Why So Many Interpretations? The Clarity of Scripture and Interpretation

We need to read the Bible Christologically. The Bible just doesn't have Christ at the center. Everything in Scripture leads us to Christ. Luther said it, until you see Christ in the Scripture you're reading, you aren't seeing the Scripture. It's written and changed by the church over the years. I didn't realize that it was the revealed Word of God. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind.

I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. Well, the Bible can be trusted, and I'm thankful to believe that now. Well, today and tomorrow, our Chief Academic Officer at Ligonier Ministries and the President of Reformation Bible College, Stephen Nichols, is joining us to explain why we trust the Bible. In fact, the Bible will be our theme all week on Renewing Your Mind, and today he considers why there are so many interpretations of the Bible. He suggests seven ways to read it to help us correctly interpret what we're reading, and he reminds us of the clarity of Scripture.

Here's Dr. Nichols. In our last time together, we took a detour off of our discussion of the attributes of necessity, authority, clarity, and sufficiency, and discussed canon. Well, we're going to go back to those attributes this time, and we're going to go back to the attribute of clarity. And this idea of the clarity of Revelation, or as we're talking about, the clarity of Scripture, is one that is right there at the beginnings of the Reformation. Well, Zwingli, who was instrumental in the Reformation coming to Zurich, which was a key city there in Switzerland, close to the German lands, and once Zurich switched over to the Reformation, then a number of the other Swiss cities followed.

And right at the center of all that was Zwingli. Well, if you remember a little bit about Luther, Luther's wife, Katie, was a former nun. She had come out of the convent, and one of Luther's friends actually helped her escape. Well, I think Zwingli had heard that story, and he thought, well, if Luther can get himself a wife from a convent, maybe I can too.

So Zwingli travels to Ottenbach, and at the convent there at Ottenbach, he's trying to impress these nuns, and he says, you know what will impress these nuns? A lecture on hermeneutics, right? Well, he's a theologian, and you have to understand how theologians think. And so he delivers a lecture on the clarity and certainty of God's Word. So there we have this doctrine of the clarity of God's Word. See, in order for Scripture to be authoritative, as Zwingli argues, it follows that it has to be clear. Now, he is using for this doctrine of the clarity of Scripture something that is very meaningful to the Reformers.

They all talked about it, and it's very meaningful for us. It's the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and a particular work of the Holy Spirit that we call illumination. Now, it follows that the Spirit, and as Peter tells us, remember, it was these biblical authors were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit plays a unique role among the members of the Triune Godhead in giving us God's Word, and that role is described for us back in the doctrine of inspiration.

Well, not only is the Holy Spirit uniquely involved in inspiration, but flowing from the Spirit's work of inspiration, the Spirit then illuminates us. As the Reformers liked to refer to the Holy Spirit by his Latin title that comes out of those chapters of John 14-16, the Holy Spirit is the magister veritatis, the teacher of truth. You remember John 14-16? We had looked at John 17 a little bit. John 14-16 is that last time, that last teaching time that Jesus has with the apostles. It comes up when he tells them that he's going to leave, and that makes them anxious. We know they're anxious because he introduces John chapter 14 with these words, Don't let your heart be troubled.

So what do we know? Their hearts were troubled. And one of the reasons that their hearts shouldn't be troubled is what Jesus says at the beginning of John 14. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will bring you unto myself also, that where I am, you will be. So don't be anxious about this. Our parting is temporary.

Someday we will be together again. But the other reason they shouldn't be anxious comes up about four times in the course of John 14-16. Now I'll give you some of the references, and you can track these down. John 14 verses 16-18, in chapter 15 verses 26-27, and in chapter 16 from verse 7 all the way down to verse 15. So 14, 16 to 18, chapter 15 verses 26 to 27, and chapter 16 verses 7 to 15. The reason the disciples should not be anxious is because as Jesus leaves, another will come. And that Comforter will come, and He will lead them into truth. So this is this ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now it was fulfilled in a direct way in that it was those apostles that the Holy Spirit brought to their mind the words and works of Jesus as they recorded those words and works in the very books that comprise the New Testament itself.

There was a very direct, indefinite fulfillment of this coming Comforter who would lead them into truth and bring to their mind everything that Jesus said and did while He was among them. But that promise also extends beyond the apostles, and it extends to us as a promise that the Spirit leads us into understanding the truth. Paul talks about this doctrine in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, which in the first five verses go back to some of the things we were saying earlier. Paul says, I didn't come to you proclaiming these things with, you know, lofty speech and wisdom.

It wasn't in the eloquent speech of me as a man that lends credibility. I came to you with the Word of God. That's what he says in verses 1 to 5, and then he talks now about the role of the Spirit in verses 6 to 15. We can pick it up there at verse 8. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him. These things, verse 10 says, these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. This ministry of the Spirit, of revealing to us the truth of God's Word, not just revealing God's Word in the giving of Scripture, but the revealing that Scripture is indeed truth is this ministry of illumination, of the magister veritatis, the teacher of truth who teaches us the Word. And because the Holy Spirit is the teacher of truth, and because we have this promise that the Spirit will lead us into truth, we all agree on everything that the Bible says.

