By Weixiang

One evening, Brother Gao was rushing along, gripping the Bible and hurrying to the home of Brother Gui …

When he got there, the two of them sat down on the couch.

Brother Gao opened the Bible and said, “Brother Gui, I’ve come across a problem in my reading of the Bible and I don’t know how to solve it. I feel like this problem is key to us obtaining eternal life through our faith in the Lord, so I hurried over to seek the answer with you.”

Brother Gui smiled and said, “OK. Tell me all about it.”

Brother Gao then said, “We all know that the Bible is the cannon of Christianity and that all Christians must read it. Whether we are attending gatherings, performing our spiritual devotions, preaching the gospel or giving sermons, we always have to adhere to the Bible. Therefore, we could say that the Bible is a part of our life that we could not be without. God’s previous works are recorded in the Bible as well as the testimonies of many people. We firmly believe that the Bible contains life within it, and as long as we persevere in reading the Bible then we can obtain eternal life. But when I was studying the Bible this evening, I saw that the Lord Jesus said: ‘Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And you will not come to Me, that you might have life’ (John 5: 39–40). This really confused me, for seeing as the Bible contains the words of God and the testimonies of man, then by reading the Bible we should be able to obtain eternal life. Why then did the Lord Jesus say that eternal life is not within the Bible? How are we to understand these words? I don’t really understand this very clearly, so I was wondering what your understanding of it is.”

Brother Gui said, “Brother Gao, this issue you raise is key indeed! Some other co-workers and I were also confused by this issue recently. Afterward, when we went to attend a gathering out of town, we sought the answer together with several brothers and sisters until finally we understood this issue.”

Brother Gao said happily, “Really? Thank the Lord! Hurry and fellowship with me about it!”

Brother Gui said, “Fine! In fact, if we want to understand this issue, we first have to understand the inside story to the works God performed in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace that are recorded in the Bible, as well as the results achieved by these works, and then we will understand why the Lord Jesus said such a thing. First of all, in the Age of Law recorded in the Old Testament, the words Jehovah God spoke were mainly to proclaim the law and His commandments and to lead the Israelites in their lives on earth. The results He achieved were that He taught man how to live normally, to know how to make offerings and praise God and to know what sin was, and so on. But these were only simple truths, and they did not come close to enabling people to gain life, much less obtain eternal life. The New Testament records the words and work of the Lord Jesus, primarily being His work to redeem mankind, giving man the way of repentance, telling man that the heavenly kingdom was near and that everyone had to repent. The results He achieved were that He enabled people to confess and repent, thereby having their sins forgiven, and people became able to perform some external good deeds, such as not stealing or robbing, not fighting with others or verbally abusing others and not drinking alcohol. Some people even became able to work with great zeal, expend themselves for the Lord and give everything up to follow the Lord and to preach His gospel, and so on.

“Therefore, by reading the Bible, we come to know that all things in heaven and on earth were created by God, that God proclaimed His law and commandments in the Age of Law, mankind came to know how to live on earth according to God’s requirements, and we saw that God’s disposition was vivid and real, and that God could curse and punish people as well as show us mercy. We also came to know that we should confess and repent our sins to God, that we should forgive others, love our enemies and be the salt and the light. We should bear our cross and spread the gospel and see that the Lord Jesus loved His neighbor as Himself and that He bestowed endless mercy and lovingkindness on man, and see that only by accepting the Lord’s salvation can we enjoy God’s abundant grace and blessing. Therefore, all the words and works of God from the Age of Law and Age of Grace that are recorded in the Bible were based on the level of mankind’s corruption and on our needs at that time. The words of Jehovah God in the Age of Law were spoken to enable us to live normal lives on earth, and the words spoken by the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace can only be called the way that enabled man to repent, and not the way of eternal life.

from Walk in the Light