Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 43)
Part Three – The Nature of the Second Coming
Chapter 7 – How the Bible Describes Truth (continued)
The Language of Sight and Sound
The issue of parables brings us face to face with the fact that we use the language of sight and sound in two distinct senses. For Jesus said, in justifying His use of parables, “while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear.” He is using the same word in two different
senses. Otherwise, His expression is self-contradictory, right? For how can you see and not see simultaneously? Obviously, what He meant was that people were seeing Him physically but not seeing Him spiritually (that is, not understanding who He was). They were hearing Him physically but not hearing Him spiritually (that is, getting His words but not getting His meaning).
These two different senses in which the language of sight and sound is used are not just found in the Bible but are common to all human speech. We go back and forth in our own conversations without giving the transitions a moment of thought. One minute we ask, “Do you see my new ring?” and the next minute, “Do you see what I mean?” We never stop to explain that we are switching the sense in which we are using the word “see.” We don’t have to. People pick it up from the context. Likewise, when the drill sergeant booms in your ear, “Do you hear me?” he is not asking if your auditory nerves are registering the reverberations of his vocal chamber. He wants to know if you understand him. Therefore, when we read Jesus saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” we can understand what He means because we speak this
way ourselves. Any parent knows that children are able to hear without actually hearing.
Since the purpose of the Bible is to help us understand God (that is, to see what He means) we will see the language of sight and sound used a great deal – and in both senses. We took an example from Jesus; let’s take one from Paul.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20
Paul is talking about us “clearly seeing” things (“attributes”) that are invisible. Isn’t that contradictory? Only if you deny the fact that in the Bible, as well as in everyday life, people constantly use the words about seeing and hearing in two different senses, with the context determining which sense is intended. Of course, what Paul means when he says we “see” God’s attributes is that we understand them, which in this verse he explicitly states, using the
expression “being understood”.
(This section of the chapter to be continued tomorrow)
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