Scripture, Experience, and the Spirit of Christ

About two months ago I was thinking intently on "Seeking a Sign and the Authority of Scripture" and it came to mind again today as I was reading John Piper's new book, Finally Alive. I went back to my post to reread it and the comments section directly addressed one of the thoughts I had. So, rather than write something new, I will simply repost the remarks.

A question was posed by dual blogger, Eva Joy (Here I Am, Send Me and Life and Prime Numbers):

"I am wondering if you have insights on a question I continue to struggle with: How do you resolve that stance (Scripture as authoritative over experience) with the realization that how we interpret Scripture is influenced by our presuppositions which, in turn, are formed by our experience? Scripture may tell us the significance or meaning of an experience but how we understand what it is telling us is often informed by other experiences."

I replied,

"That's a good question. I will try to answer it.

"Often social conditioning gets the blame for the things that we believe. But for the Christian, we know we are led by the Spirit.

"'When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.' -John 16:13-15

"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. -Romans 8:14-16

"So, our interpretation of Scripture is not governed by our experiences, as a post-modern society tells us, but rather by the Spirit. We are indeed a new creation in Christ and we can be certain that God is faithful to the promise in John 16. And a semantic look at John 16 shows us (1) that the Spirit spoken of is that of Christ (He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life) and (2) that the Spirit will guide us in all Truth, which includes all matters of Scripture, as Christ is both synonymous with Truth and the Word (John 1)."

The citation of experience as the shaper of our Scriptural interpretation is trumped by the understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit. He guides us, illuminating our path through Scripture, taking what is Christ's and declaring it to us. A regenerate heart can take solace in knowing that it is one with Christ, a fellow heir; all well Christ is the first-born amongst many sons, that He may be lifted up and glorified.