Fatima Factualist: It seems that sin contaminates our vision of God. And from there it can contaminate everything. It seems we are in a desperate situation. What can we do about it?
Peter Pietist: We can repent, that’s what! God has redeemed us, and we believe he will continue to redeem us. We have to trust that he will take care of all the contamination.
Oliver Objectivist: Sin is a problem, all right. But is subjective sin the only thing that matters? People could easily believe that objectivity is only for the next world, for the time when we are already made perfect. What’s to prevent our giving up study and letting everyone run wild?
Curt Cultural-Transformationist: One thing to prevent it is the practical needs. We can’t waste time on excuse-making or wild and weird interpretation when a world out there needs transforming.
Laura Liturgist: And God prevents our straying. Don’t forget the role of worship in our transformation and purification. Meeting God is at the heart of redemption.
Missy Missiologist: And let’s not forget the role that exposure to other cultures can play.
God is present in all of his creation. He is present in all our knowing. Our knowledge of God and our communion with him affect our interpretation of the Bible in every area. We have looked at a few such areas: our conception of the Bible, truth, meaning, communication, interpretive theory, history, global hermeneutical frameworks, semantics and lexicography (through the Ogden-Richards triangle).
But we are blinded by sin (2 Cor. 4:3-4). We need to grow “in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10), corporately as well as individually (Eph. 4:11-16). At the heart of interpretive growth and growth in biblical understanding is continued redemptive growth through union with Christ. We join with Paul in saying, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11). We participate in Christ’s triumph.
In the Bible God speaks his word to us, not to achieve the triumph of human autonomous subjectivity or the meaninglessness of infinite chaotic plurality, but the triumph of his grace. He forgives us. He justifies us. He heals us.
He does these things in the realm of biblical interpretation as in every other realm. As the Lover he now issues his invitation to come and dine at his table. “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9). “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Rev. 2:17). “You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Ps. 16:11). In his word God even now gives us eternal communion with himself: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).
Jesus Christ has opened the door to heaven (Heb. 10:19-20). He has given the Holy Spirit to guide us to himself (Acts 2:33; John 16:12-16). The church, led by the Spirit, feeds on the truth of Christ.
It is easy to misunderstand this invitation of God in either of two ways. One such misunderstanding is irrationalism, the other rationalism. Let us consider irrationalism first. Our age is highly addicted to the drugs of boundless irrationalism, egoism, hedonism, and subjectivism. We want to go our own way, to do wholly what we want, to be gods. If we can use religious language and even the Bible itself to justify our ways, we will gladly take this foolish route. We inject our own ideas into the biblical text. We lazily content ourselves with the views with which we are already comfortable.
But at root we are rebelling. God condemns it. God the warrior will cut us down and destroy us by his word for so doing. But in Christ he comes not only to destroy the old man, but to bring to life the transformed new man in the image of Christ (Col. 3:9-10). God the Father chastises his children, in order that we may share his holiness (Heb. 12:4-11).
What I am saying is that the Bible is not a wax nose that we can twist into any shape, in order to suit our fancy. Rather, the word of God is an unchangeable standard that governs us. The word of God is more destructive than fire, harder than rock (Jer. 23:29). The person who humbly listens soon enough discovers plenty of hard, upsetting teachings and demands. He finds plenty of things at odds with what he would like. No matter where he may have started, he finds himself more and more at odds with his native culture. Look at what the modern West does not welcome but the Bible clearly sets forth: the reality of God, the exclusive claims of the gospel, the destruction of human pride in the cross, the reality of hell, the practice of identifying and excommunicating heretics, the reality of demons and demon possession, the denunciation of Mammon, the obligation to honor authority in church, family, marriage, government, and business.
Autonomous irrationalists want control. They want control of their lives independent of what God says. So they aspire to control even what God says by putting their own words into God’s mouth. God’s word controls them too, by locking them into the self-chosen prison of the echo chamber of their would-be autonomous voice. God calls us to humble ourselves. Let us admit that our prison is pure poverty, open the prison door, and hear his voice.
On the other hand, our age is equally addicted to the drugs of boundless rationalism, scientism, technicism, and objectivism. The addict is likely to see in my words only another, more dangerous drug of subjectivism. The addict does not recognize the distinctive qualities of real food. I may seem to rationalists to be talking about the utter destruction of scholarship and rationality, whereas in fact I am talking about taking off the old man in order to put on the new (Col. 3:9-10), dying to an autonomous conception of rationality in order to put on true rationality through fellowship with the sanity and rationality of God himself.
The rationalist then says, “How? Specify the way. Lay it out clearly, and specify the limits and controls.” In a sense, I have done so, particularly using the transmission perspective on interpretation and laying out three steps. In a sense I have dealt with the same issue by dealing with the truth and its counterfeits. We could add more to these chapters. We could say much more about what characterizes proper and improper interpretation.
But people addicted to human rationalism will never find themselves satisfied with an approach as open-ended as mine. We are tempted to want to reduce everything to mechanical technique, to pin everything down. We fear that the only alternative to nailing down every aspect of interpretation is a boundless irrational subjectivity. To us who are addicted in this way I must point out that the only remedy is spiritual, and that it cannot be fathomed or reduced to technique. Nicodemus asks “how,” and Jesus replies,
I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. (John 3:5-8)
Thomas also asks Jesus a “how” question:
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:5-6)
Autonomous rationalists want control: perfect control and transparency that is reducible to technique. But only God controls transcendently. God’s word controls us, our every thought, and our every move in interpretation. God calls us to humble ourselves and admit that we are but weak, emotion-laden creatures.