"Ee ~ ~ 'ie, f-v-e. ~ ~~""The Miracle of the Book 5"

by Desmond Ford

The unity of the Bible is a strong indication of its divine origin.It is amazing to see the eightfold structure of the Bible. This pattern is four sets of twins:

1) Sections of Manifestation, 2) Sections of Application, 3) Experience, and4) Outlook, in Old and New Testaments.

YOU can look at the Bible and see it as an eightfolddivision. There are eight sections in the Bible, thatare four sets of twins. The first section of the first

Testament corresponds to the first section of the secondTestament, and so on.

1: Section of ManifestationIt is in the first section of the Old Testament, thePentateuch, that you read of God appearing visibly. TheBible says: "The spiritual did not come first, but the natur-al, and after that the spiritual" (1 Corinthians 15:46 NIV).Once you get beyond the Pentateuch, it is very rare forGod to appear physically.

God appears all the time in the Pentateuch. Godappears to Adam, Eve,Abraham, and Moses. After thePentateuch, you hardly ever have that. Rather, Godspeaks by his Spirit through the prophets.

The first section of the New Testament, the Gospels, isthe same. God appears physically in Christ. But after theGospels, God speaks by his Spirit.

The first section of the four sets of twins is the Sectionof Manifestation. God manifests himself visibly; or wecould say, physically. It's that way in the Old Testament,and in the New.

2: Section of ApplicationThe second section is the Section of Application.

After the Pentateuch, come the historical books ofJoshua, Judges, Kings, and Chronicles. Here you read theapplication of what has been manifested earlier. You readabout the historical working out of the meaning of themanifestations.

In the New Testament, the Section of Application isthe Book of Acts. Here we read how the early Christiansapplied what they had learned when God came downfrom heaven and appeared in human flesh.

3: Section of ExperienceThe third section is the Section of Experience.

What did the people of the Old Testament learn when

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they applied what God had manifested?I am sure that you have noticed that at the beginning

of the Bible, God is talking to us. At the end of the Bible,God is talking to us. In the middle of the Bible-thePsalms-we are talking back to God.

The third section is made up of the poetical books:Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,and the Song ofSolomon. Here is told the wisdom that was learned fromapplying the truths God manifested at Sinai. These arethe books of experience.

In the Psalms we discover a book of the heart. All themajor and minor chords of emotion that we are capableof singing are in Psalms. It's a hymnbook or songbook.That's what the word "psalms" means. The book ofPsalms is a book of the heart, of what the heart haslearned.

Proverbs is a book of the head. BillyGraham saysthat he reads a chapter of Proverbs every day. He readsother parts of Scripture daily, too, but always includesProverbs because it tells us how to live.

It's a book of the head, full of much counsel abouteverything practical. It's a wonderful book for youngpeople, and also good for old people. It tells us how tolive. That's the response of the head.

Problems Surrounding ProverbsBefore and after Proverbs, we discover two intellectualproblems.

Job deals with the intellectual problem: "Why does agood person get into trouble?" Ecclesiasteson the otherside of Proverbs deals with the intellectual problem: "Whydoes a bad person have so many good things?"

Remember the man who got away from God whohad all that gold and silver; and all those singing choirs;and all the irrigations and gardens and buildings? Thatwas Solomon, author of Proverbs. (Also,author ofEcclesiastesand Song of Solomon.) On either side of hisbook about the head, Proverbs, are two books thataddress the problems that come to the head: "Why do thegood suffer?" and "Why do the bad prosper?"

Love Is a Beautiful EndThis section ends in a beautiful way-with the Song ofSolomon.

Ecclesiastes begins with: "Vanity of vanities; all isvanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2 KJV.Or "Utterly meaningless!Everything is meaningless," NIV).

At least 29 times, Ecclesiastes uses the expression,"Under the sun." It is saying, "Look, the earth is a hemi-sphere without heaven. And an earth viewed withoutheaven is just vanity." Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

When you get to the next book, Song of Solomon, thebeginning has a different spirit. That's because the book isabout love. "My lover is mine and I am his" (2:16). Life,with all it has of joy and woe and hope and fear, is justour chance for the prize of learning to love.

