April 25, 2000

Searching for Meaning

I like reading. I really like reading. One of these days I may put up an online book review. Of course it would be from my perspective, but if you didn't want my perspective you wouldn't be here would you?

Anyway, I was giving some though to a comment I overhead a little while ago, about reading. Reading the Bible that is. Some people were reading one of the books of the Bible and were almost complaining that they we not getting anything from it. It usually is a pretty good assumption that when we read a book we should get something out of it. If you read a physics book, you assume that you will learn something about physics. If you read a romance novel, I guess you want to get romantic feelings or an escape from reality. If you read the newspaper, you expect to get actual news (though this is less the case in the Cornell Daily Sun) and increase our knowledge. So it seems quite natural that when we approach any written media, we want to get something from it.

But what about reading the Bible? Does it really make sense that we should get some sort of plan of how to change our lives so that they will either be more holy or more acceptable to God? We definately crave the acceptance of others, as only a reflection of our craving to be somehow accepted by God. And we have this notion that being holy is required for standing in the Lord's presence. Is the Bible meant to make us holy? I would say, no.

Why? The Bible itself makes it clear that if, through searching the scriptures, a way of righteousness could be found, it would have produced righteous people. Instead, the "Law" condemns us in every step of our lives. There is no life in it because it condemns us to death. It shows us left and right just how vile we are. To look into the scriptures to find the "way" of holiness will plummet us into an abyss of legalism, defeat, and ultimately death. There are plenty of passages in the Bible that do call us to live righteously. In no way am I denying those. That would be heresy. But, as the apostle Paul says, there is a righteousness apart from the law.

What does this mean? It means that God, the creator of the universe, has made Himself known over history through the Bible. That is what it is here for, to get to know Him. Not to give us moral platitudes or turn us into "good" people. Our pride makes us fight for things to do, so that in some feeble sense we can say, "this is mine, this makes me worthy." Yeah, right. As if anything we could ever do would merit the love that God has poured out on us through the death of Christ.

"Be still and know that I am God," not, "do this list of things to work your way to Me."

I am a very prideful person (in the negative sense). I would love to come to the Bible and find the cure for my pride. I would love to be lifted from my self-centeredness. Yet, I cannot turn to any passage to remedy this disease. Instead I find commands like, "humble yourselves before God and He will lift you up." You may say, "wait, Greg, that is an answer to your problem. Humble yourself." But, there is no possible way for me to be humble without knowing who God is and who I am in relation to Him. Many people who barely know me would say I am a humble person, but that is based on man's humility, and not Christ's. We need to know God first. That is a big enough reward in itself. If for some reason He chooses not to lift me up, I do not care. If only I know Christ in this world, I am satisfied. If He knows me, I am justified and have the assurance of eternal life.

God speaks. Are you listening? Which do you know better, the Bible, or God?