Institutes of Theology | Session 8 - Hermeneutics - Part 1

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Tonight, and then the next time we meet, it's my joy to walk through the truth about hermeneutics with you men, how we interpret God's Word. And as we begin to think about that, I want you to think of a time where you misunderstood a message or some other communication that you received from another person. For some of you, you may think back to like last semester of Institutes and the whole quiz thing you were supposed to do, and maybe somehow you missed that, or you were confused by that, and it didn't go so well for you.

Or maybe you think of a time at work where you were given something to do, and it wasn't clear, and you dropped the ball on that, or something your wife told you that you were supposed to do, that you didn't quite have clear clarity in your mind, and you didn't understand those things. So I think of a time when I was on a mission trip in Poland. We'd actually flown into Germany, and had rented vehicles in Germany, and we were driving to a conference center in Poland to support one of the TMAI training centers that was having their 20th or 25th anniversary conference. And one of the things we had to do in Poland was to stop and get gas. And so I pulled up to get gas. You know, it's basically the same as in the States, except I had no idea what the numbers meant or what it was doing. I could kind of guess the liter thing. So that made sense. And I couldn't figure out how to pay at the pump, so I just started pumping gas.

And then I went inside the gas station, and I found some yummy Polish snacks to buy and a Polish drink, and went to check out, and I tried as best I could to communicate something about the fact that I had just filled up gas on tank number four, when I thought that was clear. And so I paid, I get a receipt. It has all kinds of things on it that I can't understand. I think I'm good. I start to leave the gas station, and all of a sudden people start yelling at me in Polish. And I'm like, something is not right. I think I did what I was supposed to do. And so the cashier is yelling at me, then the other people in the store start yelling at me. And it turned out I don't think I had paid for my gas. I'm still not entirely sure what happened. Somehow that didn't get communicated, and I handed them my card back. They did something, and I don't know whose gas I paid for or what I paid for. But I walked out of that store and continued on. You know, that communication was lost. They didn't understand me, and I did not understand them. And there was a consequence for that, an impact on that. 

Anytime we misunderstand what is being communicated, we don't get the message that was intended. There are consequences for that in your job or at school or in your home or, in my case, in a Polish gas station. hermeneutics is really about getting the message right. It's about rightly understanding what God has communicated to us in His Word. It's far more important than remembering to pick up something from the grocery store on behalf of your wife, or then knowing how to pay for gas in another country or those kinds of things. So when we speak of hermeneutics, that's what we are talking about. How do we understand rightly what God has communicated to us in His Word? 

Now, the word hermeneutics comes from a Greek word that means translation or interpretation. There's various forms of that word, noun and verb forms. You might think of the Greek god Hermes. His name is related to this word. If you know your Greek gods, which it's fine if you don't, but Hermes was the messenger god. He was the god who was the one who would speak on behalf or give the interpretation for what was communicated by the other gods. That's the idea of this word. It's the idea of interpretation. You remember when Jesus was walking on the road to Emmaus with his disciples, and he was explaining to them the things that were true about himself from the Scriptures. That's this word.

And so when we talk about hermeneutics, when we use that word, it's commonly defined as the science and art of interpretation. The science and art of interpretation. Now, why would we call it a science, and why would we call it an art? Henry Verkler, in his book, Hermeneutics Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation, puts it this way. He says, “Hermeneutics is considered a science because it has rules, and these rules can be classified into an orderly system. At the same time, it is considered an art because communication is flexible, and therefore a mechanical and rigid application of the rules will sometimes distort the true meaning of communication. To be a good interpreter, one must learn the rules of hermeneutics, as well as the art of applying those rules. Our hope this semester is that that is true of you, that you become a good interpreter of God's Word, so that you can rightly receive the message that he has given us. 

Now sometimes hermeneutics is described or defined more specifically simply as the principles or rules of interpretation. What is it that governs how we understand the Word of God? In some ways, you can think of hermeneutics as those rules, and then the exegesis process that Tom will teach later this semester is really the process by which you apply those rules in a practical way to determine the meaning of a specific text. That's more the application of the art, as it were, of hermeneutics. 

And so we want to focus tonight and the next time on understanding those rules or principles of interpretation. And we can do so in a general way. There's what we call general hermeneutics, those rules or principles that apply to any text in the Bible that you read and study. And that's really what we're going to focus on tonight. There's also what we call special hermeneutics, not unique things that only a few people can know, but hermeneutics that apply in various portions or various genres of Scripture. Next time we meet, we'll talk about some of those unique guidelines and rules. If you're reading a narrative passage, or you're reading a poetic portion of Scripture, or prophetic, or a gospel, or a letter, what are the unique things that we need to think about so that we can rightly understand what God is communicating to us in those portions of Scripture? That's more special hermeneutics. Now, why do we need to think carefully about biblical hermeneutics? Well, the reality is, we do hermeneutics all the time in anything that we read and really to some degree when we listen to someone. We are applying the rules of interpretation when you read a Facebook post, or you read an email from work. So why do we have to think so carefully about biblical hermeneutics? Part of it is the importance of the Bible, but part of it is there's a gap between when the Bible was written and us reading it today, a gap of time and language of culture and geography. And so we can't just read the Bible inherently, like we read normal communication that we've grown up with and kind of intuitively learn those rules. We want to think intentionally about that.

Really, we want to do what Paul urged Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15, when he said, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed accurately handling the Word of truth.” That's what we desire. That's why you're here is because you want to accurately handle the Word of truth. Obviously, here, Paul was writing to Timothy. Timothy was a pastor who was going to preach the Word, teach the Word. And it's certainly important that any of us who are teaching in any way, saying, “Thus says the Lord,” that we are accurate in what the Lord actually says. But really, all of us are to do this. You might think of the Bereans who were taught God's Word. And what do they do? They were examining the Scriptures to see whether these things are so. So the fact that you maybe don't teach or the fact that you don't intend to teach doesn't mean you can just sit back and say, I'll just trust Tom. Whatever Tom says is great. No, you need to be thinking carefully about your own reading and study of God's Word. And when someone is teaching you God's Word, you want to be able to recognize that, yes, this in fact is what God's Word says. 

Now, before we jump into the principles of hermeneutics, which is what we'll spend the majority of our time on tonight, I want us just to step back a little bit to lay a foundation by thinking about some presuppositions for rightly interpreting the Bible. Presuppositions. What do we have to lay as a foundation in our understanding of the Bible if we are going to rightly interpret it, if we're going to think rightly about it? Now, we'll talk a lot more about this in Institutes when we get to Bibliology, the study of the Bible. But we have to recognize that the Bible is God's revelation. Now, when we say it's God's revelation, we mean that it is the communication of truth that would otherwise be unknown. You can read in Psalm 8, for example, God is declaring his glory through the general revelation of creation. We know things about God through the world that he has made. And his special revelation, the Scriptures, are revealing more specificity about God and about us as people, and about the gospel, and how we can be saved, and how God calls us to live. This is truth that we need to know, and that God has revealed to us. It affects how we think about interpreting the Bible, the fact that this is God's revelation to us. He intends for us to understand it. God didn't give us the Bible to confuse us. He didn't give us the Bible so that we could find hidden secret messages in it. He intended to make things clear. And so, we approach the Bible in that way. 

