WHY study the Bible?

Funny thing:  Piper also mentioned how much of that first day was about setting it all up...

I just found more notes from his introduction--and I think they're worth sharing. [The three points on HOW to study were from the handout--and he demonstrated it more than go over it word by word.]


WHY study the Bible? (the list is a sequential argument, each point building on the previous)

1. God's call on every human is that we glorify Him--by KNOWING, ENJOYING, and SHOWING Him--that we would show His supreme greatness(with how we use our mind, heart, body/strength. (Is. 43:6-7; 1 Cor. 10:31; Rom. 1:21, 25, 28; Ps. 149:5)
2. Seeing God's glory is essential to knowing and enjoying Him.  (Matt. 13:13; Eph. 1:18; 2 Cor. 4:4)
3. The first key to seeing God's glory is internal, NEW BIRTH.  (2 Cor. 4:6; John 3:3, 6)
4. The second key to seeing God's glory is external--We must hear and understand the Word of God, the Gospel.  (1 Pet. 1:23; Acts 26:17-18--Always through humans!*)
5. When we are internally awake to the glory of God and externally focused on the Word of God, we meet God and see Him in His glory.  (1 Sam 3:21)
6. THEREFORE, we give ourselves to careful, thoughtful reading of God's inspired spokesmen, like the Apostle Paul.  (2 Cor. 2:12-13; Eph. 3:4; 2 Tim. 2:7)

* So when he explained point #4, he talked about how the Spirit who opens the eyes of the heart, who does the internal work, and the preaching of the Word are like two planes in formation.  He held up his hands and made the sound of planes flying!  SO great!  He said the Spirit doesn't just open eyes indiscriminately--but opens eyes to see Jesus as preached in the Gospel.  MISSIONS is how the gospel is taken to the ends of the earth--that is our JOB, humans take the gospel.  God opens eyes to see it!

So that was WHY we study the Bible.

Then he explained WHY we would be looking at Romans 9--and how in that chapter God's will and Sovereignty collide with man's free will.  Why does it matter that God is SOVEREIGN?  He reminded us that the first eight chapters of Romans contain some of the sweetest promises in the Bible, with the 8th chapter being "one of the most precious chapters in all the Bible," with verses like this: 

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

SO Paul is anticipating the objection--but if God hasn't kept his Old Testament promises, how can we trust Him now?

Romans 9 is Paul's defense of God's covenant with Israel and therefore with the church. He states his thesis in verse 6:

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed.

The Word of God has not failed!  God keeps His covenant--He has the power to do so.  He is SOVEREIGN.  And the Sovereignty of God STABILIZES us!

Piper also gave a relatively recent example, which was neat to think through. He read part of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address.  How did Lincoln see this country through the Civil War?  What stabilized Him?   God's PROVIDENCE.

[And as an unrelated aside--that speech was mercifully short. May God grant me the wisdom to choose words so well.]

Piper also threw in a few anecdotes about how this is the attribute of God that gave most people cause to thank Him for tackling weighty issues. We have a BIG GOD and it gives "ballast" to the boat....loved that picture!

Thanks for reading, as I'm trying to make sense of my scribbled notes.