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The Law’s End and Application

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A firm grasp on the goal of God’s law will take your application skills to the next level.

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The End of the Law

When lamenting his countrymen’s replacement of God’s righteousness with their own, the apostle Paul makes a remarkable statement:

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Romans 10:4

This phrase—”the end of the law”—does not mean that Jesus has brought the law to end. No, the word “end” here has the connotation of goal or purpose. Paul’s point is not the law’s mortality but its purpose.

According to the argument of Romans 9:30-10:4, Jews have been seeking righteousness before God but have failed to find it. But those who have found it are Gentiles who weren’t seeking it. How can that be? Because by and large, the Jews have sought their own righteousness through works of the law. And many Gentiles found God’s righteousness by trusting in Jesus Christ.

The reason this state has befallen the Jewish people of Paul’s day is because they have failed to understand the law’s purpose. The law of Moses was never given to make people righteous before God but to lead them to faith in Christ. Miss that purpose and you’re bound to misuse the law. In Romans 10:5-13, Paul demonstrates this purpose from the law itself.

So the law is not a bad thing, as long as we recognize its purpose. It cannot make sinners acceptable to God. It cannot vindicate the people of God against the enemies of God. It is a good gift from God to help people come to trust in Jesus. (And, as I showed last week, to show us how life works best.)

Help with Application

So how does this doctrine help us to improve at applying the Bible?

In nearly any text, you can ask “end of the law” questions with respect to the author’s main point:

  • What has God commanded in this text, and how do you and I measure up to that standard?
  • What does that command reveal about the character of God and of his Christ?
  • If we view Jesus as law giver, what does this command show us he cares about? Why?
  • If we view Jesus as law keeper, what does this command show us about what he came to do? Why?
  • How does this command expose the need of humanity for a king and savior?
  • How did Jesus live out or make use of this command in his ministry?
  • What kind of world would result from the new age Jesus brought, where this command in kept as it ought to be?
  • What would submission to King Jesus look like according to this passage? How can we make more progress in such submission?

I am intentionally sidestepping matters of creation, gifts, strengths, grace, and redemption when I ask these questions. That’s not because such matters are unimportant, but only because the focus of this post is on the purpose of God’s law to show us Christ and his righteousness.

Sometimes, robust reflection on the end or purpose of God’s law will give us ample material to speak into the issues of our age: politics, leadership, authority, liberty, influence—to name just a few.

Deepen your grasp of the proper purpose of the law, and you’ll take your application skills to the next level.

God’s Law and Application

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A firm grasp on the proper use of God’s law will take your application skills to the next level.

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Use of the Law

In some Christian circles, the word “law”—or more specifically, the phrases “God’s law” or “law of Moses”—is a dirty word. Something to be avoided. We certainly don’t want to be guilty of enslaving people under law do we (Rom 6:14, Gal 3:23)?

However, if the law is nothing but a slave master to be thrown off in Christ, our friends the Gideons should stop including Psalms and Proverbs in their pocket New Testaments:

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation al the day.

Psalm 119:97

The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding, but a companion of gluttons shames his father

Proverbs 28:7

The problem, you see, was never with God’s law but with the way people try to use it. If we use to attain righteousness before God, then Christ died for no purpose (Gal 2:21). Those who use the law to become righteous will, in the end, lose not only righteousness but also the very benefits of the law (Rom 9:30-32).

So what is the proper use of the law? The Bible gives a few of them, but I’ll highlight just two of them relevant to the skill of Bible application.

First, the law of God provides knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20, 7:7-12). The law of God reveals God’s standards of right and wrong, true and false, moral and immoral. If you get rid of God’s law, you must invent some other standard by which to define good and evil, right and wrong. And a cursory glance at contemporary western culture ought to be enough to show what a failure such an experiment has been. We need the law to define sin and righteousness for us so we might become aware of how far we fall short. In this way, the law is like a mentor to lead us to find grace and mercy in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:23-4:7).

Second, the law of God shows us how life works best (Rom 13:9-10, Eph 6:2-3, James 2:8-13). While the law of God cannot make a sinner righteous, it can make any society a far more pleasant place to live. God made the world to work, such that keeping his law would result in great blessings and breaking his law would result in miserable curses. God is pleased when his people honor his law in submission to his appointed king, Jesus, the Son of David. The New Testament regularly roots its ethical instruction in the revealed law of God. Paul goes as far as to call it a “debt” or “obligation” to obey God through the empowering of God’s adopting Spirit (Rom 8:12).

