The Church and the Bible (Part 2)
The next thing I would add on the subject of Scripture is that every time Scripture is mentioned in the New Testament the writer is referring to the Old Testament. If the New Testament, as Scripture, was essential for salvation then no one in the early Church could have been saved!
The absorption of the Church in the writings that have been labelled Scripture, and defined as being a closed book, has resulted in a Church rich in theology, argument and schism, but poor in spiritual authority and, more importantly, the love of God. Paul writing to the Corinthians had this to say, “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of hearts of flesh”
What Paul is knowing is that it is not knowledge of the recorded word that gives life but rather it is the real, life-giving knowledge of the living God. Paul is seeing in the lives of those gathering in the fledgling Church a fulfilment of God’s words to Ezekiel, “And I shall give them one heart and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh”. And God doesn’t stop there for He goes on to say, “that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. Then they will be My people and I shall be their God.”
In other words it is not the scripture that should be held up as a record of God’s works and His dealings with men, but rather it should be the Church itself bearing witness to the working of God within it. The Church in its claim that the perfect has come, in the guise of Scripture, sidesteps the truth that the perfect, if it has come, should be seen being made manifest in them. For it is not the Book they hold on to that gives them glory but whether or not God is being revealed in their midst. For if God was really with them then the Church would be a ‘living book’ of the works and deeds of God, a ‘living testament’ to the power of His glory and His saving acts of grace. As it is the Church argues over doctrine, is divided over issues of biblical interpretation, and declares salvation based on an understanding of Scripture rather than a life saving knowledge of God.