The role of Christ in understanding the Scriptures By: William Baeta

The role of Christ in understanding the Scriptures
Text: Acts 3:12-19; 1 Jn. 3:1-7; Luke 24:36-48

The good news is that eternal life results from knowing Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.  All prophecies about Him in the Scriptures have been fulfilled and if we believe the “Word of God” is the truth why do we find difficulty in believing what it says? When John the Baptist in captivity began to doubt the truth about Jesus being the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask Him whether He was the One or whether they should expect another. Jesus answered by pointing to the effects His ministry had on the people. “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor”. Jesus Christ, in effect, was referring John the Baptist directly to the scriptures. John the Baptist of all people knew the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the Messiah and all that Jesus was doing fulfilled that prophecy in its entirety. We today like John the Baptist, can allow our circumstances to cloud our understanding of Scripture and create doubt in our minds. We need to renew our minds and remain focused on the truths revealed in the Word of God. 
The study of the Word of God is necessary for our spiritual well being. It originates with God and is therefore the source of truth. John 1:1 declares “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” (Timothy 3:16). Some people have tried to disprove the claim that the Bible is the Word of God because it was written by men. It may have been written by men but these men were inspired by the Holy Spirit and only wrote what they were inspired to write. The best person to interpret the Word of God is the One wrote it, the Holy Spirit. The Bible makes it clear that the Holy Spirit is God and we rightfully speak of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 
How can man send satellites into space and communicate with them millions of miles away yet doubt the ability of God to communicate with His creation. God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. God has given us His Holy Spirit so that He can communicate with us. Jesus spoke of Him as a Person saying in John 16:13 “However when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you unto all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come”. The apostle Paul, trained by Gamaliel, a famous teacher of his day, could not understand the revelations of the Scriptures because his spirit was dead. When the Holy Spirit gave his spirit life and took residence in his quickened spirit, he suddenly understood the revelations of Scripture. Before he understood the words “Cursed is he who hangs on a tree” to mean that Jesus was a cursed person and could not possibly be the Messiah. When he received the Holy Spirit, he understood everything perfectly. He no longer saw the cross as the evidence that Jesus was under the curse of God but understood that Jesus was made a curse because of our sin so that we could be delivered from the curse and made a blessing. When we acknowledge Christ as Saviour and Lord we are delivered from the kingdom of darkness and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we submit to Him He will open our understanding to understand the things of God. 
We can only understand the revelations of God through the study of the Scriptures. The gospel message, the good news, consists of three simple, definite facts: first, Christ died for our sins; second, He was buried; third, He rose again the third day. The first and most authoritative of all testimonies to the truth of these facts is not the testimony of the men and women who were eyewitnesses of Christ’s death and resurrection but the testimony of the Scriptures. They had prophetically foreshown hundreds of years before they actually took place how Jesus Christ would die, be buried and rise from the dead. We, however, need the Holy Spirit to reveal the things of God because He is God. Jesus before telling His disciples of His death, burial and resurrection waited until they had received a revelation from God that He was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Even after such a revelation, Peter clearly by his response showed that he did not really understand what Jesus was talking about. 
Without the Holy Spirit we will also not be able to really understand who Christ is and what Christ has done for us. How else can we understand that the victory of Christ over sin and death is also our victory when we believe in Him? After the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of Christ nothing much was achieved in the lives of His disciples except they were now filled with fear. This changed when the disciples were baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit. Suddenly, they understood the plan of God and the ministry of Jesus far better than they had ever understood it before. Before they had been very slow and limited in their understanding, but the moment the Holy Spirit came, they had a totally different understanding of the ministry and the message of Christ. They were also empowered and became extremely bold. Before they had lived in fear, even after the resurrection of Christ, hiding behind locked doors and not willing to stand up to preach and proclaim the truth. They made very little impact on the people and Jerusalem was hardly changed or affected by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. As soon as the HS came to indwell them, their understanding of Scripture was supernaturally illuminated. Their previous doubts and confusion were immediately replaced by clear understanding and right application of Scripture. Peter began to boldly tell the Jewish people in Jerusalem the whole story of Jesus and the part they played in His crucifixion and the whole of Jerusalem began to feel the impact. As a result many souls were saved. from the curse and made a blessing. Christ suffered, He died and was buried, and He rose from the dead. We are to preach the good news to set free those held hostage by the devil. Jesus Christ has left the preaching of the good news to us, His disciples. We are the only ones privileged to do so because we have experienced salvation and know its effect. We can testify that once we were dead but now are alive and that eternal life is meant for all men and women. Your response today will save your life and decide your eternal destiny.
The saved life is the life of Christ made possible by the Holy Spirit. Christ shows us the way to live when in John 13:34 He said to His disciples “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;  as I have loved you, that you also love one another”. It is a life dictated by love. If Christ so loved us that He gave His life for us ought we to not also love one another? Just as Jesus Christ revealed God to us being the expression of the love of God in human form so are we also to reveal Christ to others being the expression of the love of Christ. Love produces obedience and in the words of Christ, “If you love me, then you will obey my commandments.” In other words obedience to Christ’s command is the result of genuine love. It is this love that makes an impression on unbelievers. And love will never fail to impact the lives of sinners. The revelations contained in the Scriptures should lead to a renewed way of thinking. We are to have a mindset that agrees with the Scriptures. 
The Holy Spirit is necessary to make sure that our knowledge about God is transformed into an experience and intimacy with God. Love is produced by obedience or love flows out of obedience. Here in Ghana some people fail to obey traffic lights when the police are not around. But as soon as they see a policeman they become law-abiding citizens and obey the rules. This does not mean that they love the policeman. In the same way it is possible to obey Jesus’ words and not love Him, but it is impossible to love Him and not obey Him. All of us who are parents know that our children will obey us for many different reasons. I know there have been times that my children have obeyed to get something that they wanted. At other times they have obeyed because they were afraid of being punished. Sometimes we have actually forced them to obey us. But the best feeling parents can have is to know that their children obey them simply because they love them. In the same way there are some people who obey Christ because they are hoping to get something out of it. Their obedience is linked to a reward and they expect God’s blessing or a “divine allowance” because they have been good. There are others who obey God because they are afraid of punishment and do not see Him as a loving father who cares for His children. But there are also those who obey the Lord because they really love Him. Do we obey Christ because we love Him? Or do we obey Him because we are looking for a reward? Do we obey Him because we are afraid of being punished? Let our obedience to Christ be the result of our love for Him as our Saviour and Lord. 
If your son, when learning how to drive damages a neighbour’s wall, someone has got to pay for the damage. The father may choose to pay it all. If he does, then the neighbour has no right to claim damages against his son. What would happen if the neighbour sees your son driving alone 6 months later after having received his license and stops him, calls the police and asks him to pay for the damages that he had caused? As his father you only need to show the repaired wall and the receipt for the repair and say it had already been dealt with. This is what Jesus does when we face accusations. He shows his wounds and says that He had already paid the price. Christ did not only pay the price and save us and then leave us alone as orphans. He gave us all that was necessary for a successful and victorious spiritual life. He gave us the Holy Spirit. It is only as we are empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit that we will produce what our lives were supposed to produce.  The Holy Spirit is God’s precious gift to the Church and indwells every believer the moment he or she receives Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. The sacrifice of Christ points to the enormity of sin. We have been bought with a price – with the shed blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The best way to thank Him is to receive Him as Saviour and Lord and go out and make disciples of all those around us. Amen!