For as long as I can remember, I have always thought that if God exists and is powerful enough to create all that we see, then He’s certainly capable of communicating His Word to us in an accurate and trustworthy way. It’s not that I based my belief on reason, but my thinking opened the door to accept the claims of Scripture to be God’s Word to us.
During my years in seminary I studied many compelling arguments for the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. These further confirmed my belief that a God powerful enough to put the stars in place, and name them, could certainly communicate with us in a way we could trust with utmost certainty.
In my last post, we examined the necessity of Scripture in regard to setting moral standards. Likewise, without God’s authoritative word, one’s guess as to what God is like would be just as good as another. One’s view of how to inherit eternal life would be just as good as the next. Can you see why this is another compelling reason to trust and love Scripture?
2. The Bible Is God’s Revelation to Humanity
Scripture tells us that God reveals Himself through nature. Romans 1:20 says that creation itself reveals many things about God including His existence, “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature. . . .” Yet, there are many things we cannot know about God’s nature in this way. Of utmost importance, we would not know the Lord’s plan of salvation apart from God revealing it to us. We would not understand the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection apart from His revelation.
The coming of Jesus marked the crowning point of God’s revelation to humanity (see Heb. 1:1-2). We have His words in the Gospel as well as in the rest of the New Testament as Jesus revealed His words through His apostles. John described Jesus as “the Word” emphasizing His role as revealing the Father to us (John 1:1-14).
Jesus’ resurrection authenticates His claims and words. It proves that Jesus is God, one with the Father as He said, and thus more than able to authoritatively and accurately communicate God’s nature and plan of salvation to us.
Apart from Jesus walking out of His tomb, Christianity would not exist. Without the resurrection, the apostles would not have had any good news to proclaim. However, because our Savior is alive today we can trust His claims about Himself, His promises, Scripture, and His words. During His ministry, He verified the inspiration of the Old Testament and pointed to His continuing revelation through His apostles.
Jesus said this about His Words, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Matthew 24:35 records one of Jesus’ more startling claims, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Why would He make such a dramatic claim if He did not intend to preserve His word for us today? The New Testament is by far the most preserved document from antiquity; we have the words Jesus spoke and the apostles later wrote.
God gave us His Word so that we would possess authoritative answers to the problems that confront us in this troubled world. The Bible shines as God's light in a world groping in darkness. Without the inspired word of God, where could we go to resolve the mysteries of life? How would we have a sure hope of a joyous eternity?