The following principles come from T. Austin-Sparks.
1. The Eternity Of God
The first principle of the interpretation of the Bible is the eternity of God. We must always remember that all time is present time with God. There is no past and future with God: all that is past and future with us has been present with God always. At any moment in what is time to us, eternity is present with God.
The architect always has the completed plan before him. If he is the designer of a ship, he has a model made of that ship before anything is done. He sees in the model the completed object, that is, exactly how the thing will appear when it is finished. If it is a great building, or even a city, it is the same. The architect draws what we call a scale model, and he sees in that model exactly how the building, or the city, will be when it is finished. The builder works day by day according to that completed plan. Those who only see the parts cannot understand, and must not take the parts as being the whole. Sometimes when you look at the parts of a building, you cannot for the life of you understand what it is going to be. It is only as the completed thing is seen that you can understand the parts.
2. The Comprehensiveness Of Christ
Christ is the interpretation of all the Bible, to know Christ is to understand the Bible. Men like Peter and Paul knew the Bible, but they did not understand it until they knew the Lord Jesus. We first know the Lord Jesus, and then we take Him back into the Bible, and He is the interpretation of the Bible. Therefore, we cannot really understand the Bible until we know the Lord Jesus. That results in this – that the Bible is really a Person, and not a book. The Bible is a Living Person, and not a dead letter. Because this Person is inexhaustible, He makes the Bible inexhaustible.
Now that is a more important principle than perhaps you realize. It is possible to exhaust the Bible as a book. We have known great Bible teachers who went through the Bible teaching it again and again, but at the end of their lives they were having difficulty in finding something fresh; and they were only repeating again and again things that they had said in past years. The reason for this is that they dealt with the Bible as a book. That will never happen if you know the Lord Jesus and see the Bible in Him, and Him in the Bible. I repeat that the Lord Jesus can never be exhausted. As the Holy Spirit reveals the Lord Jesus to us, the Bible is always more alive.
3. The Interpreter Of The Bible Is The Holy Spirit
Now we come to number three: the interpreter of the Bible is the Holy Spirit. I have said that Jesus is the interpretation of the Bible. I am saying now that the Holy Spirit is the INTERPRETER of the Bible. We are familiar with the words in the Letter to the Corinthians, but let us just look at them again now. The First letter to the Corinthians, chapter two and verse thirteen: “Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”
Now I do not know if you have marginal references in your Bible but the more correct translation of those words is this: “interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men.” Let us read the whole passage again in that way:
Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Spirit teaches; interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men.
4. The Final Mention
The final mention of any particular matter in the Bible is usually a key to all its meaning. That is something that we must think about! We find certain things mentioned again and again in the Bible; but when we come to the final occasion where that thing is mentioned, we usually find the key to all that has been said about that matter before. If you take a particular matter, where it is mentioned for the last time, and then note the setting and the context and the relationship, you will get the full meaning of all that has been said about that before.
Now that is a statement that I have made, and you will need to think and to work on that, but I will help you by taking just one illustration. In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation twenty-two and verse two, we have the last reference to “the tree of life.”Now when we go right back to the beginning of the Bible, we have “the tree of life”mentioned, but we are told nothing about it – it is just referred to as something that exists. We have no explanation, we are not told what that tree is, or what it means; it is just referred to as “the tree of life.” We have to go to the end of the Bible for the explanation, and when we come to this last chapter of the Bible, by the context and relationship, we have a very large explanation.
5. The Only Real Value Is The Spiritual
We must remember this when we are reading and studying the Bible, and we must keep this in mind in these times in which we are together. We must not come here just with a thirst for more information or a craving for more knowledge. There are people who just want to get more and more knowledge and education. Now that constitutes a danger. That is exactly how Adam was caught. You see, Satan said: “If you take of this tree, you will know”; it was “the tree of knowledge.” And there is always a danger in eating of that tree. It might just lead us into death and not into life. So, I repeat this principle of Biblical interpretation: the only real value is the spiritual. And spiritual value is just how something affects our life with God! I do wish that Adam had recognized that! When Satan tempted him to take of “the tree of knowledge,” if only Adam had said, “How will this affect my life with God?” he, and we, should have been saved all the trouble.
If Christ is the interpretation of the Bible, then the spiritual knowledge of the Bible results in an increase of Christ. If our days together do not result in an increase of the measure of Christ, we have missed the Way. If we do not go away more Christ-like men and women, with a larger measure of the Lord Jesus, this training course has failed. So I beg of you to pray all the way through that this time together may mean SPIRITUAL INCREASE and not intellectual enlargement, but SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.
~ T. Austin-Sparks
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Thank you. Wonderful!
Thanks for sharing these Frank. You’ve brought up a few principles I’m sure many Christians have never heard of. I personally never realized the principle of the “Final Mention” until this post. In that principle, the “context and relationship of matters” is brought up. This adds a fairly difficult layer to applying this principle because in all cases, the original context and relationship provide a different interpretation than I would bring when reading the Bible.
This tells me that my treatment of the Bible should not be as a book of casual reading, but as a resource to be studied on a deeper level. I have to figure out a way to transplant myself from my world into that world, extrapolate the eternal meaning there, then come back to my world and let that knowledge affect my life with God. Thanks for helping us go deeper in our understanding of this process.
Here’s one that I like;
“We don’t pull the text off the page…we pull the gospel out of the text.”
Some good insights here to look at the Scriptures in a different way.
