What does the Bible teach us?

How important it is to hold fast the great truth that the Bible is the Word of God, and therefore "God-breathed." All apostasy starts with the denial of this fact. The Scriptures are the permanent expression of the mind and will of God. It is not merely that the truth is given in them by inspiration, but they are inspired. They are the expression of His own thoughts. They are our only authority. Upon the constant use of them depends everything. Without adhering to the Scriptures and being obedient to them, we also would be swept along by the current of apostasy. They are the one thing profitable. Note the order: Profitable for doctrine, which we get alone from the Word of God, and which is the foundation of everything. Then follows "reproof" or conviction, and that is followed by correction and instruction for righteousness. It starts with the doctrine and leads, after conviction and correction, to righteousness. And then the man of God, obedient to the Scriptures in all things, is perfect, thoroughly finished unto every good work.

Since all Scripture is from God, it is all profitable, even genealogies and names of cities, etc. If my interpretation of it does not give spiritual profit, then my interpretation of it is not right. First it is profitable for teaching, or doctrine, for this is the basis of all true practice. Secondly, for reproof or conviction, a matter we should deeply take to heart, for it is a wise man who hears reproof, and we should certainly allow the Word of God to fully convict us as regards any practice that cannot stand its precious, searching light. Thirdly, for correction: reproof without this would be pointless; and Scripture itself should be applied continually to correct every misapprehension I may have entertained. Fourthly, for instruction in righteousness. What righteousness really is, is found only in Scripture, and it is only here that one may be enlightened in the many aspects of this important matter that involves every relationship in which one may be placed.

In approaching our consideration of the New Testament, it is well to premise that there are two common errors in the present day, and found almost everywhere in Christendom: 1, That the use of the Bible is only to teach persons the way of salvation; and 2, That the Book of Revelation is too difficult for any one to understand. As to the first point, it is plainly said that the scriptures are not only able to make "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus," but that every scripture is God-breathed, or "given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim. 3:15-17.) Thus we see that the scriptures are the complete and all-sufficient guide of man after he has been born of God and saved from coming wrath. There is another point of all importance here. When the inspired apostle says that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived," he turns to scripture as the only resource in an evil day; and would have Timothy know of whom he had learned the things he had been assured of. If many were asked in the present day from whom they had learned this doctrine and that, they would find it difficult to reply; some would say, "Our church teaches it." Now, true Spirit-taught and Spirit-led souls would say they learnt it from the scriptures, and therefore they can assert its divine authority. This is the exercise of faith, and nothing short of it can be pleasing to God. And as to the expression, "Our church teaches," it is not only unauthorised by the scriptures, but exactly opposite to scripture, for there we learn that, instead of the church teaching, the church is taught, and built up by various gifts from an ascended Saviour. (Eph. 4:11-12.) If any take refuge in another snare, that such and such doctrines must be true because the clergy have accepted them, we do well to remember that "the faith was once delivered to the saints," and is therefore the common possession of all true believers. The scriptures, not clever men, or preachers, or traditions, are our resource in these evil days; but we are enjoined to have that abiding in us which we have heard from the beginning; that is, the beginning of Christianity. (1 John 2:24.)

This rapid glance at the books of the Old Testament, with repetitions which we trust, considering the theme, will not be regarded as amiss, will suffice to give us a hint at least of that which pervades the entire Old Testament far beyond our power to describe. CHRIST is the one Object before the Spirit of God; the one Centre toward which all tends; and from every direction everything leads up to Him as the fulfiller of all the purposes of God — the bringer-in of everlasting blessedness to man.

The fall and absolute ruin of man, his guilty, lost and helpless condition; the utter worthlessness of works, lawkeeping or reformation as a ground of salvation; the amazing love of God in providing a Saviour in His blessed Son; the spotless perfection of Christ, both in His Divine nature and His true humanity; reconciliation by the shed blood of Christ on the Cross, by which alone redemption has been accomplished; His resurrection as the proof of God's acceptance of that atonement.

