I was accused one time of talking to hear myself talk.  Of course I took it with a grain of salt because the man who said it didn’t like what I was saying.  Now that is not to say I think I am always correct in my thinking.  But when I am talking about Scripture you had better use God’s Word to correct me or I probably will consider your opinion irrelevant.  I try to approach the Word of God carefully and reverently.  I consider it to be the last word on any subject, for it is the truth revealed to us.

If people only knew me, then they would know that I would rather not talk or write, because it is a difficult chore for me.  I write because I think people need to understand the truths in God’s Word or they will be subject to the lies of Satan.  Satan is not opposed to using the Word of God as long as he is in control of the direction of thought.  Cut and paste is his method and he is a master at twisting words to distort their original intention.  I am sure it is apparent to him just how hard it is to dislodge an idea that has taken root, regardless of its accuracy.  That is why we need to guard the accuracy of the Word of God as if our life depended on it, because it may.

If it seems that I am just rambling it is because I am frustrated.  I have just come from a discussion about the 7th and 8th chapters of Romans.  I have been confronted with what seems to me to be a most irrational defense of that persons understanding of these scriptures.  A denial of the actual meanings of the words of Scripture seemed to be a real barrier for our coming to unity of what this text was saying.  How do you even maintain a coherent conversation if the meanings of words change at our own whim?  If we can interpose any interpreted meaning to a group of scriptures, then for two people to gain a unified concept of what the scriptures mean is impossible.

In our discussion walking in the flesh became an option or a choice for Christians, even though it results in death, because Christians do it.  “Death isn’t that bad, it just means separation”.  ( My wife passed away 4 years ago.  I don’t tell people that we are separated, I tell them she died.)  Death is separation but the word death is used to denote the permanence of that separation.

I have always believed that God’s Word was written in a way that we as Christians could clearly understand what God required of us.  Because of my belief I just can’t dismiss the clear reading of a text, especially one that is instructing me.  Judging from the discussion that I have just had, and from others like it; Should I have confidence in the simple belief I just stated?  Or is everything up in the air and subject to interpretation?  If the Apostle Paul says he is talking about the law in the 7th chapter, can we interpose that he is also talking about the wisdom of our daily decisions too?  Can we after reading the first 6 chapters of Romans accept that Paul himself is  “sold into bondage to sin”, evil dwells within him, and he does what he doesn’t want to do and doesn’t do what he wants to do?  Unless we hold to fundamental rules of language the Scripture becomes irrational and we the students of the unexplainable.

But if we will submit to the clear reading of Scripture, humbling ourselves under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, then truth becomes evident, rational, logical, and good.  God and His Word remain unmovable it is we who must change.

For a more in-depth study of the seventh chapter of Romans look in, “Books and Papers”, and read “Freedom From Sin”.

Bob Gunderson