vi. how to think about the scriptures - Chambers, Oswald
For the word of god is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12.
Why should i believe a thing because it is in the bible? That is a perfectly legitimate question. There is no reason why you should believe it, it is only when the spirit of god applies the scriptures to the inward consciousness that a man begins to understand their living efficacy. If we try from the outside to fit the bible to an external standard, or to a theory of verbal inspiration or any other theory, we are wrong. Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life ( john 5:3940 RV).
There is another dangerous tendency, that of closing all questions by saying, let us get back to the external authority of the bible. That attitude lacks courage and the power of the spirit of god; it is a literalism that does not produce written epistles, but persons who are more or less incarnate dictionaries; it produces not saints but fossils, people without life, with none of the living reality of the lord Jesus. There must be the incarnate word and the interpreting word, i. E. , people whose lives back up what they preach, written epistles, known and read of all men. Only when we receive the holy spirit and are lifted into a total readjustment to god do the words of god become quick, and powerful to us. The only way the words of god can be understood is by con- tact with the word of god. The connection between our lord himself, who is the word, and his spoken words is so close that to divorce them is fatal. The words that i speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
The bible does not reveal all truth, we have to find out scientific truth and common-sense truth for our- selves, but knowledge of the truth, our lord him- self, is only possible through the reception of the holy spirit. Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. The holy spirit alone makes the word of god understandable. The regenerating and sanctifying work of the holy spirit is to incorporate us into Christ until we are living witnesses to him. S. D. Gordon22 put it well when he said, we have the bible bound in morocco, bound in all kinds of beautiful leather; what we need is the bible bound in shoe leather. That is exactly the teaching of our lord. After the disciples had received the holy spirit they became witnesses to Jesus, their lives spoke more eloquently than their lip sand they took knowledge of them, that they had been with jesus. The holy spirit being imparted to us and expressed through us is the manifested exhibition that god can do all that his word states he can. It is those who have received the holy spirit who understand the will of god and grow up into him in all things. When the scriptures are made quick and powerful by the holy spirit, they fit every need of life. The only interpreter of the scriptures is the holy spirit, and when we have received the holy spirit we learn the first golden lesson of spiritual life, which is that god reveals his will according to the state of our character (cf. Psalm 18:2526).