Okay, so
One Meaning, One Full Sense
how many meanings to a passage are there? There can be a lot of interpretations out there. You read some of the parables or the sermons and there's like 15 different ways it's explained. So who to believe?
Some people just throw up their hands and feel like it's not worth getting into because there's so many things. People can be confused around it. Yeah, that's another good question, a very good question. Perhaps the backdrop is chapter 1 in our confession.
I don't see that referenced in the question itself, but chapter 1, paragraph 9 says, ìThe infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself, and therefore when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture, which is not manifold but one, it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly. î So, how many meanings to a passage are there? There's one meaning that the Spirit intended for us to get. Now, having said that, the idea of manifold means many and various. Manifold does not mean, or in this context, many or various.
There's not many or various meanings, but that particular meaning can be full, more complex. There might be things going on that, you know, further study, further interpretation of Scripture will help you to see. It's not that there's a new meaning in that passage, but there's a fuller meaning that you perhaps didn't see the first time. And I think a good example might be, you know, the first time Bible reader opens his Bible to Genesis and he starts reading.
And he reads, you know, that first day, he figures, I'm going to read for however many minutes, and he reads Genesis 1 to 3. Now, he's going to learn a lot about God, about creation, about man, and it's going to be a benefit to him. Now, he continues on in his reading, and he gets eventually to Romans chapter 5. And there in Romans chapter 5, he learns that Adam was a type of Christ.
Now, Adam doesn't become a type of Christ when that man reads Romans 5. Adam didn't become a type of Christ when Paul wrote Romans chapter 5. But Adam in the garden is functioning as a type of Christ. more going on than just a surface-level survey of the text. It's not a different meaning, it's not an altogether unconnected meaning, but there might be more going on in a passage than initially meets the eye.
And that's the beauty of Bible study, right? That's the glory of our God as He has revealed Himself propositionally in the 66 books of the Bible. I mean, I hope that none of us ever get to the point where we read Genesis to Revelation and say, well, I'm done. No, you've only just begun.
You start reading, you keep reading, and you're not discovering new meaning that has never been discovered before. You're not discovering new meaning that the Holy Spirit just inserted then, but you're discovering the various connections that Scripture has that you never saw before. So, there is one meaning, the meaning that the Holy Spirit intended, but the meaning that the Holy Spirit intended can be connected in a multitude of ways and shed light on a whole host of doctrines that you weren't familiar with previously. So, when our confession says, which is not manifold but one, it's absolutely correct, but that does not negate the fact that the full sense of any of those one texts can be connected and developed further or seen in other ways to shine the light upon various truths.
Exegesis Versus Eisegesis
The key is not bringing our interpretation, our meanings to it, but making sure it's coming out of the text. That's right. The difference between exegesis and eisegesis. Exegesis is we lead out of the text the meaning that the Spirit intended for us.
Eisegesis is when we bring the meaning to the text and we insert it. And, you know, unfortunately that happens a lot. It happens in preaching, it happens in personal Bible study, it happens in the kinds of Bible studies where, you know, you go around the table, what does this text mean to me? It doesn't matter what the text means to me unless it's right and that's what the Spirit intended for it.
So we need to be careful that we don't bring preconceptions, we don't bring our pet doctrines, we don't bring, you know, what we'd like for the Bible to say to the Bible and then make it say that. Put it on the torture rack and, you know, crank it up and, you know, make it yield the interpretation that we're looking for. That's not the way to do good Bible study. Yeah.
Yeah. I just, I've heard sermons where They can take a different text, but it's really the same three-point sermon attached to that text, which is can be. But yeah, there can be mentally, we can have a lot of layers in our mind over it. So, it can take a while to strip those layers away and get back to what is God saying here.
That's right. And, you know, we never should dismiss, you know, this principle of interpretation that's given to us in the confession here. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself. And therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense, notice that language, full sense.
Again, you get that Adam was made by God in Genesis 1 to 3. You get in Romans 5 that God made Adam to function typically with reference to the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, the confession itself, highlighting it's not manifold but one, uses the terminology true and full sense. It's recognizing there's more going on at times than just the surface level meaning of the text.
And then it says it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly. So the Scripture is its best interpreter. Now, having said that,
Creeds, Confessions, and Gifted Teachers
that does not mean that we can't read the creeds and the confessions of the ancient church. That does not mean that we don't read the books. or listen to the sermons that have been given that are consistent with the Word of God in accordance with Christ's purpose for the church. He ascended on high. He led captivity captive.
He gave gifts to men. He gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers. Why? To equip the saints, to bring maturity in the church.
So, you know, 1-9 does not exclude the study of outside the Bible resources. Christ gave gifts to educate people so that they might understand the Bible better. And if we don't want those gifts, then we've got a problem, ultimately, with the one who gave the gifts. This idea that, you know, me and my Bible alone, You know, that's a noble venture.
It's a noble intention. But your Bible tells you that Jesus gave man to help you understand the Bible. So it seems a bit disingenuous at some point. Yeah.
I'm happy with all that.