Oddly enough, I’m beginning a discourse on the relevancy of the Bible without quoting from it. There’s a reason for that. I can’t use the Bible to prove itself. If a person is predisposed to dismiss the Bible as irrelevant or not the inspired written word of God, then that person will not believe any verse I may show him or her. It’s sort of like telling someone I’ve just met, “I’m a trustworthy person. I can prove it to you. Just ask me.”
So, how does the Bible prove its relevance to our world without quoting it? I really can’t, and eventually I will bring scripture into this. For right now, though, let’s agree that belief in the Bible as God’s written word is a faith statement, just as dismissing the Bible is a faith statement. And, for this one very specific paper, I won’t ask you to accept the validity of the Bible as God’s written word. Instead, I’ll ask that you continue to keep an open mind as we look at the Bible’s relevancy for us today.
The Bible is Relevant because It Speaks about Relationships
Oscar Thompson was a professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. During his time there, he wrote a wonderful book on evangelism entitled, “Concentric Circles of Concern.” In his opening paragraph, he states that he had come to the conclusion that the most important word in the English language apart from proper nouns is the word “relationship.” The remainder of the book focuses on how we are to be in relationship with God, with ourselves and with each other.
The Bible is a book of relationships. It is God’s revelation of Himself to us in order that we may have a personal relationship with Him. It is a book that explains how we are to have relationships with one another. The Bible is filled with passages about people relating to one another, from Adam and Eve to Abraham and Sarah to Joseph and his brothers on through Jesus and the disciples and finally Christians in relationship to themselves and their world.
The relationship with God is instigated by God as He reaches into the world through His Holy Spirit, bringing revelation and conviction to a world in need of that relationship. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 that God is in the business of reconciling us to Himself, and that we in turn are called to that same ministry of reconciliation. Romans 5-8 speaks to us of God’s redeeming work in bringing us into a right relationship with Him.
The Bible is Relevant because People Haven’t Changed
The writer of Ecclesiastes states, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (1:9). As we look through the Bible, it doesn’t take long to realize that, as we become more and more advanced in many way, in the more fundamental ways, we haven’t changed at all. From Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden until the present, there has been the predisposition for each of us to strike out on our own, to become our own person with no need for God or His direction.
I used to read about the Exodus and think to myself, “Those stupid people! How could they not see God working in their midsts? How could they rebel against God almost on a daily basis?” I would pat myself on the back with the assurance that, had I been in their sandals, I would have never doubted.
Then one day it dawned on me—there really isn’t any difference between me and the people of Israel leaving Egypt. God is working in my life on a daily basis, but I tend to not see it, to ignore it, to work against Him as I try to make my way in the world.
We are all tempted to go our own way, to seek our own path. In fact, the American culture in which many of us live encourages this way of life. Our greatest heroes are those who struck out on their own, reaching fame through individual acts of courage or brilliance, going against the grain of society to forge a new path, a new way. Facing opposition and hostility, the hero nonetheless perseveres and, ultimately, triumphs. Sometimes the triumph is in death (think Martin Luther King, Jr. or Davy Crockett or Nathan Hale), sometimes the triumph is in the ultimate acceptance of society. Once the lone rebel is triumphant, our society hails him or her as a hero.
The problem with the lone rider is that there is no room for God in that lifestyle. We find ourselves tempted, lured to follow a path different than that chosen by God, and we succumb. The people tells us that we are all tempted, and that we all fall (Romans 3:23); it even tells us that Jesus was tempted in the same ways we are tempted (Hebrews 4:15), but He never succumbed. He is without sin.
The bottom line is that people have never really changed because from the beginning to present, we are tempted and we fail. We fall short of God’s expectations. We turn against Him and think nothing of it, to our detriment.
The Bible is Relevant because God Hasn’t and Doesn’t Change
Throughout the ages, as people have remained in the same in the way we relate to our God and our world, so God has remained constant in His love for us and in His plan for us. Hebrews 13:8 tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” The Psalmist wrote, “In the beginning You (God) laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them and they will be discarded, but You remain the same, and Your years never end” (Ps. 102:25-27).
There are numerous verses in the Bible that tell us God is faithful. Oddly, enough, His faithfulness is not toward us, but to Himself and to His Word. In other words, God is consistent and trustworthy. He is reliable; if He says it, it will be so in His time.
So when God tells us through the Bible that He wants to have a relationship with us, that He has provided a means for that relationship through faith in Jesus Christ, and that that relationship cleanses us from sin and makes us children of the living God, we can believe it. When we read that the Bible tells us that He will in no wise cast us out once we come to Him, that no one and nothing can ever sever that relationship again once it’s been established in Christ, then we can trust Him to live up to the promises. Not because He is faithful to us, but because He is faithful to Himself and to His word.
The fact that God is unchanging doesn’t mean “what we see is what we get.” No, the reality is that you and I are constantly growing, constantly learning, constantly discovering new things about God, about God’s grace, about God’s plan. The fact that the Bible is relevant to us and our world is a confirmation that God’s unchanging nature and His unchanging message will always see us through, no matter how we may grow or how our society may change.
The assurance of the Bible’s relevancy allows us to turn to it each day and find comfort, assurance, conviction and direction. The things that God told us was true from the oldest part of the Scripture to the newest part reminds us that those same truths apply and work in our world and our lives today.