Why Scripture Matters

 18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrectionwhose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” 24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

–Mark 12.18-27 (NIV)

In today’s lesson, Jesus gives us some insight as to why some of us get it so badly wrong about God and we would do well to pay attention to what Jesus has to say if we are interested in getting it as right as we humanly can about God. The Sadducees had come to challenge Jesus about the resurrection. As was typical of most of Jesus’ opponents, they tried to trap him by presenting an impossible scenario for him comment on.

But Jesus would have none of it. He cuts right to the chase. “Why are you so stupid about God and his ways?” Jesus asks. “Is it because you don’t know what is in Scripture or are you simply ignorant about the power of God?” Chances are, the answer is all of the above, and for a multitude of reasons.

We read Scripture carefully and systematically, in part, to learn about the nature of God and his dealings with his people. After all, Scripture is the narrative of God’s rescue plan for humanity, to save us from the mess our sin has gotten us into, a mess that must lead us to permanent separation from the Source and Author of all life (i.e., death). If you read Scripture and don’t try to put yourself over Scripture, i.e., you let Scripture speak to you on its terms rather than you deciding where it is right and where it is wrong, you will indeed learn about the power of God. Of course, reading Scripture isn’t the only way you can learn about God’s power but it is a massively important way to do so.

This is why there has been such an uproar in many of the mainline Christian denominations regarding homosexuality. The latter is simply the presenting issue to a much more serious problem of the human tendency to deny the authority of Scripture by refusing to submit to what it has to say about how we interact with God and each other. Sadly there are those who put themselves over Scripture and who attempt to make it fit their own image and their own worldview rather than to let Scripture shape them. Others like Dr. Rob Gagnon have spoken more eloquently than I can about this issue and I would commend you to his writings. It is not my point to raise the issue of homosexuality here other than to point out that we have to be careful in how we read Scripture. It’s not simply enough to read Scripture. We have to read it rightly.

That is why it is always a good thing to read it together as Christ’s body, the church, and to be humble enough to listen to the consensus that has emerged over time and culture. If, for example, you read Scripture but regularly omit the “hard passages,” passages like Psalm 137 or any of Paul’s writings that deal with male and female relationships that are not considered to be politically correct, chances are  you are not reading Scripture with the humility you need to really hear what God is trying to say,  just like the Saducees were apparently guilty of doing when they confronted Jesus about the resurrection.

We humans are profoundly broken and prone to error. That is why we must learn about God and about what God has done for us in and through Christ. We do that in large part by reading Scripture so that we can indeed learn about the power of God and his rescue plan for us. When we do, we have really Good News. We learn that God loves us and created us to have a relationship with him. We learn that God has done the impossible for us by becoming human and dying for us so that we do not have to bear the awful punishment of being separated from him forever. We learn about the terrible consequences of our sin and most importantly, when we read Scripture humbly and with others, we allow God to use it to shape our Christian character so that we can grow into the humans God created us to be and learn to live life abundantly.

If you are floundering in your life, stop and consider these things. Chances are you are floundering because you do not know the power of God. You won’t learn that by your brilliance or natural proclivity. You will learn that by admitting you are only the creature and have lots to learn about life from your Creator. When, by God’s grace, you decide to humbly submit to the regular and systematic reading of God’s word, you can expect it to change you so that you come to learn the true power of God, a power that has manifested itself in Christ’s blood shed for you on the cross and the promise of resurrection and New Creation.

If you have not done so already, what are you waiting for? Ask God to give you the grace and humility you need so that he can teach you about himself and the wondrous gift of life and New Creation he has in store for you in and through Jesus.

One thought on “Why Scripture Matters

  1. And when we come to Scripture in this humility you speak of, and allow God to do that work in us, that makes it possible for us to see him even more clearly.

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