You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
15 And [kai] that [hoti] from [apo] a child [brephos] thou hast known [eido] the
holy [hieros] scriptures, [gramma] which [ho] are able [dunamai] to make [sophizo] thee [se] wise [sophizo] unto [eis] salvation [soteria] through
[dia] faith [pistis] which [ho] is in [en] Christ [Christos] Jesus. [Iesous] KJV-Interlinear
15 and that
from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you
the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. NASB
Scripture is the source of saving truth (Ps 19:7; Mark 4:14-20; John 5:24,39; James 1:18). The truth of the Word, when mixed with faith in Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, leads to spiritual life. In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul asks rhetorically, "How shall they [unbelievers] hear without a preacher?" (Rom 10:14), and later explains that "faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (v. 17). The Word presented by human witness is God's plan for reaching people with the gospel.
The women who heard Paul preach the Word of God at a Jewish place of prayer outside Philippi illustrate that pattern. Luke reports that "a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14). God has chosen believers to be His spokesmen to bring His saving truth to others.
Timothy had the privilege of hearing the Word through his family, because from childhood, or more literally "from infancy," he had been taught and had known the sacred writings. It was at the knees of his "grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice" (1:5) that he was led to saving faith, and it was in their lives that he first saw genuine godliness.
Among Greek-speaking Jews, of which there were many in the time of the early church, the Jewish Scriptures (our Old Testament) were often referred to as 'hieros' 'grammata' (the sacred writings). It was on those sacred writings that the faith of Lois and Eunice was built and on which the faith and devotion of Timothy was built as well. As they became exposed to New Testament truth, the reality of the Old Testament anticipation turned to realization. Remember that prior to the New Testament, only the Old Testament existed, and thus salvation was obtained through the knowledge of its teaching.
Timothy may not have had the constitutional strength of Paul and was more easily intimidated and discouraged. But he did not lack a foundation for strength of faith or character. Paul admonished him to hold on and to stand firm, but he never had to correct Timothy for faulty doctrine or sinful living. Both as a child under his mother and grandmother and as a young man under Paul, he had been taught well and had learned well. He was qualified to take the revelation he had heard from Paul "in the presence of many witnesses" and to "entrust it to faithful men, who would be able to teach others also" (2:2).
The faith of Timothy's grandmother Lois and his mother, Eunice, (1:5) were built on the Jewish Scriptures, the Old Testament, and it was on those sacred writings, that those women helped build the faith and devotion of Timothy.
This verse shows that the Old Testament clearly gives the wisdom that leads to salvation. From Genesis through Malachi, that wisdom reveals the holiness, majesty, and lovingkindness of God and His gracious offer of forgiveness and redemption from sin for those who trust in Him and not themselves and seek His grace and mercy.
The moral law was intended to set a righteous standard which no one could keep, thus confirming every person as a sinner under God's judgment. Since no one could be made righteous by the law, it rendered everyone doomed by guilt. Men were therefore in desperate need of grace and forgiveness, which God was eager to give to those who repented and asked. The sacrifices did not save Jews but showed that they recognized the fact that sin demands death.
Every sacrifice made under the Old Covenant depicted the ultimate, perfect, and complete sacrifice of the coming Savior, Jesus Christ, who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. . . . But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Heb 7:27; 9:11-12)
Even before it occurred, the death of Jesus Christ provided the satisfaction of divine justice by which God could forgive the penitent. Even before the death of Jesus, salvation was available by grace through faith alone - based on the perfect sacrifice that was yet to be made on the cross.
In the time of Nehemiah a spiritual awakening began in Israel when the people turned to God's Word for wisdom and spiritual renewal. Faced with a new awareness of their sin and of the Lord's holiness, they confessed their sin and sought His forgiveness. By God's mercy, they began to worship with divinely cleansed hearts and in genuine reverence and praise, (Neh 8:1-3; 9:2-3; 10:28-29)
In the parable of the sower, given before the New Testament was written, Jesus explained that "the seed is the word of God" and that the several types of soil represent the different ways in which people respond to God's Word (Luke 8:4-15). The power of the Word has always brought salvation, but its effectiveness in doing so depends on the condition of each heart. The only ones who hear it and understand the wisdom of the Word are "the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance" (v. 15). For them, it leads to salvation.