The Bible is also progressive revelation. You understand, having been through the Bible survey, that all of the Bible was not written at one time. God unveiled more of his revelation over time. We have the completed Scriptures, the full canon. So we have it all, but we have to recognize as we read it that that revelation is progressively revealed. And so if we are reading in Genesis, we have the benefit of further revelation. If we are reading in the New Testament, in one of the epistles, we can look back on what was revealed previously. So the Bible is God's revelation. 

The Bible is also inspired by God. Now, when we say the Bible is inspired by God, we don't mean it as it's inspired in a way that it's excited and good to go. We mean that it is breathed out by God. The inspiration of Scripture refers to the fact that there is a divine author of Scripture. You're familiar with 2 Timothy 3:16. All Scripture is inspired by God. It's breathed out. It's the breath of God. The Bible is God's Word. That's why we speak of it that way. God is the divine author of Scripture. He has given us His Word. 

But the Bible also has human authors. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 21 puts it this way. It says, “No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” The Bible was not dictated by God. God moved through His Holy Spirit in real humans with real personalities and real writing styles to give us the Scripture, which is also His Word to us. Approximately 40 authors over 1,500 years communicating at a real time and place to real people who understood that writing. That's what we have in the Bible. Our interpretation of Scripture recognizes there is one divine author that shapes how we interpret it. It also recognizes there are many different human authors, and we need to understand something of those authors and the context in which they wrote if we're going to rightly understand Scripture. We'll talk more about that in a bit.

We also need to understand that the Bible is inerrant. It is without error. The Bible, as God breathed it out in its original form, its original autographs, the Greek and Hebrew, the original authors wrote in, was entirely without error. Why is that true? Well, it's God's Word. He's the author, and God cannot lie. So every single thing that God says in His Word is true. And we approach it that way. When we are interpreting God's Word, we come with the assumption that it is entirely true and accurate.

The Bible is also authoritative. Again, it is God's Word. We don't come to interpret the Bible, to stand in judgment on it, to say, well, do we agree or disagree? You don't read it like you do a news article where you're wondering, is this the full story? Is this really an unbiased perspective of this? I wonder what else took place that they're not telling me. No, you come to the Bible submitting to it as authoritative, and you come to the Bible as sufficient. It doesn't say everything it could say about everything, but it does say all that we need pertaining to life and godliness, as 2 Peter 1:3 says. We come to the Scriptures knowing that if I need wisdom for salvation, for life, there is sufficient revelation for me in the Scripture. I have to work hard to find it, but it is there for me. 

The Bible is also clear, the perspicuity of Scripture. Again, God intended this to reveal, not to conceal. There are things that God has not revealed. Deuteronomy 29:29 reminds us there are secret things that belong to God, but what God has given us in His Word is revealed. It is clear. Now, that doesn't mean that it's simple to understand because of the gap between when it was written, the culture and language and our time. Even in their day, we'll see in Scripture, there are passages that Peter recognized are hard to understand. It doesn't mean everything is simple or that we don't have to think carefully about it, but we know that God has revealed truth that we can understand.

So, we still need to think carefully. We still need to study diligently, but we come knowing that God has revealed His Word to us. Again, those gaps of time and language and culture and geography mean we have to think really carefully and intentionally about it in a way that probably wasn't even necessary to the same degree in the first century. If you were a Jewish believer, a part of a first century church, I doubt they had lots of hermeneutics classes. How do we understand the Bible? Well, we got to think about the historical and cultural context. It's like, well, we're living in the historical cultural context. We don't have to think as much about that, but we do. We have to think very carefully about how do we today understand what has been written in the past. So we need to embrace these presuppositions for rightly interpreting the Bible. 

Also, I want us just to think briefly about the priority of rightly interpreting the Bible. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 3. I mentioned this text and what Peter says about Paul. Notice 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 15. Peter says, “In regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” You'll notice in this passage, Peter is clearly connecting Paul's letters with Scripture. He's making it clear. He believed that Paul's letters were a part of God's Word, the inspired Scripture. He says, they distort them, as they do the rest of the Scriptures. That's one category. It's also encouraging, as I mentioned, that Peter recognizes there are some things in Paul's writings that are hard to understand. You can take comfort from that when you're reading one of Paul's letters, and you're like, I'm not sure what he's talking about. Peter might not have been either, and that's okay.

But what I want you to notice mostly in this text is that he writes, saying, there are those who distort what Paul wrote. You see, it is possible to misinterpret the Bible. We need to be highly committed to rightly interpreting the Bible because of the possibility of misinterpreting the Bible. The fact that this is God's revelation, that it is clear and authoritative and sufficient, does not mean that you or I, even as believers, will automatically get it right. We can misunderstand, in this case, the untaught and unstable were distorting those things. And there are significant consequences for this. This matters because of the consequences of misinterpreting the Bible. Notice what he says at the end of this verse. “They distort them as they do the rest of Scripture to their own destruction.” See, understanding the message, the communication that God has revealed to us in Scripture has huge consequences if we get it wrong. If we do not rightly understand what God's Word says, it can be a matter of eternal life or eternal judgment. The difference between heaven and hell is rightly understanding what God has revealed in the Scripture and embracing what he has said is true.

There are people who believe that they are going to heaven because of what they understand the Bible to say, and they are wrong. It is of utmost consequence that we interpret the Bible rightly. It's a matter of eternal life or judgment. It's also a matter of true or false worship. If we do not think rightly about God, if we don't understand what he is actually like and what he has called us to in response to him, we will not worship him rightly as we ought. The difference between true and false worship, true and false religion is rightly understanding the Word of God. It's also a matter of obedience or disobedience. For us to live in accordance with what God has told us, we need to rightly understand it. 

I'm sure if you have children, as I do, have five girls still living in the home from age 15 up to age 22, there are times where they disobey, but they thought they had obeyed. It's convenient. You know, I'm like, you didn't do what I asked you to do. And they're like, oh, I did. And I'm like, no, you didn't. And they think they heard me, or they think they want to think they heard me or something. But they didn't. They didn't listen carefully or pay attention to all the details. And so they thought they had obeyed, and the reality is they didn't. They disobeyed, and there may be consequences for that. For us to obey the Lord, we need to understand what He has called us to. It's also a matter of wisdom or folly. You want to live the way God has designed you to live in this world, not as a fool going your own way, but in wisdom, embracing the truth that God has said you need to rightly interpret the Bible. It is critical that we rightly understand what God has revealed. 

Bernard Ramm in his book Protestant Biblical Interpretation introduces hermeneutics with some powerful words about why it matters. He says this, “To determine what God has said is a high and holy task. With fear and trembling, each should be ever so careful of that which he has adopted as his method of biblical interpretation. Upon the correct interpretation of the Bible rests our doctrine of salvation, of sanctification, of eschatology, and of Christian living. It is our solemn responsibility to know what God has said with reference to each of these, and this can be done only if we have carefully, thoroughly, and systematically formulated that system of biblical interpretation which will yield most readily the native meaning of the Bible.” He goes on and says, “Further, we need to know the correct method of biblical interpretation so that we do not confuse the voice of God with the voice of man. In every one of those places where our interpretation is at fault, we have made substitution of the voice of man for the voice of God. We need to know hermeneutics thoroughly if for no other reason than to preserve us from the folly and errors of faulty principles of understanding God's Word.”