This is the issue that we raise, isn't it? If we say that the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, then we have a significant problem, don't we? We don't all agree. Now, one day we'll all see the light, and we'll all become Presbyterian, and all will be well with the world. But until that time, we disagree. So what do we do with this, and what does this do for the clarity of Scripture?

How do we deal with this? Well, first of all, let's get some things straight. When we're talking about the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture, we are talking about what is the essential teaching of orthodoxy, the essential gospel of Scripture. Now, I purposefully did not use the word simple. Clear, focused, those are words we should use.

I'm not so sure the word simple is a word we should always use. The gospel is actually rather complex, isn't it? It's God-man. Jesus is the God-man. Those are concepts that are contradictory. To be God is infinite. To be human is finite.

Those are opposites. And if we don't have that view of Christ as the God-man, there's no gospel. And then we have this idea of the gospel, which is so counterintuitive. Everything within us tells us to strive to please God. Everything within us tells us we have to achieve salvation. Everything within us tells us, give me the rules, I will follow them, and I will please God. And along comes the gospel and says, you can't do it.

You can't do it. God does it for you. So when we say that Scripture is clear, those are the things that we're saying, that what is the central message of salvation is clear, that anyone who can read just about anything can read this book and get the message of salvation, that the gospel is clear. Now, they'll see it as truth, but will they see it as truth that they embrace?

And that's where the doctrine of illumination comes in. The Spirit gives us this word, and we can see it. We can read that Christ is Lord. We can read in it that Christ died for our sins.

It doesn't take a PhD in physics to be able to understand that message. But embracing that message, we'll use a term from Jonathan Edwards, relishing that message, that's going to take the work of illumination. The prophet Jeremiah says it this way, I did find your words, I found your words, and I did eat them, and they were pleasant to me, and they gave me joy. That is the work of the Spirit, literally opening our eyes, illuminating us to the truth of Scripture. As Paul says, these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. Paul, John, the New Testament authors, used the metaphor of darkness and light.

In fact, at one point, Paul speaks of how Satan is actively blinding the eyes of natural human beings to the truth of the Gospel. And what does the Spirit do? The Spirit flips the light on to see the truth. Now, it's not as if the Scripture adds anything to these words.

The Gospel is there whether we confess it, whether we accept it, or whether we reject it. What the Spirit enables us to do is see it for the truth that it is. It's sort of like a telescope. If you look at the sky with the naked human eye versus looking at the sky with the telescope, you're going to see entirely two different skies, aren't you? But the telescope doesn't actually add anything to the sky. It just simply enables you to see what is already there. And that's what the Spirit's work of illumination does.

It doesn't add anything. It just enables us to see. In fact, what the doctrine of illumination really does is it gives us a whole new relationship to Scripture and a whole new relationship to God. It makes us do a 180. We had turned our back on God.

We were oriented away from Him. Even if we read Scripture as the good book, we didn't see it as the Word of God to us. But that Spirit's work transforms us so we have a new relationship to this Word.

And now we can see. So the Spirit gives us the Word of God, and the Spirit reveals to us the Word. And because of these doctrines of inspiration and illumination, we can say Scripture is clear. But there's another eye left to deal with. This is the eye of interpretation.

Well, now we're back to the question. All right, if Scripture is clear and we all have the Spirit, why are there so many interpretations? Well, again, keep in mind we're not saying that everything in the Bible is illumined to us by the Holy Spirit. We're talking about clarity is restricted to that essential message of salvation. And sometimes I think we are looking at this from the wrong angle. It's not a question of there are so many interpretations, therefore we should just sort of throw our hands up and not even try. But rather, we should constantly be asking ourselves, what does the text say?

Imagine it's sort of like a spiral, if you will. So here I am over here, and there's Scripture. And so I read Scripture, and here's the interesting thing.

Other books don't do this. Scripture reads me back. Scripture refers to itself as a mirror.

It's a very active mirror. And we come to it with our own context, our biases, our prejudices, how we see the world, our worldview. And remember, Scripture is at work in us, roughing off those edges, smoothing off those rough edges rather, and so we're not quite 100%, even though we have the Holy Spirit, we're not quite 100%. So sometimes there's negative ideas that we come to Scripture with. And Scripture reads us back. And at that point, we have one or two directions we can go. We can continue to read Scripture from our perspective.

And at that point, we begin to spiral down. Or we can let Scripture correct us, and then we can come back to Scripture, and we can let it correct us, and we can begin to spiral up. And it's even helpful, and I'll even say this as a Presbyterian, it's even helpful to let others in the body of Christ challenge us and encourage us and point out those areas where they think we're wrong.

Because it might just help us see some blind spots. So every once in a while, I have to listen to my Baptist friends. It's good for me to do that in the body of Christ. Especially since I grew up Baptist, I should certainly pay attention to my Baptist friends. Well, as we look at this question of interpretation, let me sketch out for you some ways that we can interpret Scripture.

