What Have I Been Missing?

"The Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation" - Dr. David Alan Black



During my years as a student in higher education, I had the privilege of studying with some amazing professors like Richard Rigsby, Haddon Robinson, David Alan Black, Rod Rosenbladt and D.A. Carson. All of these people are well educated with doctoral degrees and highly trained experts in their fields of study. One of my professors, John Bloom, even had 2 PhDs.!

After each course of study I usually found myself amazed at my professor’s insights into the understanding of the nature God, the person of Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures. Even at the end of my time going to school (4 degrees later) I was still dumbfounded by the aspects of my own faith I had not explored, missed or did not understand. God used many of my professors to teach, challenge and show me a lot of what I did not know about him.

I can remember the day David Alan Black taught on Luke 15, and pointed out to the class there were not three parables in this chapter, but only one. It just happens to be the same parable told three different ways with the last, the Prodigal Son, being the most developed. Or when Donald Sunukjian taught that Mark 4:35-41 is not about how Jesus can calm the storms that arise in our lives. But, it is actually about spiritual warfare, because Jesus’ words, “Hush, be still” is the same word in Greek he speaks when casting out a demon in Mark 1:25! Or when D.A. Carson instructed us about how Matthew 4:1-11 isn’t about how to engage Satan in spiritual warfare by quoting Scripture, but is about how Jesus replayed the Hebrew people’s failure in their dessert wandering, but he got it right!

Wow, these thoughts were fascinating! Why is it that I never understood this prior? Why did it take a Ph.D professor to teach me these insights when I had grown up going to BIG church and Sunday School my whole life? What else have I not understood about my faith?

So, has the Holy Spirit dropped the ball with me and most of the church community? Do those with the time, intelligence and inclination have more spiritual insight than the rest of us just because they have pursued higher education? Should all pastors be required to get Ph.Ds, Th.D. or some combination of alphabet soup after their names in order to school the church at large in the finer points of our faith? Do we need to throw out the Reformation doctrine of the Priesthood of the Believer? Do we need to recreate some higher class of spiritually elite (not priests, but professors; not shepherds, but scholars) to inform us about our God and his plan for our lives?

No. The answer to all of these is, “No.”

Through my time being taught by many amazingly gifted and godly members of academia, I think I have answered my own questions. It is because of their instruction I was able to settle on several ways the regular everyday Christians can experience amazingly profound insights about their faith:

1. Read the Bible -- We can't expect to know someone we never spend any time with, so why do we think we will know the Bible when we don’t spend time reading it?

2. Read more books of the Bible, than books about the Bible -- All too often we rely on other people to do the hard work of wrestling with the Bible because we don’t want to or don’t think we can. Like baby birds we expect others to chew our food for us. The majority of our seeking after God should be through his word, not through someone else’s understanding of his word. This is the difference between seeing the Grand Canyon or a priceless Rembrandt for yourself and having someone else describe it to you.

3. Read the whole Bible -- We simply cannot read portions of the Bible and expect to understand its entirety. We must read those hard to understand parts, those boring parts and those uncomfortable parts. If we would simply read the Bible, the whole Bible, from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22 we will begin to see Scripture unfold and reveal its worth as never before.

4. Read the Bible as story -- The Bible is a not textbook for a science or history class, even though it contains both elements. It is not a book of rules or a legal brief. The Bible is a story and it should be read as one. When we read the Bible, the whole Bible, we see character development, plot movement and the point-of-view of its ultimate Author, not to mention its climax and resolution.

5. Read the Bible expecting change not mastery -- Understanding Scripture is more than shoving bits and pieces of information into our already cluttered minds. Simply knowing facts and figures are not enough to constitute spiritual growth. The purpose of knowing the biblical story and appreciating its deep truth is to experience an inner transformation beyond what mere ink and paper or words in order can provide. The value in knowing Scripture is its ability to reveal the work of God through Jesus on our behalf. Embracing it as such will irrevocably change our lives.

If we faithfully implement the above suggestions will we be magically transformed into Professors of Biblical Studies? No. Will colleges and universities grant us honorary doctoral degrees? No. Will we fully comprehend all of God in all his wonder and mystery? No. But we will have a greater awareness of what God is trying to say to us through Scripture. We will be able to better see how our lives fit into God's plan and where he is moving all of history. Likewise we will be better equipped to teach others what we have learned.