As taught by Timothy O'Day.
In this equipping time lesson, we learn that all solutions are found in Christ because...
1) Jesus removes the guilt of sin.
2) He removes the power of sin.
3) He removes the presence of sin, just not yet.
Why Counselors Need the Bible
#2 in a series on Counseling in the Church
Introduction: Objectivity is Needed for Counseling
Think through what it would be like to have the following conversations
Conversation #1: You receive a call from a friend who says, “Can you tell me how to get to your house.” You reply, “Sure. Where are you?” In answer to this, he says, “I don’t know.”
You would probably respond to this by asking the person to give you landmarks, street names, or anything at all that will help you locate them. But if he cannot tell you where he is, then you are not going to have an easy time getting him to where you are.
Conversation #2: In the second conversation, you receive a call from a friend and he says to you, “Can you tell me how to get there?” Confused, you reply, “Where?” To which he says, “I don’t know.” In real life, this would be comical or frustrating (depending on your history with this person).
Conversation #3: In the third conversation, you are asked how to get to your house, and he knows from where he is starting. So you walk through the directions to your house. But after you finish speaking, there is a moment of silence on the phone. Then your friend says, “I am a bit confused. You mentioned taking a couple of right-hand turns, but I can’t turn right. I can only turn left.” Then he either berates you for your insensitivity to his situation or tries to convince you that no one in the world can actually turn right.
These scenarios are ridiculous on the surface, but they are analogous to what can happen in counseling conversations.
Do you remember the definition of counseling that we introduced last week?
“Counseling is a conversation where one party with questions, problems, and trouble seeks assistance from someone they believe has answers, solutions, and help.”
The counselors goal is to provide answers, solutions, and help. But this requires that both the counselor and the counselee are on the same page about three key ideas: our identity, our problem, and our goal. Talking to someone who does not share your understanding of human identity is like trying to give directions to someone who thinks they cannot make right turns. Talking with someone who does not share your idea of what causes problems in life is like talking with someone who asks for directions but doesn’t know where they are. And talking with someone who doesn’t share the same goal of life is like talking with a person about directions, but they do not know where they want to go.
Perhaps you’ve had conversations in which you sought to give answers, solutions, and help, but the discussion didn’t seem to go anywhere and you felt as if you were talking past one another. Having a differing concept of identity, problem, and the goal of life is likely why. Likewise, if you have a differing concept of any of these three realities, you can give counsel that sounds good but that doesn’t really help.
In short, you need to agree on objective reality if you are going to give answers, helps, and solutions to other people.
So let’s take some time to walk through these three concepts of identity, the problem, and the goal of life and then focus on why the Bible is necessary for true counsel.
Getting the Foundation Right
In trying to learn how to do something, we should follow the advice of Julie Andrews and start at the very beginning. It is a very good place to start. So open your Bibles to Genesis chapters 1-3. In these chapters, you find an objective answers to the issues of the humanity identity, problem, and goal.
Identity
In Genesis 1:26-27, after fashioning the rest of creation, God says, “‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
This is human identity. You are made in God’s image, which means that you were made for a special purpose and for a special relationship with God that no one and nothing else in creation has. You are created to image God, meaning to know him and reflect him into all creation. As a mirror holds your image and reflects you, every human being is created to know God and reflect his character, beauty, goodness, and power into all creation.
Do you see how this is vital to counseling? Your identity is tied to your purpose and your purpose is tied to knowing and enjoying God. If you try to find your identity in anything else, you will get your purpose wrong.
Seeing that human identity is tied up in knowing God, Paul Tripp makes the observation that every person is dependent on God by virtue of being his creation. That is to say, you need to hear from God in order to know your identity and your corresponding purpose. Simply look at Adam and Eve as the story unfolds. In Genesis 2, God must reveal to Adam and Eve who they are and how they are supposed to live in a way that is pleasing to God—that is, to reflect God rightly. In Genesis 2:15-17, God tells Adam what his task is, what he should do, and what he should not do. In 2:18-24, God sees Adam and says that the current situation is not good, something else is needed. This is an objective claim that comes from the Creator. As Creator, he knows what is good and bad, right and wrong. Adam and Eve are dependent on God in order to know how to live. As long as they listen to God, they will live; it is when they stop that death and trouble enter into the scene, which leads to understanding the human problem.
