This rule of context, like 'whole Bible' calls for a comprehensive understanding of the Bible. There are some basic, foundational truths in Scripture which are essential for a correct interpretation of many individual passages. These truths provide orientation, background and backdrop as you study different texts. The sooner you can recognize and understand these truths, the sooner you can begin to see where particular ideas fit into the whole picture of what God has revealed.
Law and Grace
There are two great truths that dominate the Bible which you must grasp. These are 'law' and 'grace.' The law of God is his revelation to the human race. Another term for this might be 'God's will.' Some people think of God's law as the ten commandments or all of the laws which God instructed Israel to follow. Since these commandments and duties reflected God's will for Israel, they are one aspect of God's law. However, all of Scripture is God's law; the law reveals God's character and tells humans how to relate to him, to other people, and to God's creation.
If you could keep all of God's laws, you wouldn't need a Savior and you would be as perfect as Jesus. But, of course, no one has ever earned eternal life by keeping the law. Neither has anyone grown to spiritual maturity by trying to keep the commandments of God (Galatians 3:1-5). Both salvation and spirituality occur not by trying to keep the perfect principles of God but by believing what God has said and accepting his supernatural help. God's law (his revelation) reveals that no one can come to him on their own. Therefore, God is gracious to people. Grace means getting something you do not deserve to get. Since people cannot have a relationship with God that meets his standards, he 'graciously' gives us the ability to achieve such a relationship. Without his grace no one can be saved, have a relationship with God, or ever grow to be like Christ. But by his grace God lives his life through all those who humble themselves and surrender themselves to him.
Justification and Sanctification
Justification is an act of God by which he declares righteous a believing sinner simply because he trusts in Jesus Christ. Notice the parts of this important definition. First, justification is an act of God. It is something God does for us, not something we earn from him. Second, it is an act of God in which God declares us righteous. It is a legal act that changes our position before him. God now considers us completely righteous. As someone has said, 'Justification is the way God looks at us 'just as if we had never sinned.'' Third, God does this for men and women who recognize that they are sinners and trust Jesus Christ alone to take the punishment that they deserved. God declares that the believing sinner is righteous because of what Jesus did when he died on the cross and rose again from the dead.
Sanctification is the process by which God initially and continually sets apart and distinguishes those who have believed in his Son. Essentially, sanctification is the act and the process where God enables us to be identified as one of his children and live in a way that pleases him. A first act of saving sanctification 'sets apart' a believer for God forever. That act is then followed by a planned, progressive, and empowered process of being set apart from sin and for God on a daily basis.
Israel and the Church
God's people have been formed into two entities in biblical history. The first entity, Israel, was a nation which could trace its ethnic and spiritual heritage back to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. God's people in the nation of Israel were given the law of Moses, the prophets, the Old Testament Scriptures and eventually, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. As a nation, Israel was chosen by God to be the instrument of his revelation until the coming of Christ.
The second entity, the Church, became God's newly chosen instrument for the advance of his kingdom at Pentecost (Acts 2). Unlike Israel, the Church has no single ethnic identification. Instead, it is composed of all who confess Christ as Savior and Lord regardless of their gender, race, class, or age. It is defined in the New Testament in a variety of ways such as body, royal priesthood, and God's household. The Church can be described as universal since it always exists in a number of places on earth at the same time. And it can be described as local since it exists in a locale where believers have gathered to worship, teach, fellowship, and reach out to people who are not believers.
