UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES

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For three and a half years Jesus preached, taught, healed, forgave sin, performed miracles, cast out demons, prophesied etc but He never did this one thing until after His resurrection from the dead.

⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. – Luke 24:45 NIV

This fact tells me that before their minds were opened, they couldn't understand the Scriptures, it’s not that they didn't know the Scriptures, no! This reminds me of another place where Jesus rebuked the Pharisees who were busy searching and studying the Scriptures. This is what Jesus said to them:

³⁹ You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me to have life.– John 5:39-40 NIV

Even though the Pharisees, the Priests and the Scribes could cite, paraphrase and quote the Scriptures every-which-way, they still didn't get it. They lacked an understanding of what they were reading, their minds were closed. They professed to live by the Scriptures but as it turns out, they were clueless.

You will recall that the Priests even showed Herod from Scripture, where the messiah would be born, but they didn't clue in that He was already born, they had information but hardly any revelation. Outside of Christ our minds are closed to the truth and revelation of the Word of God.

There was a time earlier when Jesus wanted to tell His disciple some things but He couldn't – not He wouldn't – because they were not ready to hear what He had to say; they simply wouldn't have understood Him. He was in a way limited in what He could share with them; so instead, this is what He said to them:

¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. – John 16:12-13 NIV

In Christ, our minds are opened to understand the Scriptures. He opens our minds to see Him in the Scriptures, just like He did on the road to Emmaus. Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus actually explained to them everything concerning himself (Luke 24:27), most likely they had heard all those accounts of Scripture before but never really knew what they exactly meant. No wonder their hearts burned as He unveiled himself to them through the Scriptures.

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Jesus is the Word of God that became flesh, so when the Holy Spirit opens our minds to understand the Scriptures, He is essentially revealing Jesus to us. May Christ, the Living Word, fill us with revelation and understanding in knowing Him, for it is His desire to continually reveal Himself to us as we spend time in the Word. The more we see Him in the Scriptures, the more we are transformed into His image and likeness and the more we reflect His glory.

When we study the Scriptures, let us determine to see Jesus in them and nothing else. It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will continue to reveal Jesus in a fresh and relevant way to us for He delights in revealing Jesus to us, in us and through us to the glory of God!