How Do You Read the Bible?

 As believers within the religious denominational world we are taught and programed to study the bible as a rule book for daily living because it is “God's rulebook” No doubt, the bible contains many rules, but to say it is primarily about rules for believers to live by as a summation of the bible is wrong and it is lying.

Believers who misuse and abuse the bible this way are liars to put it bluntly!

Many who have never call the Bible “God’s rulebook” still treat it as nothing more than that. In the western religion the sermons that are preached are primarily about what you’re doing wrong, what you should be doing right, and how to not do what is wrong and how to do what is right.. The clear emphasis of such sermons is on you and what you must do in order gain and maintain salvation. This gives the impression that the Bible exists for the primary purpose of telling us how to live a moral life in order that we might also live the good life. But, is this the purpose of the bible? Not by any means.

The bible is God's revelation of Himself in written form, that tells us about Himself through the revelation of Jesus, who is the express image of God His Father. Jesus is the true picture of God. Listen to Jesus, who rebuked His disciples for not recognizing that all of the Scriptures revealed Him (the express image of God) and “...beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).

Listen to Jesus who rebuked the religious leaders for seeing the Scriptures as a book primarily about how they should live instead of as a book about who Jesus is: “You diligently study the Scriptures 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).

 

 Jesus does not see the scripture as a book of rules. The scriptures are God's written word, whose primary purpose is to testify to God’s self-revelation in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Well you may ask, why are there so many rules in the scriptures?

One, “the rules and commands of the bible reveal God to us by showing us His character as the lawgiver. As we look at His laws we learn that the lawgiver is holy, pure, faithful, just, righteous, and patient. In other words, God does not call us to be holy simply because He has the power to do so. He calls us to be holy because He Himself is holy. As He explains to Moses and the Israelites, “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44).”

Two, “the rules and commands of the Bible reveal God to us by showing us where we stand in relation to Him. According to the Scriptures, the law was not given to us so we could know how to get right and stay right with God by the doing or not doing the rules of the law. Rather, the law was given to us so we could see that we are utterly incapable of getting right with God. As Paul writes, “...through the law we become conscious of our sin” (Romans 3:20).”

Three, “the rules and commands of the Bible reveal God to us by pointing us to Jesus Christ, the only true picture of God. After the law leads us to recognize God’s character it also leads us to recognize our desperate need for someone who has kept God’s law to mediate between us and Him. And this is no coincidence. This is the purpose for which God designed the law to begin with. Paul explains, “...the supervision of the law” (Galatians 3:24-25). From the very beginning, God intended that the law would expose our sin, make us aware of our inability to keep it.”

As believers we must, therefore, reject the false “biblical teaching” that the book about God is a rulebook to show us what we are supposed to do or not do. Teachings from the bible should proclaim that Jesus’ person and work was to reveal His Father as a God of love, mercy and grace...not as God’s Rulebook for living life.

From the bible find out what God is like. Live Godly by allowing Him to live His life through you...that is the only way you will live right in your living life.