Is the Bible Boring?

John 5:39

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Most of the devotions that we do are kind of tiny sermons, and this one’s maybe a little bit less of a tiny sermon, but more of a strategy that I employ to try to address a common problem. You see growing up and frankly, even into what might be called my adult years, I had difficulty reading scripture. And it wasn’t because of the challenge of the words. It wasn’t because I don’t like reading. The fact of the matter is, I just found reading the Bible to be boring. It was really difficult for me to figure out a way to be interested in these things. And I knew I should be. I knew intellectually that the Bible was the most interesting document that had ever been produced. Maybe it was the fact that I was raised with it. Maybe it was the fact that I heard takes on it very often. Maybe it was the way the language was being used. But it was always challenging for me to read scripture and remain interested.

It wasn’t until I actually started training for the ministry that I started to find some of the strategies that would completely change that for me and really open up the Bible, turning it into this living exciting document. Now, one of those areas that really opens the thing up for me is something called hermeneutical principles. Hermeneutical principles are principles of interpretation. There are things that we think about when we read something in order to interpret it. Scientists use it. Archeologists use it. And theologians use it when we read the Bible. The Bible very nicely gives us the hermeneutical principles that we employ when we read it.

The first one I’d like to tell you about is one that we call in German die ganze Schrift treibt Christum. It means the entire scripture pushes Christ. It’s drawn straight out of scripture itself. In John chapter 5, verse 39, Jesus said,

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me. (John 5:39)

When we read the Bible, it doesn’t matter what part of the Bible were in, the entire thing is about Jesus. The Bible is the book of salvation. It tells you how to resolve humanity’s worst problem, our separation from God and our imminent confrontation with death. The Bible is about salvation, and salvation comes from only one source. It only comes through Christ. As he says, there’s only one mediator between God and man, the man, Jesus Christ. He says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

So if the Bible is the book of salvation. And Jesus is the way of salvation, die ganze Schrift treibt Christum the entire book is about him.

When we read in Genesis about God creating the world and humanity’s fall into sin, it’s pointing forward to Jesus.

When we read about Moses taking the children of Israel out of their slavery in Egypt through the wilderness, crossing the Jordan River and into the promised land, we are reading about something that points forward to Jesus.

When we read about Job in agony over the loss of his family and possessions, but still finding it inside to say, I know that my redeemer lives. We are reading about Christ.

When we read in Revelation and we read about the seals being opened up, plagues and terror is being unleashed on the world, we’re reading something that points us back to Christ. Die ganze Schrift treibt Christum. The whole scripture pushes Christ.

The next time that you’re reading some portion of scripture, try bearing this hermeneutical principle at the front of your mind and ask yourself, how is this text, how are these verses, about Jesus? Sometimes the answer is a little bit challenging, but the more challenging the path, oftentimes the greater the reward. Die ganze Schrift treibt Christum. At the end of the day, it’s all about Christ crucified for me.