Help with Application

So how does this doctrine help us to improve at applying the Bible?

In nearly any text, you can ask “use of the law” questions with respect to the author’s main point:

  • What has God commanded in this text, and how do you and I measure up to that standard?
  • How does God define truth and falsehood, right and wrong? How does our society define these things (with respect to the topic of the text)? How do you tend to define these things?
  • How have others violated this command of God in the way they have treated you? How does that help you to distinguish between your responsibility and their responsibility in that situation?
  • If we got rid of the standard of God’s law as highlighted in this text, what other standard might we invent to deal with these sorts of issues? What are some pseudo-standards that have been invented by our society?
  • What would your life look like if you obeyed what this text commands? What would our church look like if it obeyed what this text commands? What would society look like if everyone obeyed what this text commands?
  • What would submission to King Jesus look like according to this passage? How can we make more progress in such submission?

I am intentionally sidestepping matters of creation, gifts, strengths, grace, and redemption when I ask these questions. That’s not because such matters are unimportant, but only because the focus of this post is on the proper use of God’s law.

Sometimes, robust reflection on the proper use of God’s law will give us ample material to speak into the issues of our age: ethical dilemmas, attention to the environment, abortion, marriage, transgenderism, care for the poor, euthanasia, sexuality and sexual identity, greed, taxation—to name just a few.

Deepen your grasp of the proper use of the law, and you’ll take your application skills to the next level.

Cosmic Treason and Application

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A firm grasp on the essence of sin will take your application skills to the next level.

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Essence of Sin

The essence of sin lies in the fact that humans tried (and therefore still try) to replace God. We see this when the serpent first tempts the woman in Genesis 3:5.

God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

The temptation was to be like God. And how would they become like God? They would “know good and evil.”

That phrase, “know good and evil,” cannot mean a simple grasp of the concepts of good and evil. Adam and his wife already understood both concepts, when God told them what to do and not do (Gen 1:28-29, 2:16-17). Clearly, it was good to obey God and evil to disobey him. The first humans were not cognitively deficient.

In the Hebrew Bible, to “know good and evil” is a mark not of intellectual capacity but of maturity. With respect to the promise of Immanuel, God says the following to Isaiah:

He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

Isaiah 7:15-16

The point for Isaiah (and King Ahaz) was that a child would soon be born. And by the time that child was mature enough to make wise moral decisions, the attacks on Jerusalem will have come to an end.

So what does this have to do with the temptation to sin in Genesis 3? The temptation was attractive because it came with a promise of maturity, but in the wrong way. That made it a promise of escape from submission to God’s authority. An offer to the woman and the man to become their own authorities and make their own decisions about what is (or should be) good and evil.

This is where sin got its beginning in human history, and it is where sin drops anchor in the human heart.

Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

James 1:14-15

God confirms that the “knowledge of good and evil” has to do with maturity (wrongly acquired in this case), when he says that “the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:22). The humans have seized a god-like position of deciding between good and evil instead of trusting God and waiting for him to mature them and raise them up in his way. And God—in his mercy—refuses to allow them to live forever in this state (Gen 3:22-23). He sends them away from the tree of life so that they can die, as he promised they would. But that gives him the opportunity to raise them from the dead and make their condition far more glorious than it even was to begin with.

The essence of sin, therefore, is the desire to get what you want. To make your own decisions. To throw off the yoke of righteousness God requires and fashion your own. I believe this is why Jonathan Edwards allegedly (I haven’t been able to trace the source) said that “The smallest sin is an act of cosmic treason against a holy God.” And this is why God’s wrathful judgment against human sin looks like God giving people the very death they want (“God gave them up” – Rom 2:24, 26, 28). Does someone most want a world without God in it? In the end, they will get their wish (2 Thess 1:9).

Help with Application

So how does this doctrine help us to improve at applying the Bible?