And this is just on the surface, and I have seven altogether. Seven ways of how to read the Bible. First is reverently.

Read the Bible reverently. It is the Word of God. When God appears in the Old Testament, there's only one response.

Whoa. Or, or on our knees, or on our face. Our shoes come off because we are on holy ground. Every time we open God's Word, it is as if it is God speaking directly to us.

It's a question of posture. It's a question of attitude. We read the Word reverently. Secondly, we read the Word prayerfully. Remember, here we have the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We have the doctrine of illumination. Jesus assures of that. Paul reminds us of that. And so we should approach Scripture prayerfully, asking the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us as we understand His Word. So, reverently, prayerfully. Thirdly, we should read Scripture collectively.

We are part, as the Apostle Creed says, of the communion of saints. Now, I live in Lancaster and I'm surrounded, of course, by the Amish and their buggies and their farms. And the Amish have an interesting, well, they have a few interesting beliefs, but one of their interesting beliefs is that they actually do not encourage the private reading of the Bible. In the Amish circles, the Bible is to be read in the family and in the context of the church. And you can't say this is true of all Amish sects, but certain sects within the Amish do not encourage the personal reading of the Bible.

Now, that strikes us as very odd. But, you know, there's also a strength there because it reminds us that we should also read the Bible collectively, not just individually. And we also need to be reminded that when we read the Bible in the communion of saints, the communion of saints is a pretty big group.

It goes back in time and it stretches around the globe. And we have something to learn from our brothers and sisters in Christ. So we should read the Bible collectively. Don't think that this is just God's personal love letter to you, and you just soak it up in your own private devotional time.

It is that, but it's also—and doesn't the apostles say this?—it's to be read in the churches. And the churches, we collectively read the Bible together. Fourthly, humbly, we should read the Bible humbly. Again, it flows from reverently, prayerfully, collectively, recognizing that I don't have all the answers in my context, and I need my brothers and sisters in Christ to help me understand God's Word. That's all reading the Bible humbly. Fifthly, carefully. Now by carefully, I mean there is such a thing as method to interpreting the Bible. Now get ready to write. Here we go. We call this the historical, grammatical, cultural, rhetorical, theological method.

Did you get all that? Historical, grammatical, cultural, rhetorical, theological method. What is that to say? Well, we should pay attention to the historical context of Scripture. We should pay attention to the grammatical context. Verse divisions are helpful. Verse divisions are also somewhat unfortunate because they sometimes cause us to miss the —sentences form paragraphs, paragraphs form units, units form books.

And when you just pull a sentence out, you can sometimes set yourself up for problems. Cultural context. We shake hands.

We don't kiss. There is a cultural context to Scripture. Rhetorical, that refers to the literary genre of Scripture. Poetry and what is unique to it and narrative and epistles, but then also theological. There are many books out there on hermeneutical method. Let me try to make this very simple for you. Pay attention to the context.

Ask the simple questions. Where, when, who, what? Where is this? Where is this in the course of the canon? When are we?

When are we, historically, but also when are we in terms of the flow of creation, fall, redemption and the restoration? Who? Who are the characters? What do we know about these characters? What is God doing in this text? What does this text reveal about the triune God?

And then what is the main point of this text? We should read the Bible carefully and apply a method of interpretation. Sixthly, we need to read the Bible Christologically.

Or we could even say, and this is a word I love, Christo-telic. The Bible just doesn't have Christ at the center. Everything in Scripture leads us to Christ. Luther said it, until you see Christ in the Scripture you're reading, you aren't seeing the Scripture. We need to realize that this book is about Christ, either leading up to or flowing from Him. And then lastly, we need to read the Bible obediently.

James makes it very clear, doesn't he? If you're only reading the Bible, you're not there. You also need to be a doer of the Word.

Application isn't just a luxury we tack on. If we are reading the Bible, we need to be doers of the Bible. So reverently, prayerfully, collectively, humbly, carefully, Christologically, or here we'll make up a word, Christo-telically and obediently read the Bible.

It is God's Word to us. What a helpful approach to reading the Bible. I especially appreciated the reminder to read it reverently and to not take our studies or our reading lightly.

You're listening to Renewing Your Mind, and that was Stephen Nichols from his series Why We Trust the Bible. To help you in your study of the Scriptures, we have two resources that we're making available for your gift of any amount. First you'll receive digital access to Dr. Nichols' six-part series, Why We Trust the Bible, along with the digital study guide, plus digital access to R.C. Sproul's 12-part series, Knowing Scripture, and its study guide as well. With both of these resources, you'll better understand how we receive the Bible that we have today and be better equipped to study it. You can give your gift today at renewingyourmind.org or by calling us at 800 435 4343 and request Why We Trust the Bible and Knowing Scripture. God has not left us wondering how He expects us to live the Christian life. He has given us the Word of God, and it is sufficient for life and godliness. Well, that's our topic tomorrow when Stephen Nichols returns here on Renewing Your Mind. We'll see you next time.