Sufficiency

 I’ll be the first to admit that I often wish God had given us more information about almost every topic. I wish I knew more about heaven, about creation, about the spirit world, about our human makeup, about God Himself, about well honestly, about everything! But God has given us all that we need to know about Him and His purposes in the Bible. We can say that the Bible is sufficient.

Second Peter 1.3-4 tells us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” God has given us everything we need to live spiritual lives. He has revealed these great and precious promises in His Word.

The sufficiency of the Bible teaches us that the Word of God has the answers to life’s most puzzling questions. Granted, the Bible won’t necessarily answer our questions in specific ways. For example, we may wonder why God has allowed a close family member to suffer an illness or why we’re experiencing a personal financial setback. We may never know the complete answer, but God’s Word reveals all that we need to know for now. The Bible tells us that trials build faith and character. James 1.2-3 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” When I go through personal trials, I can be confident that God is at work in my life. He’s promised this in the Bible. Therefore, the Bible is sufficient for my need.

Because the Bible is sufficient for my spiritual life, I shouldn’t attempt to add to its content. Revelation 22.18-19 warns that we should not add anything or take away any words from that particular book, hinting that there is no need for further revelation about God’s plan for His universe. It would be wrong for us to claim to have greater knowledge about such things than the Bible.

Of course, the doctrine of the sufficiency of the Bible doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pursue other lines of study. God has created us as thinking, inquisitive beings. We should study God’s universe and learn its intricate laws. We should study the human body, mind, and soul in our quest to offer help to hurting people. But when it comes to knowledge about God, the Bible is our only reliable and sufficient source of truth.

The Bible points us to Jesus Christ. He alone is our path to eternal life. To suggest other ways to God is to step beyond the bounds of Scripture. Rather than inventing our own path, why not take the Bible at it’s word? Turn to Jesus Christ for His free gift of salvation, and then take time to study the Bible for all it’s worth. You won’t be disappointed.

Illumination

 If you’ve ever read a detailed legal document or tried to assemble an appliance based on cryptic instructions, you’ve probably wished that someone could come alongside you and provide a clear explanation. This sometimes happens when we read the Bible as well. Some passages are difficult to understand. More specifically, some passages are hard to apply in our day-to-day lives. Just how do we go about loving our neighbour as ourselves? How are we to shine as lights in a dark world? How are we to nurture our children in the faith, or grow in God’s grace? Thankfully, we have help in both understanding and applying the truths of God’s Word.

First Corinthians 2.12 tells us, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” God the Holy Spirit is our source of spiritual illumination. Illumination refers to the work of God’s Holy Spirit whereby He applies the truths of God’s Word to our hearts and lives.

We know that the Holy Spirit is active even in the hearts of unbelievers. In John 16.8 Jesus said that the Holy Spirit”will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” The Holy Spirit convicts the hearts of unbelievers, heightening their sense of guilt before God. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation, the Holy Spirit takes on a special role in our lives. In 1 Corinthians 3.16 the apostle Paul asks, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” As believers, we have the Holy Spirit living within us. Because of this intimate relationship with God in our lives, we have help in understanding and applying God’s Word. The indwelling Holy Spirit illuminates the Bible so that we can live according to it’s truths.

The Holy Spirit’s work of illumination, however, doesn’t take away our need to read and study the Bible. Second Timothy 2.15 tells us, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” Studying the Bible demands hard work. We shouldn’t expect the Holy Spirit to allow us to bypass the work involved in studying and meditating on God’s Word. We’d miss out on the joy of discovering what God has to say to us each day. But we can depend on the Holy Spirit to take those truths that we’ve studied and apply them to our own situation. He, through His gentle and often mysterious leading in our hearts, will help us weave God’s Word into our daily lives.

The illuminating work of the Holy Spirit is available to every true believer. God wants us to understand His Word and use it effectively. First, however, we must establish a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Ask Jesus to be Saviour today, and then invite the Holy Spirit to open your heart so that you can live according to God’s Word.

