Scripture’s Inspiration
As we talk about the Bible this week, perhaps you are asking the question: what makes the Bible special? Isn’t it just a bunch of old writings from primitive people?
Well, I love what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:16. Most of us know John 3:16 right? Perhaps we should also know 2 Timothy 3:16 where Paul said “All Scripture is God-breathed”. Commit that one to memory. Whenever you think John 3:16, think 2 Timothy 3:16 right alongside it! Because you can only really believe John 3:16 if you believe 2 Timothy 3:16.
In fact you can only really believe any verse of the Bible if you believe that the Scriptures are reliable, true, inspired and actually from God himself. If 2 Timothy 3:16 is not true, then John 3:16 is just some old radical guy’s wild fantasy. And that’s how many people see the Bible sadly. But if 2 Timothy 3:16 is true, then what we have here is not just some outdated historical book, but the inspired words of God!
God’s True Revelation
I believe that this is one of the most important beliefs that Christians have. Our whole faith hinges, in a sense, on this. In fact, the dependability of God’s Word has been under attack from the very beginning. Remember the garden of Eden? The crafty serpent comes to Eve and whispers in her ear: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1 NIV) And ever since, He has been whispering in the ears of every human being: “did God really say that? Is it REALLY God’s Word, isn’t the Bible just a collection of humankind’s thoughts?”
Many people today who would happily call themselves Christians have come to believe that God didn’t really inspire the words of the Bible – that the words are simply written by thoughtful people of God, and so their flaws and prejudices are imprinted on the text and we (being enlightened 21st century people) must sift through their mistakes to see the real truth.
I believed that, for a season. In my twenties I left school and became quite taken by this way of seeing the Bible. But I soon found that nothing made sense anymore, because I became my own authority! I found that when I started picking and choosing the bits of the Bible I liked and rejecting the bits I didn’t, I was putting myself above the Scriptures, relying on my own view of the world, and it didn’t work.
Thank God, I came to learn again that this is not just a book, but this is God’s Word. A true revelation from God, inspiring the original writers.
Inspired Divine Truth
Now, when we say inspire we don’t mean it in normal terms. As a musician, I am “inspired” by other musicians. I learn from them and they inform, in an indirect way, how I play and write. But we don’t believe that the Bible writers were simply indirectly inspired by God. We believe that they were under the supernatural influence of the Spirit of God as they wrote these words. God worked through them in a miraculous way so that even though the individual writers of the Bible still had their own distinctive style and vocabulary as they wrote, the truths they wrote are from God Himself.
All Scripture is God-breathed. In fact I like the way John Piper phrased it: “The human words of Scripture are seen to be divine in the same way the human man of Jesus was seen to be divine.”
Know today, as you sit down to read this book, that it is the inspired, divine Word of God! Donald Grey Barnhouse said: “The shortest road to an understanding of the Bible is the acceptance of the fact that God is speaking in every line.”
Don’t forget 2 Timothy 3:16 friends. It is the foundation of all we believe.
