THE K I N G ' S B US I NE S S REAL BIBLE INTERPRETATION Dr. Augustus H. Strong, the eminent Bible student, recently said— “ I am con vinced that the ■so-called ‘historical method’ of Scripture interpretation, as it is usually employed, fails to secure correct results, because it proceeds wholly by induction, leaving out of its account the knowledge of Christ which comes to the Christian in his personal experience. I do not regard such a ‘his- tprical method’ as really historical; I deny that it discovers the original mean ing of the documents; I claim that, when made the sole avenue of approach to truth, it leads to false views of doctrine. It assumes at the outset that what rules in the realm of physics rules also in the moral and religious realm. “ I claim that we should begin by as suming that the Bible is a revelation of Christ. This assertion is justified, as I have already intimated, by our Chris tian experience. That experience has given us a knowledge of the heart, more valuable in religious things than any mere knowledge of the intellect. Doc tor Tholuck, in an address to his stu dents at his fiftieth anniversary, said that God’s greatest gift to him had been the knowledge of sin. Without that conviction of sin which the Spirit of Christ can work in the human heart, there can be no proper understanding of Scripture, for Scripture is a revela tion to sinners. The opening of the heart to receive Christ, and the new sense of His pardoning grace and power, give to the converted man the key to the interpretation of Scripture, for ‘the mystery of the gospel,’ the central secret of Christianity, is ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’ He whom the Holy Spirit has first led to the knowledge of sin, and has then led to the acceptance of Christ, is prepared to enter into the meaning of Scripture, and no other man can understand it.”
521
THE BIBLE CONDENSED In Galatians 2. 20 there are four words, each of one syllable, which in dicate four distinct relationships to the Lord Jesus in which believers stand. Two of those words, the first two, taken in the order noted below, have reference to our Lord in His crucifixion, and the other two regard Him as He now is, sub sequently to His death upon the Cross. The four words are: for, with, in and by, and they open up to us this great pas sage. 1. “He gave Himself FOR me,” says the apostle, and, so saying, he speaks not for himself alone, but representa tively for his fellow-believers. In this clause he and the Lord are seen ás twain. He stands apart and looks on the Lord Jesus crucified as the dying Israelite looked upon the serpent of brass. 2. “ I am crucified WITH Christ.” Here he is viewed, not as standing apart from Christ and beholding Him, but as fastened with Him upon the Cross. The first word shows the Cross in the aspect in which it is the basis of forgiveness; the second word indicates its applica tion to the life of him who has been for given. It may be asked whether, while the Gospel of forgiveness is constantly preached, this second aspect of the Cross is sufficiently insisted upon in our teach ing. IpillllllllllllllllllllllllllUIIIIII* I Chastening ( | H ave you a suffering or sorrow ing 1 | frien d ? Be sure to w rite fo r a copy 1 | of this com forting little devotional 1 | booklet by Jam es H . M cConkey. | I Sent entirely free. A d dress Silver I I Publishing Co., D ept F, B essem er 1 I Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. piiiiiiiiiininiinmijiiiiuuiiiimimim..iiiiiiiiiiiiii 1 iiiiili)iiiiiiiiiiiiiruiHn,iiiininil,m...M.ln.n.nJ
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker