Did an all-wise God write a Book that cannot be understood? That wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense now, would it? Especially since, everywhere in Scripture, God holds man responsible for responding intelligently to His Word. Some would agree that the Bible was written to be understood; it does say, "The entrance of Thy Word gives light," but then suggest that it was written to be understood by some spiritually elite "clergy". But our verse goes on to say that "it gives understanding to the simple" (Psalm 119:130); certainly this would not confine understanding to the clergy. Take Romans, the "Handbook of Salvation" for instance. It is evidently written to the person in the pew as much as to the man in the pulpit (chapter 1, verse 7, "to all who are in Rome, beloved of God..."). So, the person in the pew is expected to study it, grasp its meaning, and live and minister by its contents. The Corinthians are not told that they are incapable of understanding the Grace Message and that they must depend upon some cleric who can explain it to them. They are told that the Spirit of God indwells them that they may know the things freely given (in the original Greek, "graced") to them by God (1 Corinthians 2:12). The Holy Spirit, then, is the Interpreter of the Bible...not the Church. As a matter of fact, the Pauline Scriptures have authority over the Church, and not the other way around, for they were written largely to correct error already enshrined in the Church by churchmen!

Do I say then, that every man can understand every verse in the Bible? Theoretically, yes; practically, no, for the Bible compares itself to a mighty ocean (Psalm 36:6) and no man can explore an entire ocean in a lifetime. But any man can recognize an ocean, master its fundamentals readily, learn to sail it correctly, profit from its bounty, explore it daily in a profitable search for new and wonderful facts, and explain what he learns to others.

If all this is true, why are there so many dozens of denominations and so many hundreds of splinter groups? Why do learned men dispute essentials, and why is there no majority view on some of the most important issues? I believe there is one major answer to this perplexing problem. Most men have not seen, and many men refuse to see, the uniqueness of Paul’s apostleship and the distinctiveness of his message. Paul’s place in God’s program as steward over the household of God on earth for the last nineteen centuries is a great key that unlocks the Bible (Ephesians 3:1-11).

There are other keys too. The Bible is History’s greatest legal document and, like all legal documents, there are rules to be followed in order to understand it. My mortgage agreement may call for the monthly transfer of $800.00 from one party to another but I would wait in vain for a check to arrive. There is a great difference between "The party of the first part" and "The party of the second part." I am the one who must remit the check; the Bank is the one who receives it. It would not do for me to ignore the rule of who is being addressed and fail to carry out the instructions of the mortgage agreement that apply to me.

Let’s illustrate another way. Suppose a mother, upon leaving the house to go shopping, places two notes on the refrigerator door--one for her eight year old daughter and one for her sixteen year old son. The daughter’s note instructs her to clean up her room, putting her toys away, and to set the dinner table with an extra setting as Uncle Fred is coming over for supper. The son’s note requests that he take the family car to the car-wash and have it washed and waxed as Mom and Dad plan to use it next day to attend a wedding. Now the son can learn from reading his sister’s note. Her room is messy, her toys need putting away, Mom wants her to do it, and Uncle Fred is coming for the evening meal. Just so, the daughter can learn from her brother’s note. The car needs washing and waxing, Mom wants it done, and there is going to be a wedding on Saturday. All very well, unless the son mistakes his mother’s instructions to her daughter for his own, and the daughter jumps into the car and heads downtown without a license and without any driving experience. The notes are equally the word of the mother, but they are written to different people to accomplish differing ends.

In the Bible, God has many messages to many individuals and groups. We can and should learn from all of them. They are all equally the Word of the Father, but they are not all the Father’s Word to us. We Grace Believers can no more apply everything God says to Israel to ourselves than we could apply everything God says to Satan to Christ. Shocking analogy? Purposefully so! For Church history is a history of making this mistake. All of the Bible is for us; the Pauline Epistles are to us and about us. As the daughter’s note is more important to the daughter and the son’s note more important to the son, the Pauline Epistles are most important to us.

Other important "keys": Man’s needs change (e.g., Adam’s needs after the Fall vs. his needs before the Fall), God’s revelation progresses (e.g., the New Covenant revealed after the Old), God’s program advances (e.g., descent of the Spirit to Israel at Pentecost), Man’s responsibility changes (e.g., "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" replaces prior salvation messages), God’s provision increases (e.g., the Believer’s position "in Christ" exceeds all previous provisions).

Fallen Adam could not go back to his old responsibility as Eden’s landscaper after being evicted; that option no longer existed, even though it had once been based on a command of God. Jews living under the New Covenant in the future will not return to the provisions of the Old Covenant which has been done away. When God resumes Israel’s program after the Rapture of the Body of Christ, Israel will have the Holy Spirit’s Pentecostal power which she did not have before the events of Acts Chapter Two. Jews are not saved today by believing in Christ as Messiah, the Son of God as previously, but are saved by trusting the finished work of Christ on Calvary, even as Gentiles. Most of the 36 values of the Cross which presently "work together for good" (Romans 8:28) to today’s Believer were not available to yesterday’s believer, and some will not be available to the believers who follow us in the next Dispensation.

So one major key to unlocking the wonders of God’s Word is the uniqueness of Paul’s apostleship; he is not one of the Twelve, nor even the Thirteenth, but that "other" apostle...the steward of this present economy or DISPENSATION OF GRACE.

Another major key is who is being addressed. You and I have not been told to tend a garden, build an ark, slay Canaanites, discard our wallets, keep kosher, observe Sabbaths, avoid Gentiles, live communally, repent and be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit...etc. We have been told to follow Paul! (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1).