Unique? It Really Is!
From Great Commission Publications:
Many authors have been captured by a noble theme; we call them inspired. Many books have stirred hearts and even changed lives; we call them inspiring. Paul speaks of Scripture in a completely different sense. Whatever power exists in the written word to move the soul or redirect a life—and that power is considerable—it is different from that of the Bible. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16:17).
First, look at the Bible’s source. It is breathed out, as it were, by God himself. God’s agency is direct and intimate, not merely providential. God’s agency is direct and intimate, not merely providential. God did more than guide the authors of Scripture in producing the final result. The human authors varied in their literary skills, education, and background, note of which God bypassed in using them. But, as Peter notes, “no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). As B. B. Warfield wrote, “The men who spoke from God are here declared, therefore, to have been taken up by the Holy Spirit and brought by His power to the goal of his choosing.” It was not their goal or their agenda they were promoting, but God’s. Whatever the Bible says, God says. And therefore, to quote Warfield again, the writers of Scripture looked on their work as “divinely safeguarded in even its verbal expression, and as divinely trustworthy in all its parts, in all its elements, and in all its affirmations of whatever kind.”
The Bible’s source is the key to its power. Because it is God-breathed, the Bible is therefore “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Scripture does what no merely human writing can do. It reveals the totality of God’s will concerning everything we need to know on earth about the righteousness that God demands. And in doing that, it is the perfect instrument for equipping the Christian minister completely for his work—and the Christian layperson too.
The questions for you today are these: What are you doing with God’s word? Are you in it daily, even if briefly? Are you letting the Word “dwell in you richly”? (Col. 3:16). If it is God’s Word, dare we treat it as optional reading?
May God give us perseverance in his Word.
--The Catechizer
Labels: Doctrine of Scripture
posted by The Catechizer and The Deacon | 5:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home