And it is a sobering thing to say to someone, “Thus says the Lord,” and to be wrong. It's a sobering thing to believe, “Thus said the Lord,” and be wrong. To base your life, spiritual life, the manner of living that you engage in tomorrow, the decisions that you make next week, the way you go about living, to base it on the assumption that I think I know what God said, and to be wrong is a sobering reality. You know, there are many professing Christians who do this all the time. Some of this is the danger of a more mystical or over-spiritualized approach to Scripture. Sort of the fortune cookie way of understanding the Bible. You know, I'm just going to flip it open. I'm going to find a verse, see what God has to say to me today, and live my life based on how that verse makes me think or makes me feel. You know, sometimes not even really connected to the Scriptures. “What do I feel like God is telling me today?” To assume that we know what God says, but to not base it on the right understanding of God's Word is a sobering, sobering reality. We need to make sure we are rightly understanding what God has revealed to us. And if we are going to do that, we need to practice the proper biblical hermeneutics. We need to rightly interpret the Bible. So let's spend the remainder of our time considering principles, general principles, for rightly interpreting the Bible.

How do we do that? How do we make sure we're not misunderstanding what God has said in His Word? Starts with understanding our goal. Our goal when we come to the Bible is to understand the author's original intent. And as we mentioned, there's a divine author, God, but he was speaking through, he gave the Scriptures by inspiration through human authors who are communicating that divine intent through their human authorial intent. You see, we have to know that's our goal. It's not to say, what do I think the Bible says? It's to say, what did the man who was writing this part of the Bible mean to communicate? We have to start by recognizing it is the author, not the reader, who determines meaning.

Now, this would have been commonly accepted until sometime middle, last quarter of the last century. Everybody would have known, when you read anything, the meaning of that comes from the author, and the reader is trying to discern the meaning that was intended by the author. As postmodernism gained more steam, there was more movement in secular circles to say, no, it's really the reader who determines meaning. The “reader response theory,” the formal name for that, that came about in the 1970s, that says, no, it's really not about what the author meant. It's about what you take from what was said. And many people unintentionally approach the Bible that way. What does this mean to me? As though God is going to take this book that was written by real people, to real people, and he's going to give some unique, new, special message to them. That's not how we interpret the Bible. You see this in, to some degree, in our culture, in the differing ways people want to interpret documents like the Constitution, where people say, you know what, it's not about what did the Constitution mean to the people who wrote the Constitution, but what do we feel like the Constitution should mean today? And it's like, well, you can make it say anything you want it to say. If you lose the groundedness of saying, no, it's the author who determines the meaning. And the Bible is clear that the author determines the meaning, that meaning is contained in the text itself as written by that author. 

We see this again back in 2 Peter 3. What is Peter making the point about Paul's letters? Does he say, these people came to a different conclusion about the meaning of Paul's letters, which is great because the reader gets to determine whatever they want the meaning is. No, he says, they got it wrong. Peter had an intended meaning in his letters. Paul had an intended meaning in his letters. And Peter says, you can distort that meaning, you can get it wrong, and the end is destruction. This is similar to what we see in Acts chapter 8. You remember when Philip came up to the Ethiopian eunuch, heard him reading Isaiah the prophet. And he said to him, do you understand what you are reading? He asked him that question. Do you understand the things that you're reading? And the eunuch said to him, well, how could I unless someone guides me? And Philip didn't say to him, hey, don't worry about it. What does it mean to you? That's what matters. God is going to direct you in your own unique way. So keep reading and have fun. I'm out here. That's not what he said. He invited him up and said, hey, help me understand what this actually means. He invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 

Again, this seems like common sense, and it is. But it's so important that we start with the assumption that we are seeking to identify, to understand the original author's intent, his original meaning. Accurately handling the Word requires determining that. The question, again, is not what does this mean to me, but what does this mean? We don't want to sit around in small group Bible studies and say, well, what does it mean to you, and to you, and to you. Again, sometimes we mean in that, well, how does this apply to you? How are you seeking to obey this in your own life? And we'll talk a little more about that. But the first question and the most fundamental question is, what does this mean? Again, this doesn't mean there isn't some further significance or implications or application for your life, but the author determines the meaning, and that meaning is consistent.

Let me give you some key terms to think about with this. And again, depending on the textbook that you read or the particular hermeneutics books that you buy over there, they may use these terms a little bit differently, so make sure in whatever book you're reading, you understand how they're using particular terms. But the constant one will be, what is the meaning? What do we mean by meaning? Robert Stein and his introductory hermeneutics book says this, “The meaning of a text is the principle [or you could say the ideas] that the author consciously willed to convey by the words used.” Brad Klassen, who's a hermeneutics professor at the Master's Seminary, says meaning is “The content of a communication which a writer consciously willed to convey by the words and grammar he used.” You see, an author using words and grammar intentionally sought to communicate something, some truth or idea, some principle, and that is the meaning of the text. And there is only one meaning as determined by that author in what they were seeking to communicate. 

And so we need to start by asking ourselves questions like, what did the author intend to communicate? And how do we know that? Well, what would the original readers have understood the author to be saying? That's what we are trying to determine, to rightly interpret the Scripture. Now, a text or a passage of Scripture also has significance. This goes beyond what is directly stated, and I think it can be under the umbrella of what was still intended by the original author, but it's beyond the specific truth that that text says. Abner Chao, who is the president of the Masters University, has written a helpful book on hermeneutics, says it's this. “It's the various valid repercussions, inferences, or implications stemming from the author's meaning. It's derived from what the author said, the logical inferences of those ideas, and the assumptions required for those ideas to operate.” So, it's the meaning that you draw: repercussions, inferences, other truth that either flows from that or that undergirds that.

Think about this doctrinally, something like the Trinity. Can you go to a Bible verse, chapter and verse, and say the Bible teaches that there is one God who eternally exists in three persons? You won't find that verse. But you can go places that clearly teach that there is one God, and that clearly teach that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and you can draw inference from that logically, clearly, such that you can say the Bible teaches the Trinity authoritatively. In some ways, think of this as the original author, if you said this, they would have nodded wholeheartedly in affirmation without asking any questions. They would say, yeah, absolutely, that is true.

There are also implications of texts, specific contemporary applications that flow from the text meaning and significance. Think about texts like Ephesians 4:29 that speaks about how we should let no unwholesome talk proceed from your mouth. If you are having a conversation with Paul, who wrote that verse, about no unwholesome talk coming out of your mouth, but only such a word is as good for edification, you would have a great conversation about what he meant and the truth he was trying to convey. And you said, you know, Paul, I was really struck by that verse with how I need to be really careful what I post on Instagram and what I post on X, because it's really easy to get sucked into stuff. Is Paul going to nod and say, you bet, he's going to, no, he's going to say, I have no idea what you're talking about. He said, that was not on my mind when I wrote Ephesians 4:29. I was not thinking about social media, but sorry. Does that mean that's a wrong thing for you to think about? No, it's an implication of that text. It's outside of the author's original intent, and we need to think carefully about those things in our life. But that's where the rubber meets the road in our life as it relates to what the Bible has to say. All of these are right for us to think about, but we have to think carefully about them.