In nearly any text, you can ask “cosmic treason” questions with respect to the author’s main point:

  • What has God commanded in this text, and how to do you respond to his commands?
  • What is your posture toward the Lord Jesus as the supreme authority over heaven and earth?
  • With respect to this text’s main point, in what ways are you tempted to overthrow God’s authority and take control of your own life?
  • How does the world or the culture tempt you toward such cosmic treason? (In America, the terribly misguided counsel to “follow your heart” or “be true to yourself” or “you do you” ought to come to mind.)
  • Who gets to define what is right or wrong in this area?
  • By what standard will we distinguish between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, helpful and unhelpful?
  • In what ways have you tried to take God’s place in this area, and how can you grow in submitting to his righteous will?

I am intentionally sidestepping matters of creation, gifts, strengths, grace, and redemption when I ask these questions. That’s not because such matters are unimportant, but only because the focus of this post is on the implications of sin’s treasonous nature.

Sometimes, robust reflection on our outright rebellion against God’s authority will give us ample material to speak into the issues of our age: postmodernism, relativism, materialism, greed, situational ethics, individualism, stewardship—to name just a few.

Deepen your grasp of the essence of sin, and you’ll take your application skills to the next level.

Creation and Application

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A firm grasp on the doctrine of creation will take your application skills to the next level.

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Doctrine of Creation

Humans were created to be different from every other creature. Humans alone were created in the image of God.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

The fact that humans were created by God means that those humans are not themselves God. There remains a distinction between creatures and their Creator.

And yet there’s something special about humans. They are not merely a part of the “circle of life,” distant cousins to other species on planet earth. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

What does that mean to be made in God’s image? In the most basic sense of defining terms, it means simply that humanity is like God. Humanity reflects or represents God. But in what way does humanity reflect God? In what way are human men and women like God?

Does it mean that the human body looks like what God would look like if we could see him? Does it mean that humans have a unique capacity for morality, intelligence, or relationship? Does the phrase “image of God” simply identify the unique value of every human person?

Such questions are worth considering in light of the rest of Scripture. But in the argument of Genesis 1, the way humans are like God has particular reference to God’s delegation of authority to rule the earth. After stating his intention to make man in his image, God gives them dominion over all the earth. And the narrator concludes: “So God created man in his own image.”

And how is humanity to rule the earth? If men and women are reflections of God, what should they learn from who God is and what he does?

In Genesis 1, we should learn that we—in contrast to every other creature—were made to be creative like God is creative. We were designed to bring order to chaos. To fill the empty spaces of our planet, and to spread the true knowledge of God in all the earth.

God made us for these things. He gave us authority to do these things. And he has equipped every one of us to follow through on these things.

Help with Application

So how does this doctrine help us to improve at applying the Bible?

In nearly any text, you can ask “creation” questions with respect to the author’s main point:

  • How does this text help us to recognize and delight in our creatureliness?
  • What is the distinction between the Creator and the created?
  • How can we exalt Jesus as the very Creator God?
  • What is the difference between humanity and the rest of the creation?
  • How has God given authority to us in this area? How can we exercise loving dominion under his guidance?
  • Where are the “empty spaces” in our world or our lives, where this text is not yet obeyed? How can we fill those spaces with the obedience of faith?
  • How can we bring order to the chaos that resists obedience to God in this area?
  • How can we proclaim God’s truth, so others can replicate it, until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God?

I am intentionally sidestepping matters of direct sin, repentance, and redemption when I ask these questions. That’s not because such matters are unimportant, but only because I haven’t gotten to them yet.

All I’m doing here is applying the doctrine of creation. Drawing application from the way God originally intended (created) things to be. There is much work to be done in our application, before we even get to our sin and need for Christ.

Sometimes, robust reflection on God’s creation of humanity will give us ample material to speak into the issues of our age: human rights, the environment, secular humanism, same-sex attraction, gender identity, global justice, racism, stewardship, work and rest—to name just a few.

Deepen your grasp of the doctrine of creation, and you’ll take your application skills to the next level.

Take Your Application Skills to the Next Level

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One way to think about Bible application is to approach it as an individual seeking to make individual change. There is nothing wrong with that approach, as it can yield much fruitful application in your life.

Yet when you understand what God says about humanity broadly, you can take your application to the next level. Have you met someone whose insight could penetrate to the bottom of a sticky situation? Have you had a mentor who had a knack for identifying just what you needed to hear in a timely moment?

