Thank God for the Bible

On this Thanksgiving Sunday in the year of our Lord 2012, we thank God for our lives and especially for the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ. We thank God for our health and healing, for our daily bread, for our families, and for the greater family of the church of Jesus Christ. We particularly thank God for his gift to us, his gracious revelation given to us in the Bible.

Love communicates. God loved us and revealed to us his will for our good in the Bible. We know the truth about everything necessary for our salvation only through reading and meditating on the Holy Scriptures. The Bible tells us how then we should live every day. It tells us what to think, what to speak, and what to do. There is no other book like it, which speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We agree totally with Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith that teaches the truth of the Holy Scriptures.

In Romans 1:21, Paul declares that unbelievers are unthankful to God. But we as believers in Christ are especially thankful for the Holy Bible that gives witness to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Inspiration of the Bible

In Romans 16:22 we read, “I greet you – I, Tertius – who wrote down this letter – in the Lord.” Paul used amanuenses (secretaries) who wrote down his epistles as he dictated to them. In 2 Thessalonians 3:17 he says, “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.” The apostle wrote only the greeting. The secretary wrote the letter.

Tertius is the only secretary named in Paul’s letters. As Paul dictated this letter, he gave Tertius permission to send his own greetings to the saints in Rome. Paul dictated, and Tertius wrote down what Paul said word for word. He wrote down, we are told, “in the Lord,” meaning, “by his help.” So he wrote down without error.

Exodus 31 and 32 tells us that God himself wrote down the Ten Commandments by his own finger on two stone tablets (Exod. 31:18; 32:15–16). We read of Jesus writing on the ground in the story of the woman caught in violation of the seventh commandment (John 8:6–8). I suppose he wrote on the ground the Ten Commandments, which convicted all her accusers.

Dictation is one way of writing down the word of God. We read in Jeremiah 36 and 45 that Jeremiah wrote his prophecy through his secretary Baruch: “Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord” (author’s translation of Jer. 36:4). The word “dictation” appears seven times in these two chapters. So, for example we read, “While Jeremiah dictated all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them down on the scroll. . . . People asked Baruch, ‘Did Jeremiah dictate it?’ ‘Yes,’ Baruch replied, ‘he dictated all these words to me and I wrote them in ink on the scroll’” (Jer. 36:4, 18 NIV).

So God dictated to Jeremiah, Jeremiah dictated to Baruch, and Baruch wrote every word down without error by divine help. God assisted Jeremiah and Baruch. Even so, we can conclude that the Holy Spirit dictated to Paul, he dictated to Tertius, and Tertius wrote down all the words of the epistle. Thus we have Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.

Luke tells us that he wrote Luke/Acts through research. At the beginning of his first book he writes, “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:1-4). Luke wrote down what he had carefully researched.

But no matter which way the human authors of Scripture wrote, whether by dictation or by research, the Holy Spirit so controlled them so that what they wrote down was the very word of God, without any error, infallible and inerrant, and so authoritative for us.

INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES

In 2 Timothy Paul writes, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). All Scripture istheopneustos> (God-breathed), spoken by God. Notice, we speak by breathing out. God spoke the Scriptures by breathing out. So instead of using the word “inspiration,” we could say all Scripture is the “outspiration” of God. When there is no breath, we do not speak. And when he was tempted by the devil, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, saying, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:4). So 2 Timothy 3:16 is speaking of the source of Scripture. God alone is the source of Scripture. It is the word of God.

Not only does 2 Timothy 3:16 tell us that the Scripture, being God’s word, is breathed out by God, but it also says it is profitable. Jesus asked, “What does it profit if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?” Politicians who win elections celebrate. But what does it profit? They are all fools, unless they repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. No one has ever gained the whole world. But even if they did, what would it profit if they lose their souls? Jesus spoke of a rich man who dressed in purple and in fine linen and lived luxuriously every day. But he refused to live by the Scriptures he had. So when he died, he went to hell, as Jesus himself tells us. He was in torment, in agony, and in eternal fire (Luke 16).

Man is to live, not just by physical bread, but especially by the spiritual bread of the word that comes out of God’s mouth. The source of Scripture is God. In the Scripture, God is speaking to us directly. We are to hear and do his word for our everlasting profit.

So Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that God’s word is profitable for teaching and rebuking, that is, for doctrine, (i.e., belief). We must have doctrine. Everyone has doctrine. Even fools have doctrine. They believe there is no God and that, therefore, they themselves are God.