Again, not every hermeneutics book will use these terms in the same way. Some combine significance and implications. Some switch those. Some talk about application. But these ideas are helpful as we approach the Scriptures. We want to determine the author's original intent, the clear meaning and the authoritative significance, the implications that flow from that clear meaning. We don't get to make up those things. We don't get to decide how do we think this should look in my—No, it all flows from what did the author originally intend.

Now, if that's our goal, how do we get there? How do we rightly interpret the Scriptures? Well, the first principle I want you to think about is to recognize your dependence on the Lord. When we come to the Scriptures to interpret them, we have to come recognizing our dependence on the Lord. What does this look like? Well, you understand that as sinful creatures, we have a desperate need for God's revelation. We only know about God the things that he has revealed to us. We only know his will for our life, to the degree that he has revealed it to us. We are desperate for God's revelation, and so we have to recognize our need for God to reveal himself to us. And thankfully, he has done that in his word. We also, as sinful creatures, have a desperate need for regeneration. The Bible says, apart from God's work, in your heart, giving you, as a dead sinner, new spiritual life, you are blind. You cannot see the truth of God. You will not embrace the truth of God. That doesn't mean an unbeliever can't rightly understand something that the Bible says. They can. But 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. If it were not for God's grace to give us new life, to open our blind eyes, we would be helpless and hopeless when it comes to rightly understanding and living in response to the Word of God.

We also have a desperate need for the Spirit's illumination. 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 says, “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except the Spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God, no one knows except the Spirit of God.” See, the Spirit of God is the one who inspired the Scriptures and who reveals that truth. Now, this doesn't mean that we don't need to study. It doesn't mean you can leave now and not listen to the rest of the principles that we'll talk about. The Spirit works through the diligence of the believer seeking to understand the Scripture, but it is he who enables us to see and embrace the truth of God's Word, especially to embrace the truth of God's Word, to accept it. Grasping God's Word, which many of you are reading, Duval and Hayes put it this way, “Without the Spirit, although people may understand some of the Bible's meaning, they will not be persuaded of its truth and will not live it out. They may grasp the meaning of the biblical text, but they refuse to allow the text to grasp them.” You see, we need the Spirit of God to illumine our minds and hearts as we are seeking to rightly understand the Scriptures, not simply so that we can understand the grammar, although we do pray for God's help and for perseverance and those things, but that we would have the soft heart to accept it and the eyes to see its application in our lives so that we are transformed.

Roy Zuck compares the dual work of God and human authors in inspiration. There's a divine author and human authors both working to the work of the Holy Spirit and the humans in interpretation. The spirit is working, and we as humans are also working, and we are dependent on God's work while we work to rightly understand the Scriptures.

So you have to recognize, and I have to recognize, our dependence on the Lord, and that produces a number of key things. One is a commitment to understanding the Bible. If you know, I really need God's revelation. I am desperate for his perspective on all of life. It fuels a commitment to say, I want to understand this book. I want to know the truth that is contained. It also fuels a carefulness in interpreting the Bible. If you again know, I am desperate for what God has revealed, you are not going to be content with maybe rightly understanding God's word. You're not going to say, I probably got most of it right. That's great. I go to a good church. I hear a lot of good teaching, so I'm probably good. No, you are going to be careful in wanting to make sure you are thinking carefully and rightly about all of life and all of theology. That's why you're here. It's an encouragement to know that over the coming semesters, that's your desire, is to learn and grow in these things, to be careful in these things. It also produces a humility in approaching the Bible, a prayerfulness.

As the psalmist says in Psalm 119:18, open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from your law. Don't come to the Bible arrogantly. Come in humility, praying, asking God to open your eyes. Again, that prayerfulness, reflecting a dependence on the Spirit and a submission to the truth that is revealed. We'll talk a little more about that at the end of our time tonight, but we come to the Scriptures not simply to learn what they say, but to have our minds and our lives transformed as we submit to that truth. So, recognize your dependence on the Lord.

A second principle is to study from an appropriate Bible translation. To study from an appropriate Bible translation. You understand that the Bible was primarily written in Hebrew in the Old Testament and in Greek in the New Testament. Why did I struggle in a Polish gas station to understand the message? Well, pretty simple. I don't think I know a single word of Polish. And they knew a little bit of English, but not enough. Or else they acted like they didn't know any English, because they were bummed that a guy came in not knowing any Polish. Language is a barrier to understanding. The Bible was not written in English. And so, this is a hindrance to us, potentially rightly understanding the Word of God. You know, if you've gone to travel much internationally, you know, you've gone into an international airport, and you're thankful that you speak English, and that most countries in the world like it when people who speak English come. And so, usually, there's signs that have something in another language, and then there's an English word underneath it, or a phrase. And so, you can kind of stumble your way around, and get to where you need to go, and get on to the next thing. But that's if everything is going well, right? You know where you're going. If something happens with your flight, and all of a sudden, they start making announcements in Turkish, and you're like, gee, I wonder if that's important. Hopefully not. And you do your best, but you are mostly lost, because you do not speak that language. We are blessed in that God intends for the Bible to be translated in various languages, to be understood by the people. This is a part of what God intends and desires, but we have to be careful in the translations that we use. 

You have to recognize, there are different qualities of translation. Just like Google Translate a long time ago when it first came out, translated things for you, but it didn't quite get it right all the time. I mean, again, you could stumble through it, but it was not really how someone would say it. So it is with translations today. The quality of the translation matters. This is something that affects what Bible translation do we want to read and study from. There are also different approaches or philosophies of translation. Different people or committees who choose to translate the Bible, approach that with different philosophies or approaches that reflect on something of what they believe about God's Word or about how they intend for that translation to be used. 

There are more academic terms for this, things like formal equivalence or dynamic or functional equivalence, essentially meaning on the formal equivalence side, it is more of a word-for-word translation. It's a formal translation that is reflective of what was written. Those that are more dynamic or functional are more of a thought-for-thought, idea-for-idea translation of the Bible. And then you have what are called paraphrases. 

So a more word-for-word, and this is a little overly simplified for the sake of clarity, but a word-for-word translation is something like the New American Standard that we typically preach from here at Countryside, or the ESV, the English Standard Version, or the newer LSB, Legacy Standard Bible. Those are intentionally translated in a more formal way, and to use that term, or a more word-for-word idea. I'll show you what we mean by that in just a moment. There are also translations that are more thought-for-thought. The new international version, NIV, is more this way. So they're not looking at how does this word get translated, and this word, and this word. They're saying, what's the thought, or the idea? That may be a phrase. What does that phrase mean, and how would I say that in English? A paraphrase is essentially what it sounds like. It's taking whatever that says, and kind of saying it differently, however the person chooses. 

Think of this. This is James 1:22. The New American Standard translates it, “but prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” If you look at the Greek there, if you were to literally translate it, it would be something like, be or become, or prove is how it's translated, but doers of the word, and not only hearers who delude or deceive themselves. You see a pretty clear reflection of that in the New American Standard. We don't say, become but doers in English, so the New American Standard doesn't put it in that same word order, but it's essentially a word-for-word translation.

Now, you recognize that's not how we would necessarily normally say something. If I go home tonight, and the dishwasher needs to be unloaded, I'm not going to find one of my daughters, and I'm going to say, but prove yourselves emptiers of the dishwasher, and not disobedient children. That's probably not the first thing that would come to mind. So, it's not necessarily focused on, how would we say this most clearly in English? It is trying to be readable, but it's, how can we say this the most clearly connected to what the original language said? And this is very helpful for us when we study. 

