The Other Book
Personal Matters
I was recently chatting with a close friend who finds it hard to step out in his God given authority despite the rest of us long telling him he is clearly called of the Lord. Finally he has insight that he has much to offer others, but spiritual clarity and confidence are emerging only gradually. In our conversation I started to see some things which I believe relevant to us all. When I told him he learned to “read the book” more deeply he instantly thought I was referring to more Bible reading. In fact I was encouraging him to read God’s writing in the book of his life. When the outer authority of the scriptures is brought into alignment with what God is doing inside us the result is clarity, order, direction and empowerment in our call. Experience teaches me that helping people see what the Lord is already doing in their lives and matching this up with the life of Jesus is at the very heart of all spiritual direction. The whole Bible is about the life of Christ (John 5:39).
An Ancient Story For Today
The ultimate purpose of the Old Testament writings is to teach Christians how to become more like Jesus. We read the Hebrew Bible so the Holy Spirit may bring its witness to completion in our own lives. Referring to the Psalms Paul says, “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction” (Rom 15:4), and about Israel’s exodus and wilderness wanderings, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” (1 Cor 10:11). Most emphatically, Hebrews teaches of the faithful believers under the old covenant, that “apart from us they could not reach completion” (11:40). Christians who struggle to see the “relevance” of the Old Testament suffer from an inability to align its ancient story with God’s same work in them. The solution to this dilemma is to recognise that all of God’s workings find their unity holds in the story of Jesus (Heb 1:3). Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, the law and prophets… are real to a Christian because each is a type of Christ (Luke 24:44).
All for Jesus
The testimony, “all things were made through him and for him”, is a truth about the fleshly humanity of Jesus of Nazareth (Col 1:16; Heb 2:14). When Paul teaches us that Adam “was a type/pattern of the one who was to come” (Rom 5:12) he means that all the original man was ever called to be is actually present in Jesus. The meaning of Israel’s history comes to completion in the life of Christ; Pharaoh and king Herod were both inspired by Satan to destroy the infants of Israel and the baby Christ (Ex 4:22-23; Matt 2:13 ); Israel crosses the Red Sea and fails her temptation in the wilderness, Jesus crosses the Jordan and is victorious in overcoming the Tempter (Deut 8:2, 16Matt 4:2-4); the twelve apostles are the reality of a renewed 12 tribes gathered to God (Gen 49:28; Luke 6:13-16); Christ is the real Passover Lamb whose blood forgives sin (Ex 12:6-7; 1 Cor 5:7); he is the final Son of David etc. (2 Sam 7:14; Matt 1:1). Israel and her story as recorded in scripture existed solely to point to and prepare the way for Jesus. Jesus’ life did not imitate that of Israel, but historical Israel was called to be like the eternal Word (John 1:1). It is as if Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 1:14), casts his shadow backwards through time shaping the existence of the old covenant people of God (Col 2:17; Heb 8:5; 10:1). Since Christ’s resurrection however there is no longer a world of shadows or types, we are called to share directly in him.
Life in Him
Everything that has or can ever happen to you has the sole purpose of leading you to a greater sharing in the life of Christ (Rom 8:28-39). In a world that seeks to feel good about itself, Jesus promised; “my peace I give to you…that my joy may be in you” (John 14:27; 15:11). In the darker circumstances of life it is still about sharing in Jesus. If you experience betrayal and desertion what is offered is the love by which Jesus reached out to those who abandoned him (John 13:1-30); if you are misunderstood by those close to you, remember “not even his brothers believed in him” (John 7:5). Not only can Christ empathise with you but he will lead you to the comfort of his Father; “you…will leave me alone. Yet…the Father is with me.” (John16:32). When you experience injustice, Jesus will share with you his power to forgive those who “do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). In times of weakness he will strengthen you with the power by which he was strengthened by his Father (Luke 22:43; 2 Cor 12:9). As passed through the sorrows of Gethsemane and will impart to you the unfailing submission of sonship (Mark 14:34, 36). The Christian life is not a string of disconnected experiences but a seamless web through which God is working to form the perfect likeness of his Son in us. To pray that “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.” (Phil 1:20), is to pray for the realisation of your own deepest identity.
Reading the Book of Life
Whilst many Christians are confident in accessing Bible commentaries, devotional materials, podcasts and so on far fewer see the alignment between the scriptural story of Jesus and their own life experience. There is a serious disconnect between receiving the Bible as an external authority and aligning it with authority of the work of God inside our lives. Discipleship is not about habits of Bible reading, prayer, church going and so on, discipleship is allowing Jesus to teach us all that the Father taught him; “as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love….make disciples…teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (John 15:10; Matt 28:19). The Great Commission is first and foremost about sharing in the life of Jesus. The radical transformation in discipling which the contemporary Church so desperately needs can only come when we accept; “The story is not our story with a role for Christ. The story is Christ’s story with roles for us.” (Jenson)
Conclusion
An ancient proverb says, “God writes straight with crooked lines.” The ups and downs, twists and turns of everyday life might seem full of deviations, disappointments and dead ends, but in the centre of all that has ever or can ever happen to you there is one great undeviating purpose, Christ is being formed in you (Gal 4:19). Nothing is excluded from this majestic eternal plan (Eph 1:10). In an hour when ‘ME’ and my needs have become utterly dominant in both society and Church, it is time to look in the mirror of scripture-and-life and to see that “the man Christ Jesus” is at the centre of it all (1 Tim 2:5). The true Christian humanism our world needs is the recognition that by grace our lives share in the eternal significance of the life of Christ. Nothing could be greater and more wonderful. A simple song says, “Christ is enough for me. Christ is enough for me. Everything I need is in You”. This is absolutely true, but only as long as my story is truly aligned to His story through the book of scripture and the book of life. May God give us all spiritual directors who understand such weighty things.