He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.
John 16:15
Do you remember trying to read the Bible before you were born again? I actually tried to do that. I started with Genesis 1, just like I would have done with any book. How far did I get? Not very far. Without the Interpreter of scripture, the Holy Spirit, no one can get very far. For me, the Bible was a book of good stories with life lessons. It also seemed to have a healthy dose of rules. The lessons and the rules lost me quickly, I needed help just to read and comprehend the Bible. The help came when I accepted Christ. Seeing the Bible differently was one of the sure proofs to me of my salvation. I wanted to read the Bible and I actually grasped it. It became my food for nourishment, water for refreshing, the cleansing agent to clean my mind, my moral compass, and the source of guidance and instruction in my life. But more than any of those things, I clearly saw Jesus in the Bible. I began to see Him in the types and shadows of Old Testament stories, His grace and truth in the gospels, the message of salvation by grace through faith in His work in the epistles, and His majestic heavenly glory in the book of Revelations. This book is like no other. It contains layer after layer of the unveiling of the Glory of God. Here are some thoughts from Spurgeon on the helping hand in reading the Bible.
“There are times when all the promises and doctrines of the Bible are of no avail, unless a gracious hand shall apply them to us. We are thirsty, but too faint to crawl to the water-brook. When a soldier is wounded in battle it is of little use for him to know that there are those at the hospital who can bind up his wounds, and medicines there to ease all the pains which he now suffers: what he needs is to be carried thither, and to have the remedies applied. It is thus with our souls, and to meet this need there is one, even the Spirit of truth, who takes of the things of Jesus, and applies them to us.“
This Interpreter of scripture has walked with me now for many years. I am amazed as I read the same passages that I have read many times how He opens them again for me like its the first time. Actually, every time we open the scripture it is the first time, it is the first time we have seen each verse from this new heavenly perspective.
