Posted on 02/08/2017 5:08:00 AM PST by Gamecock
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” - 2 Timothy 3:16
Human beings speak with their mouths as their breath moves across their vocal cords, causing the cords to vibrate and produce sounds that are formed into letters and words by our lips, tongues, and teeth. There is a breathing out that has to take place for speech, and understanding this reality helps us to understand Paul’s point in today’s passage. Scripture, he tells us, results from God’s breathing out in speech. This is a rather clear way of saying that Scripture is the very speech of God. It is His Word.
The Greek word translated as “breathed out” in 2 Timothy 3:16 is theopneustos, and Scripture is the only thing described as such by the Apostles. Thus, Scripture has a unique character as the voice and words of the Lord. It uniquely serves as God’s special revelation, as His inspired and revealed will for His people. Nothing else today is theopneustos, so we can point to nothing but Scripture as the Word of God.
When we speak of Scripture as theopneustos, we are pointing to its divine inspiration. The Word of God written is identical to God’s speech. It is exactly what He intended us to have as the revelation of His will and how to please Him. At the same time, this does not take away from the Bible’s human character. God breathed out His Word, but He did so through the instrumentality of His prophets and Apostles. So, for example, the book of Romans is Paul’s word, bearing the Apostle’s unique style and character. Nevertheless, it is also God’s Word, given by Him. That our Lord used a man to give us the book of Romans does not in any way make it less than the very speech of God. And this applies to all books of Scripture.
Following 2 Timothy 3:16 and other passages, the Protestant Reformers affirmed verbal plenary inspiration. Verbal inspiration means that inspiration pertains to the very words themselves, not just the meaning that the words convey. If Jesus could appeal to the tense of a verb in order to settle a theological question (“I am the God of . . .”; Matt. 22:23–33), inspiration must apply to specific words and even their specific forms. Plenary inspiration means that all the words of Scripture are given by God, not just some of them. We cannot say that the Lord spoke only the words of Scripture that pertain to doctrine but not those that record history. No, God spoke it all, using the distinct style of each human author to give us His Word for all of life. Paul says all Scripture—everything received as canon—is God’s Word, not just select portions of it (2 Tim. 3:16).
Coram Deo
The process of biblical inspiration is mysterious, for we do not know exactly how God moved the human authors of Scripture to give us His Word. Nevertheless, we know that Scripture is the Word of God, and so it can be trusted to give us nothing but the truth of God. When we want to know God’s will for us, we must turn to Scripture, for it is there alone that we will find the Lord’s guidance.
Passages for Further Study
Exodus 34:27 And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
John 10:35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—
Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,
2 Peter 1:21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is the word of God. God inspired through the Holy Spirit men to write the word.
If we say it contains the word of God that opens up the door for additional revelation outside of the Bible to be accepted. If we allow this we have to allow the Mormon the Book of Mormon and the Muslim the Koran and so on.
I’ll add this, though. I see a lot of wisdom in the writings of mere men like C. S. Lewis. However, I see them as the equivalent of a sermon, but in writing. i.e. I test the words against the bible to ensure accuracy.
Some content in the bible (both OT and NT) bluntly says it is the word of the Lord. Some doesn’t. Some says explicitly that it is NOT the word of the Lord:
“Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.” (1 Corinthians 7:25, ESV)
This is what pastors and Christian writers do all the time.
An interesting discussion:
http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/10165/is-1cor-726-40-not-the-word-of-god
BTW, that link I supplied has an interesting comment:
“Why did God cause Paul to write his own opinion as part of Scripture? “
My answer is this: He didn’t He wasn’t writing scripture. He was writing a letter to a particular church that he expected the mailman* to deliver.
*Yes, I know they didn’t use the USPS, but that is, in essence what he was doing.
The Bible is the inspired word of God. It is the only thing that is trustworthy in this world.
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