{"id":66567,"date":"2023-05-16T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T10:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=66567"},"modified":"2023-05-12T17:16:30","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T21:16:30","slug":"john-kleinigs-new-book-gods-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/05\/john-kleinigs-new-book-gods-word\/","title":{"rendered":"John Kleinig’s New Book “God’s Word”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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I remember many years ago as a young graduate student when I first started reading the Bible.\u00a0 I was blown away by its power, by its depths and complexity, and by the impact it was having on me.\u00a0 Ever since, I have been reading the Bible every day, good habits being as hard to break as bad habits, working through it in different translations and studying it with different helps.<\/p>\n

After many years, though, the Bible became so familiar to me that it lost some of its experiential luster.\u00a0 The regular reading was still doing me good\u2013knocking me down and building me up, just as I needed\u2013but reading it over and over was getting somewhat tedious.<\/p>\n

Lately, though, my enjoyment of the Bible has been rekindled.\u00a0 Part of the reason is that I\u2019ve been reading the King James Version, an evocative translation that keeps the mysteries of the original languages rather than flattening them in an attempt at clarity and making them sound modern, which they are not.\u00a0 Editing J. G. Hamann\u2019s London Writings<\/a> also reignited my love of Scripture through the infectious enthusiasm of a great mind who was finding himself changed by reading it.\u00a0 And now the translator of London Writings<\/em>, the Australian theologian and Bible scholar John W. Kleinig, has poured gasoline on that flame with his new book\u00a0God\u2019s Word:\u00a0 A Guide to Holy Scripture<\/a> .<\/p>\n

This book, part of the Christian Essential Series<\/a> from Lexham Press, is not just an explanation of the doctrine of Scripture, nor a how-to book about using commentaries and concordances.\u00a0 \u201cI do not intend to set out an argument to prove anything about the Bible as God\u2019s written word, let alone explain its divine nature and inspiration,\u201d Kleinig writes. \u201cThat would be like trying to prove the value of good food.\u00a0 You can only really discover how tasty and nourishing and satisfying food is by eating it.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0This is not a nutrition manual, a diet plan, or a recipe book.\u00a0 Rather, it is more like a mouth-watering restaurant review or a documentary on the Food Network, something that makes you hungry and alerts you to flavors you might never have tasted before.<\/p>\n

The Bible is God\u2019s word<\/em>.\u00a0 That is to say, God speaks<\/em>.\u00a0 The Father speaks, the Son speaks, and the Holy Spirit speaks\u2013and in the Scriptures they all speak about Jesus.\u00a0 \u201cAll this makes up a single conversation of the Triune God with his people and them with him and each other,\u201d Kleinig writes. \u201cSince we have a record of that conversation in the Bible, we can listen in on it and join in with it\u201d (p. 10).<\/p>\n

Not only that, we are to \u201cabide\u201d in God\u2019s word (John 8:31-32).\u00a0 In other words, it is a place to inhabit.\u00a0 To live in God\u2019s word is to dwell in a place of truth, freedom, love, and security.<\/p>\n

The human authors whom the Triune God inspires to record His word \u201cspeak many different words that do different things in different circumstances\u201d\u2013covenant words, words of institution, life-giving ordinances, prophetic oracles of either judgment or salvation (p. 13). Returning to the banquet analogy, Kleinig says to imagine a vast smorgasbord designed to nourish everyone in every situation.\u00a0 \u201cSome of it may appeal to me. Some of it, I must admit, may not suit my all too limited and untutored taste.\u00a0 And much of it, sadly, may even repel me.\u00a0 Where should I begin?\u201d\u00a0 He recommends beginning with Jesus, the Word made flesh, who alone can open the rest of the Scriptures to us (Luke 24:44-47).<\/p>\n

Throughout, Kleinig emphasizes that \u201cthe Word of God is living and active\u201d (Hebrews 4:12).\u00a0 It is\u00a0\u201cpowerful and performative, effective and productive\u201d (p. 22).\u00a0 Indeed, that can describe even human language. Far more does God\u2019s language bring into being what it says, from the creation of the universe to the salvation of a soul.<\/p>\n

Thus, the Bible is not just a record of history, a guide to life, or a collection of doctrines, though it is those things as well.\u00a0 It is a means of grace.\u00a0 Kleinig tells about how, as a young seminarian trying to preach on the parables, he realized that the point is not just trying to unpack what the text means<\/em>, but to discern what Jesus does<\/em> in the text.<\/p>\n

The Word \u201cis active not just in doing what it says but in energizing those who hear it,\u201d Kleinig writes. \u201cIt acts on them and in them.\u201d\u00a0 But the Word is not a magical incantation.\u00a0 \u201cIt did not energize all people to do God\u2019s work, but only those who heard it as his word, received it as from him, accepted it as addressed to them, and believed in it as his word for them\u201d (p. 112).\u00a0 Thus the role of faith.<\/p>\n

The Word made flesh is conveyed in the written Word and in the proclaimed Word.\u00a0 Indeed, the risen and ascended Jesus fulfills His promise to be with us always through His presence in His word.\u00a0 This is to say, the Word is sacramental, a vehicle of the Holy Spirit intimately connected with baptism and the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n

The book is a small one, just 157 pages of text, and yet its 14 brief chapters cover a wide range of topics regarding the Bible.\u00a0 Here are the chapter titles:\u00a0 I.\u00a0 An Invitation to a Banquet; II. The God Who Speaks; III. Words that Do What They Say; IV. Hearing Ears; V. Speaking with Authority; VI. The Word of Christ; VII. God\u2019s Word Saves; VIII. God\u2019s Word Gives Life; IX. God\u2019s Word Nourishes; X. God\u2019s Word Heals; XI. God\u2019s Word Energizes; XII.\u00a0 The Ministry of the Word; XIII. God\u2019s Written Word; XIV. God\u2019s Amazing Word.<\/p>\n

Each one of them is filled with passages that brightly illuminate their topics.\u00a0 For example, here is a broadly useful explanation of \u201cmystery\u201d:<\/p>\n

Like many modern people, we tend to confuse mysteries with secrets.\u00a0 And so we explain them away.\u00a0 But a mystery is different from a secret.\u00a0 Even though both have to do with something that is hidden and unknown, a mystery differs from a secret in one important respect.\u00a0 A secret remains a secret only as long as you don\u2019t know it.\u00a0 Once it is revealed, it ceases to be a secret.\u00a0 But a mystery remains a mystery even when it is revealed.\u00a0 In fact, the more you know about it, the more mysterious it becomes. (p. 126)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As if all of this were not enough, the book is also beautifully designed and illustrated.<\/p>\n

John Kleinig, author of Grace Upon Grace: Spirituality for Today<\/a>,\u00a0 has long been appreciated by confessional Lutherans.\u00a0 I am happy that Lexham Press has discovered him and is making him known among evangelicals and Christians more broadly.<\/p>\n

This is a book to read, study with others, and give away.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n