Have you ever tried running a car without a battery? I guess you wouldn't have deliberately because we all know that cars need energy to run - electrical and mechanical. In the same way a car doesn't without power, neither does our Bible reading.
Anyone from an atheist to a devoted follower of Christ can pick up a Bible and read it, but not everyone will have the same reaction and revelation. That's why an agnostic can read scripture and find no transforming power - because the Bible is like a car in that it can run but it needs the right juice.
The only way to read the Bible for all it's worth is to read it through the lens of the power of the work of Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus, there can be no revelation and there can be no transformation. Without the manifestation of Christ through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the Bible is nothing more than a boring old history book.
John 1:1 puts the power of Christ over the Word of God perfectly: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Bible is not so much the object of our faith, but simply speaks of the Person in whom all our hope and faith lies. Without Jesus in our Bible reading, there is no faith and there is no hope.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19 says, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." Jesus is the source and essence of all inspiration not just in Bible reading but in every area of life. Jesus is the beginning, the middle and the end. To remove Him from anything is like removing the spirit from the body.
And in the same way, the Bible without Christ is like a corpse with no spirit. We can try to dress it up all we can, but there is no life without the spirit. In the same way, God's Spirit brings revelation and there is no revelation by the Holy Spirit apart from Jesus Christ and the implications of who He is in our life.
We must learn to read every inch and word of the Bible through the lens and with the inspiration of the gospel - the good news that Jesus is risen and that our hope is not in vain. Jesus is alive in our daily Bible reading and He must remain so.
