How much reverence do you need to pay to the actual book as it is God’s Word?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘Where Did the New Testament Come From?’ (2006).

Well, if I were talking to a Muslim, I would try to remember his sensibilities and I wouldn't put the Bible on the floor. I wouldn't put another book on top of the Bible because he has that kind of reverence for the Qur'an. Even if he's never read it he will not put it on the floor, he'll never put another book on top of the Qur'an and he thinks that if you believe the Bible is inspired you wouldn't put it on the floor or put another book on top of it. So I would try to remember that.

The extreme for that is, if you gave a Bible to Russians in the 1990s, for instance—when many of them had not seen a Bible all their lives through, because they were forbidden under Marxism—they would have kissed it, put it on the shelf along with the icons, bowed down to it and prayed to it each night; but they wouldn't read it, many of them. That is superstition. We show our reverence for God's word by reading it humbly, asking God for understanding of it and allowing the Lord to speak through it to us. We're not to treat it superstitiously.

Secondly, there is a mistake that we can make in dealing with Scripture. Our Lord pointed it out to the Jews:

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. (John 5:39–40)

That is true; many of the Pharisees studied Scripture and they study it still, because they will tell you that studying Scripture is a meritorious deed and the more you study it the more likely you are to get into heaven at last, by dint of the fact you just studied Scripture. Studying Scripture is a way to achieve eternal life. Our Lord made the point to them, 'You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life,' and in that sense, that is not true. There are many liberal, modernist theologians in universities that study Scripture and they're not believers. Some of them are atheists of course, self-confessed atheists. 'The function of the Scriptures,' says our Lord, 'is that they bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.' It's the Lord Jesus that gives eternal life. I can't get eternal life apart from him, just by studying the Bible as a book.

There was an Irish preacher—I used to enjoy his preaching, because he was quite a theologian in his way, but he was so comical it was difficult not to burst out laughing in the middle of his sermon. I heard him preach on a number of occasions. He used this illustration: Suppose you saw me out in the middle of the country and I was clinging my arms around a signpost. As you halted the car, you think, 'What on earth is he doing, hugging this signpost?' So you stop the car and come over to me and say,

'Hello Gooding. Just interested in what you were doing hugging that signpost.'

'It's obvious, isn't it?' I say. 'Here is Enniskillen—it says so, look—I've got Enniskillen! That's what I wanted when I set out, and now I've got Enniskillen.'

You say, 'So you've got Enniskillen?'

'Yes, and I can tell you how long Enniskillen is; it's got eleven letters in it. That's Enniskillen.'

You would say, 'That's very nice. Tell me, have you been feeling altogether well this last week or two? That isn't Enniskillen—that's a signpost to Enniskillen!'

Scripture is a God-given signpost to Christ and I can't get eternal life without coming to Christ. Some people, like the Pharisees, make that mistake. A lot of academic theology makes a similar mistake. They study Scripture, but they will not come to Christ. On the other hand, Christ says to his disciples when they wouldn't come with him, 'The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life' (John 6:63).

You say, 'Well how does that fit in with what he said in chapter 5?'

In chapter 5 he is pointing out the folly of those who read Scripture but won't come to Christ, of whom it speaks. In chapter 6 he's saying that his very words that he speaks, they are spirit and they are life. So that God not merely inspired the Gospels, but as we read them Christ speaks to us still. He didn't only speak two thousand years ago and inspire the apostles and the evangelists to write down what he said, God speaks still through his word. When Christ speaks to our hearts, his words are spirit and they are life. It's a question of developing a balanced attitude.