Three New Questions for Bible Study

I have often been told, and often told others, that whenever you read the scriptures you should ask three questions: What does it say, what does it mean, and something like what does it mean to me, or how can I apply this to my life.?   Now, these are good things to ask, and it is certainly better to ask these things of the scriptures rather than simply read the text, close the book and move on.  But I would like to suggest some questions which I believe are better, more Christian, more devotional, and more practical.

When I say more practical, I mean they will make your personal devotions better, will make your family devotions better, and will probably even make your teaching or preaching better.   You want a more Christ-centered life, so do Christ-centered Bible study.  It will help you help your children to interact with Christ in family devotions, and it will help your church to know Christ from your sermons.    Remember, the objective of every biblical text is to display Christ in such a way that people will respond to Him in some way of faith.   Remember, also, that Christ speaks to Old and New Testament people through the Holy Spirit speaking through the patriarchs and prophets, sages, poets, historians and apostles; the Bible is all “red letters.”  So, ask: 

1) What is Jesus telling these people (and me!) in the Bible about themselves in order to make them feel their need of Him,

2) What Jesus telling these people (and me) about Himself in order to get them to trust in Him, and

3) What is Jesus telling these people (and me) about the way He wants them to act out their trust of Him?   

If you will ask these questions of every portion you read, and see that you answer them in the course of your personal study or family devotional talk, or sermon, you, with the energy of the Holy Spirit, will have a live transforming encounter with the Holy Speaker.  If all three questions are answered in the course of your text, that is great, but you may find that the text brilliantly addresses only one or two of these questions but not all three.  In that event you will have to remember that the answer lies elsewhere in the Bible.  This is why one of the most important aids to Bible study is to make it extensive, i.e., if you read the whole Bible lots of times you will be better at understanding any given part of it.  Just be sure to answer all three and make the appropriate response to God.                                                            

 Explanation of the three questions.

               

                Question 1: ”What is Christ telling these people about themselves in order to make them feel their need of Him.”

                 This is an important dimension in every part of the Bible.  The Bible begins with the revelation of what we have lost and how we lost it.  All through the Bible, then, is the revelation of how God intends for us to regain it, but at every stage along the way men must be reminded of their loss, or of their condition as still partially restored, so that they will seek the divine solution/remedy/help/etc., that God provides for every part of our earthly pilgrimage.   They will not seek it unless they are feelingly convinced that it is something utterly necessary for them. Why not?  Because of the magnitude of the need that is there, and the opposition made against them by “the world, the flesh, and the devil.”  No, throughout the Bible, people are confronted, explicitly or by obvious inference, to recognize their ignorance, their guiltiness, their moral inability, their captivity to Satan, their dangers, and their need of strength to persevere in faith and to glorify God.   All of these things are likewise true of us, but we are buried beneath many layers of falsehoods imposed by the world, by self-deceit, by pride, etc.  Is Christ  calling these folks in the text  to repentance, to faith, to hope, to action, or, what is most likely, to some combination of these?  Most likely we are in need of hearing the same truth about ourselves, so we need to see that this text is addressing a problem we (or our children, or our congregation) have.  We must take this text and turn it, mirror-like, upon ourselves, look deeply into it and say, “This is me!”  “I am guilty of this,” or “I am fearful of this,” or “I have been suffering this,” “I am in danger of this,” etc.  Now, a great part of the lesson of the text may be taken up with this first question.  It may consist in much probing of the conscience, or examining and dismantling those arguments which unbelief has built up, etc., but the objective here will still be to bring ourselves or others to the point of seeing the truth, feeling its importance, being convinced that there is some situation that leaves me in some need of  Jesus’ wisdom, righteousness, sanctification or redemption.  God wants me  to see something about myself so  I will look into the text to see what He wants me to see in Jesus.    

                Question 2: “What is Christ telling these people (and me, my child, my congregation) about Himself in order to get them to trust in Him?” 

                This is the primary objective of all divine revelation, the objective of the Father, the objective of the Holy Spirit: to have men “Hear Him!” and so to set forth Christ, the mediator between God and man, as the object of all human affection and corresponding action. 