Victor Frankl was thought of as the greatest psychia-trist in Europe in the 1950s. Frankl, after his experience atAuschwitz, wrote:

"For the first time in my life I saw the truth, the truththat love is the ultimate and the highest goal to whichman can aspire, the greatest secret that human poetryand human thought and belief have to impart. The salva-tion of man is through love and in love."

This Section on Experience, which has the response ofthe heart and the head-and the problems for the head-finishes with love. For life, with all it has of joy and woeand hope and fear, is just our chance for the prize of learn-ing love. That's what life is all about. We must learn to beloving people.

(The love I'm talking about is not simply emotionallove. It is principled love. Emotions that are not controlledby principle are not much good. There is nothing, nothingmore dangerous than passion that is uncontrolled.)

Experience Section in the New TestamentWhat about the Section of Experience in the New Testa-ment? We studied that in the New Testament sections,Manifestation is found in the Gospels, and Application inActs.

In Acts, the preaching is directed first to Jews, thenGreeks, and finally Romans. This fits with the words ofJesus found on the "title page" of Acts: "You will receivepower when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will bemy witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8 NIV). The rest ofActs follows these concentric circles: Judea, Samaria, to theuttermost parts of the earth. The book begins in Jerusalemand ends in Rome.

But there is no provision for preaching to Christianchurches in Acts. The book tells us how Christ waspresented to the world, but how was Christ presented tothe church? What were Christians told?

It is the epistles, the letters, of the New Testament thatare the sermons to the Christians. Acts is sermons to un-believers. The epistles are sermons to the believers.

Structure of the EpistlesThere is marvelous structure here, too. For example, thefirst epistle, Romans, deals with the first things we need tolearn!

The epistles consist of letters to seven churches: Rome,Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and

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Thessalonica.First and Second Thessalonians are all about the

Second Coming of Christ. I'm so glad these are not thefirst of the epistles after Acts. News about the SecondComing of Christ in majesty, power, and judgment is badnews, very bad news, if you don't know the meaning ofChrist's First Coming.

Some groups verge on the cuItic with their constanttalk about the Second Coming and near silence on thefirst coming. All this does is scare people! Such talkdoesn't save people. It may scare them into the baptismalfont, but it doesn't redeem them. Whenever the SecondAdvent is emphasized without full explanation of themeaning of the First, all you do is fill people with fear.

But Thessalonians doesn't come first in the epistles! Inthe providence of God, the first letter, Romans is aboutthe first problem: "How can I be right with God?"

What is the meaning of the cross that has beendescribed by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? What doesit all mean, Lord? Romans tells us.

Romans Before CorinthiansRomans is written like a lawyer's brief. It starts with thepagans; they are all lost. It moves to the religious people;they are lost too. Chapter 3 says that the whole world islost. With 14 quotations from the Old Testament, Paulsays 14 times that everybody is lost. Having shut every-body up-Paul then opens a door. He explains the gospeland how God has provided Christ as our righteousness byfaith.

Because the human mind twists everything it can,there are two problems that arise when the gospel andthe plan of salvation are preached. These two extremes,libertinism and legalism, are dealt with in the epistlesthat follow Paul's explanation of the gospel in Romans.

Corinthians Deals with ExtremesUnbalanced believers get things crooked, and theCorinthian church was in a horrible mess. TheCorinthian Christians said, "Well, if we are saved bygrace, and not by works, let's live it up." One man wasliving with his father's wife. Others were taking theirbrothers to court. Some were drunk at the Lord's Supper.Their meeting place was bedlam. Everyone was talking intongues, and no one was listening.

Paul has to write to them in First and Second Corin-thians and say: "Listen! It's true that I told you in Romansthat Christ is the end of the law as regards righteousness.It's true. I must tell you that circumcision is nothing. Yes,and therefore uncircumcision is nothing. But understandthis, you Corinthians: The keeping of the commandmentsof God is everything" (see 1 Corinthians 7:19).

