LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Biblical interpretation that culminates in application demands God-dependence.
Submitted to Dr. James Sulfridge
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 500
Discipleship Ministries
By
Anthony Bean
Biblical interpretation that culminates in application demands God-dependence.
The process of moving from study to practice is something that only God can enable, and
he does so only through Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul writes, “The natural person does not
accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand
them because they are spiritually discerned.” By “understand” here, Paul means “embrace,
affirm, align with, delight in, apply.” Only in Christ is the veil of hardness toward God’s Word
taken away (2Cor. 3:14), but in Christ, the Word becomes near us, in our mouth and in our
heart (Rom. 10:8). The biblical authors’ ultimate intent included a transformed life, the
foundation of which is a personal encounter with the living God. We will not experience this
apart from the Lord’s help.
Putting the Bible under a microscope (careful study) should always result in finding
ourselves under its microscope, as Scripture changes us more into Christ’s likeness. We engage
in exegesis and theology in order to encounter God. We approach humbly and dependently and
never with manipulation or force. Biblical interpretation should create servants, not kings.
What Is a Process for Interpreting Scripture?
Interpreting Scripture is the process of personally discovering what God through his human
authors intended the biblical text to mean and effect. Through exegesis and theology one
assesses, synthesizes, and applies God’s inerrant Word.
The English term exegesis is a transliteration of the Greek noun “from, out of” exēgēsis (ek
+ “to bring, move [something]”), meaning an “account, description, narration.” Narrowly agō
defined, exegesis of Scripture is the interpretive activity of identifying or drawing out what God
was actually saying through his human authors in specific passages within specific books. Texts
convey meaning; they do not produce it. Following God’s leading, the biblical authors purposely
wrote the words they did with specific sense and purpose. “Men spoke from God as they were
carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2Pet. 1:21). We have to carefully read what the Lord through