I would like to add a little to number one. While our Lord’s sense of time is above ours, I see him very much living in the present with as we live out each moment. Exodus 32:11:14 Moses petitions God to adjust his plan and he does. Jeremiah 1:12 He is active/alert/watchful over his word to cause it to come to pass. He works with people to do it. The idea of a known/set future can be daunting at times and bring forth a rather hands off approach concerning our involvement in our father’s plans. However, I for one, am excited by God’s knowledge of the future, and also my involvement in it.
I like this a lot. I might switch numbers 1 and 2, simply because we know what the eternity of God is like through Jesus. Also, maybe we should emphasize which Jesus is the interpretation of the Bible. That sounds strange, but most people I know who disagree vehemently about biblical interpretation claim that Jesus is their interpretive key. So, how do we come to widely different interpretations? Maybe the point we should emphasize is on the Road to Emmaus, where Jesus opens the Scriptures to Cleopas and his friend. Jesus comes to them, and to the rest of his disciples, all of whom in one sense or another betrayed or abandoned him, and offered them forgiveness. And that’s the way he comes to us. Jesus interprets the Scriptures through the Spirit of forgiveness. He is the Forgiving Victim. The Holy Spirit is that Spirit of forgiveness, which would mean that God’s eternity should be interpreted in that Spirit, too.
My husband and I were introduced to TAS thru David Wilkerson and Leornard Ravenhill when they put out their collection series “The Refiner’s Fire” 20+ years ago. What a blessing that was to a couple of dumb Bible college students!
I think this is a great post – thanks – it’s always time to find your roots (the root of Jesse who is the banner that we rally to).
I had never heard the ‘last mention’ thing before – it’s timely to me. I had been taught the ‘first mention’ was something you really need to pay attention to – often not understanding the first mention of a thing.
I read somewhere that the Wesleys read scripture on their knees. I think we always need to pray for a spiritual of wisdom and revelation when reading. It’s still so easy to get side tracked down the my own understanding road.
Great points! Thanks for sharing!
Good one, as usual, Frank.
I find T. Austin-Sparks writings helpful and profound.
I like all the principles above. Personally, I found #3 very helpful. I think it is important to listen to God as we read and study our Bibles, like Mary sitting at Jesus feet (Luke 10:42). Give God the first go at telling you what a verse or passage means and don’t rush to commentaries to tell you what to think.
Thank you for these 5 principles to keep at the forefront when studying and learning…and most of all for the 5th reminder…knowledge is nothing if it doesn’t lead to love, humility and faith in Christ and then acted out by us from Christ 🙂
“SPIRITUAL INCREASE and not intellectual enlargement” -yes!- One of the most impactful things that I heard, after many years of learning, was the distinction between knowing ABOUT Christ (knowledge) and KNOWING Christ (His life in me)- and to let (permit) His Mind to be in mine.
This is great & helpful – thank you!
“SPIRITUAL INCREASE and not intellectual enlargement, but SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE” … powerful words. Thank you.
To John Morris: I’m sure Frank will have an opinion and comment as to why certain writers and writings have remained ‘hidden’ so long—- personally, I think it is evident testimony that the enemy is still at work! I remember being exposed by my former pastor, Ron Dunn, to people, and their writings, through good old Keswick type Bible Conferences, usually put on by people like Jack Taylor, Peter Lord, DeVern Fromke, Miles Stanford, Bertha Smith, Charles Culpepper, et al, who introduced me to the writings of A.B.Simpson, F. J. Huegel, Ian Thomas, A. Murray, Watchman Nee, TAS, et al, etc… all of which pointed out that there was “More, Much More” than what most of us were experiencing——– and the enemy doesn’t like that!! So he used, and still uses, ‘main-stream churchianity’ to put a damper on knowing what it’s all about. But, He (our blessed Lord) is still raising up folks to whom He still reveals Himself!! PTL, thanks Frank: keep it up, just don’t get lost in ‘side lines’!
“We have known great Bible teachers who went through the Bible teaching it again and again, but at the end of their lives they were having difficulty in finding something fresh; and they were only repeating again and again things that they had said in past years. ” The problem with these Bible teachers, and many of us Bible readers, is that we are stuck in our perspectives, so we always have the same view. It’s like looking out the same window everyday and hoping to see a different scene. On the other hand, what if we decide to look out a different window and get a new perspective? Might that shake up our idea of Christianity? our precious’theology’? Now THAT’S uncomfortable!
I went from being a Bible teacher to someone who made a decision to NOT read the Bible anymore until I could read it with fresh eyes. I was discouraged when I read it, especially because I knew that Jesus had more to reveal to me, but I wasn’t able to see it because I needed to get ‘unstuck’.
Praise God, I’m seeing new things now, wondrous things, when I read the Word. But the process of getting to this place required a heavy dose of reality, a lot of letting go and a great deal of courage.
Great Post Frank. Thank you for introducing us to Mr. Sparks. I love his writings!
John 5:39-40
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
Still the mother sin of the church: boredom with Jesus, being all about His “things” (like the Bible), while missing HIM,
TAS truly saw with prophetic eyes, who Christ really was. Kinda like Paul did…
Thanks Frank.
Great points!
I love your perception on this, It might be true.
Only the Living Word can provide Life to the written word.
Frank thanks for sharing this, I do love me some TAS. I am very grateful to you for bring TAS into my life several years ago. I am amazed so often at how many brothers and sisters in Christ I talk with who have never heard of him. I put him as equal to Tozer who most have heard of and read, yet almost none know of TAS. This baffles me, can you explain why his life and writings have remained “hidden” from so many for so long. Thanks again. John Morris.
I agree with the above comment. I too have been amazed at the writings of TAS and am reading his books more than any others at this time (with the Bible of course). The humility and concern that comes through in his writing is soooo refreshing.