561
September 1927
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
“ I t I s W r i t t e n ” B y C h r isto ph er G. H azard , D.D. Catskill, N . Y. ¥ HERE is an imagined conflict between what is involved in the case. Thus the Scripture writers are made to say one thing and mean another, a misuse of the Sacred Book which perverts it to the service of the opinions and purposes of anyone. This method of interpretation is not new. It was pro posed to Jesus long ago, in a wilderness which symbol ized the confused and barren thoughts of the originator of it, the devil. This adversary of the truth (who at first cast doubt upon what God had said, then contradicted what God had said, and so brought sin into the world), assailed Jesus with the idea that God had said one thing and meant another. He used the phrase, “It is written,” to induce the Saviour to attach a new and different mean ing to what was written, thus seeking by the misuse of the Word of God to deceive and destroy Christ. G od K nows How To E xpress H im self In this wilderness controversy between light and dark ness the Lord used this expression, “It is written,” truly, comparing Scripture with Scripture, giving the whole of what was written upon the subject considered instead of a part of it, correcting the tempter and vanquishing him by a literal statement, closing the battle victoriously with “It is written.” He had the last word. That the Lord was not enslaved to the foolish and unspiritual literalism of the religious authorities of His day is evidenced by His correction of them also when, over against their question of how He could give them His flesh to eat, He told them that his words were spirit and life, that He was the food of faith. They should not have needed this explanation. There is a common sense that should enable everyone to discern metaphorical ex pression without mistake. The Bible uses common idioms, metaphors, and poetical licenses just as all good literature does. Jesus was divine, but He was none the less truly human. As in Him God was incarnate, so in the written Word His Spirit entered into literary forms that were human. Every man heard Him and was to hear Him in His own tougue. When the Bible speaks of sunrise and sunset, therefore, it speaks as all writings do, with refer ence to our customary idiom, not with scientific accuracy. When Jesus says He is the door, no one needs to under stand that He is an entrance that moves on hinges. When poets speak in the Bible of God as making the clouds His chariot and flying upon the wings of the wind, there is no need of a footnote, to tell us that the language is figura tive. There is no contradictory meaning between letter and Spirit in the Bible, though the letter is infinitely deep with profundities of hidden meaning, and vastly wide in varieties of application. God always means what He says. He is understood in His own light. He appeals to common sense and usage, and to spiritual sense. But He knows how to get an expression of His mind that shall
written in the Bible and what is meant by the inspiring Spirit of the writing. Claiming to have the Spirit, men extract from the record a very different meaning from that which is expressed, and assure us that they are free from the bond age of the letter and in possession of the spiritual lesson
convey His thoughts to our minds, and in His Word His writings are to be taken just as we take the written thoughts of all reasonable and good-willed persons. “It is written” and “Again it is written” will thor oughly furnish us to all salvation, to all new life and char acter, and to every good work. The inflowing of God’s high thoughts will elevate our histories unto heavenly ex periences, and cause us to move in lowliness upon high and noble levels; and he who can truly use “It is written” as the sword of the Spirit, flashing forth great and conso nant meanings and piercingly discerning the thoughts and intents of human hearts, will achieve the victories of truth. The written Word is a ladder of angelic communi cations, a medium of divine interchanges of thought be tween human doubts, fears, and needs, and the gracious and merciful fulness of truth that is in Christ. And “It is written” is a statement that is capable of demonstration. When the disputer of this world would deny that “It is written” we can show it to him. Our faith that it is the Word of God must be God’s gift to him, but we can assert that faith, and we can point out the chapter and the verse on which we base it. No one could move Christ from the base of “It is written.” ¿fe ¿fe Sleepy Consciences “Conscience of itself is one of the sleepiest things in the world, if God would let it sleep.- But He will buffer no Conscience to sleep forever. For sooner or later a voice is heard: “Up, sluggard! Jonah, why sleepest thou? Either call upon thy God, and betake thyself to thy duty; or into the sea of horror and confusion.” .^Bishop Lightfoot.
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