Understanding and Interpreting the Bible (Part 1B)
Understanding and Interpreting the Bible
(Part 1B --- Recognizing the NECESSITY of dividing the Word)
In Part 1A, I quoted the following below, and said I'd explain the reason for me saying this.
Preachers today go about blindly teaching their denominations to follow and adhere to the parables and practices of Jesus during his 3-years of ministry in the flesh. This is wrong, and it's a false doctrine in the church today. —Now if you are shocked at my statements, I'll explain and qualified them in Part 1B.
Rom.16:25-26 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest,
2 Cor.5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
In the above two scriptures, there is no reference to Israel, but what we have are references representing doctrine for the Body of Christ and some wording that represents a specific time, and a change in program. As I will continue to prove, by applying scripture divisions, we can get a deeper understanding of the passages and plainly see that there are some valuable and important instructions in here to take account of. Let's analyze these verses by applying right division and extract the proper context from them.
The words "my gospel" are of great interest. Paul personalized the gospel he was preaching. This makes it different to the gospel that John the Baptist, Jesus, and the twelve Apostles taught. They preached the Kingdom gospel, the good news that the Kingdom of Heaven was near. And that was true, as the King was in their midst and He was willing and able to usher in His kingdom if they would repent and believe. But due the the unbelief of Israel's rulers, this kingdom was placed on hold based on Rom.11:25. Paul, on the other hand, was preaching a grace gospel. A gospel where one could place one's trust in the cross-work of Christ and that through His death, burial, and resurrection, (through His work of righteousness alone, and not our feeble attempts), one receives forgiveness and is completely justified before God. In order to recognize the difference between these gospels, one needs to divide them, as per the instruction in 2 Tim.2:15.
The next word that forces us to divide the scriptures is "mystery". Paul says that we need to preach Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the 'mystery'! What is this mystery? Well, there are several components to it, so it is not viable to elaborate on it here, but we have already referenced one part of the mystery in 'Part 1A'. Remember Paul's writing to the Romans,
Rom.11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Here, part of the fuller mystery is that Israel would be blinded in part and that salvation would go out to the Gentiles WITHOUT the influence of Israel. This is a mystery revealed only to Paul. It was a mystery because it was never mentioned or prophesied in the scriptures before he announced it to the saints in his day. In our current verse, Paul speaks about preaching Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. This simply means that we do not preach the earthly ministry of Jesus. We do not associate with the earthly ministry of Jesus. That was for the Jews! We, as the Body of Christ, are to look UP! Our association is with the risen and glorified Christ. We preach Jesus according to Paul's mysteries, the revelations he received from the Heavenly Christ, and our Head.
Can you see now why I stated this fact in part 1A; Preachers today go about blindly teaching their denominations to follow and adhere to the parables and practices of Jesus during his 3-years of ministry in the flesh. This is wrong, and it's a false doctrine in the church today.
for the Body of Christ, who is operating under a
new 'modus operandi', the mystery program of grace.
Now, let me validate this with our second key verse in this post. Paul writes to the Corinthians and says a startling thing in 2 Cor.5:16. He tells those in the church at Corinth that they should not know man after the flesh, and even though they knew Jesus in the flesh (at that time), they should not follow after the teachings and practices that Jesus promoted. Why? Because Jesus came ONLY for the Jews! Remember Matt.15:23-26 in 'Part 1A'? Jesus told the Canaanite woman that He was not sent but [except] unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This means that His teachings, His parables, and His practices, were all tailored for the Jews who were under the Mosaic Law and who exercised a works-based faith. Jesus' earthly ministry was, and is NOT, suited for the Body of Christ, who is operating under a new 'modus operandi', the mystery program of grace. We do not practice the Mosaic law! We do not rely on a works-based salvation. We cannot operate under Jesus' instructions to the Jews while living under grace. Oil and water cannot mix!
Once again, we see from these examples how absolutely critical it is to rightly divide the scriptures. We have to recognize that we are in a completely different program, with different rules, different objectives, and a different destination. When you recognize this, reading the Bible takes on a WHOLE new meaning. Scripture seems to open up and become plain and clear. There is no more need to try and force scripture to fit a man-made narrative or conform to a man-made denominational script!
Let me bring this post to a close by asking this question. If 2 Tim.2:15 instructs us to rightly divide, then what do we divide? From what I've written already, you will notice that the focus has been on Israel and the Body of Christ, on Jew and Gentile, on the mystery doctrines and on a divide in time called, "But Now". These are all correct, but are there more divisions that we must know about? The answer is 'YES'. There are a few more important divisions to be aware of. These will naturally be discussed in greater detail as we journey through this study, but let me provide some of the more primary divisions that you can start to contemplate. I will elaborate on these in later posts.
As pertaining to the primary divisions, there are three categories that I'll be dealing with. One can list them as follows, (1) Two Realms, (2) Two Agencies, and (3) Two Programs. Each of these have contents that I'll discuss in posts that follow. The contents are as follows,
Blue for the Kingdom program of Israel and green for the Grace program of the Body of Christ. This is not an exhaustive list, but it shows the primary divisions connected to Israel, which we as Christians today should be aware of, and exercise when studying the Word.
I trust that you will continue to follow along as I plot the divisions and provide you the know-how and evidence to prove the importance of rightly dividing the scriptures. Stay tuned for additional posts.
God bless.
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