In the two epistles to the Corinthians, Paul deals withthe problem of antinomianism. That false doctrine saysall law is abolished. It leads to libertinism. "If salvation isby grace, let's live it up!"

In the early 1980s, this happened in a church com-munity familiar to many of our readers. Some membersof that denomination took the gospel of grace to a wrongextreme. They threw out everything. They mistakenlythought that standards were finished. But Jesus said, "Ifye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15 KJV).

The second problem, the extreme opposite to anti-nomianism, is legalism. "Well, if it's true that I can't justdo whatever I like, then everything depends on me. I'dbetter do everything just right or I have no hope." Thatwas the attitude of the Galatians. And Paul writes tothem: "Listen, you who think you are justified by law.You are severed from Christ! Unless you have died to thelaw, you are not alive to God."

The Epistles a TempleWe could go through all the New Testament epistles,showing how they fit together like a holy temple. Theepistles of the New Testament have a foundation in faithand grace because of the blood of Christ. That's the foun-dation of the temple.

Then the superstructure is truly good works. That'strue good works. Not works done to win God's approval,but works done because we have God's approval already,in Christ. Some people think the epistle of James contra-dicts Paul's epistles. Not so. They are fighting off differentfoes. That's why they stand back-to-back. Not becausethey are against one another, but because they are fight-ing off foes coming from different directions. Paul is fight-ing off legalism, and James is fighting off antinomianism.

Thus, the temple built by the epistles is: a foundationof faith, plus a superstructure of works. "Faith withoutworks is dead" (James 2:20, 26 KJV).True, "It is by graceyou have been saved" (Ephesians 2:5 NIV). We are savedby faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. Weare not saved by our faith plus works. We are saved by afaith that works.

Spontaneous and joyous at having found the treasureof the gospel, we give all that we have. Jesus described itaccurately:

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than meis not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son ordaughter more than me is not worthy of me; andanyone who does not take his cross and follow me isnot worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it,and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.(Matthew 10:37-39 NIV)

The Spire of HopeThe temple in the epistles is: a foundation of faith, plus a

superstructure of works, plus a spire of hope.Peter writes:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord JesusChrist! In his great mercy he has given us new birthinto a living hope through the resurrection of JesusChrist from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3)

Peter wrote at a time when Nero was burningChristians in his beer gardens, dipping them in oil andsetting them alight. You'll remember that Nero fiddledwhile Rome burned-and he blamed the Christians for thefire. There was a savage persecution.

Peter is saying to Christians in his epistles: "You aregoing to have a tough time. You are going to bepersecuted. But God has begotten us to a lively hope."

The Music of LoveThe temple has a foundation of faith, a superstructure ofworks, a spire of hope, and then the epistles of John fill itwith the music of love.

"God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16) is John's message:

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, andGod in him. (1 John 4:16)Whoever does not love does not know God, becauseGod is love. (1 John 4:8)We know that we have passed from death to life,because we love our brothers. Anyone who does notlove remains in death. (1 John 3:14)

The temple of the epistles, with its foundation of faithand grace, superstructure of works, and spire of hope, isfilled with the music of love.

Plodding PerseveranceOne more thing we need: Perseverance. We must keepgoing, whatever the obstacles.

That is the message of the epistle after John's letter-Jude. Jude says, "Dear friends, although I was very eagerto write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had towrite and urge you to contend for the faith that was oncefor all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3).

Don't give up the faith, says Jude. Remember thosewho did give it up. The angels who apostatized (verse 6),

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Cain, Korah, Balaam. He gives seven groups who wereonce God's people, who did not persevere.

Aristotle said, "Well begun is half done," but better isthe end of a thing than the beginning of it. There arealways many young people who are smart, capable, andimpressive. They are mightily weeded out by their 50s.Youth has all sorts of potential, but will it wear well?