This is perhaps the greatest failing in preaching today: many preachers tell people to believe in Jesus but often fail in telling them why they should.  It is wrongly assumed that since saving faith is the gift of God, knowledge is unessential for it: God just gives it.  But faith, and repentance, hope, obedience, love and every other Christian affection and action is a response to a revelation God makes about HIMSELF, and the better you know HIM the more and better your heart will respond to Him, and this greater knowledge will come to you from the Scripture in your daily study of His word.  So ask it of your text: “What is Jesus, the one talking to these people and to me today from His throne in heaven, in this text of scripture, telling us about Himself?”  You will be looking for some quality in God, some attribute, like His Sovereignty, His infinity, His eternity, His unchangeableness, His grace, His love, His wisdom, His power, His holiness, His justice, His goodness, His truth, His faithfulness, His mercy, His compassion, His covenanted interest in His people, His knowledge of and interest of them, etc.  All these things are all combined in one and the same God, so his grace is Sovereign, wise, just, powerful, compassionate, etc. You will be looking for the evidences of these things, the expressions of these things in His names and His actions, in type and shadow, promise and fulfillment, etc.   Especially, you will take notice of how Jesus’ person and work are demonstrated in this passage to answer to the need you found when you asked question number 1.   That is the big story of the Bible, and wonderful beautiful practical facets of it are taught over and over again as you read through the individual parts.

 

                Question 3: What is Jesus telling these people (and me) about the way He wants them to act out their trust of Him?” 

                I put it this way because all our right responses to God are some form of faith in Him.  In the definition of faith found in our Confession, “

By this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; (John 4:42, 1 Thess. 2:13, 1 John 5:10, Acts 24:14) and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth; yielding obedience to the commands, (Rom. 16:26) trembling at the threatenings, (Isa. 66:2) and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. (Heb. 11:13, 1 Tim. 4:8) But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace. (John 1:12, Acts 16:31, Gal. 2:20, Acts 15:11)^[1]

Faith is to believe something to be true because God says so and to believe it so as to make the response which is appropriate to the thing believed.  Throughout the Scriptures we are supplied with information about God in Christ which is intended to draw from us some believing response in Him as our prophet – providing us with truth, as our priest – saving us from the guilt of sin and all its results, as our shepherd king – providing us with care and strength, protection and victory over His and our enemies and ruling over us.   As we learn from great passages like Hebrews 11, faith is more than “resting,” or “trust,” or “intellectual ascent” to something, but, and this is of utmost importance to us as we do our bible study or as we instruct our children or preach to our congregations,  it ALWAYS begins with something about God which must be KNOWN and is always greater or lesser, wiser, stronger, more joyful, more peaceful, more fruitful, etc., according to the knowledge one has of God, particularly of God’s being and attributes AND His covenanted relationship with the listeners to our sermons.   So, being motivated by our clearer view of our all-sufficient and worthy Savior, we ask “How, Lord, do you want me to respond in faith to you,” and we look into the text for the answer. 

Conclusion:

Are these three questions for Bible study preferable to the more common ones?  Here is why I think they are.  First, they emphasize fellowship with God.  Bible study was never ever intended to be a mere academic exercise, learning what is written in a book, (“what does it say,” “what does it mean”) but an exercise of give and take (fellowship) with God the mediator, speaking through the Holy Spirit in the word and personally receiving from us the response of our hearts (i.e., “Speak, my Lord, your servant is listening”).  So, in these questions we ask we are asking God to help us see ourselves and Him more clearly for the sake of walking in closer friendship with Him.  Like the aim expressed in a Medieval prayer turned Broadway musical song—“to see Thee more clearly, love Thee more dearly, follow Thee more nearly.”  Secondly, it will make our Bible study what the Triune God intends for it to be—Christocentric.  The Bible is a communication of the Logos, the Word, of God.  It is from beginning to end the word of the second person of the Trinity speaking on behalf of the Father, through the Spirit, to the world in general, and particularly and effectually to those given to Him by the Father before the world began.  Every text of scripture deals with some creaturely need which is to be supplied, some fall-originated wrong which is to be righted, by Christ  Hence, the Bible is a message from Jesus to us, calling us to respond to Him, and our Bible studies, whether personal, family devotions, small group, or sermon to hundreds of people ought to be seen as personal direct messages from God the Son, about us and our relationship to Himself, to elicit a God directed, Spirit enabled response to Him,  the Mediator between God and man.   

---

^[1] The Westminster Confession of Faith (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).