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Christ
And The Word OF God
a study by
Ken Chant
introduction
See Luke 4:16 ff. In the Nazareth
synagogue Jesus applied scripture to himself in a startling new
way
on that day a new era began, a new kind
of man appeared, a man empowered by the indwelling
word of God.
Jesus saw something in scripture that no
one before him had ever seen with such clarity and faith –
(A) JESUS WAS
A MAN OF THE WORD
(1) The
greatest thing about Jesus was not his miracles, but his
relationship with the word of God ‒
note how Luke 4:16-18 emphasises
"preach" and "proclaim" (see also vs 22,31-32)
he constantly turned the attention of the
people away from his miracles to his message.
(2) More than any person before him,
Christ built his life and his ministry upon the truth and
authority of the word of God ‒
it gave him his concept of his messianic
office (Mt 26:53-56)
he defeated Satan by it in the wilderness
he healed in fulfilment of it.
(3) Most astonishing of all, he
died in obedience to it, confident that he would rise
again according to its promise ‒
yet how tenuous that promise seems; how
seemingly thin the foundation it provided him! (cp. Mt
12:40; Mk 12:10-11; Lu 18:31-34)
see also Luke 24:44-47 (plus many
other places where Jesus claimed that scripture was being
fulfilled in him, Lu 22:37; Jn 10:35; He 10:7).
(4) Why did he have such confidence
in the scriptures? It was because –
(B) JESUS
DISCOVERED LIFE IN THE WORD
(1) In this,
Christ differed from –
(a) The Psalmist
who saw scripture only as a righteous
light (cp. Ps 119:9,105,130).
(b) The Pharisees
who saw scripture only as a ritual law
(cp. Mk 12:24).
(2) By contrast, Jesus was the first
man truly to see the need for an inner revelation
of the word
Jesus gave the word a new authority
he approached it with a new kind of faith
he drew out of it a new kind of personal
authority and personal power
and in particular –
Christ demonstrated
three things about God and scripture –
(1) God is alive in scripture
-
the Bible is not just a book about
God; rather, it is a self-revelation of God, who
is alive in scripture, revealing himself to the earnest
seeker (2 Pe 1:3-4; 1 Th 2:13; Cl 1:25-27; Ro 1:19-21)
(2) God is accessible in scripture
-
this is in strong contrast with the
temple and its forbidden altar, which only the priests
could approach, and even then only if they were rostered
for duty
-
no other faith has dared to make such
an offer, that is, to make God freely and openly
available to every person (not just priests or saints)
who desires to seek him!
(3) God is found in scripture by
prayer
(D) JESUS COMMITTED HIMSELF TO THE WORD
(1) Here we
make the most surprising discovery of all: Christ had to
struggle as we do to accept the scriptures and to embrace them
by faith - see Hebrews 5:7-9.
(2) This is because he faced the same
barriers we face –
(a)
The Barrier of His
Natural Perception
see Isaiah 9:6, and imagine
how difficult it must have been for Jesus (when he was
still a young man) to accept this witness of scripture
about himself, for everything he could observe and feel
about himself shouted a contrary message!
(b)
The Barrier of His
Natural Desire
-
cp. his bitter struggle in
Gethsemane, where he had to suppress his natural wishes
and submit to the dictate of heaven.
(c)
The Barrier of His
Natural Peers
-
e.g. Mark 6:1-4; 3:21; Luke
4:22-29.
(d)
The Barrier of His
Supernatural Foe
(3) Every person who seeks to embrace
the command and promise of scripture faces the same barriers,
and must break through them as Jesus did
only then can the full splendour and
power of the Word of God be released into the believer’s
life, as it was into the life of Christ.
conclusion
See John 2:22. After the resurrection,
the apostles discovered this new dimension in scripture, and
they too became men of the new era
they saw that salvation came only by
believing the scriptures (Ep 1:13; 1 Th 2:13)
they recognised that the scriptures
could be understood fully only by revelation
(Lu 24:45; Ep 1:15 ff.)
their attitude is summed up in 2
Timothy 3:15-16.
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