The Problem with the Bible is Us

The problem some people have with certain parts of the Bible is not an issue because of what the Bible says; it’s an issue with who we are. It points to our sin. It points to our lack of willingness to accept all that God has said. Sin hardens us. It puts a thick layer of gunk right over our heart. It lops the censors to God right out of our minds. It smears mud over our eyes. It clogs our hearing like earplugs. It ruins us. Sin transforms our heart into stone. But, like the classic game of “rock, paper, scissors,” the paper that make up the pages of Scripture can cover the hardness of our rocky heart and defeat us.

We can be redeemed through the words that burst forth from the pages of Scripture. If anything should be shocking to us about the Bible, it should be the way it shows us how wrong we are on so many things, and the way God is so gracious to us idiots. The Bible is God’s gracious gift to his children, pointing us to the way life works, and changing our hearts to obey his whole counsel. Let the Bible determine your thoughts. Put your thoughts of God on trial before you place God on trial. We are the guilty ones, not him.

The best possible thing we can do with the Bible is swallow it whole – accept it all, unwaveringly, as the word of God. Then we will start to get traction in our faith. The key to knowing God is opening all the doors of sin in our heart to let his grace come pouring in. When we experience his grace, as put forth in the Bible, we see him for who he really is, and therefore, we can know him. The real problem with the Bible for many is the honesty with which it speaks. It’s dangerous because it lays us bare. But it’s wonderful because in it we find the love of the all-holy God. It’s in that love coming up out of the pages of Scripture that we find the real problem – ourselves. But, finally, it’s in that love coming up out of the pages of Scripture that we find the real solution – God.