13. Scripture Dialect and Self Definition

Scripture Dialect and Self Definition

Chapter 12

Human literature requires a lexicon and often a library of reference books, to disclose its meaning. For the most part the Word of God is its own dictionary and library of reference. Within its own compass may be found either the direct or indirect definition of its own terms, making the careful student in a large measure independent of outside help, and so enabling even the poor and simple to learn its meaning, and bringing it within universal reach.

Scripture definitions form a distinct department of Bible study. When the Holy Spirit gives the equivalent of His own terms there is no room for conjecture; and, in all most important cases, we are taught in what sense Scripture words are employed. Where such equivalents are given, if substituted for the words or phrases they define, the sense is made clearer, and often erroneous notions corrected.

Hundreds of Scripture words are thus informed with a new significance. Though taken from terrestrial tongues they acquire a new celestial meaning by association with heavenly things; and as, in many cases, God has given us His own definitions, or equivalents, it is interesting to gather a sort of glossary of such terms, thus making a Bible lexicon. Probably no important word would be found undefined or without material for definition; and Bible definitions thus constructed, should be adhered to, as guides to the understanding of Scripture, for so, without outside help, the most unlettered may come to knowledge.

One prominent definition is that of Faith.

Hebrews 11:1—“Now, Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” This is probably less a definition of faith itself than a description of its effects, when it controls our experience, in giving, to what is future, reality and verity, and, to what is unseen, substantial value and visibility. Two classes of objects are dreamy and shadowy; the invisible and the far-distant. Being so constituted as to be most influenced by sensible and present objects, what lies behind that double veil of invisibility and futurity, is proportionately unreal and uninfluential. Faith gives vividness and presentness to what is unseen and distant. But faith has, in at least four cases, an indirect definition. Luke 1:45—“Blessed is she that believed that there shallbe a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord” (Marg.).

Acts 27:25—“I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me.”

Romans 4:21—“Being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform.”

Hebrews 11:11—“Sarah judged Him faithful who had promised.” From such Scripture it is easy to frame a definition of Faith; it is belief, persuasion, judgment, that God is both able and faithful to perform what He has promised, and that there will be such performance. A kindred definition is found in John 1:12 : “To as many as received Him… even to them that believe on His name.” Here receiving is the equivalent of believing; and believing, of receiving. The importance of this definition is immense, since the actual possession of Eternal Life depends upon it. In John 20:31 the object of the whole gospel record is stated to be that men might believe, and believing have life; and so, in the very beginning, it is made plain what it is to believe. In the narrative believing is referred to about fifty times; and in every case if receiving be substituted, the sense is perfect. For example, John 3:16 : God so loved… that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever receiveth Him might have Everlasting Life, etc.

Thus no reader need lose the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, by not understanding how to believe. He has only to receive him as God’s gift, and receiving is so simple that it needs no defining.

Love is defined:

“Love is the fulfilling of the Law” (Romans 13:10). “This is the Love of God that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:3). The former text defines Love to Man and the second, Love to God. Love to man is the principle that works no ill to one’s neighbor; and Love to God, the kindred principle that yields obedience to all His commandments—benevolence, man-ward and obedience, God-ward. How that lifts love above any mere sentiment, caprice, emotion or even affection, to the level of unchanging principle of life, what James calls the “Royal Law!”

Love, in that highest sense of unselfish benevolence is also a new term in Scripture. It is more than either the complacent affection that responds to worth in others, or the selfish principle that reciprocates favors or anticipates them (compare Matthew 5:14-18).

Sin is defined:

“Sin is the transgression of the Law” (1 John 3:4).

“To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

“Sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:20).

Here the first definition includes all sins of commission—the second of omission; and so the Westminster divines got their definition: “Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the Law of God.” The last suggests a further idea of sin as an inborn, inbred, indwelling propensity and tendency.

Repentance is both defined and described in 2 Corinthians 7:9-11. In its essence it is “sorrow after a godly manner”—literally, a sorrow according to God—a phrase thrice repeated here—and contrasted with a sorrow according to the world; one working life and salvation, the other death and condemnation. True repentance looks at sin as a crime against God primarily, in contrast with mere regret for consequences or remorse of conscience which drives to despair and sometimes suicide.

Among other valuable definitions note the following:

“The Carnal mind is enmity against God.”

“To be Carnally minded is Death.”

“To be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace” (Romans 8:6-7).

These definitions are doubly valuable: they give us the equivalents of the “Carnal mind” and the “Spiritual mind;” and, conversely, the equivalents of “life” and “death” in the spiritual realm. The only time death is defined in the Word of God it is made the equivalent of minding the flesh, which, again, is the equivalent of that “enmity against God” which “is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be.” Here then we learn that Eternal Life is equivalent to the spiritual mind—which is a supreme preference for God, and subjection to His Will; and spiritual death is a supreme preference for self with a corresponding enmity toward His Will. This we regard as one of the most noteworthy of all the biblical definitions of its owns terms, and a light upon a mystery the wrong solution of which has misled many.