Infallibility

Have you ever heard an angry child yell at a parent, “You can’t tell me what to do. You’re not the boss of me!” In fact, parents do have authority in the home. They can and should tell their children how to behave and what’s expected of them. But who’s our boss? Who has the authority to tell us how to run our lives? The answer, of course, is that the One who made us has authority over us. God is our boss.

But how can we know with certainty what God wants us to do? Thankfully, God has communicated His love and His expectations to us through His written Word, the Bible. The Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. As such, the Bible speaks with authority.

We sometimes say that the Bible is infallible. Infallibility means much more than that the Bible is without error. It means that the Bible speaks with absolute, divine authority. We can trust that the Bible is true. We must submit ourselves to its precepts, and we can bask in its promises.

In John 10.35 Jesus said, “The Scripture cannot be broken.” It carries the authority of its divine author. God’s purpose cannot be thwarted. His sovereign will must be fulfilled. Therefore, His Word is infallible.

In Jeremiah 23.29 God declares, “Is not my word like fire, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” These image indicate that we must take seriously the Bible’s authority over our lives. In Isaiah 55.11 God says, “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God speaks with authority. His Word is infallible. It will accomplish its appointed purpose.

Because the Bible has authority over our lives, we should eagerly obey its teachings. Jesus, in Matthew 7.24, tells us, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” When we build our lives on the solid, authoritative truth of God’s Word, our lives will not be devastated by life’s storms. James 1.22 states bluntly, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Psalm 119.2 reminds us, “Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.”

I’m glad that God has revealed His will to us in His Word. His commands aren’t optional, nor are His promises unreliable. He has promised in His Word to grant eternal life to all who believe in Jesus Christ. Have you accepted Jesus as your Saviour? Are you living in the blessings of God’s Word? Let me invite you to receive Jesus into your heart today, and then begin growing in your faith by reading and responding to God’s infallible Word, the Bible.

Inerrancy

 I don’t know about you, but I’m thankful that I have spell-check on my phone. It identifies spelling errors that I might not otherwise recognise. However, I still like to proofread my writing, since there are words that fly under the spell-check radar. For example, when I type in the word ‘right', as in correct, I might misspell it as ‘write', as in the act of writing. Spell-check wouldn’t pick up on this error. By the way, I just used the word ‘misspell' and am doubly glad for spell-check. 

While we strive for accuracy, there’s always room for human error. However, the Bible isn’t a human book. It’s God’s book. Because the Bible is the inspired Word of God, we would expect it to meet a higher standard of accuracy. In fact, we would rightly expect the Bible to be inerrant. Inerrancy refers to the concept that the Bible, because it’s the product of divine inspiration, is perfectly accurate and without error in any and every way. The Bible is equally inerrant when it describes God’s character, when it relates events in human history, when it touches on facts of nature and science, when it describes spiritual matters, and when it makes predictions for the future.

Psalm 18.30 tells us, “As for God, his way is perfect, the word of the Lord is flawless.” For the Bible to contain errors would mean that either the Bible isn’t God’s Word or that God isn’t perfect. Hebrews 6.18 declares that “it is impossible for God to lie.” He couldn’t implant error in His inspired Word. Second Timothy 3.16 says that “all Scripture is God-breathed,” so we know that the Bible claims to be God’s Word. The Bible, therefore, must be free from error.

Of course, there have been numerous attacks on the Bible down through the ages. Many people have tried to undermine the Bible’s inerrant quality. Some have accused the Bible of being riddled with contradictions, even though competent Bible scholars have repeatedly defended the consistency of God’s Word. Others have attempted to identify historical errors in the Bible, often to find out later that further historical and archaeological discoveries have vindicated the Word of God. Still others have attempted to set aside the Bible in favour of modern scientific theories. But even science, rightly understood, doesn’t do away with the Bible’s inerrancy.