Consider more of a thought for thought translation. The NIV, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Well, you'll notice that there's some significant differences. Do what it says is at the end of this instead of at the beginning. It's written more clearly and directly as a command to do what it says, not the word doers. And so the New International Version has said, well, we want to take the idea of ideas of that verse and put them in a way that we would say it more naturally in English. That's why versions like the NIV are at a lower reading level, typically, than a more word-for-word translation, because they're actively saying, how can we say this in a way a sixth grader could understand, not how do we say this most closely like the original language said. Yeah, and there can be a place for both of these. The paraphrase, The Message, says, “Don't fool yourself into thinking that you're a listener when you are anything but letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear.” There is nothing in the Greek about going in one ear and out one ear. They're just saying it in a more flowery way. It's really a very short commentary, a pair of phrases. It's someone saying, this is what it's saying. It's a very brief commentary or message. Hence The Message is what they call that Bible. 

Now, when you are wanting to understand rightly what God has said, it's very important that you are paying attention to what was actually said in the language that it was originally written. We want to focus on what does the Bible say when it was written originally to its original readers, and that happened to be in a different language than English. You know, some pastors or authors will use a whole host of translations in their sermon or in a book. You read a book and you're like, wow, every page there's a new Bible version that I hadn't even heard of for this Scripture. Again, there can be a right place for saying, I really appreciate how the NIV translates this, or how the ESV translates this. You'll hear teachers at Countryside often say that because we think it most accurately represents or is helpful in teaching the specific truth that was being communicated. What's dangerous is if people start going and looking at different translations, not to say, what is the most accurate and the most helpful for rightly understanding God's word, but which one do I like? Which one sounds like what I hope it says? Which one makes the point the best that I'm trying to make? That's not how we want to use a variety of Bible translations. We want to understand the author's original message.

And so I would suggest to you that primarily, that's why we want to study from translations like the New American Standard, the ESV, the LSV, because they are not making interpretive decisions for us that we don't even know have been made. They are putting us in a position to rightly understand what the author said and to work through the process of interpretation to say what does this in fact mean. It doesn't mean you can't go read the NIV as you're studying to say, oh, how did they translate? Oh, that's helpful. It gives me some idea of maybe the thought, and that confirms what I was thinking. So it's not that any other version is unusable. We just have to recognize the difference and seek to rightly understand the Scriptures from an appropriate Bible translation.

So as we've learned already, it is important that we rightly understand the message that God has given us in His revealed Word. And to do that, we need to think carefully about understanding the author's original intent, the meaning that the original author intended to communicate, and that which would have been understood by the original readers. And if we're going to do that, we need to first recognize our dependence on the Lord, and then we need to study from an appropriate Bible translation that helps us cross that bridge of the language gap that exists between us and the original writers and readers of the New Testament. 

A third principle for us is to use the normal rules of language, to use the normal rules of language. You know, I mentioned earlier that we really all practice hermeneutics when we read anything in the course of a given day. You don't think a lot about it when you read that email at work, or you read a contract related to your job, or you read some post that was on social media, or other things. You get a text from your wife. If you don't stop and think about block diagramming that text in order to try to make sure you get the message, you just read it, and you understand it because it is written in a way that is consistent with how we typically think and write. So with Scripture, we need to approach it with really the same attitude and in the same way that these are written words that are communicating as humans communicate. And we want to take them at face value. 

Martin Luther put it this way. He said, “We must everywhere stick to the simple, pure, and natural sense of the words that accords with the rules of grammar and the normal use of language as God has created it in man.” You see, this is really related to the fact that the Scripture has human authors, and human authors communicate in the normal way that humans communicate, using words and grammar. And if we're going to rightly understand it, we need to recognize those things. Sometimes this is referred to as the literal, grammatical, historical approach for hermeneutics. The historical is really more about context. But when we speak of literal and grammatical, what we mean is use the normal rules of language. Understand what is being written in the same way you would any other normal expression in that has been written. 

Robertson MacQuilton says, “the most natural, clear, and evident meaning of the text.” Sometimes this is just called the grammatical, historical approach, literal being dropped, because it can sometimes be misunderstood, as we'll see in a minute. But this is in contrast to a more allegorical approach to Scripture, which has been common at various times in church history. Saying the Bible is a spiritual book, it is written by God, and so it must mean more, it must have more spiritual lessons than what it appears to have on the surface. And so we're going to take what is there on the surface, and we're going to try to go much beyond that to understand what God is really communicating to us.

We don't do that. We recognize, no, God inspired the Scriptures by using the Holy Spirit to move in human writers so that they wrote real words to real people using real language and communication. Again, when we speak of the literal grammatical method, it doesn't mean there are not figures of speech. Sometimes it's characterized this way. Oh, you're going to read the Bible in a literal way. And so you don't even believe there's similes or metaphors. We can't speak in more figurative or flowery language. Sure, we can. We just interpret that the way we would normally interpret a figure of speech in the right kind of writing or in the right context. We recognize that is a figure of speech. So we want to use the normal rules of language. Again, we'll talk a lot more about this when it comes to the process of exegesis: How do you rightly discern the words and the grammar of a particular text so that you rightly understand the meaning? But the point here is to say, that's what we need to do. That's where we find the meaning of a text. The normal rules of language and grammar apply. 

A fourth rule for us, or principle, is to interpret Scripture in its context. Interpret Scripture in its context. Context matters. Now, when we talk about the context of Scripture, we are referring to different kinds of context that relate to the Bible. One of those kinds of context is the historical context of the Scripture. So, as you learned last semester, if you were a part of the Bible survey, all of the books of the Bible occurred or were written in a specific historical context. The events took place at a real time and place in history. They were recorded by a real person for a real audience to understand and learn about God through what was written.

The New Testament letters, for example, were written by real people to real churches or real individuals, in real circumstances. There was a historic context for those. And it's very important that we recognize who was being addressed. We don't just take anything in Scripture and say, well, that clearly is speaking directly to me. Now, it does have meaning and significance and implications for you, but it's not necessarily specifically addressed to you. So, you read a passage like Joshua chapter 1, and there's great truth that is there in Joshua chapter 1, and you get to a verse like Joshua 1:8, for example. And it says, “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's written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” And you say, all right, if I read the Bible and I meditate on the Bible and I do what's in it, I will be prosperous and have success. I will get promotions at work, and I will be successful in this life. Well, you look back and you say, well, actually, he was talking to Joshua. There are principles there for me that I am to be meditating on God's Word. But he's actually telling Joshua, as the leader of Israel, before he goes into the Promised Land, and if you do these things, it's going to go well as you enter the Promised Land, and sure enough, it did. There's a context for that that we have to recognize. We'll talk a little more about some examples of that in a moment. 

There's also a cultural context, again, related to the historical context. But there was a culture that existed when that author wrote, and when those readers got that letter or were reading that book. And so, there were things about that culture that they understood that we have to understand, not as we think today, but as they would have thought back then. So, when the Scripture talks about a wedding, for example, maybe one of the parables of Jesus, if you picture the kinds of weddings that we have today, and you think that's what's being described, and it has everything to do with what you would witness on a Saturday afternoon over in the worship center, when somebody you know is getting married, and that's all that comes to mind, you will probably misunderstand something of what is being communicated, because their weddings were different. Now, will you entirely miss it? Probably not. But there are things that you need to understand about that culture, and how things functioned then, and how they would have thought then, because when they mentioned a wedding to a first century audience, something different came to mind than what comes to your mind.

Or you're reading about a verse, and it has a military terminology, like the armor of God, or a servant, or a slave. There's something that comes to your mind, but that's probably not exactly what came to mind in the first century, or whenever that was written. So we have to seek to enter into that cultural context to rightly understand.

There's also a literary context. Those words or phrases don't occur in isolation. Context matters. You know, think of this little comic. This guy says, I ate 47 burgers, and the girl says, that's a lot. He goes on to finish his sentence since March of 2020. Okay, that's more reasonable. So taking a phrase or a word and pulling it out from what came before it or what came after it, you end up with a misunderstanding of what is being communicated. Dr. John Street, who's a professor at the Masters University and Seminary, was one of, was my hermeneutics professor. He said, “A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.” A text without a context, if you pull it out, it's a pretext for a proof text. You can make the Bible say whatever you want. If you just pull phrases out one at a time and isolate them and make it say whatever you want. Howard Hendricks said, “Every major cult is built on a violation of the principle of context.” You have a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness come to your door, and they start telling you, this is what the Bible says. They give you their little track, and it's got a little verse there. What's the first thing you should do? You should pull out your Bible. And you say, well, let's look at that in the context that it is written. Let's look at what the Bible actually says, because it's not about pulling out a phrase and making it say what we want. It occurs in a context.

And think of one of the classic examples, Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” That verse has been pulled into so many different applications, right? I mean, you see it behind the field goal kicker post, you know, the kicker's gonna make it because he can do all things. You know, people mutter it on the way in to take tests. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, you know, going on to take your Bible-knowledge quiz. You can remind yourself, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Why is Lance making me do this? Is that what it's saying? Ah, context matters. What's Paul say? He says, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last, you've revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.” They'd given him a gift, as he alluded to elsewhere, and he was thankful for that. They were concerned and sent something to support him. He says, “Not that I speak from want [it's not that I'm desperate for more], for I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means. I know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” So what's he talking about? Field goals? No. Tests? No. Contentment in whatever circumstance God has for him? Yes. So you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. You can be content. In the circumstances that God has placed you, whether you have much or you have little, God will sustain you. He will give you the strength to endure and persevere.

So many verses that we could talk about that get pulled out of context. You know, verses like Matthew 7:1. “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” Well, what is the context of that? Well, it goes on in the very next portion of verses following. Jesus makes the point about looking at the log in your own eyes so you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. What's He saying? He's saying you actually should see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. This is not a categorical prohibition of speaking about some issue in someone else's life, some sin. He goes on to tell you how to do that. Or Jeremiah 29:11, that famous graduation card verse, “For I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.” If you have that hanging in your kitchen, I'm sorry, but it's okay. What's the context? Well, verse 10 is talking about them coming back from Babylonian captivity. God's reminding Israel that when you're in captivity and you're really depressed, remember that God has good plans for you. He's not done with you. He's going to bring you back. So again, does it have some principle about God's character and his continuing, enduring love for his people? You bet. Is it a promise to you that your life is going to go great? It is not.

Or Matthew 18:20, you know, “For where two or three have gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.” Like, you know, the Lord's presence is uniquely felt in small groups. Is that what it's saying? No, it's in the context of church discipline, actually. Or 2 Chronicles 7:14, you know, the key to the revival of America, “My people who are called by name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.” And who's he writing to? Well, it's at the dedication of the temple for Israel, and it's a reminder, you are my people, and if you will humble yourselves. Again, is there some implications for us as people and as a nation? Sure, but is that a promise given to America? It is not. 

So, we have to be careful that we are interpreting Scripture in its context, that it is not simply pulling the words or phrases out to make them say what we hope they say, but we are actually looking at them to say, who was this written to originally? What was the meaning to the original audience? Is this something that is a specific command or a specific promise to them, or is it general? What is the truth that is contained here, that meaning that does apply to us? Don't read the Bible, again, like a fortune cookie. Don't pull things out. Don't read in your Bible reading tomorrow and look for that one verse that you can pull out to say, oh yes, this is my fortune for the day. No, understand it in its context. This is so key to rightly understanding the meaning of the text. We have to keep Scripture in its context, and it's key to rightly applying the meaning of that text today. This is where we get so in trouble sometimes. When we jump from what we think the Bible says to the application to today, without rightly understanding the original meaning and then thinking carefully about what are the implications for us today. 

Many of you are reading Grasping God's Word, and if you have gotten very far into it, you have seen this diagram. If you're listening to the audiobook, you will not see this diagram. So there is a benefit to the actual book. There's some helpful diagrams in this book. But if you're just listening to the audiobook, that's great too, and you'll get a lot out of it. But this is a diagram they have put together to help us think about how do we rightly interpret Scripture in its context and draw appropriate implications or applications for us today. You'll see they have a biblical-looking town on the left from old history, Old Testament or New Testament times, a little Bible character shepherd guy walking out of that town towards what they call the principalizing bridge, which crosses over the river of culture and language and time and situation, over to the modern-looking town, and you walk past what they call the biblical map into the town today. What's the point of this diagram that they will walk through? Well, they're reminding us that step one is to grasp the text in their town. What did the text mean to the original audience?

Before we think about what does Joshua 1:8 mean to me, we want to think about what did Joshua 1:8 mean to Joshua? What was God saying to him? How would he have understood this? What are the words and phrases, and how would he have understood that? What was the historic context that Joshua was in when he received this? What are the cultural things that might help us understand that verse? Things like the fact that they typically read out loud, and so when it says this verse, the Book of Law shall not depart from your mouth, it's kind of a weird phrase for us, but it makes sense if we understand more of their culture. So we need to grasp the text in their town first. 

Step two, they say, is to measure the width of the river to cross. What are the differences between the Biblical audience and us? So what's different about Joshua in Joshua 1:8 and us? Well, he was leading the people of Israel. I'm not. He spoke Hebrew. I don't. He was at a time before Christ came, when they were going into the Promised Land. I'm a New Testament believer. There are various things that are different about that context and me today. Next time we meet, we'll talk about different genres of Scripture, and some are closer to us. That river is narrower. A letter to the church at Ephesus. Well, there's still differences. I'm not Greek. I don't speak Greek. I'm not living in the first century, but I am a New Testament believer who's part of a church. So there's a lot narrower of a gap when it comes to Ephesians 4:29, than Joshua 1:8. And so we have to measure the width of the river. Think about those things and consider those things. 

And then we cross step three, the principalizing bridge. What is the theological principle in this text? What did it mean to them? And what is the truth that is really the timeless truth that this verse or this passage contains? So when we read one of those promises that God made to the people of Israel, that if they will humble themselves, that God will restore their land or that God's not done with them. There are theological principles there about God's faithfulness to his promises, God's faithfulness to his people that are a timeless truth about God that is reflected there. That's different than the very specific promise that he made to his people in those passages. 

