"You diligently study the Scripture because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5:39-40
God is bigger than the Bible.
Go ahead, catch your breath a moment.........ok, all better? Now, turn off your "heresy police scanner" and give me at least a listen on this point.
For some, the blatantly obvious facets of this statment get lost in all of the theological webs that they have built (or have been built into them possibly). From just sheer logic, the Bible originated with God, through the vehicle of human authors; therefore, God must both be first and of greater significance for Him to accomplish the compilation of such a document about Himself. As well, since God put together a book that testifies of Him, then it stands to reason that He needed to condescend to us for us to understand some of His nature. In other words, while the Bible reveals all that God intended that we need to know about Him, no words on a page could possibly fully describe the infinitely indescribable God it seems to me.
(As a brief aside, please know that my position on the Scriptures is consistent with orthodox Christian faith through the ages - that I believe it to be the very word of God, infallible in its original condition, and everything we need for life and godliness in this world).
Sometimes, because we are so firmly committed to the Scriptures (and rightly so btw), we can, at times, lose our perspective. We can, if left unattended, fall prey to the idea that our knowledge of the Scripture is of paramount importance. It is important. Very important. But it is not paramount. Our knowledge of God, and our experience of Him, is what the Scriptures are supposed to facilitate - they are not to be an end to themselves.
The Pharisees of Jesus' day (conservative religious leaders in the Jewish culture) fell prey to this very thing. They saw their salvation in their knowledge of the Scripture, so much so that there was a saying among some of the Rabbis that "Study [of the Torah] is the highest form of worship." Now, I don't think that good Jews started out that way.........anymore than good Christians start out that way. When we come into a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus, we want to know Him more deeply and love Him more passionately. But there comes a point, at different times along our pilgrimage, that we may lose our way because we look at God as words on a page rather than a living, mind-numbing, personal reality. Jesus says to us that our salvation is not in knowing words on a page - but in knowing the God that those words help reveal.
The reason I bring this up is because it really does happen. Granted, there are some that try to form their idea of God outside the Bible - this can't be anything but futile because God has chosen to give us a record that He initiated of Himself. How ridiculous of us to think that we would know Him better outside of that, than within it. But, more often than not in the life of a committed follower of Jesus, our relationship gets sucked into the lifelessness of simply knowing the right things. Jesus says "No." It is not in the knowledge of words through your intellect that you find salvation - it is in knowing Jesus - the One whom those words reveal.
So, next time you open your Bible to read it, don't just try to come up with some more information. Know that the Bible is written to reveal God to you. He will be present when you read it next time, so why don't you ask Him to reveal Himself to you through what you read.
Maybe then you and I will start a journey toward understanding that God is bigger than the words on a page. Even if that page is in the Bible.
