Today is Reformation Sunday, the day when we remember the 16th century Protestant reformers like Martin Luther, William Tyndale and John Calvin. Our Protestant and Reformed heritage comes right from them. Although they faced incredible odds, they made a tremendous impact upon the world. We thank God for raising them for the work of the Protestant Reformation. And it would be profitable for us to learn what made them so different from their contemporaries. It was the way they studied the Bible. No one taught them the doctrines of the Reformed Faith. They got these doctrines entirely through their own personal study of the Scriptures.

Martin Luther started out as an Augustinian monk in a Catholic monastery in Germany. There he was made to study the writings of Augustine and the Catholic Schoolmen, but not the Bible. One day, as he was browsing through the books in the monastery’s library, he accidentally found a copy of the Latin Bible, which he had never seen before. This raised his curiosity to a high degree. He read it over with great excitement, and was amazed to find what a small portion of the Scriptures was being taught to the people. So he devoted himself to study the Scriptures well in order that he would be able to teach its wonderful truths to the people. He devoted himself so much to Bible study that he often neglected eating and sleeping. He studied the Bible in Latin, which was really his second language. But Luther acquired such a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures that he was able later on to translate it into his own native German language!

At about the same time as Luther, there was a Reformer in England named William Tyndale. Although he was greatly opposed all throughout his life for teaching the truth of God’s Word and for translating the Bible into English (which became the forerunner to our King James Version), he pressed on courageously with the work of the Reformation until he was eventually burned at the stake in 1536 for the sake of Christ. What was it that gave him such courage? From his biography in Foxe’s book of Martyrs, we learn that from the time when he was a young student at Oxford, he became ‘singularly addicted’ to studying the Bible. He became so well-versed in it that he actually began to instruct some fellow students and even teachers in Oxford in the knowledge and truth of the Scriptures!

Then came the French Reformer, John Calvin. He was a brilliant Law student when he was converted. But after that, he was so inflamed with an intense desire to study the Scriptures, that although he did not altogether leave off his Law studies, he pursued them with less zeal than before. After less than a year, he knew the Bible so well that people were already coming to learn from him! Later on, he really wanted to devote his life to seclusion so that he could study the wonderful truths of the Bible which he had begun to discover. In fact he began to write a book systematically explaining all the wonderful truths he discovered. This book is still being widely read and studied today, and it is called Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. But God had greater plans for him than just to be a Bible scholar. He became a Reformer, based in Geneva, holding forth the glorious light of God’s Word to dispel the darkness of ignorance, superstition and false doctrine that the church had been shrouded in for centuries.

While we thank God today for raising up these and many others Reformers, the lesson that we must learn well from all of them is the importance of regular, consistent personal Bible study. None of these men would ever have accomplished all that they did if they had not kept this habit of studying the Scriptures. The Bible itself tells us about this – "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)

The study of the Scriptures is different from any other kind of study, because it is something we need to keep doing throughout our lives here on earth. We cannot stop learning from God’s Word. But how do we sustain this habit of personal Bible Study? Here are four strong motivations given by the Scripture itself, together with a Reformer’s comments:

1. It Is Profitable for Our Good. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:16,17) Calvin comments: "…the Lord, when he gave us the Scriptures, did not intend either to gratify our curiosity, or to encourage ostentation, or to give occasion for chatting and talking, but to do us good; and, therefore, the right use of Scripture must always tend to what is profitable… The most valuable knowledge, therefore, is "faith in Christ." Next follows instruction for regulating the life, to which are added the excitements of exhortations and reproofs. Thus he who knows how to use the Scriptures properly, is in want of nothing for salvation, or for a Holy life."

2. It Has Power to Make Us Eternal. "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever…." (1 Peter 1:24,25) Calvin comments: "Hence Peter ascribes power and efficacy to God’s word, according to the authority of the Prophet, so that it can confer on us what is real, solid, and eternal. For this was what the Prophet had in view, that there is no permanent life but in God, and that this is communicated to us by the word. However fading, then, is the nature of man, yet he is made eternal by the word; for he is re-moulded and becomes a new creature."

3. It Produces Faith in Us. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17) Calvin comments: "…faith is grounded on nothing else but the truth of God; for Paul does not teach us that faith springs from any other kind of doctrine, but he expressly restricts it to the word of God; and this restriction would have been improper if faith could rest on the decrees of men."

4. It Penetrates Our Innermost Thoughts. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12) Calvin comments: "God’s word is a discerner, for it brings the light of knowledge to the mind of man as it were from a labyrinth, where it was held before entangled. There is indeed no thicker darkness than that of unbelief, and hypocrisy is a horrible blindness; but God’s word scatters this darkness and chases away this hypocrisy. Hence the separating or discerning which the Apostle mentions; for the vices, hid under the false appearance of virtues, begin then to be known, the varnish being wiped away."

To be like the Reformers, you must give attention to every part of the Scriptures. Many Christians have their favourite Bible passages, books of the Bible, and verses. They tend to read or study them over and over again but neglect the rest of the Bible. Many have read the Gospels, (especially John), some of the Epistles, Genesis and Psalms. But they have not read books like Nahum, Haggai, and Zephaniah.

If you do this you are not deriving the full benefit that the whole Bible has for you. If you do not study all 66 books of the Bible well in your whole lifetime, then you have not done justice to this precious gift of God. It is like a going into a good restaurant, and when the dishes of delicious food you ordered arrive, you eat up everything from some of the dishes but leave the rest totally untouched! It is therefore worth your while to study the Bible thoroughly, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation.

Dear reader, will you make a commitment today to study God’s Word on your own regularly? Will you begin to spend time discovering its precious truths? Will you make a concerted effort to imbibe the Word God with the zeal that the Reformers had, and so be equipped to live a successful Christian life which is glorifying to God? It is up to you now to decide.

Remember that you live in a blessed age, where you can easily possess a personal copy of the Bible in your own native language, faithful to the original text. Many who lived in previous ages hardly had such a great privilege. Besides that, you also have access to all the books of accumulated learning and resource materials: concordances, guidebooks, Bible dictionaries, commentaries, Bible software etc. If you do not make full use of these opportunities now, how will you answer those saints in heaven who would have given anything to have some your privileges? Study to shew thyself approved unto God! –CS