DO YOUR REALLY DELIGHT IN THE BIBLE?
By Richard Gagnon

    The life of faith is a life based on the Word of God. Every authentic Christian will agree with it. However, it is not the case that most Christians take it very seriously. In fact, we are living in a century where the Bible is no longer what it was in in the lives of the saints of the past.

    I do not want to generalize, but there is nevertheless a very deep truth in what I am saying here. When is the last time you have met a Christian who was humble enough to admit to you that the reading of the Bible was not a serious exercice in his/her own life? If we want to be frank, the answer to this question is this: I have met many such Christians many times. And if it is the case with the Christians I know, it is more than likely the case with you as well. Modern Christians are not devoted readers of their Bible. Now, we must ask why if we want to find a solution to this problem. I want to show you at least two different reasons.

1. God is no longer what He was, even in the heart of the modern Christian.

    If you have read a bit of Christians’ lives of the past you already understand what I mean. For example, the Puritan’s era is very far from ours. In that time, the place God occupied in the hearts of those believers was so big that to see a man/woman not reading his/her Bible on a regular basis would have been seen as a worldly way of living the Christian life. I would admit that I agree with it to a certain point. Now, I understand that many Christians have always the famous argument telling us: "You know, I am not a big reader." The point is that God does not want us to read His Word on the basis of if we are a reader or not, but on the basis of our need to meet Him through the revelation He has left to us in order to know Him. In His sovereignty, God decided to reveal Himself through the pages of Scriptures and if we want to know Him we have no other choice to go where He is revealing Himself; and this particular place is the Bible. It is for this very reason that we call the Bible "The special revelation".

    You know, God is a Spirit and to conceive a Spirit apart from a precise and accurate revelation is totally impossible to human minds. Moreover, the apostle Paul said: "For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God." (1 Cor. 2.11-12 )

    So, my friends, if you feel a deep lack of spiritual intimacy with God through His Word, I ask you to repent and go back where you were the most delighted in the beginning of your Christian life; namely in the Bible. But there is a second reason why so many Christians are not devoted to the reading of their Bible.

2. The richness of Christ is no longer what it should be in the hearts of the believers.

    Dear friend, who is the Lord Jesus for you? What does he really represent to your soul? Is Jesus only an historical religious figure, who walked on this earth 2,000 years ago, and nothing more? You know, the person of Christ takes another sense in our heart the moment we ask ourselves the following question: "Where did Jesus Christ come from?" Now, let us consider a couple of answers to this question.

A. He came from a simple Jewish family whose Joseph and Mary were the parents.

    Though it is true on the temporal level, we must not forget that Jesus Christ had something more than just that! He had a divine nature. And on this level, he had no beginning. He is the eternal Son of the living God. The fact that he is both human and divine must seize us immediately on a specific point: He has therefore a divine character whose the authority depends. Jesus said: "My kingdom is not of this world." In this simple sentence we have three powerful truths about Jesus.

- Jesus is a King (he talked about his kingdom).

- Jesus is not an ordinary man as we are (he said that it was not of this world).

- Jesus came from another world ("this" world, as opposed to another).

Now, if Jesus came from a kingdom that is not of this world we have already a first clue reminding us his richness.

B. Coming from above, did he really have a special mission on earth?

    A man who comes from Canada to visit USA or India, or Australia may be there for different reasons: a simple trip, his job, to meet someone important, etc. But the common thing is this. He comes for no other thing than an earthly goal. But it was not the case for Jesus. Although he came to save sinners that belong to earth, their final destiny is the eternity either in hell or heaven. And to achieve his special mission of redemption, Jesus Christ had to come from above to reach those from below in order to be brought above. You see the chain?: Above, below, above again. The mission of Christ was one of great rescue. We saw recently through the news, in many parts of the world, all the tragedies that happened in China through a tremendous earthquake, in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) through a devastating cyclone, and all the rest. We see many rescuers working hard many hours a day trying to avoid the worse: the loss of thousands of lives under the remaining ruins left behind. The point is this. Many are acting as rescuers and their mission has no guarantee to fulfill the expected results. What I mean is this. Many will be left unsaved from the ruins and they will die. Now, it is quite another thing with the mission of Jesus Christ. He was acting as a kind of "divine loner", being the Only One that could achieve the huge task of rescuing all his elect (those who would put their faith in him and in him alone - hence the "Solus Christus" of the Reformation). Added to that, he was mandated by the Father not to fail at all. Listen to what he said:

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day." (John 6.37-39)

    Granted, many will die without Christ, but not a single one of the elect will be left unsaved since Jesus said that no one given to him will be left without hope. As you can see, the mission of Jesus was much more important than any other earthly missions that ever happened in the history of mankind. He was alone to carry out all this gigantic task and had not the right to fail. And he did not…Praise God!

    So, if we keep in mind that the Jesus of the Bible is such a divine character walking on earth, what a good reason to be drawn to the Bible to read this wonderful story that is always new for the one who loves Him.

    In conclusion of this editorial, I encourage you to go back to read your Bible if you have neglected it for a time. On the basis of who God is and who Christ is, the Bible must remain the best treasure in the heart of the believer. Amen!

Soli Deo Gloria
Richard Gagnon