I am convinced that most Christians believe that the Bible is important, perhaps even essential. But I am also convinced most of them haven’t the slightest idea why it is important. For some Christians the Bible is like that hanging ball thing at the back of your throat. You have a sneaking suspicion that it’s supposed to be there, but you not sure what it does. Last week we saw that the Bible is necessary if we are to know God. It is also, however, essential if we are going to know ourselves.
John Calvin, the great Reformer, taught that the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self are intimately intertwined. As we come to understand one we inevitably come to understand the other. Scripture is the means by which we come to discern both more clearly and fully. The truth is that humanity is both like and completely opposite God. We are His image bearers a feature we will only discern as we come to understand God. But because of sin we are also fallen and utterly unlike God. This is the message that we most need Scripture for.
The truth is that we all know we are jacked-up, when we’re being honest, but, as the apostle Paul says, we suppress the truth. We deny that we are as a bad as we really are, that we need as much help as we really do, that we are under God’s judgment for our rebellion and sin. This is a message that only Scripture can help us come to terms with. We see plenty of evidence of it in our daily living, in ourselves and more clearly in others. But we deny it continually. But as Scripture comes along we get a vivid description of the fall of man into sin, the ruin of our morality, and the spiritual and eternal peril we have put ourselves in. Scripture teaches us about ourselves.
Without this message from Scripture we will buy into every worldly philosophy that says man is essentially good, he just makes some mistakes. And those mistakes ultimately make him who he is, so he shouldn’t repent of them or apologize for them. You need fixed perhaps, because you are a bit broken. But the Bible says we are “dead in our sins” and it is only through God that we are “made alive” again. This is not a message we will hear or receive from anyone else but Scripture. Scripture is, therefore, necessary if we are going to understand ourselves!
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 