"An inadequate submission to Biblical truth can rob us of knowing Him in a dynamic way and experiencing Him in all His fullness".
That exactly sums up what I have been trying to say about a gospel of word and power. And without wanting to speak for Julie - I think also what she was trying to get at in speaking about the danger of an exclusive Cross-centredness. I was listening to Rob Rufus in the car driving back from work and he quoted 2 Timothy 3:5 - there is the pattern again. A "form" of godliness but one which denies the power.
I am tired of a divide that was never meant to be. The Bible - the Word of God - isn't ever to be seen as a quenching of the Spirit. Quite the opposite. The Word of God in it's fullness reveals how inadequate our relationship and our encounter with God is. How is it that 2 Corinthians 3:7-8 describes Moses (who looked upon GOD HIMSELF) as being in a covenant of fading glory, yet which of us in this New Covenant compare ourselves to Moses? Let the Word of God be unbound! Terry himself says;
"Knowing the Biblical revelation leads us on to a personal experience of Him that reflects that revelation".
Rather than the Word of God limiting our encounters with Him, surely the Word of God should be provoking our vastly poor experiences with Him! There is so much more of Him to know! There is so much more of Him to get to know! Surely there is something wrong with any study of the Word of God which doesn't lead us on to a personal experience of Him.
5 comments:
This was so good, I love the quote too....I think alot of Christians don't realize they have the freedom to have an intimate relationship with God, sort like Moses did, but the Israelites were afraid to and said just tell us what to do! I never was able to get revelation until I understood grace, now I get revelation all the time and it always amazes me......I would say too many Christians are reading the word with foggy lenses instead of with lenses of Grace...that's why there is now revelation leading to personal experience of God Himself......!
I'm re-reading Sibbes' Glorious Freedom and he talks about how the devil puts dust in peoples eyes so they can't see. The other side of the coin is that "the sight of Christ is a transforming sight" - and he notes that if we're reading scripture and not being transformed then we're not really seeing, we don't have the eyes of faith. Puritan brilliance from 2 Corinthians 3/4
Bluefish,
Thanks for the Scripture, I just read it again and it was more eye-opening than the last time...I love when that happens -anyway....where does it say the devil puts dust in people's eyes..in the Bible?
Yes that's a good point and sounds very Puritan-ish! But doesn't it also say in Revelation, that the church has the ability to be blind sometimes to spiritual things and Jesus exhorts them to ask for "salve so that they may see". A suggestion that we may be living in the legal standing of the Cross and all it's goodness yet be bound by legalism - hence of course Paul's strong words to Galatia!
Dust is Sibbes' illustration of the god of this world (the devil) blinding the eyes of unbelievers.
Dan - good point on believers too. And Sibbes says that can happen to believers too, as we don't fix our eyes on Christ - "a rolling eye sees nothing".
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