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The Standard of Morality

Built on the Bible

“. . . for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.”

Psalm 107:11

Sin is a very controversial topic today. Thanks to the rise of expressive individualism, one of the only sins still viewed as evil is the supposed sin of denying another’s authentic self, that is, who they want to be. Obviously, morality hasn’t completely vanished from our society. Pedophilia and mass shootings are still viewed with disdain in society, and for that we should be glad. But by and large, society’s conception of sin is found lacking. Let’s take a look at what sin is against and who defines it.

Sin is Against Something

First, we need to realize that sin is never against man. Bear with me on this one. You may be wondering about murder. Isn’t that against someone? No, murder is not a sin against someone in the biblical definition of the word. While murder (and most other sins) greatly harms others, the murderer is not ultimately accountable to the victim. Rather, sin is committed against God alone. For a great example of this, let’s look at David.

David was one of the greatest men in the history of the Bible. He was a shepherd turned king, who not only killed the giant Goliath, but escaped the wrath of King Saul for years. Yet he was not perfect. One day, when observing his kingdom on his roof, he saw a woman bathing, Bathsheba. You know the story. David had her husband, Uriah, eventually murdered after he had slept with his wife. In punishment, the child resulting from David’s adultery died in his mother’s womb. Yet David said these words in his repentant prayer: “Against you [God], you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” (Psalm 51:4) Why did he say that? Because David wasn’t responsible to Uriah or his son for the immense hurt, pain, and death he caused them. He had to answer to Almighty God.

Sin is against God alone because sin is when we transgress God’s moral law. That law is most simply put in the words of Jesus: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:37-39) On top of these two foundational commands is the rest of the morality we find demonstrated in the Bible.

Sin is Defined in God’s Word

First, we find out what is sin in God’s Word. First, we will look at explicit commands. These are easy to grasp, but often hard to apply. Going back to the murder example, we find in the Ten Commandments a clear condemnation of murder: “you shall not murder.” (Ex. 20:13) While this seems easy, we are quick to forget because of our sinful flesh. This is one reason why Bible memorization is so helpful, so that we can remember what is right and wrong biblically when situations arise.

Another way the Bible defines morality is through biblical principles. This is something that can be very hard to grasp. Sometimes these are grey areas, and sometimes these are clear, but they still require reasoning founded on the Bible. For example, think of an abortion pill. Sure, there isn’t a command in the Bible that specifically bans abortion pills. However, we saw in the Ten Commandments that murder is wrong, and we see the personhood of fetuses in Jeremiah 1:5. Thus, abortion is wrong. While that is an easier, other practical applications can be difficult. This is one reason why God uses the local church, to help apply the Bible to daily situations.

Finally, God’s Word teaches us how to fight sin. Before we saw how to identify sin, but now we will look at how the Bible informs our fight against it. The Bible first promises the help of the Holy Spirit (John 14:25-26). The Holy Spirit helps us fight sin by reminding us of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit can’t help us remember things we didn’t already know. That would be teaching. While the Holy Spirit could teach us in moments of weakness, His chosen method is reminding us. Study up, lest you fail in temptation.

Sin is Defined by God, not Man

God, and in turn the Bible, is the only standard for morality. This is something that is crucial to the Christian worldview. While man made laws and treatises can often have great morality, they aren’t the standard that we look to. When determining whether something is right or wrong, we must look to the Bible for answers first.

Finally, we need to understand that man cannot make his own morality. First, we will look at taking away from Scripture, then adding. Taking away from Scripture is something that is prevalent throughout society today. Are homosexual acts really wrong? Is it really wrong to name-call? What’s the harm in premarital sex? All of these dominate our society’s thought, yet we refuse to look to God’s Word for clarity and wisdom. Taking away from God’s Word is sin. We cannot cut out the parts of Scripture that offend us. Does denying desires make us inauthentic to ourselves? Yes, because we have sinful desires. And being inauthentic to our sinful flesh is good. We as believers must deny the sinful desires of the flesh to lay up treasures for eternity.

