Handling the text

Today I had a conversation with a friend of mine on the hypostatic nature of the Word. I was intrigued by the notion that Christ who is the Word, has both a human and a divine nature, and that the two are not in conflict or competition but harmony. Though Christ grew and learned, he never set aside omniscience. And like wise the Word of God has both a divine nature and a human. Just as with Christ our great high priest, the human part of the union is not the fallible part, but rather the humbled "state" for the greater glory of God part. Consider Philippians 2 - Christ put on the form of total humiliation, with the result of total or ultimate exultation in the glory of God, with nothing or no one exempt (every knee...every tongue). And in the same manner the Word which is from God and is itself a perfect revelation of God by the Holy Spirit, with out error or contradiction, put on the form of humiliation and was handled by men, was protected by scribes, was burnt and lost, was hidden at times and often disputed - and still to this day scholars seem to work more diligently in finding her difficulties than her glories. They search carefully to find a humanness to the text that is not perfect. A humanness that is not like Christ - but like us. Yet as Christ, who endured even to the point of death on the cross by the very creatures that He created to worship Him, and yeah even worse by the very covenant children that He bound Himself to with His whole heart - was utterly humiliated, still we have this faith that God declared Him to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead and that Christ humiliation is not worthy to be compared to His exultation.

This is not to say that the written text of scripture is our savior. Or that the bible will follow in every detail the path of Christ, but rather to declare it normal in the economy of God to deliver His richest beauties to us in humble forms. Contemptuous by our standards, but perfect and powerful by God's. It is no wonder then that so many would love to find fault with the text of scripture. And my contention here is that perhaps we can see that this is not only to be expected, but that it is also to be part of the vindication of God's Word itself.

These are at this point merely reflections and random thoughts, but at some point I hope they can deal with the true grandeur of the Scripture even if they only serve as a spring board to the more refined discussions. But I should like to remember this during my studies, that the Apostle Peter saw the canon of scripture as a more reliable more sure word of testimony than when God himself spoke directly to him... and surely that is an awesome thought!