Chances are, such wise folks weren’t gifted with supernatural revelation about your particular situation. They likely had a firm grasp on what God’s word says about humanity as a whole. Then they could draw on that framework to make relevant application to particular situations. In other words, they had much biblical and practical wisdom.

You can develop that wisdom, too.

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General Application to the Human Heart

Sometimes, your Bible application grows stale because you’ve run out of specific ideas of what to do in your own life. One solution to such staleness is to strap on a wide-angle lens and consider how your passage applies generally to the human heart.

We can make generalizations about the human heart because God has told us how the human heart works, as well as what the human heart needs. The purpose of such generalizations is not to presume upon any situation nor to put ourselves or others in a box. The purpose is to give us a framework from which to draw when we need to figure out what to do in a given situation.

And if you lead others in Bible study, drawing application from anthropological generalizations doesn’t mean you should make judgments about people’s struggles without understanding them as individuals. It just means that God has given you categories of things to look for and be aware of, both as you seek to disciple your own heart and as you lead others in Bible study.

Sometimes the most insightful teachers and wisest counselors—whose words penetrate most personally—are not those who have a deep relationship with you or even know you particularly well. No, often they simply understand the human condition and can therefore predict how the main point of a text might hit close to home in their generation.

According to Psalm 119:49-56, you can trust God’s words in a way you can’t trust anyone else’s words. This means that knowing what God says about people is more valuable than knowing what people (even experts) say about people.

This is my comfort in my affliction, 
that your promise gives me life. 
The insolent utterly deride me, 
but I do not turn away from your law. 
When I think of your rules from of old, 
I take comfort, O Lord. 

Psalm 119:50-52

And according to Psalm 119:97-104, the student who loves the law surpasses his teachers. This means that God’s word will equip you with more profound application skills than any teacher can offer.

Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, 
for it is ever with me. 
I have more understanding than all my teachers, 
for your testimonies are my meditation. 
I understand more than the aged, 
for I keep your precepts. 

Psalm 119:98-100

Application to our Application

So what can we bank on, as we consider how a text applies to the human heart generally? What does God’s word say about what it’s like to be human? Let me give you eight points to guide your Bible study.

  1. Humans were created to be different from every other creature.
  2. Humans tried (and therefore still try) to replace God.
  3. We need God’s law to show how great our sin is, and to show how life in God’s world works best.
  4. We need God’s law to help us find Jesus.
  5. People tend to misuse God’s law in one of two ways.
  6. We have seen a perfect man, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
  7. We live in the tension of overlapping ages.
  8. We long for a better world.

These eight ideas don’t capture an exhaustive doctrine of humanity. Nor are all eight present in every text. But they give you a framework of what to look for when the time comes to consider application.

These general principles can be fleshed out in great detail for the rest of our lives and the rest of history. We’ll always find new points of connection to the particular lives of particular men and women on Planet Earth.

But these are the sorts of things we ought to keep in mind so we can look out for them in our application. In the coming months, I’ll give each of these eight points its own post (linked above) to unpack it further and demonstrate how it assists with Bible application.

How Not to Apply the Bible

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Kenneth Berding describes a sort of Bible study that is not too difficult to find.

Last week we learned that the Philistines brought the prisoner Samson into a celebration dedicated to their god Dagon so that he could “entertain” them. Lindsay, would you mind reading our passage for this week, Judges 16:28-30?”

“Yes, I’d be glad to.” [Reads the text]

“Thank you for reading, Lindsay. Alright, let’s discuss this passage together. How do you think this passage applies to your life?”

“Well, this passage really spoke to me while Lindsay was reading it.”

Berding’s parable describes an application discussion that completely bypasses observation and interpretation. Then he goes to show how it could be managed far more usefully.

Check it out!

A Word to Those who Wish to Help Others Apply the Bible

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Lately, I’ve been unpacking the process of Bible application. I’ve presented tools and exercises to help you exercise your application muscles. Your application should not sound the same for every passage. And application ought never to be boring or lifeless. Robust Bible application is precisely the sort of fruit Jesus is looking for when he comes to inspect his vineyard (Matt 12:33-37, 21:33-46).

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The tools I’ve presented are especially useful to those aiming to apply the Bible for themselves. But I expect and hope that many will pass those tools along to those they lead. When God grants gifts of insight, learning, and resources, he doesn’t do it for the sake of the recipient alone. He does it so the recipient can benefit the larger body of which he or she is a member (Romans 12:4-8).