God’s word alone is divine truth. It alone speaks of reality about God, about man, the world, sin, salvation, judgment, heaven, hell, Jesus Christ, the atonement, and so on. So it is also profitable for correction and training in righteousness. It is useful for holy conduct, righteous living.

So the word of God is profitable for belief and behavior. The Holy Scripture equips us thoroughly to do all the will of God, to do every good work.

Peter also writes about inspiration, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20–21).

In the Old Testament, many false prophets spoke from their own imagination. In Jeremiah we read, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds,not from the mouth of the Lord’” (Jer. 23:16). And the Lord declares in Ezekiel’s prophecy, “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’” (Ezek. 13:2).

In 2 Peter 1:20-21, Peter tells us about the conjunction of God and man in the writing of Scripture. The Scripture did not originate in the mind of man (i.e., man is not the source of Scripture). It did not come from fallible human capacity. The Scripture did not have its origin, its source, in the will of man. “But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”—that is, as a ship is carried along by the wind power. In other words, these prophets were under the power and direct and total control of the Holy Spirit. And the result (what they wrote) was the very word of God, which is profitable for teaching and for practice. The word tells us how then we should live. God is jealous of his word. It is spoken so that we might do the word and honor him, and be blessed by him.

The Scriptures are holy writings that are able to make us wise unto salvation. Paul wrote to Timothy, “and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).

The Scriptures speak of creation. The psalmist tells us, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry hosts by the breath of his mouth” (Ps. 33:6). God spoke, and all the universe in its entirety sprang up. The psalmist also says, “I will bow down toward your holy templeand will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all thingsyour name and your word” (Ps. 138:2).

So notice the conjunction of God and man in the writing of Scripture. We read about this conjunction of God and man throughout the New Testament. In Acts 28 we read, “[The Jews] disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: ‘The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet: “Go to this people and say, ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding’” ‘” (Acts 28:25–26). Paul, by inspiration, said, “the Holy Spirit spoke,” and then quoted the words of Isaiah the prophet. So Isaiah wrote the words, but Paul says the Holy Spirit was saying it. In Hebrews 3:7 the writer quotes Psalm 95, saying, “So as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.’” It was the psalmist who wrote these words down. So the Holy Spirit spoke, and the psalmist wrote it down. In Hebrews 10:15 we read, “The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says, ‘This is the covenant I make with them: I will put my laws within their hearts.’” That is a quotation from Jeremiah 31:33. But the writer to the Hebrews says, “The Holy Spirit says.” So what Jeremiah said, in other words, is what the Holy Spirit spoke to him.

INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES

What about the inspiration of the New Testament? In Jesus Christ, God chose certain apostles. An apostle is a shaliach (Heb.), meaning one who is commissioned to do a job for another as an ambassador, a representative. So what the apostles said is what God said.

Jesus himself said that the Holy Spirit would enable the apostles to speak and write down Scriptures. “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). He also said, “But when . . . the Spirit of truth . . . comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). The apostles were commissioned by Christ to declare and write down the gospel so that what they spoke and wrote was the very word of Christ. What his apostles said, Christ was saying. That is the authority of the apostles. They wrote from God under the direct and total control of the Holy Spirit.

So Paul says, “If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command” (1 Cor. 14:37). Peter speaks similarly: “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets [the Old Testament] and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Pet. 3:2). Again, Peter speaks about the inspiration of the New Testament. Of Paul he explains, “He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). The wicked and the ignorant, the unstable and the liberals twist and pervert the apostolic writings as they do the Old Testament Scriptures, says Apostle Peter. (PGM) This proves the writings of Paul are Scripture.

What the apostles wrote was by the command of Jesus Christ and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Their writings carried the authority of Christ himself. Their writings are Scripture, even as the Old Testament writings of the prophets are Scripture.

II. The View of Jesus on Scripture

What was the view of Jesus Christ of the written Scriptures? We can find the answer in his own words. Jesus said, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matt. 22:29). Jesus was saying that many religious leaders, both then and now, do not know the Scripture or God’s infinite power demonstrated in his creation and providence and particularly in the resurrection of Christ himself.

Jesus had a high view of God’s word. So he obeyed the word and honored the Father. He went to the cross because the Scripture commanded him to do so. He said, “The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). The Scripture cannot be destroyed or nullified. And the Scripture never fails. What it says, it performs, because God is truth and he cannot lie. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matt. 5:17-18). Jesus came to honor the word of God. He came not to abolish or destroy the law. Every word of the Scripture is true. He became incarnate to obey the law. So when a father says, “Honor your father and mother,” God is speaking to that child, and he or she must honor the parents. That is the way it is. When a pastor teaches the Scripture, we are to apply it, because it is the word of God. And if we are born of God, we will do so.