The heart and soul of effective evangelism, therefore, is the faithful preaching, teaching, and witnessing of the truth as it is revealed in Scripture. That is the only "seed" the Lord will bless and bring to fruition. When "a certain lawyer," that is, a scribe, "stood up and put Jesus to the test, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'" the Lord replied, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" (Luke 10:25-26). In other words, the source of truth regarding eternal life is Scripture and only Scripture. The truth of Scripture invariably brings a genuine, Spirit-prompted seeker to salvation. This salvation is not by works but through faith placed in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:19-28; 10:9-10; Eph 2:8-9).
The Lord Himself declared that fact unequivocally, saying to unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem, "The Father who sent Me, He has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. And you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me" (John 5:37-39). In other words, any Jew, or Gentile, who had faith in God the Father would also have faith in the Son. In the same way, anyone who truly believed the Old Testament Scriptures would have faith in the Son, because they "bear witness" to Him. "For if you believed Moses," that is, the five books of the Law, Jesus went on to say, "you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me" (v. 46). "The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ," Paul explains, "that we may be justified by faith" (Gal 3:24).
Peter also used the figure of a seed to represent Scripture, both of the Old and New Testaments. After reminding believers that they had "been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God," he quoted from Isaiah, saying, "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord abides forever." It was the same saving truth, the same "word," he went on to say, "which was preached to you" (1 Peter 1:23-25; Isa 40:6-8).
Because Joseph and Mary genuinely trusted in God through His revelation in the Old Testament, they believed - even before Jesus' birth - that the Messiah and Savior, the very Son of God, would be miraculously born through Mary, just as the angels told them (Matt 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38). Because they genuinely trusted in God through His revelation in the Old Testament, both Simeon and Anna acknowledged and trusted in Jesus as the Christ, the prophesied Redeemer of Israel and Savior of the world, while He was still an infant (Luke 2:21-38).
It was because he trusted in God and was seeking to understand His revelation through the prophet Isaiah that the Ethiopian eunuch immediately believed Philip's testimony, placed his faith in Christ, and was saved (Acts 8:26-39). It was because they genuinely trusted in God and sought to understand His will that 'certain' Jews in Berea "received the word [of Paul and Silas] with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so, . . . [and] therefore believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men" (Acts 17:11-12).
To avoid the false trust against which Jesus warned - of trusting the knowledge of Scripture itself to give eternal life (John 5:39) - Paul, like his Lord, makes clear that the words in sacred writings do not in themselves have power to save but rather that the wisdom they impart leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Like many Christians in the early church, Timothy and his mother and grandmother believed under both covenants. They had repented and sought the grace and mercy of forgiveness from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Moses, David, and Elijah. And when they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, then - like Joseph, Mary, Simeon, and Anna - they knew that God's great promise of the Messiah-Redeemer had been fulfilled, and they immediately believed in Him as Savior and Lord.
Just as were the men and women mentioned in Heb 11, every Old Testament saint was saved through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Although their spiritual understanding was limited, they were like their "father Abraham, [who] rejoiced to see [Christ's] day, and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56), and like Moses, who considered "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt" (Heb 11:26). Whatever they may have known or not known about the coming Messiah (1 Peter 1:10-12), they understood that He would come to suffer for their sins as the sacrifice that would satisfy God. John summed up godly Jewish anticipation when, upon first seeing Jesus, he exclaimed, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). (MacArthur New Testament Commentary)
And so as so many others were saved because of the information written in the Old Testament, and prior to the writing of the new Testament, so too, many can be led to salvation based on the writing of the New Testament. But it is not the written words that save, but the faith exhibited in Christ as a result of learning and understanding those written words which are learned through the hearing of the Word.
But the spiritual life does not stop with salvation. That is only a beginning. And we will get to that tomorrow.
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Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.