Every college graduate knows that if you look backover the yearbooks, the students deemed most likely to suc-ceed usually didn't. The people in the top positions are theregular, humdrum types who know how to keep ploddingon. They are the ones who made it, the ones who knewhow to persevere.

William Carey said: "The only virtue I have is I knowhow to plod." Don't give up. Isn't that a fitting end to theNew Testament Section of Experience?

4: Section of OutlookNow we come into the fourth and final section, theSection of Outlook. In the Old Testament this section con-sists of the prophets.

Think of the first five prophets. Isaiah sees the gather-ing storm: the Assyrians, and the Babylonians, are goingto invade and wipe out the people of God. He sees thecross of suffering coming.

In Jeremiah, the people are on the cross of sufferingand finish with the cry, "My God, my God, why have youforsaken us?"

You say, "I didn't know that the words of Jesus on hiscross (Matthew 27:46) were foreshadowed by Jeremiah."Remember, Jeremiah wrote two books: Jeremiah andLamentations. Isaiah sees the cross coming, but Jeremiahsees the cross now:

Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a foun-tain of tears, that I might weep day and night for theslain of the daughter of my people! (Jeremiah 9:1KJV)

Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsakeus so long time? ... But thou hast utterly rejected us;thou art very wroth against us. (Lamentations 5:20,22)

Lamentations is the Old Testament book of the cross.Earlier in the book we read, "Oh, Lord, behold my

affliction" (Lamentations 1:9). "Is it nothing to you, all yethat pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow likeunto my sorrow" (v. 12).

Jeremiah's language foreshadows the cross of Christbecause he sees the people of God upon their cross. Isaiahforetells the coming of Israel's cross; Jeremiah describesIsrael's present cross. Both point to Christ's cross.

Ezekiel and ResurrectionEzekiel follows, and Ezekiel contains a great chapter onresurrection. Remember Chapter 37? It's the chapter of"The Valley of the Dry Bones," the living bones.

"Son of man, can these bones live?"I said, "0 Sovereign Lord, you alone know."... There came a noise, a rattling sound, and the

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bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, andtendons and flesh appeared on them and skincovered them, but there was no breath in them ....and breath entered them; they came to life and stoodup on their feet-a vast army. (Ezekiel 37: 3-10 NIV)

How appropriate to have resurrection after the bookon the cross.

Daniel and the KingdomNext is Daniel, the prophet about the throne and thekingdom. That's because after his resurrection Christascends to the throne of God and the kingdom. (This isalso the sequence for those who are in Christ: we die, werise, we ascend.)

Daniel says, "As I looked, 'thrones were set in place,and the Ancient of Days took his seat'" (Daniel 7:9). Thisone little book mentions God's kingdom more times thanall the other Old Testament books of prophecy puttogether.

You can see the order, the sequence, in the OldTestament prophets. Isaiah sees the coming shadows ofthe cross. "Babylon is going to destroy us and take usaway into captivity." Jeremiah sees God's people on thecross. "My God, why have you forsaken us?" Ezekielsees God's people coming up out of the grave. "I willraise them." Daniel sees God's people ascend to thekingdom of God where the thrones are placed.

And the minor prophets ring the same changes.

Outlook in the New TestamentNow let's consider the Section of Outlook in the NewTestament.

Just as the Old Testament prophets foresaw thecross, so the New Testament prophet foresees the futurethrough the cross.

The author of the Book of Revelation, John,reminds us at the beginning that his revelation is, "Therevelation of Jesus Christ" (1:1 NIV). The future is to beseen and understood only in the light that shines fromChrist and his gospel. Christ is the Head of the church,and the church is his Body. Therefore, says John, whathappened to the Head will happen to the Body.

Corrupt religion and secular power united tocrucify Jesus. Thus, the experience of Christ's followerswill be that church and state will unite to try and eradi-cate them.

Jesus was finally delivered from death by his resur-rection. So God's people will suffer many trials, but willbe delivered at last when Jesus returns.

Christ has ascended to heaven. God's people will berestored to a new heavens and a new earth.

All because of Jesus. tJt:~§'