Jesus said to his disciples, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). All Scripture must be fulfilled. All Scripture speaks of Christ—his death and resurrection, for our salvation. The rich man of Luke 16 refused to believe in the Christ of Scripture and went to hell. In Matthew 19:4–5 Jesus said: “Haven’t you read . . . that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?” What does this mean? It means that Jesus believed in the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. It means that he believed in the creation account. It means what Moses said was what God said.

III. Properties of Scripture

Let us look at some of the properties of the Scripture.

1. The authority of Scripture. Because the Scripture is God’s word, it has the authority of God. We must hear and do the word, because in the word, God himself is speaking directly to us. We must live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Submission to the Lord necessarily leads to submission to his word. Thus, to ignore Scripture is nothing but rebellion. God has the authority to rule all creation, especially the church he is building. So Scripture is the final and only authority for our belief and behavior. The authority of the church is grounded upon the authority of the Bible.

2. The necessity of Scripture. There is no gospel to save us in God’s revelation of himself in nature and in human conscience. Our Savior, Christ the Lord, is revealed only in Scripture. The Bible speaks of him as our Prophet, Priest, and King. Scriptural revelation alone points to Jesus our Savior. Therefore, Scripture is necessary.

3. The sufficiency of Scripture. Scripture alone is sufficient for our salvation. Nothing more is needed, whether human tradition, hollow philosophy, or modern science. We are not to add to or subtract from the Scriptures. John writes, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book” (Rev. 22:18–19). In other words, such a person is anathema, cursed. Moses said, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). John says in his gospel: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30–31). The canon is closed. We have no more universally authoritative revelation today.

4. The perspicuity of Scripture. Scripture is perspicuous (clear). The Holy Spirit, the primary author of Scripture, enlightens every child of God so that he can understand the Scripture. The Bible is self-interpreting as to its essential truths. It makes the simple wise, as the psalmist tells us, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple” (Ps. 19:7). He also declares, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” (Ps. 119:130). In Acts 17 we read, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). Paul wrote to Timothy, “From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). The Holy Spirit will make the Scriptures clear to us.

5. The efficacy of Scripture. The power of the word of God is the power of God himself. As we already read, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth” (Ps. 33:6). God spoke, and all creation came to be. At the beginning of this epistle, Paul wrote, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Rom. 1:16). Scripture is the efficacious power of God. Elsewhere he says, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.” In other words, these are not weak weapons. He continues, “On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4–5).

6. Scripture is self-attesting. There is no human authority competent to judge the word of God. The Scripture is self-attesting and self-interpreting. No finite, fallen reason can judge God’s perfect word. Our doctrine of Scripture should be derived from Scripture itself. We stand under Scripture to hear and do the will of God.

7. The subject of Scripture. The whole of Scripture reveals Jesus Christ, who saves us from our sins. There is no other Savior. He told his disciples, “‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:44-47). Jesus Christ is the subject of Scripture.

IV. Sola Scriptura!

So we give thanks to God for the whole Bible! And we give thanks to God for this letter to the Romans, as written down by Tertius, from the mouth of Paul, who spoke for God. Imagine the reaction of Tertius as he wrote down Romans 8:1: “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Or Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” I am sure he would be saying, “I am saved!” And Romans 10:13: “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Everyone! And Tertius would be rejoicing even as he wrote. He was a slave, but he was glad that God gave him faith to believe. And he said, “I am saved!”

We have no extant autographs of the Scripture. But the copies we have came from the inerrant autographs. And in the copies we have now, we have more than ninety-nine percent of the original text. This was established by the application of textual criticism. The miniscule amount of disputed readings have no effect upon our understanding of divine salvation or anything else.

The Bible is wholly true—every word. When it speaks of any subject, it speaks truth. Do you want to know truth? It is in the Book: truth about yourself, truth about God, truth about heaven, truth about salvation.

There is no higher authority in the world than the word of God, which reveals to us the way to paradise. All Scripture proceeds from God and is therefore invested with a divinity as authoritative and efficient as a word God may speak directly to us. So what we need to do in these modern times is to return to the Holy Scriptures, which alone speak eternal truth.

Modern man lies. Man has always lied, since the Fall. God alone tells truth. He alone saves sinners by and through his eternal Son, Jesus Christ. So may we hear the word and do the word. May we thereby demonstrate its transforming power in our personal lives, our married lives, our family lives, our work lives, and our church lives. Above all, then, let us thank God for the Holy Bible!