On the flip side of taking away from Scripture is adding to Scripture, namely legalism. This has much more of a righteous pretext. Sometimes, adding extra boundaries in our lives is necessary. Jesus told us to cut out our eyes if they cause us to sin. However, we must be wary of imposing undue burdens on ourselves, and especially wary of doing this to others. Both extremes, adding and taking away from Scripture, are sinful. In conclusion, we must realize that sin is ultimately against God, and that God defines sin, not man.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.

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Authentic Salvation

Built on the Bible

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Romans 10:17

Salvation is and always has been something that everyone thinks about. From Christianity’s claim that Jesus is the only way, to Buddhism’s teachings of reincarnation, to Atheism’s denial of the subject, everyone thinks about salvation. Why is this? God made us in His image, so we have a natural inclination to think about the eternal. While we may fail to do this often, everyone thinks about eternity from time to time. Today we are going to examine Romans 10:17 as we continue our series “Built on the Bible,” and we will see where and what salvation is.

Salvation from God Alone

Our first observation is that salvation is from God alone. God is the only source of salvation. This is absolutely counter-cultural. We live in a society that teaches that everyone has their own truth, and they are all equally true. That couldn’t be anything farther from the truth! The gospel is the truth, and if a claim is in contradiction with the gospel, then that claim is false. Salvation cannot be had in any other source. Our good works can’t save us (Rom. 3:23). Other gods cannot save us, for they are false (Jer. 10:10). Our standing is before God and no one else.

Because salvation is from God, salvation is also tied to God’s person. If God were limited, our salvation would be limited too. Think about it. If Jesus were a normal person and not the God-man, than even if he lived a perfect life, he’d only pay for His own sins. Since salvation comes from an infinite God, salvation is infinite and eternal too. The free gift of God is eternal life after all (Rom. 6:23).

Finally, because salvation is from God, we need to realize that salvation is not because of us. We are not saved because of faith, rather through faith. This may be confusing, but let me explain. You don’t get into heaven because you believe in Jesus. That would give credit to you, and you don’t deserve that. Rather, faith is simply the medium for salvation. Think of a wire. You don’t praise an 80 in. 4K TV because of the wire. While you can’t have the TV without the wire, the wire doesn’t get credit for the beautiful picture. The same is true with salvation. While we have to believe to receive salvation, we don’t earn salvation because of that belief.

Salvation in God’s Word Alone

Our second observation from Rom. 10:17 is that salvation is found in God’s Word alone. This is clear from the text. We can’t get saved if we don’t know the gospel. If we don’t have the gospel, our faith is empty because it isn’t in anything. The Bible tells us how we are saved. The Bible shows us that salvation isn’t because of us, rather it’s because of God’s work through His Son on Calvary.

We also see the ramifications of salvation from God’s Word. Not only do we see how we get salvation, but we also see the results of salvation. Think about it. The reason believers know they are going to heaven is found in the Bible (Rom. 6:23). The reason believers rejoice knowing that they will have glorified bodies is also in the Bible (1 Cor. 15). We know why we should want salvation because of the Bible!

Finally, we also see that no one can add to God’s requirements for salvation in the Bible. If one does so, he faces damnation (Rev. 22:18-19). That’s a tough pill to swallow, but we need to realize that any additional requirement for salvation is heresy. God requires that we believe in His Son for salvation. If we do less, we aren’t saved. If we try to do more, like cleaning up our act and then believing, we aren’t saved. To think that we need to be more righteous before we are saved is to miss the whole point of the gospel! Jesus takes our unrighteousness and gives us His righteousness!

Salvation must be Heralded

How will unbelievers hear if we don’t tell them? The only thing stopping sinners from going down their hell-bound road is the gospel. God has entrusted us with that gospel, therefore, we must share it before it is too late. The last command Jesus gave us was to spread that gospel so that others would be discipled and know God as their Savior.

Our responsibility as believers is to get as many people as possible worshipping the same God we worship. This can only be done by spreading the gospel. How will you spread the gospel this week? Who in your life will you spread the gospel with?

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.

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The Highest Bar

Built on the Bible

“The word of the Lord proves true.”

2 Samuel 22:31

One of the most precious truths of the Bible is that it proves true. This is a very simple concept, and you probably already knew it. However, do you really know it? Do your actions show that you believe the whole Bible is true? Does the way you look at the world show that you believe the Bible is true? Let’s take a hard look at this simple truth, that the Bible proves true.

