The gist of the devotional was to encourage the reader to read the “Word” daily.
Murray makes the statement “... the Lord Jesus learned, loved and obeyed the Word of the Father.” He capitalized the word “Word” making it a noun or a person. For some reason something didn't seem right about the statement. It seemed a little schizophrenic to me.
First of all, scripture clearly teaches us that Christ Jesus is the Word. Now if Jesus is the Word, then the bible cannot be the “Word” as so many preachers preach. Jesus is the Word. Nothing else is. Jesus is not a book. He is God incarnate.
Somewhere in the New Testament it is written that all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching righteousness. Think about this. When that was written, The New Testaments had not been compiled into a book, so the writer could not have been referencing the NT. The Old Testament was not even called that back then either. It was just Scripture. When Jesus quoted scripture he never gave the name of the book, he just said, “It is written...” and then paraphrased the scripture.
Try this. Find where Jesus quoted scripture and then go back and look at the text in the OT. I have never found it to match word for word. Scholars can give all kinds of reasons for this but it doesn't change the fact that Jesus didn't quote scripture with name of book, chapter and verse. If Jesus finds it NOT necessary to quote scripture exactly or even say where it was quoted from, then neither do I. I will give the references most of the time but I don't feel obligated.
Don't get me wrong, We should all study scripture - both the NT and OT. But it is not mandatory to maintain our salvation. Believing in the one whom the Father sent is the only requirement for salvation.
When we receive Jesus as our savior and invite Him in, we have everything we need. We don't need to “read the Word of God daily” because we have the Word of God living in us. We are now a new life-form that is both human and spirit. This new life is sustained not only by physical food, but also by the presence of our Lord living in us. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” is not an order to read the bible, but a statement of fact that Christ is our life. Do you remember where Paul wrote that he no longer lives, but Christ in him is his life?
We have to live this life in the flesh, but because Christ is eternal and our life is hidden in him, we have and are now living an eternal life.
Blessings,
Tom
