Coming to the Word of God

The great need of man is to hear from God about God.  As a soul-being created in His image, man has been granted an awareness that attests to the glory, wisdom, and power of his creator (Genesis 1-2/Psalm 19/Romans 1-3).  Man’s conscious sense of right and wrong also bears witness to a righteous judge who holds him responsible for his sin.  Man is created needing a voice outside of himself to tell him who he is… and why he is here… and where he is going.  Built into his self-conscious nature are questions of origin and existence and eternity. Plaguing his God-conscious soul, is the longing for a source of truth to answer his deepest needs, including his sense of guilt and shame.  Man needs a word from God, the God of eternity, who alone can address all that his soul yearns to know.  He needs a word that he can trust.

“In the beginning, God” introduces God’s self-revelation in the Scriptures.  God Himself begins where every man must begin in his search for reality.  While philosophy and tradition are born out of man’s quest to know, trustworthy revelation originates with the only one who knows firsthand and perfectly.  What man must know regarding his origin… his fallenness… his salvation… and his eternity is disclosed only in the Word of God.  God has spoken and is speaking in the Scriptures.  He has chosen to make Himself known to those who are made in His likeness.  He wants us to know Him and speaks that we might know who He is… and who we are… and why we are here… and what happened to this world… and where everything will end.

Where does this leave us?  Some have suggested that each individual approach the Scriptures as “a plain man” … that is, come to the Word of God in simple faith, ready to hear “as for the first time.”  This approach to the Word receives what is revealed without the complexities of various systematics or human traditions.  This approach frees us to come in childlike wonder and trust and embrace all that God has said, without “reading into” any passage our own assumptions or other men’s conclusions.  This approach begins in Genesis with eternity past, and advances forward to eternity future in the book of Revelation.  This approach instructs our souls and renews our minds and transforms our lives.  “In the beginning, God” is the way God chooses to speak and is the intended way for us to choose to listen.  May God’s approach in speaking be our approach in listening.  May God’s thoughts be our thoughts.  May God’s answers settle our questions.  May God’s living Word serve as the sieve through which we discern truth from error.  May God’s inspired Scriptures discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts and produce the image of Jesus Christ in us through saving grace.