The Standard for Truth

First, we’ll look at how the Bible shapes how we view the worldview. We call this our worldview, the lens through which we view the world. This is foundational to how you think, yet your probably don’t think about this often. Most people don’t, yet it is vitally important that we understand our worldview and those of others.

The first key aspect of a biblical worldview is that the Bible is the only absolute standard of truth. How do we know that our eyes tell us correctly that the sky is blue? Is that just a figment of our imagination? According to a biblical worldview, we understand that God gave us our senses as a tool to find truth in the world. God placed us in a real world, and we know that because the Bible says He did. While that was an extreme example, we see the necessity of the standard all throughout our world. For example, is premarital sex really a bad thing? How do we know it’s wrong? Well, God’s Word says so (Eph. 5:3), so that means it is wrong.

God’s Word is also the key to using reasoning. Reasoning is another tool that God has given us to understand the world around us, but it should be accountable to the Bible. For example, reasoning would tell us that God cannot be three in one. However, from a biblical worldview we find the doctrine of the Trinity taught in Scripture. Thus, while we must use reasoning, as the apostle Paul did often, we must realize that is is accountable to the Bible, not vice versa.

The Remaining Truth

Another aspect of God’s Word proving true is that the Bible is a truth that remains. First, we see that God’s Word will never change. When change happens, that generally communicates that there was a deficiency or a flaw. For example, the original iPhone was not perfect, otherwise, you would still be using it, not the iPhone 12 Max! God’s Word, however, never needs changing. We can bank on it realizing that the Word that was good for Moses is good for us too.

Another observation in the vein of God’s Truth remaining is that what was true when the Bible was written is true now. That is crazy to think about! Think about all the changes in science that have occurred since the time of Jesus. For example, a helio-centric view of the earth is something that wouldn’t have been widely accepted in Jesus’ time. Yet NASA will tell you, the earth is not the center of the universe! God’s Word, however, is something that will never change. It will always prove true, for those two thousand years before us and for us now.

This is extremely counter-cultural. We live in a world that is plagued by iconoclasm and what Carl Trueman would call “cultural amnesia.” Society today is consumed with rejecting the sacred and twisting history. For proof of this, just look at cancel culture that seeks to reject all history that doesn’t agree with today’s culture’s morality. However, we know that all of God’s Word proves true, and that means that this truth can’t be twisted. You can deny the truth of the Bible, but that doesn’t make it false.

The Tangible Truth

Finally, we will look at how the Bible applies to us today. First, realize that everything you read in your Bible this morning is true. Think about that! So often, we give lip service to the truth of what we read in the Bible. We say that we think it’s true, but our actions don’t reflect that! Tomorrow morning when you read the Bible, remember that what you are reading is completely true, and God will hold you accountable to it because it is.

Next, we need to remember that the Word of the Lord proves true when we pray. I’ll admit, I fall into this trap too. We pray, fulfilling our Christian duties, but we don’t really think anything will come of it. That can’t be farther from the truth! Thanks to the Bible, we know that our Heavenly Father hears our requests! God answers our prayers (John 14:14)! While sometimes we won’t anticipate how God answers those requests, we know that He does answer them. Sometimes the answer is no, yes, or later, but God does hear, and God WILL be true to His promises in Scripture. Pray like you know that’s true.

Finally, we need to live like the Bible is true. Throughout the Bible we see God tell us what to do and that God will strengthen us to obey. However, our actions often say that we don’t believe God’s Word! When we sin, we trust ourselves more than we trust the Bible. We need to live lives that show that we trust that God can and will satisfy us, all the time. Think, pray, and live, knowing that the Bible proves true.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.

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A Diagnosis and Prognosis of Our Condition

Built on the Bible

“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls.”

1 Peter 1:24

Often, when looking at the Bible and the gospel, we have a tendency to skip to the “good part,” where we see Jesus save us and we spend eternity in heaven. Obviously, that is in fact a very good thing. I know I enjoy being saved by Jesus and being assured of heaven with Him forever! However, when salvation is where we start, we have a limited gospel, and we fail to show others exactly why they need to be saved in the first place.

