Letting the Word Loose
Whenever the Word of God comes, it is an end to business as usual. Some people taste life, others taste death, and there is conflict between the quick and the dead. God sends confusion to those who have chosen death, and gives miraculous persevering strength to those who have chosen life. Eventually, the wicked are judged and the redeemed are gathered around God. God lets His Word loose among us to create new life, thresh out the husks and gather the wheat into His barn. He calls the sheep out from the goats and brings them home. He disturbs us to bring us true rest.
Jesus’ parables were a two-edged sword. They forced the believers to wrestle with spiritual truths. They also confused and incited the unbelievers to a showdown that would expose their true natures and hasten their destruction. The Bible is the same. It is living water or a cup of destruction depending upon who is drinking.
The Bible is not an easy book to understand. It takes time, discipline, meditation, a childlike imagination — and the indispensable guidance of the Spirit. God sent it not just as spiritual food but also as a regular workout that brings strength and maturity. Like Jacob, we are to wrestle with it, obeying in faith what we have already learned before God reveals any more. It is a process deliberately designed by God to align us to His way of thinking, to make us wise and mature, able to judge between good and evil. — Michael Bull, Totus Christus: A Biblical Theology of the Whole Christ, 9.