Breathed Out by God
How can words written by human authors also be the very Word of God? This series explores the biblical doctrine of inspiration by examining what inspiration means, how God worked through human writers, whether their limitations affected Scripture, and why inspiration matters for our faith and daily lives. Each article can be read on its own, yet together they provide a clearer understanding of how God gave us His trustworthy Word.
In an earlier post we talked about what we mean by Scripture being “inspired by God”. We endorsed a view called the Synergistic Verbal Plenary Theory of Inspiration. This view emphasizes that God inspired each biblical author to write what He desired, yet each writer was doing so in his own style with his own voice. This view establishes that all the Bible, down to each word, is God’s Word. God worked in the personal lives of the authors: their experiences, education and relationships. Then in the moment of writing, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, they wrote what they felt needed to be said, yet at the same time—as only God could do—they wrote what God would have them say.
As the inspired Word of God, the Scripture is without error: inerrant and infallible. These two terms combine to explain that the Bible—God’s Word—is not only without error but is incapable of error for God is without error and incapable of error.
We now come to two more terms: Authoritative and Sufficiency. Let’s take Authoritative first. This term expresses the understanding that the Bible is THE authority for our faith, Christian practice and our very lives. The Bible is the final word.
The Church should help us to understand His Word. Commentaries and the vast array of Bible help materials should give us insight. Preaching should illuminate the message and provide application of the Bible. Creeds and statement of faith should give us clear declarations on doctrinal issues. But NOTHING stands above God’s Word. In all of these, we should test them against the Bible (Acts 17:11, I John 4:1). Where there is disagreement, we correct the teachings, practices, or the doctrines, not the Bible. We change our understanding and practice not His Word!
While God in the persons of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit is the ultimate authority for all people, everywhere and in all times, God would not supersede the Bible, His own Word, as the authority for faith and life. Does this put the Bible above God? NO! The Bible is God’s Word. What it says, all of it, is His Word and God never contradicts Himself. He has not said anything in His Word that He would change, correct, or amend (Luke 21:33).
Yet, there are those who will talk about “my god would not do that” or “my god is love and would not send people to Hell.” Understand, when we put our own opinion about God or Jesus above the Bible, we are creating our own god. Look at Genesis 3:1-7 to see that in the very beginning this was how Satan lied to Eve. He convinces her that her thoughts were higher than God’s, and she could be a god. The issue is that the god in these cases is a little “g” god, not the one and only God: Creator, Sustainer, and our salvation, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is a god of someone’s imagination: an idol.
This erroneous mindset is one of the reasons the God of the universe has given us the Bible: that we may know Him in truth. The Holy Spirit will lead us in understanding His Word but does not lead us to “truth” that is contrary, against, or outside His revelation in the Bible. The fact is when we put our understanding of God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit above the Bible we are really making ourselves the final authority. People will then take these false views and interpret the Bible or even dismiss the Bible based on the god of their imagination. This is more dangerous than you can image. It is rampant throughout the Church in the “Progressive Christianity” movement, “Ultra-Charismatic” groups, and others. As we said above: In all of these we should test them against the Bible (Acts 17:11, I John 4:1). Where there is disagreement, we correct the teachings, practices, or the doctrines, not the Bible. We change our understanding not His Word!
Now, the Bible does not tell us everything about everything. I had to fix a busted pipe to our toilet the other day. What a mess; water everywhere! I did not go to the Bible for instruction on how to do this. Both of my brothers recently had surgery; their doctors did not go to the Bible to find the best way to do the surgery. The same is true for the mechanic who replaced the wheel bearing on our van. (Yes, life has been happening in the Rivera family.) It doesn’t even tell us more personal things like which flavor of ice-cream is the best, is Wendy’s better than Burger King, or the name of the person we should marry.
This does NOT mean the Bible is deficient or impractical for living. This is where our second term comes into play: Sufficiency. Everything we need to live for the glory of God and enjoy Him forever we will find in the application of Scripture. So, yes, the Bible does not tell us everything about everything, but it does teach us something about everything. From the Bible’s teaching about God and the universe He created—an ordered, well-designed, and interconnected universe—we gain the rational ground for thinking about all things. This is based on things not happening magically or the world not working normally through miraculous events but in an ordered and rational fashion that makes science and discovery possible.
The Bible even speaks to the most personal and intimate parts of my life. For example, the Bible didn’t tell me who I would marry but does tell me the type of godly character I should look for in a wife. It also tells me how I should behave toward her and how to lead my family.
The terms we have been using to explain inspiration have been summarized in the Latin phrase sola scriptura: “Scripture alone.” What this slogan is stating is that the Bible is the supreme authority for faith and practice. But it was not nuda scriptura “nothing but the Bible.” Sufficiency does not mean we don’t need the Church, pastors, Bible study teachers, commentaries, and other helps with learning the meaning and application of God’s Word. Nor is it saying that we don’t need scientist, teachers, philosophers, or doctors. Rather, it says the Bible alone is inspired, inerrant, sufficient, therefore the final authority. While there may be many important authorities, they are all subservient to Scripture. The Bible alone is God-breathed and without error, fully trustworthy, and sufficient for faith and practice.
“The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.”
-Westminster Confession of Faith
So, to our post title: “Inspiration – So, What?” Have these posts been just interesting, intellectual, and inquisitive reading material? Fun to think about but no impact on life? Well clearly NOT! The whole point of this is found in the words of Jesus in the Great Commandment (Matt 28:20); we are to teach people to “observe all that I have commanded you.” As in 2 Tim 3:16-17, there is an emphasis on “all.” In John 13:34 Jesus states clearly “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
The whole point of God inspiring the biblical writers to produce His inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative and sufficient Word is that we would live by it. James speaks to this when in James 1:19-27 he talks of not just hearing the Bible but doing what it says: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Thus, what is the point of this all, the “So What?” It is To Do It!
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg
Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash