Jesus' thoughts on the Bible - How Can We Hear from God, Part 4

John 5:31-47

(4) How can we hear God? Jesus argues to see everything in the Bible as pointing to Him- He is the TRUE Joshua, the host of the armies of the Lord; He is the TRUE Jonah, the prophet who died for His people who was kept in the belly of the Earth for 3 days...

Until you see every passage of Scripture about Him and not about you... until you read the Bible NOT for information but for formation... until you read the Bible to meet Him you will be reading it just like the people who end up killing Jesus.

The Gospel (the Good News in which Christianity stands on) is NOT that you do things and you offer them to God, BUT that God sent Jesus Christ to live the perfect life and that it is His standing that is now offered to you. If that truth reforms, or in other words, remakes you, then you are starting to stand in what Jesus accomplished in His life. God then sees you as perfect and as blameless as Christ.

Every other religion says that it is your job to rise up and live a divine life... the Gospel says that Jesus came down and lived a human life and did what we were supposed to do for us. When you are united with Him you are accepted through that. If you don’t believe that the story is true, then what you really believe in is a lot of principles that you have to live up to. BUT if you see the story as true, then you can read everything in the Bible as being about Jesus and not about you and what you must do. If it is all about you, you will be mechanical and rigid and will miss the point and will not have internal character change. The weight of the principles will either be absolutely crushing or they will serve as a source and excuse for self-righteousness and ignorant arrogance... If you read it as about Him the love of God will dwell in you (V38).

PLEASE self give the Bible authority over me!! In the areas I don’t want to hear. If I don’t then how can God ever heal me in tough times!! - If He doesn’t have authority over me now then what is going to happen in my life when my heart is broken or when I feel like a failure... when our hearts condemn us the Bible says that God is greater than our hearts BUT how can God be greater then my heart, how can God come in and give me hope and love unless I give the Bible full authority over me in all things. I can't just pick and choose these things creating a god of my own choosing, can I??

For those of you who have Jesus’ “view of the Bible”... how are you reading the Bible? Are you reading it for information or formation? Read it to its logical conclusion. Can you earn your salvation or do you need a savior?