Here the habitual, engrossing preference for Carnal things, in a word the dominance of self life, is seen not only to lead to death but to be death; and the corresponding preference for spiritual things, the enthronement of God in place of self, as the equivalent of life and peace. No argument is so potent, as showing how baseless is the doctrine of “annihilation,” so far as it rests on the statement that “when the Bible says ‘death,’ it means death.” Certainly, but, according to this, death is not the extinction of being—not destruction, but alienation, putting self in the place of God, while life is not existence, but the supreme preference for God that evidences our oneness with Him by participation of His nature. Hence also Life may be “more abundant,” as fellowship with God becomes more intimate and constant, increasing in power, wisdom and joy (John 10:10). Taken as a whole the Word of God reveals a present life, and beyond that another life, beyond which is no death; and a present death, and beyond that, a second death, and beyond that, no life (Dean Alford).

Hardness of heart is indirectly defined by close association with blindness, deafness, a conscience seared with a hot iron, a general condition of “being past feeling” (Ephesians 4:19). It is in the moral nature what loss of sensation is in the physical, and suggests a kind of spiritual paralysis as when both sensor and motor nerves no longer act.

Changes of meaning of the same word must be traced by a careful comparison of its use and study of context. The word diatheke, translated “covenant” and “Testament,” is found thirty-three times in the New Testament. It always means a divine arrangement or disposition, something ordered and established by decree; sometimes a mutual arrangement, a compact between two or more contracting parties—a covenant; and at others a disposition by one party in favor of another—a testament. The former meaning easily passes into the latter, because, man having broken all mutual covenants between himself and God, the Lord Jesus Christ becomes the contracting party in the new covenant on behalf of man. Now note (1) He cannot fail and hence the new covenant will never be forfeited; and (2) He makes provision for man’s previous failure and forfeitures and by His death, as covenant Head, qualifies the body of heirs to receive the inheritance. Hence, the covenant becomes also a Testament, depending on the death of the testator. This progressive transition in meaning may be traced from Hebrews 7:22, through 8:6-10 to 9:15-17.

There is also a Scripture dialect and usage. This is a sort of indirect definition. Usus loquendi is a technical term for usage in language, whether in speaking or writing. Every language has its idioms, peculiar meanings attaching to words, which undergo modifications in time, and change with periods. Individual authors also have their modes of expression so that to ascertain the sense in which words are used is often a necessary clue to style and sense. The Scriptures use words and phrases in a way of their own, and we must discern this to make interpretation accurate and authoritative. The Word of God can be truly fathomed in its deeper teaching only by those who recognize this Law of Higher Significance.

Human writers have often shown marked individuality of expression as well as of thought, and use words and phrases in a characteristic way, exemplified in the case of such as Bunyan and Burke, Addison and Carlyle, Shakespeare and Bacon. One has to become familiar with their idiosyncrasies of style, to penetrate to the real inner chambers of their mind and meaning. The Author of Scripture, having only the imperfect medium of human speech for conveyance of His thought, was compelled to invest many words with a new significance. Hence arose His scriptural usus loquendi—a peculiar and original sense, attaching to many words and phrases, due to their being vehicles for divine ideas. Phraseology became elastic, expanding to contain and convey larger conceptions than ever before.

Christianity has introduced among men not only new words but new ideas likewise, so that old words have become invested with new meanings.

Humanity is a word you look in vain for in Plato and Aristotle. The idea of mankind as one family, as the children of one God, is an idea of Christian growth, and the science of mankind without Christianity, would never have sprung into existence.

Take for example Humility, in the New Testament. This word, borrowed from the Greek (tapeinophrosunè)—is used but four times, and literally means self-abasement, and suggests meanness of spirit. To the Greek it suggested an outward prostration, a demeaning of oneself before another as a slave abases himself before his master. The Greek mind knew nothing of that voluntary laying aside of glory and excellency that leads even a master to become a slave, and prompted the Lord of Glory to humble Himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross! John 13:4-5, is a definition of humility by action, the Lord Jesus girding Himself with the slave’s apron, to do for His disciples the most menial act of drudgery.

Christian humility is a virtue of so high an order that it may be doubted if any other outranks it. It is a noble condescension which in its very lowliness is lofty, and in its very loveliness unconscious, for it is not merely doing what is humble, but not thinking of oneself more highly than one ought to think. It is at bottom not any form of outward demeanor but an inward habit of self abasement and self oblivion, that inner spirit, meek and quiet which is the one ornament, the hidden man of the heart which is in God’s sight of great price. To know in what specific sense words and terms are employed by any writer, is to have, so far, keys to unlock his meaning. It pleases the author of Holy Scripture to provide, in the Bible itself, the helps to its understanding and interpretation. If all doors to its secret chambers are not left open, the keys are to be found; and part of the object of leaving something obscure, instead of obvious, is to incite and invite investigation, to prompt us to patient and prayerful search. Its obscurities awaken curiosity and inquiry, and study is rewarded by finding the clue to what was before a maze of perplexity.