Step four, they say is consult the biblical map. How does our theological principle fit with the rest of the Bible? We'll talk about this a little more in our next rule, but we need to think about that timeless truth. What else does the Bible say? How does that shape how we think about this? Having all of God's revelation, is there other truth that's going to help me as I think about this? And then we grasp the text in our town. How does that principle, that timeless truth, affect my thinking today and my life today? What is the application of that as we live that out today? Again, Grasping God's Word is going to walk you through really this idea in great detail and flesh out, how do you do this well? And what are the tools that we use to do this well? And Tom in his exegesis will not so much take this diagram, but this idea, how do we go from what the text meant to the original audience to how we think and respond in light of that timeless truth today? I think this is a helpful reminder to understand, to interpret Scripture in its context, especially the historical cultural context as this diagram focuses on, but also then the literary context of that.

So if you want to rightly interpret the Bible, you want to rightly understand the message that God gives to you in the Scriptures. You have to recognize your dependence on the Lord. You need to study from an appropriate Bible translation to help cross that gap of language. You need to use the normal rules of language, recognizing God communicated through real people, using real human communication, and you need to interpret Scripture in its context, both historically, culturally, and literary. Don't pull verses out and make them say what you think they say. Understand them in context so you get the true message that the original author intended.

A fifth principle is to interpret Scripture with other Scripture. Interpret Scripture with other Scripture. If the principle interpreting Scripture in its context really emphasizes the human authors of the Bible, the fact that they were real people at a real time writing to other real people at a real time and place, this rule really relates to the fact that there is one divine author of Scripture. And so we interpret Scripture with other Scriptures. You see, while there are multiple human authors of Scripture, there is a single divine author. Through those 40-some different authors over 1500 years, there was one God inspiring the Scripture, communicating the message that he desired through those human authors and their unique personalities and writing style. And so God is the author of the Scriptures, and the Scriptures are consistent. And therefore Scripture interprets Scripture.

Think about this, if you have enjoyed reading or watching things like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And maybe you're reading the last book in that trilogy, and there's something in that book that you don't quite understand, you don't remember. I know there's more to this than what I'm remembering here. What are you going to do? Well, you're going to go back to maybe the first book in that trilogy, and you're going to say, oh yeah, there was something in here that helped me to understand more of that. Or you go back and read The Hobbit and, oh, that helps me understand more of this. Why? Because it's one author. One guy wrote all those books. And so there's a consistency to them, at least to a degree, because he's human and not perfect, and he too probably doesn't remember what he wrote in the first book fully, but he was really intentional to try. So that one author means, yeah, I can go to other parts of these books, even other books in the series, and that helps me to understand what is going on here. Scripture interprets Scripture.

I love what Charles Hodge wrote. He said this. He said, “If the Scriptures be what they claim to be, the Word of God, they are the work of one mind and that mind divine. From this it follows that Scripture cannot contradict Scripture. God cannot teach in one place anything which is inconsistent with what he teaches in another. Hence Scripture must explain Scripture.” He elsewhere writes this. He says, “The revelation of God in His Word begins in a fountain and flows in a continuous stream, ever increasing in volume. [That's that progressive revelation. The revelation is flowing in an ever-increasing continuous stream but] all is consistent. One part cannot contradict another. Each part must be interpreted so as to bring it into harmony with the whole. This is only saying that Scripture must explain Scripture.”

Now the more technical term for this that was used especially during the Reformation, the idea of the analogy of faith—just means the Scripture interprets Scripture. RC. Sproul puts it this way, the analogy of faith is the rule that Scripture is to interpret Scripture. The Latin phrase there, the sacred Scripture, is its own interpreter. This means, quite simply, that no part of Scripture can be interpreted in such a way as to render it in conflict with what is clearly taught elsewhere in Scripture. See, this is so important for us to recognize as we seek to rightly understand the message that God has given us. God is not trying to confuse us. God is not changing what he said. God has a consistent message. 

Now, again, that message unfolded progressively to different people at different times in history. And so, he's not always saying the same thing, but he is always saying something that is consistent with what he will say and what he has said. This means we should interpret difficult passages with those that are clear. If you come across a text, and you get to that text, and you're like, man, I don't really know what this is saying, or this seems to be saying something that I didn't think the Bible taught. Well, you interpret that difficult passage with those that are clear. Again, Peter recognized there's some texts that are hard to understand. How do we understand them? Well, we dig into them. We try to think carefully about them. We try to understand in context what is being said with those words and phrases, and try to think about the historic context, the cultural context, and do the best we can. Sometimes, we cannot always say dogmatically what those difficult texts do mean. We can't be sure that this is exactly what Paul was saying, but we can, in light of the rest of Scripture, say what they do not mean. We can say, well, it can't be saying this, because I know it doesn't contradict the rest of Scripture. So the options are therefore this. 

Take, for example, a passage that you may come across in James, James 2 verse 21, where James is writing, and he says, “Was not Abraham our father, justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?” Now, if you know the gospel, and you understand that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and that we are justified, saved not by works, but by faith, you read that verse, and you're like, uh-oh. You say, hmm, I wonder what James means here. I thought we were justified by faith. And so when you get to James, you say, man, maybe I got the whole gospel wrong. Maybe there's something else that I missed. Maybe the Roman Catholics are right. Maybe we are justified, in part, by works. And you throw out your faith, and you say, no, you don't do that. You say, no, I know what the Bible teaches, clearly and consistently, that we are saved not by works of the law, but we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. It is Christ's finished work on the cross, His righteous life credited to me, and His substitutionary death, paying the penalty for my sin by which I am justified. So whatever James is saying, he's not saying that we are saved by works. 

And so you dig into the context. You read more of James. You try to understand his flow of thought. And you go to other places, like Romans chapter 4, verse 2 and 3, which says, “for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” And you don't say, well, I guess James and Paul don't agree with one another. No, you say God wrote the New Testament. This is all God's word. It is all consistent. So there are two different guys, James and Paul. Maybe they're using the word justified in a slightly different way because that's how language works. It doesn't always mean exactly the same thing in every context, and it's important that we recognize that, and we think carefully about those words.

And you start thinking about what does James say? Well, it says he was justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar. And you think, well, that's, I'm going to go back to Genesis, and that's kind of later in Genesis than the quote in Romans when it says Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. So James is clearly not saying that Abraham was credited, it was credited to him as righteousness when he offered up Isaac because he was already credited as righteousness chapters before he offered up Isaac. And so you look at all of Scripture, and you come to the conclusion that, oh, wait, James is really talking about the effects of true saving faith. His whole letter is about how Christians should live in demonstration of the reality that God has changed their life, that real faith produces works in a person's life.

So he's not talking about how Abraham was saved by works. He's talking about how Abraham's works, the fact that he was willing to offer up Isaac his son on the altar, was a clear demonstration of the reality of his faith. Now, James doesn't say that as clearly as he could have because he's writing to a specific audience in a specific time. But when you take that in the whole of Scripture, that's clearly what he's saying. But if you pull that out of context, and you stick that on a track, and you're a cult, you can go to somebody and you can say, well, look, the Bible says we are justified by works. That gospel you've heard in your evangelical Protestant church, that's not really the gospel. If you pull that out from other Scripture, you can make that say something that it doesn't say and distort and twist the real meaning of that to your own destruction. That's what Peter warned against. That's why we have to understand Scripture in its context and why we have to interpret Scripture with other Scripture. It is so important that as we approach the Bible, we are careful to remember that God is the author of it all. 

