There's a million & one excuses we could come up with to try & dismiss this, but the truth is, at the end of the day, The 66 books of the Bible are The Final Authority. They are the God-breathed, all-sufficient Authority. Not my desires, my thoughts, my preferences, my personality, my culture, etc. etc. etc. Just The Bible. Call it oldschool. Call it backwoods. Call it whatever. But the truth is, God's the only one who has any idea what He's taking about.
You'd think holding to this truth would be a pretty standard stance for anyone professing faith in Jesus Christ. But it's amazing how truly clinging to God's Word as That which has the final say can get you painted as an overzealous fanatic who's taken things too far. And sure, you can use The Bible to justify a crushing legalistic system, but simply being a man of the Word & being a pharisee are by no means synonymous.
If we're going to start off on the right foot, we need to plant ourselves in the Proverb that says "anyone who trusts in his own mind is a fool." Millions of problems could start to be solved if we took this verse seriously. I would argue that our disobedience to The Lord is a result of defaulting to what we think over what He has said. And it's pride in us that would stand our ground in our opinion over the truth that's plainly laid out in The Book. When it comes to anything & everything, the question is, "What does the Bible say about this?" We must filter all things thru the Scriptures. This isn't some hyper-spirtual overreaction, it's simply seeking to be submissive to The Creator. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so His ways are higher (& better) than our ways. The reason many of us rear up when we hear that we need to filter everything thru The Word is because in some way, shape, or form we still think we know better than God. And that takes us back to Proverbs & the reality that we're acting like fools if we're going to walk that way.
The reality of every single thing is found in how Christ designed it to be. Whatever label, title, or significance He's put on any particular thing is right. It's reality. No matter how abused that thing has been, whatever God says about it is indeed the actuality of that thing. Everything else is just fantasy. So really, we're the most sane when we're the most lined up with The Scriptures. The farther we move away from The Bible, the farther we move away from reality. Regardless of how weird that's perceived to be, simply put, His Word is truth. It's the only consistency in our inconsistent & ever-changing world. We must take our cues from Christ. The world will mock, but the world is blind, even though it thinks it's vision is fine. Sinners can't play doctor when it comes to diagnosing their own disease. We must look outside of our sin-tainted minds, & rest in every word that has rolled off the tongue of Almighty God.
And what's amazing is that God's "commands are not burdensome." They are for His glory & our joy, & only lead to deeper & sweeter life. The way of Jesus is the way to abundant life; life to the full. But sadly, many of us don't want to drink deeply from God's river of delights; we just want to hang out on easy street. But if you belong to God, He is more concerned about your comformity to Christ than your desire for instant gratification. Just think if a parent let their child parent himself. Train wreck. In the same way, God is a good Father, & to let you decide for you would be certain death. What He's aiming at is your eternal gratification in His Son, which is what's truly best for you & most honoring to Him.
The beautiful truth of the gospel is that Christ was slain for every one of your disobediences against Him. Not only that, but He's made His pristine obedience bleed through onto your account. So as you seek to daily trust in His mind & not your own, God is already well pleased with you before your wheels start spinning. Not only is this an overwhelming reason to rejoice, but it also guards against being the pharisee that no one wants to be around. By One Man's(& it's not you) obedience, you've been made righteous. So the holiness you wear isn't your own, it didn't come from you, it's a gift from Him. And even the obedience you strive to walk in is an outworking of God's grace that he has worked in you.
So seek to be a Bible guy, or girl. And don't fear the flack you'll get for not trusting yourself. Go after it with all your heart. Not for the Scriptures sake themselves, but because it is they that point us to Him. We are to embrace the word as beautiful because it came from The very Mouth of God. As we read The Bible, we inhale what God has exhaled onto it's pages. Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. And how amazing it is that God's heart has overflowed, & from His Lips came the 66 books we call The Holy Bible. Enjoy.
