22Wherefore, “It was counted to him into righteousness,” 23but it was not written that “it was counted to him,” only because of him, 24but also for us, to whom it will be counted, to those believing upon the One who raised Jesus our Lord out of dead ones, 25who was delivered over because of our trespasses and raised because of our justification.
Before I record any thoughts on this passage itself, I want to insert something I feel is of significance. Of course, “fools delight in airing their own opinion,” and they are “wiser in their own eyes than seven men who can render a reason.” That said, I acknowledge it is always dangerous to have opinions no one else seems to share. John Eadie said, “Interpretations are generally false in proportion to their ingenuity.” Acknowledging all of this, however, I also can honestly say I have tried to study the Bible intently for the last 42 years. I’ve sincerely tried to just let the Lord say what He says, make sure (to the best of my ability) I understand exactly what He did (and didn’t) say in a given passage, and only form my opinions on the basis of that knowledge.
What bothers me today is that everyone speaks, writes, and understands the Bible driven by what I might call a philosophy of “progressive revelation.” This idea recognizes that the 66 books of the Bible were written down over a period of at least 2,000 years and by some 40 different authors. Only when John laid down the pen of Revelation were the Scriptures complete. That said, Abraham didn’t have the book of Romans to read. In fact, it is possible, based on this theory that he had no Scriptures at all! David could not read the book of Matthew or even the book of Daniel, since none of these books had been written when he lived.
The underlying assumption then is that they could only have known whatever truth had been recorded by the time they lived. Based on this idea, people make statements to the effect that Abraham could not have understood about Jesus because, they would claim, almost nothing had yet been written down concerning Him. In every generation of the Old Testament, the believers could have only known what was written down up to that point.
Hello? I hope anyone reading this is already realizing how ludicrous it is. From the Garden of Eden on, the Lord spoke to the people, sometimes He Himself speaking, and then through His prophets, through dreams and visions, and, as it says in Hebrews 1:1, “at many times and in various ways.” Would anyone dare to suggest that every single word Isaiah spoke was recorded in his book? The prophets’ job was to speak, and we can all be quite certain “speak they did.” The obvious truth is that very little of what they spoke and taught actually got written down and passed on to us as Scripture. It is completely ludicrous to even suggest that Abraham only could have known whatever had been recorded up to that point, or that we can say with confidence what he did or did not know, based on the written record we hold in our hands.
The obvious fact, to me, is that he (and everyone else throughout OT history) knew and understood far more than what had been recorded up to that point. I see intimations of this throughout the Bible. I personally believe the book of Job was one of the earliest recorded revelations, probably actually written around Abraham’s time (ca. 2,000 BC). In it Job makes the statement, “For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (19:23-25). Look at it. With perhaps no (or at most little) Scripture recorded, Job knew there was a Redeemer. He knew that Redeemer was alive and he obviously understood that he himself would be resurrected. If people were consistent, shouldn’t they be completely baffled to think Job could say such things?
Stop for a second and consider what Jesus Himself said: “Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing My day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). What did Abraham “see?” The obvious answer is, we don’t know. And that is my point entirely. We don’t know. We don’t know how much was revealed to Abraham…or David, or anyone else throughout the entire OT. The one thing we do know for certain is that they had far more revealed to them than what had been written down up to that point.
All of this is probably fueled in my mind by the words in vv. 23,24 “but it was not written that ‘it was counted to him,’ only for him, but also for us…” Whenever Gen. 15:6 was written down, note that it was “written down for us.” In other words, it was important to the Lord to actually record it because it would be of benefit to us 4,000 years later. He didn’t have to write it down. The whole interaction between Abraham and the Lord could have happened and not been recorded at all and we’d not even know he ever existed. We only know what did get recorded—which also means we don’t know what didn’t.
I guess I just want to assert I think it is ludicrous for anyone to comment on anything from the past and make statements to the effect that “they could not have known…” That applies to the Bible and also applies to our own human history. The plain simple fact is that we don’t know what they knew. In fact, even with human history, the earth is covered with evidence that ancient peoples knew things “they couldn’t have known.” I constantly read about the ancient past where someone is wondering at things like the precision of the pyramid stones and they say something like, “It is a mystery how they could have accomplished that with the knowledge and technology of the time.” How do they know what was the “knowledge and technology of the time?” The fact is they are clueless, and, just as with the Bible, the earth is covered with ancient remains that clearly evidence a knowledge far beyond what we’re willing to attribute to them. How is that not some kind of arrogance to claim we know what they knew?
Of course I am just one croaking toad, but I will still maintain that what this generation needs is a dose of humility. It’s time to admit that we don’t know what we don’t know. It’s time to admit that people who lived before us may have actually known things we don’t know or things we’ve just recently figured out.
As far as the Scriptures themselves, it is true they were written as a progression. In that sense, Progressive Revelation is a fact. However, as we read and study our Bible, let’s be determined not to have the arrogant attitude that we’re somehow smarter than them or that we know what they could have known. Let’s acknowledge that they had a great deal of direct revelation which never got recorded. Sometimes it was written for us. Probably most of the time, it was not. Let us read the Scriptures as what was written for us and leave them the option they may have been a whole lot smarter than our generation wants us to think.
Guess that's my excursis.
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