For as important as the Bible is, in God’s plan for the spread of the gospel, personal sanctification, and His glory, many people are never taught anything about it or how to read it.  After all, let’s be honest…. it’s a thick book.  I didn’t much like reading during school, and those books were a lot smaller than the Bible.  I know I should read my Bible, but where do I start?  These are all good and fair questions.  We’re going to take a day and do a quick overview of the Bible.

What is the Bible?

Objectively, the Bible is a collection of 66 books, separated by Christ’s birth.  All those books prior to Christ’s birth being referred to as the “Old Testament” and all the books occurring after Christ’s birth being called the “New Testament”.  The Bible was written by approximately 40 different authors over a period of time of close to 2,000 years.  In it, there are many different literary styles, including poetry, parable, history, law, prophecy, and narrative.

As a believer, the Bible is the living Word of God.  As such, although written by men, God inspired and guided their words such that the Bible is correct and without error.  Quick side note, that some suggest that translation errors over time have caused the Bible to no longer have this distinction – 1) The bible isn’t from original texts, thus you’re not getting translations of translations of translations and 2) any word differences are minor and do not impact in any way the overall revelation of God and His plan for salvation through Jesus Christ.  The Bible, put simply is God’s revelation of Himself, specifically of Himself in Jesus Christ.  Jesus says in John 5:39 – “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me”    John 1:1,14 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Word of God is the means by which one is saved, the means by which one is sanctified (growing into the image of Christ in holiness), and is used for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, and growing in righteousness.

Ephesians 2:8-9 – “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”
Romans 10:17 – “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

2 Corinthians 3:15-19 – “to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”  (how do we behold the glory of the Lord to be transformed?  by reading Moses – reading the Word of God)

2 Timothy 3:16 – “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” 

That’s about as quick of an overview of the Bible as I can do.  Now, I want to turn our attention to answer the question, what does my reading my Bible have to do with the glory of God? 

To answer that, we need to look at the Trinity.  What are the differing roles within the trinity, and what purpose do they share?  Again, books have been written about this, so I’ll do my best to keep things short.  God, the Father, purposes/wills all things.  Jesus Christ, the Son, executes the will of the Father in perfect obedience.  The Holy Spirit, empowers the work of God and communicates the will of God.  When you read your Bible, you are entering into God the Father’s plan for you to know and enjoy Him forever.  That plan was secured in Jesus Christ, who is the object of the entire Bible.  Everything points to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is the means by which God transforms sinners, bringing them from death to life, through Christ.  What purpose do they each share?  They each are pursuing the glory of God, to make the glory of God known and enjoyed.   If someone makes a profession to love God, and goes about “cleaning up their life”, who gets the glory for that?  THEY DO.  If someone makes a profession to love God, and seeks to transform their heart to love God more, and in the process God transforms them into the image of Christ, who gets the glory for that?  GOD DOES.  God’s glory is manifested in the life of a believer who is pursuing joy in knowing God.

Do you want to know more about who God REALLY is?  God Himself wants that for you, and has given you a teacher in the Holy Spirit who dwells within every believer.  The primary means by which God is going to accomplish that in you is through the Bible.  This is because the object of the Bible is Christ, therefore, when you are transformed by fixing your eyes on Jesus, God gets the glory.  God gets the glory because He wills you to know Christ, He empowers you to know Christ, and your ability (as a sinner) to know Christ was secured by Christ Himself on the cross. 

Where do you start?  After all, the Bible’s a big book…

First know that there is no wrong place to start, just START!  That said, in knowing that the whole Bible is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, it might be helpful to start where Christ is most fully displayed – the Gospels.  Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.  Read one of them or read all of them, that’d be a great place to start.  Pray and ask that God would reveal more of Himself in Jesus Christ to you, for you to enjoy.  Pray that God would give you a desire even to begin to want to read about Him.  That said, do not wait for that desire, sometimes it will be there, other times discipline will take over, but continually ask that of God. 

Overall, the Bible can be divided simply this way anticipation, culmination, explanation.  The Old Testament is the anticipation of the coming Savior, Jesus Christ.  The Gospels of the New Testament are the culmination of the savior, Jesus Christ.  The rest of the New Testament is the explanation of what it means to know the Savior, Jesus Christ.  Many people camp out in the New Testament, and to begin with, I’d say that’s not a bad idea.  I will say, however, that there is a richness to seeing the attributes of God in Jesus Christ, in the Old Testament.  Example:  Yes, God is loving, however, God hates sin, and that has not changed Christ.  Just as He destroyed the Earth with a flood and He destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, God’s wrath will be poured out on sin for eternity.  That is the measure of God’s holiness and justice. 

Ok, you’ve started reading your Bible – how should you read it?

My encouragement would not to treat the Bible simply as another book that should be read through.  Although you might glean some knowledge of God that way, we are encouraged to meditate on the Word of God day and night.  This means there should be some in depth study on your part, including memorization. 

Psalm 1:1-2 – “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Joshua 1:8-9 – “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

A good method for this is called “Observation, Interpretation, Application”.  Basically it involves studying a text (maybe a chapter, or maybe just a few verses) and looking at it from a high level down to a detail/personal level.  It is fairly self explanatory, but begin not by interpreting what you think the text means, but by simply looking at what it says.  Observations are the “Who, What, When, Where, and How” type questions.  Interpretations take the next step to say, this is what I believe this text is trying to say.  Applications take the next step and say, this is what I believe God is trying to tell me about Himself and His will for me from this text.  Again, books have been written on this, but a quick Google search would give you some follow up resources/practice on this.

http://www.ashlandgracepoint.com/templates/System/details.asp?id=22571&PID=61220

Well, I’ve covered a lot of ground here today.  Definitely this isn’t an exhaustive study, but my hope is that you can feel like you have a good starting point from which to jump into reading you Bible.  The purpose of God in salvation is for you to know Him and enjoy Him forever.  The Bible is a gift from God to us that is meant to guide us into knowledge of Him for our enjoyment.  My hope is that you would delight yourself in the Lord and that God would reveal to you more and more of Himself.

Grace and Peace,
Adam