Depravity from the Start

To see why we need a Savior, we don’t have to look for long in the Bible. Frankly, all we have to do is open Genesis and read the first three chapters. In Genesis 1-2, we see God create a “very good” (Gen. 1:31) world. The world that God created had no sin at all. There was no pain, no death, no sickness, and no COVID-19! There was simple very good creation. God put man on this earth, but unlike the rest of creation, He created man “in his own image.” (Gen. 1:27)

Salvation is only necessary and valuable if there is something that we are saved from.

God commanded man to take care of His world. He told man to reproduce. There was also one additional command: “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:17) Here we are introduced to God’s moral law. We see God’s system of justice: sin against God demands death.

Obviously, people die today. Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree, and incurred on themselves and their children the wrath of God. Because of their sin, God requires a sacrifice to pay for their sins. Someone must die.

Countercultural Today

In today’s post-modern society, this truth his hard to swallow. Frankly, objective truth in general is hard to swallow. So often we see people believe that they can make their own rules, their own morality. What they think is right for them is right, and what they think is wrong for themselves is wrong. This post-modern ideology is deeply entrenched against the gospel however.

As we have seen, God makes the rules. God told Adam and Eve what was right and what was wrong. In the Bible, we see God show us even more of His moral law, how we are to live in ways that please Him and help us enjoy a relationship with Him. God expects us to align our ways with His, not the other way around. So often though our society wants to reverse those.

Salvation Rightly Viewed

So going back to our passage today, why do we need to start with death? Because we won’t appreciate God rightly if we don’t understand our limitations. We simply can’t live forever. Not only are we mortal, but we are accountable to a just God too for a lifetime of sins. No matter how much good we do, we still face an eternal sentence to hell on our own.

Now that we understand our depravity, our condition of being dead in sin and accountable to God for all our it, we can rightly understand salvation. Salvation is only necessary and valuable if there is something that we are saved from. When we understand what Jesus saved us from, we can worship Him more fully.

For believers, I implore you today to mediate and reflect on what God has done for you in Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just tell you what to do and get all the credit for it. He took away your infinite sins! Because of his sacrifice, you can have eternal life! Instead of being like the grass and fading away forever, you are promised a resurrected body and glorification with Jesus! If you don’t know Jesus, I beg of you, don’t reject Christ’s offer of salvation. He wants to have a relationship with you, but He can only do so as your Savior. Confess that you are a sinner, and believe in this glorious gospel that Jesus is the Son of God who died for you!

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.

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The Authors and Their Genres Continued

Built on the Bible

Two weeks ago, we looked at some of the authors and their genres. Today, we will continue that study of who the biblical authors are and what their styles are like.

Wisdom Writings

Wisdom writings are an interesting portion of the Bible. I think it goes without saying that the wisdom writings were written by wise guys. But who exactly were these wise guys? Well, it really depends on how you classify the wisdom writings. If you organize them like I do, then Solomon was the primary writer of the wisdom writings, since he is the primary author of all the wisdom writings, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.

Solomon was one of the most complex men in the history of the Bible. He was the son of David, who along with Solomon made up the greatest kings in Israel’s history. Solomon asked God for wisdom (2 Chronicles 1), and God gave it to him in abundance, making him one of the wisest men in the history of the world! Solomon also built a glorious temple for God. So far, Solomon seems like probably the greatest man who ever lived.

Unfortunately, Solomon also had his fair share of folly. Solomon is infamous for having an astronomical amount of wives, 700 to be exact, as well as 300 concubines. So wouldn’t this invalidate his wisdom writings? No, and actually it makes his wisdom writings even more valuable.

Solomon knew exactly how to live in godliness and exactly how not to live in godliness. Because of his, we can learn much from the wisdom writings. Solomon shows us how to walk in wisdom, and he shows us the folly of walking in sin. In Ecclesiastes, he shows us the fleeting nature of this world, and how only hope in God can last. In Song of Songs, we see how sex is not a sinful thing to be avoided, rather a treasure to be pursued biblically, and in marriage, not outside of God’s commands. That leads us to the great book of Proverbs.