So, please do try this at home. And please also teach others how to apply the Bible.

But whether you are a preacher, Sunday school teacher, small group leader, instructor, coach, parent, discipler, or friend, you must never forget one crucial principle:

Do not try to help others to apply a Bible passage without first applying it to yourself.

I’m not saying that you must put into practice the exact same applications as the people you’re trying to lead. I’m only saying that the passage must have been applied to yourself in some way before you seek to apply it others in some way. The text must impact you before you use it to impact others.

If you fail to do this, you are a hypocrite. Not according to me, but according to Jesus.

Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

Luke 6:39-42

If the text has not yet opened your eyes and given you sight, anyone you lead will fall right into a pit with you. Those you teach will be like you. So if you have not applied the text, your disciple will not, either. You are not qualified to remove another’s eye-speck until you have cleared out your own eye-beam.

Only after you have applied the text will you see clearly enough to help others apply the text. How can you ask others to do something you haven’t done or won’t do yourself?

One of the most common sins of preachers and teachers is our sanitized hypocrisy that makes excuses for failing either to apply a text personally or to share vulnerably (when appropriate) how we have applied it. As believers in Jesus Christ, we must open ourselves not only to God’s word but also to one another. For a biblical defense of this idea, and an exceptionally thorough explanation of how to put it into practice, see Transparency: A Cure for Hypocrisy in the Modern Church by Joseph W. Smith III.

We require the preachers at our church to submit a worksheet to the team of preachers, detailing their study of the text they are preaching two weeks out. One of the questions on that worksheet says:

How will you personally apply this passage’s main point to your life? (You may or may not share these particular applications in your sermon, but if the text hasn’t moved you, you’re not yet ready to try to move others by preaching it.)

May practices like this become common among all who teach the Word of God to others.

Disclaimer: As my application of Paul’s command in Romans to be subject to the governing authorities, I must notify you that clicking the Amazon link above and buying stuff will provide a small commission to this blog at no extra cost to yourself. Thank you for your support.

Bible Study Leaders Must Be Flexible

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Alora Griffiths (2019), public domain

As a college professor, I’ve taught the same material dozens of times. And while the main ideas of calculus don’t change drastically from one semester to the next, those classes are not the same.

Each iteration of the course is different because each class roster is different. If I ignored the particular students in my classes and focused only on the material, I wouldn’t be doing my job as a teacher.

Leadership is Always Local

This same truth holds when leading a Bible study: the audience matters. What is appropriate and powerful in one setting may fail spectacularly in another. This isn’t an original insight, but it does highlight a principle many ignore.

Leadership never exists in a vacuum. Leaders are leaders because they lead people. Even “organizational leaders” are leaders of people, because what do we suppose organizations are made of, heads of lettuce?

This doesn’t mean that good principles for leading are a fiction—they aren’t. However, good principles still need to be worked out locally; they are incarnated face-to-face in relationships with real people.

Flexibility in Study Meetings

When a Bible study leader prepares for a meeting, he should do the hard work of observation and interpretation, letting the text dig into his flesh and change him before he attempts to bring change to others. Nailing down a main point for the passage is a vital step before a Bible study meeting.

However, that same leader needs to be prepared for the actual people that walk through the door. They will arrive with different moods, experiences, and histories, and those differences may dramatically affect the discussion. This is especially true when it comes to application.

Examples

I’ll illustrate this point with two examples. While these examples are fictitious, I’ve led Bible study meetings in the past where similar issues came up and affected the mood and direction of the conversation. (It’s also worth mentioning that we call the small groups at my church Home Fellowship Groups. Bible study is an important component of our meetings, but we also share times of prayer and fellowship.)

Scenario 1 — Dwayne is a faithful member of your group. His work situation is consistently the most difficult part of his life, and he speaks openly about his troubles with his boss. His direct supervisor consistently belittles him and ignores his good performance. At the Bible study meeting in question, Dwayne has had an especially hard week, as he has been passed over for a promotion for the third straight time. If the application of the Bible study is focused on loving one’s neighbors, Dwayne’s background will have a huge effect on his participation, and if he participates, it will color the rest of the discussion.

