Another Bible Commentary: Introduction

Dedication

To O: Keep reading; it gets better. If something in the Bible is weird, other verses within a page or so of it usually explain it. The more “laps” through the Bible you complete, the more connections you will find.

Special Thanks

To my editor: Your attention to detail and thoughtful feedback vastly improved this book. Your dedication and expertise are truly appreciated!

Introduction

This is by no means meant to be exhaustive. The following study guide/review is cobbled together from sermons, commentaries, other believers, and the Spirit pointing out connections between verses. I intend to offer it for free to everyone; a bibliography would have cost you extra. I am hesitant to write this down since I still find new things all the time, but maybe this will give someone a head start. There are so many of these commentaries out there, but I feel compelled to add one more to the pile because so few of them “get” God’s grace. There are plenty that sell what Paul would dismiss as “another Gospel” of works, so here’s Another Bible Commentary in favor of sticking with grace. I intend to review the entire Bible, but for new readers a good way to get started would be with the Gospel of John, John's letters (1 John, 2 John, and 3 John), what I'll loosely call "Paul and Friends' Letters to Mostly Gentile Churches" (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians), and then Hebrews. Rather than trying to read the whole Bible in a certain amount of time, I wish I had re-read that material as much as necessary to fully appreciate Jesus and what I am because of what He has done for me. Then, I would have been reading the rest knowing what it all leads to. Looking for hints and early appearances of Christ in the Old Testament (like Luke 24 suggests) is also fun. Scripture as a whole teaches us about Him; for example, humans need the breath of God, the Word, in them to be truly alive (Genesis 2:7, Genesis 2:17, Job 34:14-15, Ezekiel 37:9, John 1:1-4, John 3:5-8, John 17:20-26, 1 Corinthians 15:21-23, etc.).

A fun game to play with popular Bible commentaries is "What New Testament Verse Says the Opposite of What This Says". For example, let’s look at Psalm 80:3,7,19: "Turn us again to yourself, O God, Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved." One of the writers of the bestselling NLT Study Bible notes looks at this appeal to God for the help that only He can give us and focuses the reader right back onto their own works again instead, saying: "Before God can turn us to himself, we must turn away from sin. Repentance involves humbling ourselves and turning to God to receive his forgiveness. As we turn to God, he helps us see ourselves, including our sin, more clearly. Then, as we see our sin, we must repeat the process of repentance. Only then can we constantly be restored to fellowship with God." That line of thinking condemns everyone to Hell. We all stumble in many ways (James 3:2), no one’s memory or legal pad is good enough to catch all their sins, and obedience to God is an all-or-nothing proposition (James 2:10). God doesn’t forgive based on apologies; He accepts blood (Hebrews 9:22). We already had behavior improvement with John the Baptist; Jesus is better. The New Covenant is based on Jesus’ obedience (2 Corinthians 5:21), the once-for-all forgiveness earned by His sacrifice (Hebrews 10:1-18), and His indestructible life (Hebrews 7:25), not our efforts and hopes that God grades on a curve. If you’ve given up any notion of entitlement based on your own righteousness and asked Him to save you, He has, and you shouldn’t worry about “falling out of fellowship” with Someone you share a Spirit with (1 Corinthians 6:17), that lives in you, and is united with you (John 17:23). Colossians 2:13-15 says you’re already forgiven and the records where your sins would be recorded are destroyed. It is living in the reality of your perfect cleansing (Hebrews 10:14) that makes sinning undesirable anymore (2 Peter 1:9).

It is a pet peeve of mine to find the invitation to eternal life buried in an appendix at the back of Christian books. Up front, know that Jesus Christ is way, way better at being the Savior than all of us are at being sinners combined. If you think you've ruined God's plan for your life, you're just not that powerful. He's at the door, knocking. He won't force His way in, but if you ask Jesus to save you, He will. For us (including you), God became human, died on a cross in our place, rose from the dead never to die again, and sat down on His throne in Heaven; He prayed that we who believe would be where He is, and in Christ we are. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, He has changed who you are. Among the things the Bible teaches us: We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, because none of us could make it on our own merit (Ephesians 2:8-9). We will forever be an example of God’s mercy (Ephesians 2:7). Whosoever believes in Jesus will not perish, but has eternal life (John 3:16). If it could be lost, it would not be eternal. The one work God requires is believing the Son (John 6:29), and we who believe will not come into judgment but have already passed from death into life (John 5:24 and Romans 8:1). We have been washed, cleaned, set apart for Him (1 Corinthians 6:11 and Hebrews 10:10); by His one offering He has made us perfect forever (Hebrews 10:14). We stand flawless in the presence of God thanks to the blood of Christ (Colossians 1:22). We can boldly approach the throne of Grace assured of His glad welcome (Ephesians 3:12), for His perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Anything that could separate us from Him, He has done away with at the Cross, and it can't get any farther away from us (Romans 8:38-39). In Psalm 103, the Bible calls that distance "as far as the East is from the West." He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). He who began the good work within us is carrying us on to completion, right on up to the day He returns (Philippians 1:6). When we see Him at the end, in our new bodies no longer under the influence of Sin, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2) but He has already placed a new obedient heart, a new spirit, and His own Holy Spirit within us (Ezekiel 36:26-27 and John 14:16-17). We are as much aliens in this world now, on the inside, as Jesus Christ was during His earthly ministry (John 17:16). We have been crucified with Christ; our old selves live no longer, our past is gone, and He lives through us now (Galatians 2:20). Outside of time, God in His omniscience looked down through the whole timeline of your sins, even the ones you haven’t committed yet, and destroyed the record (Colossians 2:13-14). He’s not keeping score (Hebrews 8:12), and the performance-based deal is over (Hebrews 8:13). He who knew no sin became Sin, so we became the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). You couldn’t out-sin His grace if you tried to (Romans 5:20, Hebrews 7:25), but you won’t because you are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17-19; 1 John 3:6, 9). The Bible calls starting out by faith but then trying to finish by our own fleshly works foolish (Galatians 3:2-3). Instead we trust Jesus; He did it all (Galatians 3:11-14). His work is finished (John 19:30 and Hebrews 10:10-14).

The first two-thirds of the Bible mostly pertains to the Old Covenant of human works and failure, but promises of Jesus and the New Covenant can be found all along the way. Before we get too deep into the Old Covenant, the behavior expectations for New Covenant Christians are generally summarized as believe in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, love one another as Jesus demonstrated in John 13 (love in Hebrew or hesed is less about fuzzy feelings than loyal actions like helping each other, not cheating each other, not speaking ill of each other, etc.), and be led by the Spirit living in you (who will guide you in a way of life that pleases our eternally consistent Father; this life therefore looks like Galatians 5:22-23 and avoids behaviors that got people that were not even under the Law of Moses like the Canaanites destroyed; we’ll cover more about that in Acts 15).

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