REVELATION
SCRIPTURE IS THE WORD OF GOD
by J.I. Packer
The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. EXODUS 32:16
Christianity is the true worship and service of the true God,
humankinds Creator and Redeemer. It is a religion that rests on revelation:
nobody would know the truth about God, or be able to relate to him in a personal
way, had not God first acted to make himself known. But God has so acted,
and the sixty-six books of the Bible, thirty-nine written before Christ came
and twenty-seven after, are together the record, interpretation, expression,
and embodiment of his self-disclosure. God and godliness are the Bibles
uniting themes.
From one standpoint, the Scriptures (Scriptures means writings)
are the faithful testimony of the godly to the God whom they loved and served;
from another standpoint, through a unique exercise of divine overruling in
their composition, they are Gods own testimony and teaching in human
form. The church calls these writings the Word of God because their authorship
and contents are both divine.
Decisive assurance that Scripture is from God and consists entirely of his
wisdom and truth comes from Jesus Christ and his apostles, who taught in his
name. Jesus, God incarnate, viewed his Bible (our Old Testament) as his heavenly
Fathers written instruction, which he no less than others must obey
(Matt. 4:4, 7, 10; 5:19-20; 19:4-6; 26:31, 52-54; Luke 4:16-21; 16:17; 18:31-33;
22:37; 24:25-27, 45-47; John 10:35), and which he had come to fulfill (Matt.
5:17-18; 26:24; John 5:46). Paul described the Old Testament as entirely God-breathedthat
is, a product of Gods Spirit just as the cosmos is (Ps. 33:6; Gen. 1:2)and
written to teach Christianity (2 Tim. 3:15-17; Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11). Peter
affirms the divine origin of biblical teaching in 2 Peter 1:21 and 1 Peter
1:10-12, and so also by his manner of quoting does the writer to the Hebrews
(Heb. 1:5-13; 3:7; 4:3; 10:5-7, 15-17; cf. Acts 4:25; 28:25-27).
Since the apostles teaching about Christ is itself revealed truth in
God-taught words (1 Cor. 2:12-13), the church rightly regards authentic apostolic
writings as completing the Scriptures. Already Peter refers to Pauls
letters as Scripture (2 Pet. 3:15-16), and Paul is apparently calling Lukes
gospel Scripture in 1 Timothy 5:18, where he quotes the words of Luke 10:7.
The idea of written directives from God himself as a basis for godly living
goes back to Gods act of inscribing the Decalogue on stone tablets and
then prompting Moses to write his laws and the history of his dealings with
his people (Exod. 32:15-16; 34:1, 27-28; Num. 33:2; Deut. 31:9). Digesting
and living by this material was always central to true devotion in Israel
for both leaders and ordinary people (Josh. 1:7-8; 2 Kings 17:13; 22:8-13;
1 Chron. 22:12-13; Neh. 8; Ps. 119). The principle that all must be governed
by the Scriptures, that is, by the Old and New Testaments taken together,
is equally basic to Christianity.
What Scripture says, God says; for, in a manner comparable only to the deeper
mystery of the Incarnation, the Bible is both fully human and fully divine.
So all its manifold contentshistories, prophecies, poems, songs, wisdom
writings, sermons, statistics, letters, and whatever elseshould be received
as from God, and all that Bible writers teach should be revered as Gods
authoritative instruction. Christians should be grateful to God for the gift
of his written Word, and conscientious in basing their faith and life entirely
and exclusively upon it. Otherwise, we cannot ever honor or please him as
he calls us to do.
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From: Concise Theology: A Guide To Historic Christian Beliefs