KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
Every sincere person desires to know and understand truth. But many people do not understand the Bible, even though Jesus declared it is "truth.” In John 17:17. Intellectual preparation alone is not sufficient in the study of the Bible. How, then, may one be helped in their search for the truth contained in the Bible?
The Bible, being a unit, must have a central truth or fact which serves as a key to its understanding. What is this truth? Unquestionably it is Jesus, the Son of God, the sin offering for sinners. Christ, the Son and sin offering, is the very heart of the New Testament, especially. John 3:16 is considered to be "The Golden Text of the Bible." It was God's Son who was given on the cross for our sins. The Old Testament gave man a code, the New Testament, a person. A proper knowledge of this Person is the best assurance of a correct understanding of the New Covenant.
Jesus, the Son of God
Jesus is God's Son! Man's unbelief changes nothing. The New Testament recognized Him as God's Son. The apostles and other inspired men preached that He was indeed God's Son. If one is to understand the Bible, they must also recognize Christ as divine. The teachings, claims, and conduct of a divine person cannot be understood, if He is considered as a mere man. The unbelieving Jews considered Jesus blasphemous and presumptuous. The unbeliever cannot understand Jesus.
If, for example, the President is not recognized as the Chief Executive of the United States, his words and acts become ridiculous in some instances. A historian, who would deny that he is president, could never write a correct history of his time. He is our president, and as such he speaks and acts. The relation of any citizen to him must be based upon the reality of his presidency. Just so one must recognize Christ as God's Son or else the Bible can never be understood. This Book becomes in reality just another book; it becomes a puzzle that no one can solve. To use the Bible at all, and then deny its central truth, is inconsistent. ”God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;” (Hebrews 1:1-2 NKJV) To deny this truth disqualifies one as a student of the Bible. If Jesus is not God's Son, He was self-deceived, misrepresented Himself to men, and acted presumptuously. The failure to interpret every fundamental truth in its relation to the Sonship of Jesus must end in failure. But to consider Him as He is (the Son of God): His life, His death, and His teaching are seen as a consistent whole.
Jesus, Man's Sin Offering
Jesus is man's sin offering whoever disbelieves this truth can never understand the Bible. He must be considered our sin offering just as He must be recognized as God's Son, if our search for truth awaits. His Sonship and His death for sinners are inseparable. Neither apart from the other could make Him a Savior.
What Jesus did and what He said must be considered in light of these two truths. As God's Son, He dies for our sins. Life is in the Son. ”And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11 NKJV). Jesus gave His life, for us on the cross. The subject of salvation, therefore, must be considered in light of the death of Christ.
Jesus is Son-teacher, Son-Savior, and Son-propitiation. He is the crucified-teacher, the crucified-Savior, and the crucified-propitiation. His teaching as such is not redemptive. He is not a mere, teacher or lawgiver. He teaches sinners that He saves them by His blood. The subject of salvation, therefore, must never be studied apart from the cross. The blood redeems man from his sin.
Those passages of Scripture which relate to redemption can only be properly understood, if they are related to the blood of Christ which was shed on the cross. To contemplate a remedy for sin apart from any consideration of the blood is nonsense. To try to understand the Bible on the subject of salvation apart from the cross is a foolish impossibility. God provides salvation on the very basis on which it is provided and offered.
Man's part in being saved must be related directly to the crucified Son. Every condition must be understood as a response to the blood of Christ, not merely a response to Him as teacher or lawgiver. Else the cross is rendered void! For example, faith must not be considered as mere belief. That is, belief in the Sonship of Jesus and that He died on the cross is no logical response to the crucified Son, nor to merely accept these facts about His life.
Christ's blood is the "remedy" for the "disease" of sin. This "remedy” must be relied upon to save. Faith, then, in the sense of reliance or trust is demanded by the very facts in the case. Likewise, obedience to the crucified Son, is seen to be not merely submission to Him as lawgiver, but the expression of a reliance of trust in his atoning blood,”whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, (Romans 3:25). One must obey Him or submit to His will, not just as one "having authority," but submission to be washed in His blood (baptized), and then submit their life to Him as King and Priest, That is where and when redemption or forgiveness take place, “and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,” (Revelation 1:5 NKJV).
The Bible and reason teach that there can be no reformation without redemption. Only a "good tree" can produce, "good fruit." “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit” (Luke 6:43 NKJV). A "corrupt tree" is not made a "good tree" by producing "good fruit." A tree must be made good and then it produces good fruit.
Sinners are created in Christ Jesus for good works. The unredeemed must remain unreformed. Christianity both redeems and reforms, but it redeems first. Newness of life follows redemption. Good works (fruits) cannot come before, redemption. ”In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7 NKJV). “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent “(John 17:3 NKJV). How do we know Christ? ”Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:3-6 NKJV).
In order for one to understand the Bible, one must understand Christ. And to understand Christ, one must regard Him as He is: the Son of God and man's sin offering and Savior by means of His blood. “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ,” (Philippians 3:8 NKJV). “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12 NKJV). ”For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13 NKJV).