{"id":696,"date":"2013-05-02T14:17:18","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T19:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=696"},"modified":"2013-05-02T14:17:18","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T19:17:18","slug":"you-are-gods-two-year-old-the-authority-of-scripture-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2013\/05\/02\/you-are-gods-two-year-old-the-authority-of-scripture-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"You Are God&#8217;s Two-Year-Old: The Authority of Scripture, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Over three blog posts, we\u2019ll consider our position before God\u2019s revelation in Scripture. This post may not seem to have much to do with scriptural authority, but be patient; we\u2019ll get there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">How do you picture your relationship to God? What images do you use? <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Perhaps you use a business image: He\u2019s the boss, you\u2019re His right hand man.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Or a political image: He\u2019s President, you\u2019re His Secretary of State.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Or a sports image: He\u2019s the head coach, you\u2019re His quarterback.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Or a military image: He\u2019s a general, you\u2019re a colonel.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Or a family image: He\u2019s a big older brother &#8211; stronger, wiser, more experienced than you, while you are His faithful and loyal younger brother.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Does something disturb you about all those images? I hope so. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Surely the difference between God and me is far greater than the difference between Barack Obama and John Kerry. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">So to get this right, do we just need to diminish our role in these images? <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Business: He\u2019s the boss, you run a local branch.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Politics: He\u2019s the President, you\u2019re a congressman in His party.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sports: He\u2019s the coach, you\u2019re the\u00a0second string defensive tackle.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Military: He\u2019s a general, you\u2019re an inexperienced lieutenant. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Family: He\u2019s the father, you\u2019re His teenage son.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Do those changes solve the problem? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Or do these images still make you too smart, too important, too able compared to God?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">How <i>should<\/i> you picture your relationship to God?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">How <i>do<\/i> you picture your relationship to God? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Consider Psalm 8:3-4:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As soon as we consider the heavens, the moon, the billions and trillions of stars, the extent of the galaxies, we have to conclude that if they have a Creator, we are indeed minuscule in comparison to Him. I can\u2019t possibly be His advisor. I can\u2019t possibly be his quarterback, or even His branch manager. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But if these images make us appear as too close to God, what image should we use? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Consider yourself God\u2019s two-year-old. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This is one way to understand Psalm 131: <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.\u00a0 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.\u00a0 O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The psalmist thinks of himself as a child \u2013 perhaps a two-year-old. Whether or not this child is still nursing, at the moment pictured he has finished eating. He is well satisfied. He is clean. He is secure. He is caressed. He is loved. Surrounded by all of Mommy\u2019s welcome smells, embraced by her warmth, he is completely secure. Completely at rest. Completely content. All he wants is right there: He has his Mommy. He has his Daddy. They provide. He trusts them. He is confident in them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">That is how Scripture says we should be before God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">That\u2019s the picture of Psalm 131. What else do we know about two-year-olds from our own experience? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I have six children. We thus spent six years with a two-year-old in the house (and more than thirteen years with at least one child two or under). Here are five characteristics of two-year-olds I have observed: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They are completely dependent; they will die apart from the attention of their parents or other adults.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They assert themselves, they test their limits, pushing those in authority over them to define what they really mean. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They are perfectly able to think, and make surprising connections and observations; nevertheless, they have many misunderstandings and misapprehensions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They simply are not able to understand many things that their parents say; in order to communicate effectively, their parents have to talk in a way the two-year-old can derstand.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They also cannot understand many things about the world around them that their parents know; thus, they have to learn to listen to their parents, to trust them, to obey them. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">With those characteristics in mind, let\u2019s turn from two-year-olds to John Calvin. He writes: <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The majesty of God is . . . far above the reach of mortals who are like worms crawling upon the earth (<i>Institutes<\/i> 2.6.4).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">So how can a worm have any relationship to such a God? That doesn\u2019t seem possible. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Calvin continues: <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Father, who is infinite in himself, becomes finite in the Son because <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">he has accommodated himself to our capacity, that he may not overwhelm our minds with the infinity of his glory<\/span>. (emphasis added)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We can have a relationship to God because God chooses to make that possible. We are nothing before Him. We are insignificant &#8211; unless He gives us significance. But He has chosen to reveal Himself through redemptive history; through His living Word, Jesus Christ; through His written Word, the Bible. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He \u00a0accommodates \u201cHimself to our capacity.\u201d He speaks to us in language we can understand. He uses images from everyday life so that we can know all we need to know of Him and His work. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Commenting on this passage of the <i>Institutes,<\/i> Derek Thomas links this idea with the image of us as toddlers: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What we know of God we know only in part, only to the extent to which he has revealed himself. And even that revelation is just <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">so much &#8220;baby-talk<\/span>&#8221; and we must always remember that it is so. (emphasis added)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cJust so much baby talk.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When God speaks to us, He speaks like we speak to toddlers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Consider: When you speak to a two-year-old, how do you talk? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">From Beth\u2019s first pregnancy, we decided we weren\u2019t going to speak what\u2019s often called baby talk \u2013 \u201cwad dus da widdle bebee wunt do do?\u201d We were going to enunciate clearly, just as when we would speak to each other. For we wanted to communicate clearly to our children, and to teach them how to speak clearly. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">That\u2019s what God does for us. \u201cBaby talk\u201d in this sense is not a distortion of speech. Rather, it is speaking in terms and in words that can be understood by the little one. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Now, in our home we explicitly pushed our children to grow in their understanding. One way we did this was by reading them books that challenged them. But at two-years-old, we didn\u2019t read them <i>War and Peace<\/i>; rather, we read <i>The Narnian Chronicles. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">That\u2019s how God speaks to us. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We are two-year-olds before Him. There are many things we cannot understand. If He explained to us the intricacies of His creation, of His thoughts, of His plans, it would be like our reading <i>War and Peace<\/i> to a two-year-old. Nothing would get through. We wouldn\u2019t learn a thing. Instead, He accommodates Himself to our capacity. He speaks to us true words, in helpful images, in the Bible. He tells us of His workings throughout history. He shows us what He is like through God incarnate, Jesus Christ. And so we get an incomplete, but a true picture of who He is, and what our relationship to Him can be. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">God is beyond us. We can never comprehend him on our own. If left to our own reason, we will never figure out who He is \u2013 just as a two-year-old who never grew up could never understand his parents. But God has chosen to reveal who He is to us \u2013 through His Word. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Next: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2013\/05\/10\/we-cant-think-straight-the-authority-of-scripture-part-2\/\">The Noetic Effects of Sin<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">(Several years ago I preached two sermons on Psalm 131: <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eqotw.org\/media\/?p=263\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">first<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eqotw.org\/media\/?p=263\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">second<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">. Part of this post is based on the first of those sermons). <\/span><\/p>\n<p>(For printing, download <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eqotw.org\/dgcc\/authorityofscripture1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">this pdf file<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over three blog posts, we\u2019ll consider our position before God\u2019s revelation in Scripture. This post may not seem to have much to do with scriptural authority, but be patient; we\u2019ll&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[170,756,1240],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-authority-of-scripture","tag-humility","tag-psalm-131"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}