Have Ye Not Read and It Is Written
The following passage will prove that the ground which our Lord took with the scribes, Pharisees, etc., was that they should have known what was revealed in the Scriptures. When quoting Exod. 3:6,
"I am...the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,"He first says,
"Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying," Matt. 22:31."Have ye not read?" He asks. Alas, might not the same be often said to us? When some difficulty or testing time comes, have we read and understood? Have we the light from God's Word which will guide us aright?
Our Lord quoted Hos. 6:6,
"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,"on two occasions (Matt. 9:13 and 12:7), and on both told the Pharisees that they ought to have known the meaning of the words. They had the letter of Scripture, but they did not comprehend its meaning or application. This is a most practical and important consideration for us. For, while we would strongly maintain the value of the very words of Scripture, being inspired, and therefore a divine and unimpeachable foundation for faith, yet, on the other hand, we may have an intellectual acquaintance with the letter, and not understand the meaning or application. To have a true intelligence in Scripture we must be "taught, of God" and instructed by the Holy Spirit, who is given to the believer in order that he may understand the things which are freely given to him of God.
"When thine eye is single,"says our Lord,
"thy whole body also is full of light."Christ, not self, must be our object. If any man desires to do God's will, he shall know of the doctrine (John 7:17); God's will, not our own, must be the motive spring. Thus, when there is simplicity and a true desire to learn, God gives the wisdom and understanding needed, and the Scripture becomes daily more precious, for it ever reveals Christ to the soul.
Christ Himself is, in truth, the center around which all circles, from the beginning of Genesis to the last chapter of the Old Testament; and, therefore, we read that He expounded from these very scriptures,
"the things concerning Himself."
Sometimes He was the subject of distinct prophetic testimony, which referred to Him and to no other; sometimes the communication from God through the inspired witnesses of old took the form of types and shadows, of which He was the antitype and substance. But not one jot or tittle of the law could fail; all must come to pass. Christ was Himself the filling up of the outline traced by the sacred writings of old. He says Himself,
"I am come...to fulfill."Someone has remarked that the word here translated "fulfill" signifies that "He came to make good the whole scope of the law and the prophets...He came as the revealed completeness of God's mind, whatever the law and the prophets had pointed out."
Thus our blessed Lord, after the close of His ministry on earth, when risen from the dead, referred His disciples to the words He had spoken, that
"All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me." Luke 24:44.
This was the threefold division of the Old Testament well known to the Jews—Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. All that was written concerning Him "must be fulfilled," for thus "it is written."
Mark, the Lord did not instruct these two disciples on the road to Emmaus simply from His own divine knowledge, apart from the written Word: on the contrary, He made use of the Scriptures, and taught them from the Scriptures; leading them over a wide range, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. What honor He placed on the Scriptures! Then, as we find a little later on, He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. The opened understanding, the divinely given intelligence, was just as necessary as the possession of the Scripture itself; and this we have, as already remarked, by the Holy Spirit, who came down on the day of Pentecost. Further, Christ said to them,
"Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Luke 24:46-47.
Here He places side by side the prophetic testimony pointing to His death, and what was suitable, as well as absolutely necessary for the remission of sins, for God's glory and the eternal blessing both of His Church and of Israel.
Turning again to the references made by our Lord to the Old Testament, we find that when quoting Exod. 21:17, He commences by saying,
"For God commanded, saying," etc., (Matt. 15:4),and when quoting Gen. 2:24, He introduces the quotation with the words,
"Have ye not read," etc."God commanded," and "Have ye not read": how emphatically this might be repeated in Christendom at the present day [and still today]! Why all the false doctrine and confusion that exists? Is it not due to inattention to God's Word? Why the present confusion among the Lord's people? Is not this to be attributed, in a late measure, to a want of subjection, in heart and soul, to the teaching and guidance of Holy Scripture?
But the Bible is a God-given oracle, carrying His authority, perfectly adapted to every need, every circumstance, and every period of the Church's history.
"Do ye not therefore err?"He says to the unbelieving Sadducees. And why did they err? because they knew "not the Scriptures, neither the power of God." Herein was the fault—they knew not the Scriptures. Man, when left to the petty reasonings of his own mind, gets into all kinds of folly; he falls into superstition on the one hand, or infidelity on the other. But both these extremes agree in shutting out God's Word. It has been Satan's object in all ages to cut out the Word of God; or, if he cannot do so, to render it null and void. Sometimes he accomplishes this by insinuating doubts, raising the question, Is it even so that God has said?—in our own day this takes the form of "modernism." Sometimes he displaces the Scripture by tradition and the teachings and doctrines of men.
Our Lord Himself answered all such suggestions. He met Satan in person by the all-sufficient word,
"It is written."He met the Sadducees, whom we may call the "modernists" of that day, as He also met the Pharisees and scribes—these tradition-mongers of old—by the simple word,
"God said,"
"Did ye never read in the Scriptures?"
"What is this then that is written?"He used the written Word to silence every objection and to refute every form of error; and surely if He thus accredited the Scripture, this is enough for all who have a reverence for Him.
The Word of God is "living" and "abiding." It has ever an unchanged freshness and living power for the heart of the Christian. This must be so, for it reveals God in all His infiniteness, His love, His grace, His near and blessed relationship as Father. It gives us, by inspiration, the life, the very words of Jesus Himself, who, as the Word, tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth.
"The Scripture cannot be broken,"
says the Lord Jesus. Again He says:
"Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" John 5:46-47.
Here the Lord binds together the writings of Moses (the Scriptures) and His own words; and He ascribes an authority as great, if not greater, to the written Word than to the spoken Word. So it is said in another place,
"They believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said." John 2:22.
Even when the dark shadows of the cross were falling on His path, He still used the written Word as that which had marked all beforehand. In quoting Isa. 53:12, concerning Himself—
—the Lord introduces the quotation with the words,
"This that is written must yet be accomplished in Me."
Again, in referring to Zech. 13:7,
"I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad,"
He commences by saying,
For Him the Word was everything. It was given by God, it was inspired by the Holy Ghost, it was the guide and resource at all times; it was that of which no part could remain unfulfilled. May God, by His Holy Spirit, deepen in all our souls the value of Holy Scripture, and daily increase our relish for it!—not merely for certain favorite portions, but for all Scripture. We cannot afford to leave aside any portion without loss to the soul. And may He grant to every reader that Spirit-taught subjection of heart and soul which is the true way to possess intelligence in His mind as revealed to us in the inspired volume! What would thousands of devoted men of old—the early Christians, the Reformers, and out many others among the persecuted saints of God in by-gone days—have given to possess an open Bible, and the full liberty to read it, which is ours? Let us see to it that we do not lightly value our privileges, but let us seek grace and power from God to make a good use of what He has so freely given us.
