Daily Word

"Then he opened ('dianoigo') their minds to understand ('suniemi') the Scriptures."

What does it mean that Jesus opened the minds of the disciples?

The word 'dianoigo' means to open by dividing or pulling apart, to open completely and fully by completing the necessary process for it.

What is it that must be divided or pulled apart?

The veil that we mentioned in yesterday's devotional – the veil that hides Christ!

It is like a curtain that must be pulled apart so that we can see what is on the stage.

What is that veil or curtain in the deepest sense – what is it that hides Christ?

Your and my ego – our self-centeredness and self-absorption.

We must let Christ take us through the necessary and often very painful process of cutting away all that belongs to our self so that Christ alone becomes our focus.

Only then will we be able to see clearly and only then comes the full understanding of the Bible, because then we begin to see Him everywhere in the Scriptures.

'Syniemi' means to put together and unite facts into a comprehensive, coherent whole and reach a summary or final understanding.

This is what Jesus did for the two Emmaus travelers when He went through word by word in book after book of the Old Testament and explained that it was about Him. Then a comprehensive and coherent picture of Christ grew in the Old Testament and suddenly they saw Christ in a way they had

never seen Him before, and their hearts began to burn within them.

Christ is the great secret of the Bible, of God, of man and of creation.

He is the Word, the key to understanding everything in both the visible and the invisible reality.

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." (Col.1:15-17)

Therefore, it is the great task of the Holy Spirit to reveal and glorify Christ in us through the Word to bring us to the full truth and insight into who He is. This is not a theoretical understanding—it is an understanding of life, of the spiritual life.

When the Christ of the Bible has become our life, we understand the great secret of the Bible!