Scenario 2 — Nicole is a single woman attending your Bible study, and her sister has asked her to move back home to help care for their aging father. Nicole does not have a good relationship with any of her family members, as they have distanced themselves from her since she has become a Christian. This move would take her hours away, and there is no good church in the town where her family lives. If the Bible study is about honoring one’s parents or the importance of a local church congregation, Nicole’s situation may change the conversation in big ways.

People Are Not an Interruption

For a new or inexperienced Bible study leader, these examples could seem frustrating, as though the life situations of these group members might derail a perfectly-planned study. But this Platonic ideal of a Bible study does not exist.

Leading real Bible studies means that the Bible comes into contact with real people, and the lives of real people are often messy and difficult. But these difficulties are not interruptions to our plans—this is what it means to lead people and help them apply the Bible in their lives.

Let’s go one step further. God never puts people together by accident, so these “challenging” cases that crop up in Bible study are not just opportunities for leaders to help their friends apply the Bible. We are meant to apply the Bible in community, so leaders may have a lot to learn personally (and not just as leaders) from these hard situations.

How to Develop a Culture of Bible Study in Your Church

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The Logos Word by Word blog recently published a piece I wrote entitled “How to Develop a Culture of Bible Study in Your Church.” In the post, I encourage church leaders to have a method, train a few, raise their expectations, set them loose, check in, and reproduce.

Here’s a taste:

There is one question I receive more than any other when Christians discover I’m involved in a collegiate discipleship ministry: What materials or resources do you use?

I appreciate the eagerness behind the question, as folks generally aim to improve their own efforts to make disciples of Christ. But sadly, my answer doesn’t usually satisfy the inquirer.

The Bible. We use the Bible to make disciples.

Check it out!

Show, Don’t Just Tell

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It’s a key principle of educational philosophy: Show, don’t just tell. Communicating ideas is a good thing. But it’s even better if you can show your work, present persuasive argumentation, explain it clearly, and illustrate it vividly. The show-don’t-just-tell principle has many applications for teachers and leaders of all stripes. And I would like to zero in on one particular application of the principle to any who seek to teach the Bible: Show them how you arrived at your conclusions so they can repeat the process for themselves.

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Last week, I suggested that the best response you can hope for from those to whom you teach the Bible is, “What a great text, that shows me our great God!” Now I propose that one of the most important means for producing such a response is to show your work, and not merely tell them your conclusions. Here are some examples.

  • You can tell them that God loves them. Or you can show them the “for” in John 3:16 and show them the logical connection in the verse between the first clause and the second clause. Now they can forever see for themselves that God sent his son, not because he was mad at the world, but because he loved it.
  • You can tell them that the Christian life is hard, but that it will be worth it. Or you can show them the context of Romans 8:28, how the “good” all things work together for is the “good” of conformity to the Son’s image (Rom 8:29)—which is a promise not of a healthy and wealthy life, but of crushing pain yielding to resurrection glory (Rom 8:17-25).
  • You can tell them the story of God’s great power demonstrated over Egypt in nine plagues. Or you can show them the structure of three groups of three plagues, each group with a unique emphasis, proving Yahweh to be the judge, the divider of peoples, and the destroyer of worlds. Once you have shown them this structure, they won’t be able to un-see it when they read these texts in the future.
  • You can tell them that chapter divisions are not part of the inspired text and should be taken with a grain of salt. Or you can show them Isaiah’s repeated refrain that clearly links the four stanzas of Isaiah 9:8-10:4 into a single poem, forcing us to read the text across the chapter break. “For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still” (Is 9:12, 17, 21; 10:4).

Now I am not saying that Bible teachers should show all their work. There are always more observations to be made than can be included in a sermon or Bible study. We can’t include everything, and we ought not explain everything that happened to excite us in our preparation. One key principle I communicate when I train teachers is this: Do only as much observation as you must do in order for them to see how what you’re saying is rooted in the text. As soon as they have seen it from the text, move on. Explain it. Illustrate it. Show them Jesus. Apply it.

But sadly, teachers often show too little of their work. They may move their people to tears or inspire them to take drastic action. But ask those people after the sermon or discussion why they should take such action, or how this Scripture moved them so, and too often they can’t explain it. It just “is.”

Let’s show them a better way.