There are a couple of boundary markers we need to keep in our line of sight as we make our way through the Scripture and it makes its way through us.
The first is that we can come within understanding distance of Scripture. Whether it’s John 5 or Jeremiah 25, we need to approach the biblical witness with the assurance that our Father didn’t give us the book to mock us. It’s something we can understand if we approach it correctly.
This means we can’t just open up the Bible and start in with a “This is what it means to me” and expect to be blessed with understanding. Such an approach is egocentric to the core. It assumes the Scripture was written primarily to us instead of recognizing that Jeremiah and John were written to specific audiences and before we can understand what it means to us (i.e., how to apply it), we must first understand what it meant to the original recipients. Yet if we do our work in this area (and we are blessed with an abundance of resources in this area), there is no reason that we cannot come within understanding distance of the Scripture. We may not grasp every nuance of verse, but we’ll understand the basic message.
The complementary second marker is to remember we should never be satisfied to stay where we are in our understanding of Scripture—the deeper you go the more it will bless you and others. Understanding distance is where we want to start, not end. The Scripture is profound and a lifetime of study and meditation will not begin to exhaust its riches.
You can read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 and understand that Luke records this for Theophilus (1:1-4) to help him understand the heart of God that was also present in Jesus. At another level, you can see this story is also about a second son who is also lost and very much resembles the Pharisees and lawyers whom Jesus told the story to and for (15:1). Go deeper and you might end up writing a book called Will God Run as Charles Hodge did when he noticed that “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him (v. 20). Since the Bible is the book of life, our understanding of it should continually grow and deepen as it does with life itself.
We’ll do well to stay within these two boundaries. Never be discouraged or beaten down into believing that the Bible is just a book for the “experts.” Neither should you treat it like the latest bestseller and think that because you’ve read it once and know how the story turns out, there’s no reason to dig any deeper. Stay within these boundaries and allow God to bless you (Psalm 1)!
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 