In John 17.17, Jesus said to God the Father, “Your word is truth.” The Bible is the Word of God. Therefore, the Bible is perfectly true. It is without error. Because the Bible is inerrant, we can trust it to speak accurately about our lives. When the  Bible describes us as having fallen short of God’s holiness and needing a Saviour, we should take notice. When it says that Jesus is that Saviour, the only way to forgiveness and peace with God, we should embrace its message. Invite Jesus to be your Saviour today, and begin to explore God’s inerrant Word. You’ll find that you won’t be disappointed.

Inspiration

 If you’ve ever read one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, listened to a violin concerto by Bach, or observed a painting by Rembrandt, you might have thought to yourself, “These men were truly inspired.” At the purely human level, inspiration refers to the heightening of personal skills or insights. An inspired artist inspires our minds and hearts. But when it gets to the Bible, inspiration reaches a whole new level.

According to Second Timothy 3.16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” When we describe the Bible as the inspired Word of God, we mean much more than the idea of human inspiration. The Bible is inspired by God. It is God-breathed. This means that the Bible is the written expression of God’s mind and heart. As such, the Bible speaks with authority. It teaches us God’s truth, rebukes our sinful acts, and trains us to live righteous lives.

But how did God produce an inspired Bible? Obviously He didn’t write it with His own hand. Instead, God used trustworthy authors to accurately pen His thoughts. Second Peter 1.19-21 tells us, “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” These verses inform us that God’s Holy Spirit carried the human authors along in a process we call inspiration. This process guarded the writings of these human authors from being merely the musings of men. Instead, what they wrote was and is the Word of God. As such, the Bible deserves our attention. After all, it’s a light that shines in a dark world. Frankly, we need all the light we can get. That’s why God has given us His written, inspired Word.

Because God has given us His Word through the process of inspiration, we can safely conclude that every word in the Bible carries divine authority. Jesus, in Matthew 5.18, said, “I tell you the truth, until the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is fulfilled.” We can trust every word, even every letter, in the Bible to have the mark of God’s truth.

It’s amazing to realise that God’s inspired Word is readily available to each and every one of us today. Why take your copy of the Bible off the shelf, open it up, and immerse yourself in the mind and heart of God. Then thank it’s Author for the gift of eternal life that can be yours by putting your faith in Jesus Christ.

Revelation

 Take a look around you and you’ll be amazed at what you see. Nature is fascinating, from the tiniest seed to the vast expanses of space. Curious minds have for centuries gazed into the observable universe and discovered all kinds of laws, principles, and insights. But there are some things the human mind couldn’t possibly begin to discover, particularly things about God and His ways in this world. The telescope and microscope are inadequate tools for observing God. Instead, God must willingly make Himself known to us. 

In fact, God has disclosed much about Himself to us through a process we call “revelation.” Through His acts of revelation, God has made known to us certain truths that we could in no way discover on our own. For example, we wouldn’t know that God is all-powerful unless He told us so. We wouldn’t know that He exists as three-in-one without His self-disclosure about His triune nature. We wouldn’t know that Jesus is God in the flesh unless God made that truth known to us through revelation. We certainly wouldn’t know that our salvation depends on His grace alone and is received by faith in Jesus Christ alone. These are revealed truths, truths that we couldn’t discover on our own. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” 

God has revealed Himself in various ways down through the centuries. At times He has spoken through dreams, visions, angelic pronouncements, and even direct, verbal communication to certain individuals. He spoke to Moses at the burning bush. He spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper. 

God’s revelation isn’t limited, however, to special people at special times. God has revealed Himself to the whole world through His written Word, the Bible. First Corinthians 2:9-10 tells us, “‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” Then in verse 13 Paul says, “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” God has spoken through His Word. God’s Word is His self-disclosure to the world. 

Aren’t you glad that God has revealed Himself to us? He has revealed Himself in His Word, the Bible. I hope that you’ll read your Bible every day in order to get to know God better. In addition, God has revealed Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to open the door for us to enter into eternal fellowship with God. He died on the cross so that we can live forever with Him in heaven. Why not turn to Jesus today? Put your faith in Him, and allow Him to help you understand God more and more.