Today, while my wife and I were walking down the road, we were stopped by a man we know who wanted to chat for a bit and catch up. One of the questions he asked us was what we’ve been reading lately. Rachel told him about the book My Dear Hemlock by Tilly Dillehay, a book based on C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters; and I talked about about C. S. Lewis and John Calvin. Since that conversation, I’ve been thinking about what these authors have in common.
John Calvin and C. S. Lewis had great differences in their theology, but as C. S. Lewis showed in the Screwtape Letters (though he applied this to spiritual warfare), the details matter, and we often write things off as chance or happenstance when something much bigger and more important is happening; and Calvin not only believed this about spiritual warfare, but also about the whole Bible and the whole of life. If God is completely sovereign, and He is, then their is no such thing as chance or happenstance. In one way or another all things are a part of God’s grand plan. And that was crucial to how Calvin understood the Bible—as a revealing of the grand plan of redemption in Christ. And likewise, that is tied to how he understood all of life and creation—as the theater for God’s glory in Christ.
I bring this up simply to encourage you to have Biblical Eyes, or Bible Eyes. As Dillehay and Lewis point out, we have a real enemy who is actively working to lead us astray. And as Calvin pointed out, God is totally sovereign and working all things together for His glory, the good of His people, and the life of His world. So, keep that in mind when you look at God’s Word, God’s world, and your life. Everything matters. All the details matter. As John Piper has said, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” But don’t be scared to stop and take notice from time to time.
The Jesus Storybook Bible emphasizes again and again that every story in the Bible whispers the name of Jesus (some louder than others). In other words, the whole Bible is about Jesus and God’s grand plan of redemption in Christ. Every detail of every passage ties back to and participates in God’s covenantal redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And we would do well to read our Bibles through these redemptive-historical, Christ-centered lenses. But likewise, we would do well to read our lives through the same lenses. Filter your life through the Words and grand narrative of the Bible (the forest and the trees). And remember, God is completely sovereign… so there are no accidents, chance, or happenstance. And though our enemy is always scheming and prowling around, always up to something evil… God is always up to something good, and working all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (His grand and glorious plan).
In his book Through New Eyes, James Jordan says, “our purpose is to get into the Bible and become as familiar as possible with the Bible’s own worldview, language, and thought forms. Our purpose is to learn to think the way people thought in Bible times, so that we see the world through new eyes—through Bible eyes.” May the Lord give us such eyes to see His Word, His world, and our lives. Amen.