several different heads of this beast.

Anti-intellectual head #1: “I do not need anyone to teach me because I have the anointing of the Holy Spirit.”

Here’s how this argument works. They usually draw from 1 John 2:27, where the apostle writes, “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.” They argue, “What more could we need? No one knows the mind of someone except his/her spirit. Therefore, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (see 1 Cor. 2:11). If then we have the Spirit of God, then we must understand everything and cannot need anyone to teach us.”

This vicious head may seem overwhelming, but I believe it can be easily slain. Here are four weapons against this beast:

1.)  The Apostle John is teaching them. At the very least, one has to admit that in teaching them that they do not need anyone to teach them, John is doing just that. He is instructing them something about the quality and sufficiency of their anointing. In fact, all of 1 John is full of a lot of teaching.

The next three weapons make the case that their anointing leads to categorical truth, but not exhaustive truth.

      2.) This is placed in the context of false teachers who are insisting they need to know more. Verse 26, the one immediately preceding John’s statement about them needing no one to teach them, gives necessary context, “I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.” John’s audience was dealing with many deceptions: Jesus did not come in the flesh (1:1-3) and Jesus was not the Christ or the Son of God (2:22; 4:3). These ‘antichrists’ were claiming that the Christians needed to know more and move on from the limited knowledge. To that John replies, “No, they do not need to move on.” He is not rejecting a Christ+ knowledge.  

          3.) Their anointing corresponds to apostolic teaching, and they are commanded to continue in it. In verse 24, John writes, “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.” What they had heard from the beginning was apostolic teaching that affirms the deity of the Father and the Son (see vv.22-23). They are not commanded to ignore it or assume it, but to abide in it (present tense—implies continued action). Therefore, this further proves that John’s concern is not knowledge per se, but different knowledge that denies this apostolic teaching.

      4.) The nature of their anointing confirms that John is speaking of categorical knowledge. In v. 27, John argues that they don’t need anyone to teach them because they have the anointing. But what is this anointing? It is most probably being born again of the Holy Spirit (see 2:20). A central aspect of the Spirit’s anointing is to continually point to Christ (notice how the anointing leads to a correct affirmation of Christ’s deity—vv.22-23). Therefore, it also makes sense that John is not telling them that the Spirit’s anointing teaches them about everything exhaustively, but about everything that is necessary.

In short: John is teaching that by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, Christians are pointed to all categorical truth: Christ and his work. We don’t need other false teachers pointing us to something else. He is not teaching that we know everything about Christ and his work.