THE FAITH NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE
Predicated upon the understanding that the Bible interpreter is in the kind of relationship of which God approves; he can then move forward in an attempt to interpret it correctly. However, before we move forward to consider what else is required to understand the Bible, we must first consider what kind of faith God requires.
In a world where Satan is permitted to roam free with many of his cohorts, there is bound to be a host of lies about God and man. One of the most frequently told lies is the condition of man and how God responds to him. Watch most movies or read just about any book and you will come to the conclusion, if you are willing to believe it, that man is basically good and needs to turn bad in order for God to reject him.
Many people around the world have heard the teachings of Christianity. Therefore, they understand Christ intellectually. They may even say that they believe in Him, but do they? The fundamental teaching of Christianity is that God loved the world by giving His Son, so that He would be an offering for sin. This is to appease God’s anger for the way He has been treated by all men.
Men are seldom told in “Christian” circles anymore that all men actually hate the truth about themselves. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (John 3:20, 21)
Faith is only as good as its object, and the object that satisfies God is truth. If the truth be told as it is found in God’s Word, we all do not fair as well as we are inclined to think. “All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the LORD weighs the motives.” (Proverbs 16:2) When God weighs the motives of all men, He comes to the following conclusions.
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God; they have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not, so much as one: their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit: The poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18)
In short, according to God, ” for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23, 24) To be justified before God, or said another way, to be made right, the gift of God’s Son must be received by faith. Faith apart from repentance of sin is not a saving faith. No man that is righteous in his own eyes thinks that he needs to repent in order to be saved.
DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT GOD HAS SAID ABOUT SALVATION? If not, what makes you think you can understand any other part of God’s Word?
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