Proverbs is one of the most well-known wisdom writings. It shows, going back to Song of Songs, why sex outside of marriage is a horrible thing, and that fornication leads us down the road of death, not life or joy (see Proverbs 7). Proverbs is one of the most practical books of the Bible. One of the best ways to read Proverbs is to read one chapter of Proverbs each day, in correlation with the day’s date (for example, on January 28, read Proverbs 28).

The Prophets

The prophets are probably the scariest of all the sections of Scripture to read, but they are some of the most fascinating and nourishing portions of Scripture. From the major prophets to the minor prophets, we see how God looks to redeem His people from their sin and how He uses painful discipline to break Israel from its sinful habits.

As we read through the prophets, we need to remember the covenant between God and His people. God promises to be faithful to His people if they were faithful to Him. If they kept the sabbaths in spirit and in truth, then God would bless them and protect them. If they didn’t God would let them know through painful discipline.

One of the grandest prophetic writings, and frankly one of the greatest books in the history of the world, is Isaiah. Isaiah is a book that we will be studying soon on ABP, and it contains some of the most beautiful poetry that this world has ever seen. As we study through the prophets, we see God’s faithfulness to His people and we get a sneak peek into His grand plan of redemption.

The Gospels and Acts

The gospels are some of the most read books in the Bible, and for good reason. These five books show us the works of Jesus in the flesh and through His church. We’ll first look at the gospels, then take a look at Acts.

The four gospels each have their own points of focus on Jesus’ life, which show why each is necessary to be in the canon of Scripture. Matthew and Luke give much more in-depth focuses on Jesus’ life, and they were written for Jewish and Greek audiences, respectively. Mark is a much shorter book, simply giving a condensed biography of Jesus.

John is different from the other three gospels (often called synoptic gospels). John’s focus is on the divinity of Jesus Christ. John begins with one of the most important passages for Christology, John 1:1-18. John also gives the High Priestly Prayer, John 17, which shows Jesus’ relationship with God in 4K resolution. The gospel of John is one of the first books that a new believer should read. It is also a book that should be often studied by seasoned believers.

Finally, Acts is a sort of epilogue to the gospels. If. the Old Testament shows God the Father’s interaction with His people, and the gospels show God the Son’s interaction with His people, then Acts shows the Holy Spirit’s interaction with His people. Beginning with Jesus’ ascension, Acts shows how God works through the apostles to kickstart the spread of the gospel. We also get some background for the writers of the epistles, which is handy for understanding the context the epistles were written in.

The Apostles and Epistles

Finally, we look at the apostles and their epistles. God gave the ability to write inspired Scripture to the apostles, and to select other men. The epistles (I’ve included Revelation in the epistles for brevity) are generally the easiest to read. This fact is because they are the most practical! The epistles are, in essence, God’s instruction manual to the church. God shows us how to live in books like James and the latter half of Romans.

Another big aspect of the epistles is the theology that they show us. While some might want to avoid these aspects of the epistles, we must never forget that God put theology first, then practical writings. He did this because we can’t obey rightly if we don’t know the God we serve. That being said, we must also realize that theology without love and obedience is dead. Romans is a great example of a balanced Christian life. Chapters 1-11 more or less are dedicated to theology, and chapters 12-16 are given to practical living. We learn why and who we obey, then we learn how we obey.

Finally, we have apocalyptical writing in the epistles. Often, Revelation is treated separately from the epistles, but I do appreciate keeping together. Revelation gives us a glimpse into God’s plan for the future. In Revelation and in other portions of the epistles, we see most importantly that God will win in the end. We also see that in eternity, we will reign with our Savior Jesus Christ in glory.

Now that we’ve met the biblical authors and taken a look at their styles, let’s dive into passages that teach us about God’s Holy Word! Tune in in two weeks for our continued series.

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What Is the Testimony and Who Has It? – 1 John; Truth

EPISODE 76

In our study of 1 John 5:10-12, we see the types of testimonies and who can see those testimonies.

