Impossible to understand

 Impossible to Understand?

 

The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.

PSALM 119.130

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives.

2 TIMOTHY 3.16

Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us.

ROMANS 15.4

 

Have you ever opened the pages of a book only to discover it is written in another language that you don’t know? Or have you ever opened a high-level textbook about a subject you know nothing about and it seems completely impossible to understand?

Sometimes people can feel that way when reading the Bible — it seems like it’s in a foreign language or it’s written at a level they can’t comprehend. It’s true that the Bible is like a treasure of knowledge that can be opened over and over throughout your lifetime, offering deeper levels of understanding. But no advanced degree or special experience is required to understand the Bible. Everything we need for salvation and for living the Christian life is clear in Scripture.

Understanding the Bible is more of a spiritual ability than an intellectual ability. God is the one who opens our minds so we can grasp what we read in his Word. “People who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means” (1Cor 2.14).

God makes Scripture understandable for people who don’t know him but are reading it to find him. And he makes Scripture understandable to people who do know him but need help making sense of what they read. So when we come to something in the Bible we don’t understand, we know that we have a fresh opportunity to discover something about God. We can ask for God’s help and search the Scripture intently, believing that God will show us what we need to learn.