We are twenty-one days away from the beginning of the “Read through the Bible in Two Years” campaign. If you haven’t already signed up at www.newlife-glastonbury.org/bibleplan or picked up a booklet in church, I encourage you to do it! Even if reading through the whole Bible intimidates you, this plan includes the option of reading through just the Old or New Testament, so think about joining us as we grow in our knowledge and experience of God through His Word. I know that God is going to do some great things in our midst as we commit ourselves to knowing Him better.
As intimidating as it may be to think about reading through the Bible for some people, the harder challenge is actually living out what you have read. After all, it’s one thing to have memorized Acts 20:35, where it says “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” It’s another thing entirely to live as if that were the reality in your life, searching for ways to bless others and treating each opportunity to give as if you were the one getting something for free. The truth is that many Christians don’t need to be taught more, but need to start putting into practice what they already know.
However, knowing how to live out what you are reading, or even what parts of the Bible are meant for a 21st century American Christian to live out, is not so simple. Pick any chapter of Leviticus with the goal of living out what you read, and you’ll quickly be confused. For example, is it wrong for a man to cut the hair at the sides of his head (Leviticus 19:27) or to eat bacon (Leviticus 11:7)? Are we expected to stone adulterers (Leviticus 20:10)? And how am I supposed to know which commands to follow and which ones to disregard?
Recently, an editor-at-large for Esquire named A.J. Jacobs decided to find out what it would be like to follow the Bible literally for a year. His book, The Year of Living Biblically, recounts what it was like for an agnostic to try to follow every command of the Bible. His experiments led to some life-giving results (keeping the Sabbath, giving thanks, and quitting cursing and gossiping were all benefits for Jacobs) as well as many frustrating moments (like his inability to stop coveting or becoming angry). He also struggled with commands like Leviticus 15:20, which prohibits a man from lying on a bed or sitting on any chair that has been sat upon by a menstruating woman. Jacobs writes, “[My wife] told me she felt like a leper. To get back at me, she sat on every seat in our house. I was reduced to sitting on the floor or standing.” In the end, Jacobs was surprised at how the Bible revealed his flaws and challenged him to be a better person.
AJ Jacobs on Day 365 (left) and Day 1 (right)
So is that our goal in reading the Bible? To find all the commands and follow them to the best of our ability? No. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not about the law, but about the Holy Spirit who is given to each believer to teach them what it means to know and follow God (John 14). The gospel of Jesus Christ is the New Covenant foretold in prophets such as Jeremiah, who wrote that “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). Notice that this covenant is not about following written laws, but about having God’s laws in your mind and on your heart through the Holy Spirit. Our goal in reading the Bible is to listen to the Holy Spirit as He helps us know God and discern what it means to apply what we read to our lives, so that ultimately we might be more like Jesus.
This means that we won’t read the Old Testament laws like a fifth century BC Israelite (or as A.J. Jacobs), seeking to obey every letter of every law. This is a subject I will be addressing in more detail in this Sunday’s sermon, but the short answer is that the Old Covenant or Old Testament does not apply to us today the way it did to the Israelites who first received it. This is because those Israelites could not keep the covenant, and the penalty they deserved for breaking the covenant was experienced by Jesus on the cross, effectively making that covenant obsolete. This means that much of the Old Covenant, from the purity laws to temple regulations, from the food regulations to the blessings and curses, no longer applies to us. And now, in Jesus, there is a New Covenant for all who have placed their faith in Him. Paul writes in Galatians 3:24 that “the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” The law and our inability to keep it taught us that we were in need of a Savior, effectively bringing us to faith in Jesus and relationship with His Holy Spirit.
It is not always easy to know how to put the words of the Bible into practice. This is why, as part of the Bible plan, I will be giving regular handouts (or posting regular aides on the website) on how to read the different books of the Bible and apply them to your life. This is also why we have chosen to allow for comments on the online version of the Bible Plan, so that you will have the opportunity to encourage others on how you are putting the words you read into practice in your own life. Finally, this is why we will use roughly every sixth Sunday over the next two years to highlight how we are living out God’s Word through both sermon and testimonies.
I am excited about how God will work as we take this journey together. I challenge you once again to commit yourself to not only knowing God’s Word but living it as well, so that you might know God better and love Him more.
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