If I would take apart my wristwatch, tiny screw by tiny screw and tiny spring by tiny spring, and lay all the pieces before me on a table, I’m sure I could not put them back together again. I would be overwhelmed. I would feel very humbled. It would be best for me to leave my watch alone. Why get started on something that I can’t finish?
Is our attitude toward the Bible like that? To study it seems like a project with too many pieces. “If I start on this project, will I only get more confused? Why get started on something that I can’t finish.”
The truth is that we do have trouble understanding the Bible. The Bible’s God-inspired message is clear, but we don’t easily understand it because of our sinfulness. In fact, without God the Holy Spirit, we wouldn’t understand it at all. The Bible says, “The man without the Spirit does not understand the things that come from the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:4). This is humbling. But it is for our good. God leads us to realize that we are dependant on his help to understand. He provides the help!
Long ago, in the Old Testament times, before Jesus came, the Lord said this, “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in
their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
God is the one who brings understanding to the mind and heart. He brings people to understand both his law and his new covenant. The law of God shows us our sins. By the law he leads us to confess our sins to him. The new covenant is his promise to save us through his son Jesus Christ. Jesus was born into the world at just the right time as a sinless human being and 33 years later died for the world’s sins at the cross! When God leads us to confess our sins and to believe in Jesus, we are saved! He becomes our God! We become his people! We are also set on the path of true understanding.
As we study the Bible with faith in the mind and heart, he leads us to an ever greater appreciation for the details of the plan he set in motion, even from eternity, to save us from our sins through his son Jesus Christ! This is something God’s people can never get enough of!
“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
—Jeremiah 31:33