Now again, in a couple weeks from now, we're going to talk about how do we rightly interpret the various kinds and categories of Scripture. So we'll talk about things like the law in the Old Testament. How do we rightly interpret the law? How do we think about the things that God was revealed? Or how do we rightly interpret the Book of Proverbs that is a unique kind of writing in Scripture? How do we interpret the Gospels and the Letters? There are unique things about those specific areas that we need to think carefully about as well. But the general principle that we understand it in its context, and we allow other Scripture to shape what we think about and how we understand that. Because we know that God doesn't lie, that God is the author of all of the Scriptures, and so there is a consistent message that is given. So, if we want to rightly interpret the Bible, we need to recognize our dependence on the Lord, we need to study from an appropriate Bible translation, and we need to use the normal rules of language, interpreting Scripture in its context, and interpreting Scripture with other Scripture.

A final principle or rule for us is to commit to believe and obey the Scripture. I want you to turn to James, chapter 1, with me. We already looked at one of these verses in a variety of Bible translations. But I just want to remind us of the end goal of rightly interpreting the Bible. We are not done rightly interpreting the Bible unless we have committed to believe and obey what the Scriptures say. The goal of hermeneutics, the goal of rightly interpreting the Bible is not to be able to answer a question on a quiz about what a particular verse means. The goal of rightly interpreting the Bible is so that we will be renewed in our thinking, so that we will submit ourselves to the truth that God has revealed, believing what he has said, and committing to live in light of that. That's James' point. For the sake of context, pick up back in verse 21, he says, “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in humility, receive the Word implanted which is able to save your souls.” He says, if you want to rightly understand the Bible, you got to put aside sin, put aside wickedness in humility, come to the Word to receive it. Be eager to hear whatever it is that God says. 

You know, guys, if you are living in a pattern of sin, if you do not want to hear what God has to say because you want to live how you're going to live, that's going to keep you from going to the Scriptures. And it's going to keep you from wanting to listen accurately to the Scriptures and from hearing that message. I'm so thankful that you guys are here tonight, eager to understand the principles of interpretation, how to rightly understand the Scriptures. And I think that for almost everybody in this room, that reflects a heart that desires to do this, to humbly receive the Word. But I can't help but think that there are some men here tonight for whom this is more of an academic exercise. You're just excited to think about these principles because you want to be the guy who goes to a good church, who really understands these things, and can pat yourself on the back in that way, or maybe you're here for some other reason, so that your wife will be happy with you, or any number of things. James says, it's not about your hermeneutics, ultimately. It's about putting aside sin and humbly receiving the Word. And he says, verse 22, “But prove yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” No offense, but this is kind of like the idea of auditing a class. Some of you guys are auditing this class, and that's totally fine. We're thrilled that you are here, and no pressure at all to do anything but audit the class. But the reality is, when you audit a class, you hear it, and you don't have to do all the rest of the work, right? And that's why it's a good thing for some of you. You're at a season where that fits you great. He says, don't be an auditor, though, of the Word of God. Don't audit the Bible. Don't think, I can just go listen, but I don't really have to do anything. No. You can do that at Institutes, and you'll soak up stuff, and it'll be helpful for you. But if you have that mindset with the Bible, James says, don't be an auditor. Don't be someone who only hears. You need to prove yourself to be a doer of the Word. Verse 23, “For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.”

So if you're like a hearer only, you're like somebody who looks at yourself in the mirror, and then you walk away from the mirror, and you don't even really remember what you look like. Now I know most of us in this room probably don't spend as much time in front of the mirror as maybe others in our house, at least my house with a lot of ladies. But when you look in the mirror, you look closely, you're looking for the goal of what? Usually finding something that's wrong. Now there's only so much we can fix about what we see in the mirror, right? You know, but you're looking for stuff that's like, oh, I want to fix that, my hair, I've got something on my face left over from lunch. That's what we're looking. We look in the mirror, we don't just walk away. He says, that's how we're to be with Scripture. “One who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.” He says, that's to be our attitude. You come to the Bible eager to interpret it rightly. 

You look closely at the Bible. You think about the historical context and the cultural context and the literary context, and you look closely at the grammar and the syntax of that, because that's how you discern the meaning. You want to understand, what is it that this text says, and I don't want to get it wrong. I don't want to say, thus says the Lord, when that isn't what the Lord says. I don't want to live in light of something God hasn't told me that's true. But you don't just look intently at the Scriptures, so you can rightly determine the meaning.  What does he say? He says, you look intently at the perfect law, so that you can abide by it, so that you can be transformed by it. Not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

So, men, don't let thinking more carefully and more intentionally about God's Word keep you from also thinking intentionally and carefully about the impact God's Word has on your life. Don't let it just become about finding the right meaning. Consider your thinking in light of what is revealed; your life in light of what is revealed. That's when you have been faithful to rightly interpret the Bible, when you have thought about how it shapes and changes your thinking, and how it shapes and changes your life. You know, I hope that Institutes of Theology last semester, this semester, the coming semesters, that it has a profound impact on how all of us approach the Bible and our ability to discuss and defend sound doctrine and biblical truth. And I hope that it leads to a powerful transformation in the life of each of us, because that's what God's Word is intended to do. And we need to get the message right from the Lord. We don't want to distort it. We don't want to misunderstand it. We don't want to miss some of it, because we don't get the language, or we don't get those things. We want to be diligent to rightly understand the Scriptures, to listen well when it's taught, like the Berean, saying, is this in fact what the Word of God says? And how does that shape and change my life?

Those of you that have the chance to teach, formally or informally, being so careful, thus says the Lord. We need to practice these principles, and we need to do so with humble hearts, eager to be transformed. Next time, I look forward to taking these principles together and working to apply them in the specific genres of Scripture, the specific categories and kinds of Scripture as we work through these things together.

So let's pray together, and then Lance, I have a few closing announcements, and we'll let you guys get out of here. 

Our Father, we thank you for your Word. It is such a treasure for us. It is your revelation. Lord, such a unique book that contains all that we need for life and for godliness. It teaches us all that we need to know about you and about ourselves and our sin and the gospel and how we can live according to your will.

Father, I pray that you would forgive us for taking it lightly, for neglecting to read and study and think about it as we ought. Forgive us for times that we have distorted it, maybe well-intentioned but ignorant in how to approach it. Forgive us for times we have communicated to someone else that this is what you're saying when it's not or when we have based our life on things that we thought were true, that were not actually what you've revealed.

We're thankful for your grace and patience, but we do want to be those who faithfully and accurately handle your Word. I pray that our time tonight would have been helpful to that end, that you would seal these truths in our minds, that as we read the Bible in the coming days, as we study the Bible in the coming days, that this would be helpful for us. And we pray that you would use the coming weeks together to further that also.

Thank you for the guys and their commitment to do this. We know this is a significant amount of time and investment, and we're grateful for the desire that you've given so many in our church to grow in their knowledge of you through your Word. Thank you for the fellowship we can share as well, for the relationships that can be built. We pray that you would be honored the rest of our evening and the rest of this semester together in Christ's name. Amen.