While ABP is not a scholarly work, I would like to reference any material that my teaching was based on or influenced by:

-John Owen, The Glory of Christ

-Tom Thatcher, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Revised Edition), Volume 13 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan)

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Intro to Built on the Bible

In the coming weeks, I am going to start a series where I bring an exposition of passages that show the importance of God’s Word in its different facets. It is my belief that this endeavor is extremely important in showing exactly why I have only released full episodes that teach a passage in the Bible to date. I adamantly believe in the necessity of building one’s life on God’s Word, so here begins the series.

Introduction

I am writing about the Bible because I know it well. After reading that sentence, you might wonder where I got my Ph.D.s, whether I majored in Linguistics or Hermeneutics, or why I would brag about all my years in seminary. But in reality, I don’t have any degrees from a seminary. I don’t have any college degrees at all. I haven’t even graduated high school! You may be wondering where I get grounds to base my claim that I know the Bible well. The answer to your query is, necessity.

My Experience with the Bible

I need the Bible to live. Because of it, I have eternal life. Because of it, I saw my own hopelessness on April 11, 2011. And not only did I see my hopelessness, but I saw a Savior who died for me. While my parents were the ones to lead me to Christ, they would have had no gospel to share if it hadn’t been for God’s Word. Thanks to this glorious gospel, I believed in Jesus, because I saw “the radiance of the glory of God” (Hebrews 1:3) in the face of Christ Jesus through the gospel.

My need for the Bible was shown after my conversion because I had limited growth as a believer. Why was my growth stunted? I had limited my intake of God’s Word. I was too busy pouring hours into the Wii and Minecraft to see my need for the Bible. Then in late-sixth or early-seventh-grade I fell into the sin of lust on the internet. I was not abiding in the light, Jesus Christ (see 1 John 2:28).

But then something changed. My dad and I started a Bible reading plan for the year 2018. Aside from putting my faith in Jesus Christ, it was the best decision that I had ever made. I started a Bible reading plan called the “F260” reading plan. It was only two or three chapters a day, five days a week, so it wasn’t overwhelming. This decision changed my life almost instantly.

I was able to stop looking at illicit internet pictures online. Not only did I stop sinning, but I had more joy each day, and I grew in maturity. Why, you may ask? Because I started seriously looking at God through His Word everyday. I found solid truth, and I saw my Savior Jesus as more beautiful than I ever had before. Jesus didn’t simply turn off my desires to remain in lustful sin; He showed Himself to me through His Word, making me love and want Him more.

The more and more that I’ve spent time in the Bible, the more I’ve come to enjoy Christ. I am not perfect. I am still a sinner who must kill the flesh daily. But I know that I always have a light in this world, God’s absolutely true Bible. I now have the ability to look at hardship that I am going through and remember that “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28). I also know that I have value because I am made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27, 9:6). Not only do I know that God is working for my good since I love Him by His strength, and that I have value because I am made in God’s image, but I also know that I have purpose, and that purpose is found in the Bible. As a believer and a child of God, Isaiah 43:7 applies to me: “ . . . everyone who is called by my [God’s] name, whom I created for my glory” (Isa. 43:7). I am created for God’s glory, and I glorify Him by enjoying communion with Him.

Conclusion

So back to my claim that I know the Bible well. As hopefully I have demonstrated effectively, I learned a lot about the Bible by leaning on it continually, and learning from when I haven’t leaned on it. While I have lots more to learn about the Bile, I have learned that I need it everyday. I need it for my joy. I need it for guidance. Frankly, I need it to keep my sanity! But I’m not the only one who needs God’s Word. If you have not put your faith in Jesus Christ, you need “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16), the glorious and life-giving gospel, to help you see the glory of Jesus Christ and your need of Him to pay for your infinite sins.

If you do know Christ, I hope that you too will keep reading the articles that will follow. I want you to keep reading so that you see the beauty, truth, and necessity of the Bible for yourself. It’s my prayer that you depend on God’s Word like it’s oxygen. I want you to see that the Bible is how you better know, obey, and enjoy God.

In these articles, we are going to do a few things. First, we are going to try and find out more about the Bible. Then, we are going to look at why we must daily read God’s Word. Finally, we will look at how we should read the Bible. I hope that after reading this series, and even now, a thirst for God’s Word would be implanted in you.