How to Look at the Bible

By Moises Alaniz, Health & Wellness Coach

“The Bible is God’s story. Rightly taking this approach to Scripture will place us in an appropriate relationship to the text. We are not the principal or even supporting characters in the Bible.” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p.3).

This quote is an important reminder for each of us to know our place in life.  It is easy to compare the stories of the bible to our current lives and place ourselves as the important character.  It has been more common, today, for motivational speakers and pastors in comparing the stories of the bible to our daily life struggles, which sets aside God’s story and begin to idolize ourselves. If we take a step back to look at the fine details, we can see how God is meticulously working in our lives, even if it seemed good or bad.    

“The more we attempt to save ourselves, the worse we make things. This is because our self-rescue efforts highlight our belief that we are strong enough, smart enough, and self-sufficient enough to fix the error of our ways.” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p.4).

This quote resonated with me, personally.  Throughout my career and life, being in control of my surroundings has been a crucial factor, however when things get out of my control I begin to spiral.  The harder I try to make it right and rely on myself, the more it seemed impossible.  This has been difficult to grasp this past year until I decided to stop trying to "save" myself in the last three months.  By taking a step back and allowing God to take control to save me, my business was created and relationships between family and friends have grown and mended.

“The Bible is all equally God’s Word, but the books of the Bible include a variety of types, or genres, of literature.” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p.17).

This quote is helping to understand that there are different types of literacy in the bible.  Many individuals – myself included - did not know there were different styles of literature in the bible and assumed it was just a collection of stories that God authored.  Knowing the different styles of genres of literature will allow my focus of understanding to switch in order to comprehend the message God is saying.

“When reading a parable, you should resist the urge to allegorize the various details of parables…Often the meaning of a parable is revealed in the surrounding context of a passage.” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p.19).

This is a helpful quote to remember when reading the Gospels – at minimum.  Many times, when reading the bible, we often scrutinize every word to interpret the meaning, or meanings, of the parable or verse and forget to look at the big picture.  Looking at a parable is similar to looking through a camera lens.  We can focus and zoom in to capture the moment of the singular object, but only until we zoom out can we see the whole picture.

“If Christ is the central figure of the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Spirit is the central figure of Acts” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p. 20).

This is a personal quote that I believe God is trying to answer a question I asked myself a month ago.  After doing a deep dive on studying “a man clothed in white” in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, my question was “If God the Father shows himself throughout the Old Testament and the Son of God is the man clothed in white that is in the Old and New Testament, where is the Holy Spirit highlighted outside the book of Exodus?”  The book of Acts is one of the books I have yet to take the time to read and comprehend, unfortunately.  After reading this week’s readings, most of the Epistles were written during the book of Acts which will help me to look for the Holy Spirit throughout the journeys of the Apostles.

“The Old Testament laws, found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy as well as parts of Exodus and Numbers, were designed to assist in the establishment and governance of two types of relationships: horizontal and vertical.” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p. 24).

Looking at this quote was amazing to me.  Many times, we have discovered God’s message in the Old Testament that can be symbolic to the New Testament just like this quote.  God was building relationships both vertically and horizontally, just like a cross.  To me, this quote resonates that the cross was always inevitable through the visible and invisible.

“Thus, while it is important to read the Scriptures regularly to receive a sense of direction for each new day, filled with possibilities and pitfalls, the Bible is not solely or even primarily a book about the path to successfully navigating this life.” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p. 29).

This quote is a great reminder of how the bible is more than a road map to their life.  Having this perspective affords the opportunity for us to overlook God and how He navigates our life. While the bible is a great source in understanding how God used many individuals to overcome difficult and deadly challenges, it is crucial to keep in the forefront of our mind that God gives us the direction to overcome the obstacles in our lives.  Although some situations may be similar in principle to those in the bible, our lives are unique and require a specified attention by God to help us.  

“Some believe that the Bible is a collection of heavenly edicts that every good Christian ought to follow.  One who has embraced this perspective will often limit the Bible in status to a handbook, guidebook, or instruction manual.” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p. 30).

This quote is an important reminder that the bible is more than an instruction manual.  The bible is more than just words; and this is a reminder of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees were extremely knowledgeable of God’s laws, and no one were as knowledgeable as them.  However, the Pharisees knew God’s law but missed God’s intention and message of the laws.

“When we take up God’s Word and read it as a book of instructions, rules, and commands that we need to follow in order to be accepted or loved by God, we are asserting that, as great as Christ’s work was, we are capable of keeping the directives of God in a satisfactory manner.” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p. 31).

The quote forces us to remember why we need Christ and His role for our salvation.  Jesus lived a perfect life and taught about God’s intentions of the laws over the Pharisees.  Many Christians today do not study the bible unless it was needed but oftentimes miss the true message.  We do not want to minimalize Jesus’ role and importance.

“We could give it our best effort and hope that, at the conclusion of our lives, our obedience and desire to obey would outweigh all the times we failed.  Then perhaps God might grant us an eternity with him.” (Cartwright, Hulshof Gutierrez, and Etzel, p. 31).

This quote resonated with me because there have been times I believed this perspective.  If we just follow God’s “rules” and did our best, then it is good enough to be with God in heaven.  I did not realize that this perspective set aside Christ and overlooked all His sacrifices that he made for us to have eternal salvation.  Jesus was God’s plan to redeem us. Overlooking that fact and us giving satisfactory effort for God can be insulting to God.

Bibliography

Hindson, E. and Towns, E. L. (2017).  Illustrated Bible Survey: An Introduction. Nashville,  

TN: B&H Academic.