![]() The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. This evening, as I am relaxing at home, I was thankful that God gave me a deeper revelation to my questions regarding Repentance and Sin.ġ4 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. I liken myself to a child hungering to learn more words to speak. ![]() My BSF journey has opened my eyes to reveal God’s Word even more richly and it comes alive to me. The notes that accompany each week’s bible study are fantastic and they point and cross reference us to other relevant parts of the bible. My cohort this year seemed to grow even bigger and our hall where we gather for the Teaching Leader’s message is filled up with about 500 men. We met every monday for the whole year except for the school vacation periods. Last year we studied the book of Genesis. So we have Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Charismatics, Pentecostals etc all sharing the Word of God and our life experiences through class participation sharing our views towards questions about each chapter (each class about 15 pax – men’s fellowship are separately conducted from women’s fellowship). What I like about it is that BSF is non-denominational, hence there are no factions here and everyone is part of the body of Christ. In Singapore, BSF men’s fellowship is available in 6 locations at host churches. And of course, it is possible to use our knowledge of the Scriptures to gain honour, approval, and prestige for ourselves, and it is possible for us to look especially good when we can show with contempt how others are inferior or unknowledgeable or less evangelical or not “Bible-based.This is my 2nd year of attending Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). It is possible to know all the content of the Bible, without knowing personally the One to whom the Bible points. But it is possible for all this to remain merely academic knowledge, to become a substitute for letting the Scriptures bring us personally before the face of God. The teaching and study of our Bible, and the discussions and reflections that arise from it (we call it “theology”) can be fascinating and stimulating. We would be wise to hear the warning today. ![]() Jesus’ words haunt me because this problem is not just confined to the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day. In short, their problem: right book, reading it the wrong way. As Jesus says, the whole point of the Scriptures was to point to him, the Messiah, the embodiment of God’s love, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. But they were never meant to enable us to look good or to impress others. It is not that the Scriptures or Law-observance was bad. We see a glimpse of this from Paul’s biography before he met the risen Jesus, when he said he was advanced in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries, and was extremely zealous for the ancestral traditions (Gal 1.14). Many in Jesus’ day had taken the good gift of Scriptures and turned it into a tool used to impress each other, to receive glory from one another. ![]() You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.… How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (39–40, 44) One of their incapacities has to do with how they related to the Bible: Those who would judge Jesus were themselves being judged, and found wanting. Many were not in a fit condition to understand the significance of the evidence before them. No, the problem was - to continue the imagery of a trial - that these self-appointed judges were themselves contaminated. The problem was not with the evidence or testimony. They should have been able to come to a right verdict on who Jesus was and what he had come to do. In John 5, those who accused Jesus, and those who stood around watching and listening, had all the evidence before them. ![]()
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