But amid all that spoke of vanity there was another subject he touched on, for, being wise, he taught the people. He had spoken at length about man and his works, he speaks briefly about God and what He does. And what he says about God (for the name Jehovah does not occur in the book) only brings out in higher relief the ruined condition of man. Man abideth not, his thoughts perish, his works crumble to dust, his name is forgotten. Created originally not for death, he is now born to die: but God abides. "I know that whatsoever God doeth it shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it." (Ecc. 3:14.) Here in the midst of what is transient is something permanent. This he had found and desired to impress on others. (Ecc. 5:1-7; Ecc. 11:9; Ecc. 12:1.) He would tell the creature of the Creator. It is not grace that he is charged to proclaim; it is not salvation he is empowered here to offer; but to God's creatures, responsible as such to Him that made them, he would speak. The Creator will take cognizance of, and make judicial inquiry into, the actions of His creatures. This none can escape, and of this all need to be reminded. And now that he has exposed the vanity of all things that are done under the sun, he opens out the only word for man to follow: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecc. 12:13.) The fuller light that we possess confirms all that Solomon said of man, and tells us likewise more about God; but the principle here enunciated is true for all time — the creature should own the authority of God, and yield implicit obedience to all He is pleased to enjoin. "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

But the Lord having done what the Pharisees, adversaries of the Sadducees, could not do, the curiosity of the Pharisees is excited, and they were gathered together (v. 34) One among them questions the Lord; but his demand 'has for result that Jesus lays the true foundation of the law and the prophets, and then establishes clearly the situation of things, the question of the moment, as God regarded it. Which, asks the lawyer, is the great commandment in the law? A question much debated among the Jews, for whom each commandment had a special value, the observance of each of them gaining, as in an examination, so many good marks from God. The Lord seizes the occasion, offered in the ways of God, to establish the fundamental principles of the divine law. To love God with all the heart, such is the first commandment. The second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. All in man hung on these two things. It is the summary of what man ought to be, the root and the measure of human righteousness. It is not in any way a revelation of divine love; it is not at all a question of grace, nor of an open way for the sinner to come to God; but it is the perfect rule of what a man should be, a divine compendium of the substance of the law, the law on which the prophets insisted in seeking to recall the people to its observance.

What is wrong with man? Surely God did not make him as we see him? Scripture says, God made man upright (Ecc. 7:2, 9). An infinitely holy Creator could not have made him otherwise. It was an absolutely perfect being that came forth from the divine workshop at the beginning. Some thing then has happened which has resulted in the moral ruin of our race. What is it? Let the humiliating story of Gen. 3 supply the answer. In that chapter we have no mere allegory or fairy tale, but God's soberly indicted account of the entrance of sin into man's world. The tempter has been heeded, the leadership of Satan has been accepted, and this accounts for all the evil of which the universe is full. The following Word of God is clear and emphatic, and withal sweeping in its charge: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12). Man is thus a fallen being, in open rebellion against his Maker, with the death-sentence lying upon him in consequence.

I was very much struck lately with a passage in the eleventh of Romans: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more of grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work" (Rom. 11:5-6). How then am I saved? By pure sovereign grace. So wrote the apostle Paul to the Ephesians: "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). It is the blessed, precious, sovereign grace that has come to all of us in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. What we need, as sinners, is salvation. That salvation the grace of God has brought to us. If grace then has brought salvation, what have I now to do? I have to avail myself of that which God brings to me in the Person, and through the work, of the Lord Jesus Christ, — in plain language, I have to accept, by faith, the eternal salvation which grace brings to me.

The Apostle sets before us the great gain of the Scriptures. First, they are able to make us "wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Secondly, having directed us to Christ so that we find in Him salvation, we shall further learn that "every Scripture" is "profitable for the believer, inasmuch as in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, we shall discover things concerning Christ (Luke 24:27, 44). Furthermore we shall find how profitable the Scriptures are for "conviction." Alas! we may be blind to our own faults, and so filled with our own self-importance, that we are deaf to remonstrances from others; but, if subject to the word, we shall find that Scripture brings conviction, for it is "living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword … a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Moreover the Scriptures not only convict, they also correct, and, having corrected, they will instruct us in the way that is right. Having then the inspired Scriptures it is possible for the man of God to be fully established in the truth in the presence of abounding error, and to be "fully fitted to every good work" in an evil day.