God portrays people who only understand with their intellectual minds as slaves to the law of sin. These are found mainly, but not exclusively, in the Old Testament. The Bible portrays people who understand the spiritual Bible as New Covenant disciples. These are found in both the Old and New Testaments.
Jesus is a perfect example of New Covenant disciples who listen to God’s voice and understand the spiritual meanings of all the difficult scriptures that have confused and misled generations of Jews and Christians. That is why he is called a mediator of a new, better New Covenant.
As mediator between God and man, Jesus speaks for God to explain and interpret the spiritual meanings of the literal Bible to people who do not know how to hear God’s voice. As mediator, he explains the spiritual meanings of MYSTERY, Symbols, Signs, Types, Allegories, Parables, Copies, Shadows and Patterns of the Bible
New Covenant disciples also mediate (i.e. explain, interpret) the spiritual meaning of the Old Covenant to anyone who will listen. When they explain the confusing, obscure MYSTERY, Symbols, Signs, Types, Allegories, Parables, Copies, Shadows and Patterns of the Bible, they are followers of Jesus because they are doing what Jesus did. Having this incredible ability, they also understand the mysteries that prophets longed to see but did not hear.
Followers are able to mediate/explain/interpret confusing scriptures because the law is written on their hearts just like it was written on Jesus’ heart. They can do this because God’s spirit teaches them what to say when they explain God’s spiritual laws to those who will listen. They are True Prophets who, like Jesus, only report and do what the spirit of God tells them to say and do when they explain/interpret scripture to people who interpret the Bible literally. In other words, they are servants and priests of God because they speak for him.
All of Jesus’ teachings, his conflict with religion and the way he conducted his life clarified and explained the spiritual meaning of the Law and the Prophets. It was necessary for Jesus to come to interpret and live out the spiritual meanings behind the symbolism of the law and prophets because religious people then and now are spiritually dead for lack of understanding of the spiritual law. Not even Moses or the Apostle Paul understood everything. This kind of understanding is available only to New Covenant disciples who read the Bible like children who are unafraid to ask questions as they seek for spiritual wisdom,
*** ask questions
True disciples will ask for the meaning of things they do not understand instead of pretending that they do understand or instead of being indifferent or curious enough to ask for an explanation. They know that God has hidden truths for them to discover and they are faithful to dig until they find what he has hidden.
This attitude contrasts with the wisdom of Old/First Covenant religionists who proudly believe they know-it-all because they have studied and even memorized the literal Bible and have heard many inspiring teachings from religious leaders. Their idea of digging for truth is listening to a sermon, listening to a teaching tape, listening to religious music, going to a spiritual movie, going to a conference, participating in a Bible study group, reading a book by a religious author or doing a daily devotional. They do not qualify as children eager to learn and will not learn anything more than literal truth because they choose to receive instruction from false prophets.
Religious people pursue these human resources instead of God because they wrongly think that, when God said ‘faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ”, he meant that hearing God’s voice means the same thing as reading words written by men on a page, and that hearing a message from a religious leader with their natural ears is the same thing as hearing the spirit of God speak to their hearts. They are not the same!
Nevertheless, there is great value in reading the Bible. But that value is acquired only when we read for the right motives using our minds while listening for God’s voice to reveal mysteries and explain parables to us. We will know that we are maturing spiritually, therefore, when we receive understanding of the symbolic meaning of scriptures that we previously understood only literally.