The Problem
In Genesis 3, the devil comes to Eve in the form of the serpent. As he comes, he offers an alternative understanding of Eve’s identity and purpose. He tells her that God has not told the truth. In fact, God is holding out on her and Adam. If she disobeys God, then she will have real life; if she continues to obey, then she will miss out on what is really good. The devil says that her identity is not God’s image, but being God herself. Her purpose is not knowing and enjoying God, but being the ultimate one who is known and enjoyed herself.
This is the lie of sin. The call of sin constantly says to us, “If you do not choose sin, then you will miss out on what is really good.”
Sin is the human problem. There are lots of problems in the world, but they cannot compare to this problem. In fact, every other problem in the world is merely a complication from THE problem of sin. After Adam and Eve disregard God’s Word, follow their own wisdom, and eat the fruit, all of their relationships are spoiled. The rest of Genesis 3 records how sin spoils the relationship between husband and wife, humanity and creation, and, most importantly, humanity and God.
Most of what we identify as our problems are really only symptoms. Our sin and the sin of other people are the root cause of various surface problems we face.
In counseling, if you cannot agree on the real problem, then you will not be able to offer answers, helps, and solutions. Either you will only be treating symptoms instead of the cause or the person will not be interested in what you have to say because they only want to treat the symptoms and not the cause.
But knowing the problem isn’t enough. You also have to know the goal, or the solution, presented by God himself.
The Goal
Genesis 3 shows us that humanity is marred by sin, but it also gives us the promise of restoration by God’s grace. Genesis 3:15 presents the solution to the promise of sin, and that is the gracious provision of God. In that verse, God promises that there will be one who comes from the woman who will crush the seed of the serpent—meaning that the rest of the Bible will give us the only folding story of how God will redeem his people through one man, Jesus Christ. By his person and work, Christ does 3 things that are essential to how we counsel one another.
First, Christ removes the guilt of sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 speaks to this reality when speaking of Christ, we read “For our sake he made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Genesis 3 depicts how humanity is alienated from God, each other, and all of creation because of sin. Every single person is guilty and under God’s wrath because of sin, so God sent his Son to remove our guilt that brings on this just punishment and separation. Jesus takes the place of his people on the cross, bearing the penalty of sin, and imputing his righteousness to those who trust him. This is known as justification, the legal declaration that one is right with God by faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Second, Christ removes the power of sin. When you place your faith in Christ, you are not only made right with God, you become a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Listen to what 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 has to say about this reality, “or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Did you catch that? Those who came to Christ used to be defined by sinful behavior, but now they are justified and sanctified. They have received God’s Spirit and live as new creations. Titus 2:11-2 proclaims a similar reality, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” Grace does not just save it; it changes us. If you are Christs, then you are justified but you are also empowered to be sanctified. You are not the same. In fact, you cannot be the same since God’s Spirit now dwells in you by faith.
Third, Jesus removes the presence of sin. While you are sanctified in the present, one day you will no longer have the presence of sin in your life at all. When you are glorified, you will be made like Christ. This is the reality that is spoken of in 1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” One day, when you see Jesus face to face at his return, you will be glorified and you will be like him—sinless. Until that day, we aim to grow in our sanctification, seeking to be pure like him in the present as much as we can. We do this not in order to be justified but because we are justified already.
How are we justified? How are we sanctified? How do we endure to the day that we are glorified? By paying close attention to God’s word, the Bible. Jesus is the goal of life and the solution to the human problem. When we come to the word of God, holy Scripture, we come to the means by which we can hear and believe to the end that we are justified, sanctified, and glorified.
