To Live in the Bible
Immersion in God's Word
Introduction
The great nineteenth century English Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834-92) was famous for his witty aphorisms, many of which were woven into the warp and woof of his preaching. One of his more memorable sayings still appeals to bibliophiles in particular. He advised, “visit many good books, but live in the Bible.” What does it mean to live in the Bible?
In church history, love for the Scriptures and the conviction that every man, woman, and child should be able to read God’s Word have inspired efforts to increase literacy rates. What’s more, the central mission of church leaders is to “make disciples” (Matt. 28:19), which calls for focused training on how to read, recognize, and apply Christ our King’s instructions for His people. Immersion in God’s Word is a cradle-to-grave enterprise for both the church as a whole and the individual Christian believer. In other words, Christians live in the Bible from start to finish.
Do our beliefs about the Bible reflect a commitment to keeping the Word first and foremost in our studies and meditative practices? What should our reading habits be if we are to claim that we live in the Bible? The following three devotional attitudes and practices combine to give as good a place to start as any in making the Bible “home.”
First, recognize that God’s Word sustains and safeguards your spiritual health.
When Satan tempted our Lord in the wilderness to transform rocks into loaves of bread to satiate His hunger, the Savior quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 when He testified in reply, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:4). Elsewhere, He said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34).
Christ Himself found sustenance in God’s Word and in doing God’s will revealed in His Word. The same holds true for all those called to follow Him. As we make our course through this life, we are called to resist temptation, endure through trial, and persevere through tribulation by “holding fast the word of life” (Phil. 2:16) until Christ returns (Rev. 2:25), that our faith will be proven true on that day (1 Cor. 15:2).
The Word of God is a safeguard of our heart’s spiritual health, which is why the wise father says to his son, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live… Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:4, 21-23).
Second, consider how God’s Word produces mystical outcomes by ordinary means.
According to the Westminster Larger Catechism, it is by the heaven-sent gift of faith in Christ and His Word that believers “are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband” (WLC 66). As Paul in Ephesians 5:30 says, “we are members of His body;” and as Christ said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” By the grace of God, the Spirit of God unites us to Christ and makes us like Him through the regular hearing, reading, interpretation, and application of the Word of God, which are the constitutive elements of communion with the triune God through Christ. These are ordinary means with mystical outcomes.
Kevin VanHoozer has recently referred to this as “transfigural interpretation.” By this term, VanHoozer applies Christ’s Transfiguration as typifying the spiritually transformative and eschatological dimensions of our ordinary engagement with God’s Word. As he writes, “All biblical interpretation is spiritual in the sense that it is deeply personal, stretching and testing our human spirits.” (1) Reading and interpreting God’s Word with the Spirit in the ordinary contexts He supernaturally blesses will yield transformative—even transfigural—outcomes in our lives. This is uniquely true of God’s Word, the ministry of which is an ordinary means of divine grace.
Third, take recourse to God’s Word at dawn, noon, and dusk.
Though many guides exist to help you to read and interpret God’s Word with greater understanding, nothing can replace your own careful, diligent, and habitual reading through the whole counsel of God. Upon waking up in the morning, how much better would it be for you to open your Bible before accessing your smartphone or tablet? Nothing beats waking up at home.
What effect would reading a chapter of John’s Gospel, a few biblical proverbs, or some portion of a Pauline epistle while on your lunch break have on your day as a whole? It’s a joy to stop at home for lunch.
What better way to end the day is there than turning off the television or closing your laptop in order to open to the Psalms to read and pray through one of David’s laments, songs of praise, or earnest petitions? There’s nothing sweeter than lying down at home to end the day.
Reading God’s Word is an enriching habit of grace and the greatest privilege of personal literacy. Studying the Word for understanding and personal “transfiguration” is likewise delightfully profound.
The key feature of study and meditation upon the Word is interrogatory. Bring questions to the Bible, interpret Scripture with Scripture, and expand your questions into applications. How does Ephesians 3:14-19 affect my understanding of the Trinity and prayer? What bearing does Leviticus 20 have on the scene recorded at the close of 2 Kings 3? How can we “comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor. 1:4)?
In our Bible study, focused questions on how to read different passages of God’s Word and connect them to broader contextual and doctrinal issues lead to deeper understanding and enriched interpretation. But what makes the Bible a home for readers are questions of application and practical action. Resources such as the Reformed Expository Bible Studies from Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing combine all these questions (and more) to equip readers and furnish their “home.”
Who we are shapes the atmosphere of our homes, and the comfort with which we live at home shapes who we are everywhere else. So too in our Bible reading and study habits. Who we are shapes how we engage with God’s Word, and the facility with which we read and study God’s Word shapes who we are as we engage with all kinds of literature and ideas elsewhere. So, heed Spurgeon’s aphoristic advice: “visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”
(1) Kevin J. VanHoozer, Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2024), 318.