A friend preached a wonderful sermon on the bible last Sunday. He spoke, among other things, of Luther's attitude to the bible:
The whole reformation was birthed by a tenacious asking, seeking and knocking at the door of Scripture:
I beat importunately upon Paul at that place (Rom 1:17), most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted. At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words... There I began to understand... I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open doors.
Do I beat importunately upon Scripture? Luther spoke of treating the bible like the rock in the wilderness - smiting it with the rod until water gushes out. Do I do that?
When he lectured on Ecclesiastes he found it tough. He wrote to a friend "Solomon the preacher, is giving me a hard time, as though he begrudged anyone lecturing on him. But he must yield."
Wow! It's been a while since I've wrestled with Scripture like that. Do we really believe that there's life-giving Waters in this book? Well then, let's smite it till our thirst is slaked!
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Really loving Luther here. Also wondering whether he is operating with a subtly different doctrine of Scripture to the standard evangelical one today. Could we ever talk about the Bible this way? (I idly wonder whether the difference between Scripture being life giving water and containing life giving Water might be important...)
Good point Daniel! And I wonder whether that difference is very much linked to the difference Luther draws when he calls Scripture the swaddling clothes that hold Jesus. Jesus is found nowhere else, but the rock or the clothes are useless by themselves.