The goal of justification, sanctification, and glorification is to restore humanity to our purposes of glorifying God by seeing him, knowing him, and enjoying him. Our greatest problem is one of worship. In being conformed to Christ, we overcome this (see 2 Corinthians 3:18 on this goal).
But if we reach this goal by listening to God, how do we hear him?
The Gift of General Revelation (And Why It Isn’t Enough)
God speaks in creation in two ways. First, he speaks in general revelation. General revelation is general disclosure of God to all people, in all places, at all times. Psalm 19:1-4 says that the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Every day this speech declaring goes forth as humanity simply beholds God’s creation. Romans 1:18-21 tells us that God makes himself known to all people so that they are without excuse. When we take these two passages together, we see that the authority of general revelation is limited. General revelation confirms that God exists, convicts us that we are sinning against him, and condemns us for turning away from him and denying his existence. General revelation gives general information, but it cannot answer why. It only answers What. This is why we need the Bible. Secular psychology cannot answer the why of human purpose. Therefore, we need something more than general revelation if we are going to know God and find a solution to the problem of sin. We need special revelation.
The Superior Gift of Special Revelation
Special revelation is God’s particular words to particular people, in particular places, at particular times. It is God’s special disclosure of himself to us and about us. We need the Bible, God’s special revelation, as the authoritative standard to know who we are, who we are supposed to be, and what problem gets in the way of God’s will for us. In thinking through the importance of the Bible as special revelation, 2 Tim 3:16 helps us tremendously. It says “All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The phrase “breathed out by God” means that the words of Scripture are God’s very words to us. As John Frame writes somewhere, to hear scripture is to hear God. When you disobey the Bible, you are not disobeying a document; you are disobeying God himself. If I gave a command to my child that he then did not follow, he could not say to me, “Dad, I didn’t disobey you. I just disobeyed your words.” To disobey God’s word is to disobey God himself.
Since the Bible is God’s word, we can surmise 3 important points about it for counseling.
First, the Bible is truthful. Since God is truthful, so all of his words are true and the final standard of truth. God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18) and God is faithful to all of his promises (Numbers 23:19). Therefore, if God says it or promises it in the Bible, you can count on it. While not all people will heed God’s word, God promises blessing to those who do (Prove 30:5). This is not prosperity teaching. God promises to sanctify you by his word, which is the true benefit (John 17:17). Here is the upshot: if you want information and counsel you can trust, listen to what the Bible says. If you want to give someone what is surely true, give them what the Bible says.
Second, the Bible is authoritative. Since scripture is God’s word, to disobey Scripture is to disobey God; to obey Scripture is to obey God. To believe Scripture is to believe God; to disbelieve Scripture is to disbelieve God. The commands in the Bible are not man made commands, but come from God himself (Ex 17:14; Jer 30:2; Acts 4:24-26; Revelation 1:11-19). The Bible itself tells us that if you disobey Scripture, you are disobeying God (Proverbs 30:5-6; Luke 24:25; John 15:20). As the supreme authority, every other authority on earth is merely authority that God has granted. Therefore, we need to judge everything under the authority of the Bible (Dan 4:34-35; Rom 13:1; 1 Peter 2:13-16). Here is the upshot on authority: if you want to keep people safe from danger, then speak what the Bible says.
Third, the Bible is eternally helpful. God intends for his words to be revered and obeyed by all people. When interpreted correctly, it has meaning and application for all people. This means that you cannot point to a section of Scripture and say, “That worked for ancient people, but it won’t work for people today or in this context.” God’s words are beneficial, but can be twisted (Proverbs 30:5-6), so we need to be careful in our interpretation. To be a good counselor, you must be a good interpreter. Here is the upshot in regard to understanding the Bible as eternally helpful: all scripture, not just some, is given to make you complete and equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:17). Make sure you search the whole counsel of God’s word and seek to counsel by a whole Bible theology.
The Bible is truthful, authoritative, and eternally helpful, but is it enough? That is to say, is it sufficient for the task of counseling? That is the question we will take up next week.
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