Continued…
If we look at the word “authority,” the first six letters spell the word “author.”
Christians believe the Bible to be the Vox Dei (the voice of God), or the Verbum Dei (the word of God). Yet the Bible did not come down out of heaven on a parachute, and we do not believe that the Bible was actually penned by God. The actual writing was done by human beings. However, the Bible is God’s message.
GOD’S GOSPEL
Romans 1:1 – “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the Gospel of God.”
In the phrase “the Gospel of God,” the word “of” usually means “about,” but in this particular case, the original construction of the language (Greek) does not allow for that understanding. The “of” here is possessive. It does not refer to the Gospel about God, but rather it is talking of the Gospel belonging to God, or “God’s Gospel.” Paul declared that he was set apart to announce God’s Good News, or announce God’s announcement. God is the Source of the announcement – it is God’s Gospel.
CONSIDER THE SOURCE
In Luke 1:11-25, the angel Gabriel announces to Zacharias that his wife Elizabeth is to have a son (who we will come to know as John the Baptist). Zacharias protests that his wife is too old and that he also is an old man. Note Gabriel’s response in verse 19, “I am Gabriel. I come from the Presence of God.”
He was saying in unmistakable terms: Zacharias, consider the Source of this announcement. I am Gabriel, and I’ve just come from the immediate Presence of the Lord. The message therefore comes with the highest possible authority, so don’t think you are too old! My announcement destroys all human limitations.
Zacharias probably said something like, “Oh!” and if you remember the rest of that story, that’s about all he would say for the next nine months!
But let’s not fail to notice the point being made here – the claim Scripture makes for itself is that it is the very word of God Almighty.
But simply making a claim doesn’t make it so. Anyone can claim to be speaking for God. But what would happen to our confidence in a claim such as this, if someone claimed to be speaking with the authority of God but we were able to find obvious mistakes, discrepancies and errors? What would happen to our confidence in his claim to be speaking with the authority of God?
I think we all know the answer. We would begin to question the fact that he is speaking for God.
Why? Because although we expect human beings to make mistakes; we don’t expect God to make mistakes. If the Bible claims to be the Word of God and it is not the word of God, it could still be generally true, but the claim would be exposed as a fraud.
I certainly would not devote my life to worshipping and serving a man, about whom all I know comes from a source that has proven to be fraudulent. I’d have to commit intellectual suicide to do that!
The point then is that when a claim is made that something is the word of God, the stakes are very high. Either it demands our complete attention and obedience or else it is a fraud and would not even be considered a “good book” to read.
2 Peter 1:20, 21 – It is the origin of Scripture in God and in His care in which is grounded the authority of Scripture.
2 Peter 3:16 – Peter recognized Paul’s letters as Scripture, during Paul’s own lifetime.
2 Tim. 3:13-17 reads, “But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
This passage has much to say regarding our subject. Let’s review these verses in order.
Verse 13 – these people are evil because they deceive. A deception is a distortion of truth.
Verse 14 -16 – note the phrase, “knowing from whom you have learned them” or in other words, “consider the source.”
When I was a teenager, my adult teeth came in crooked. For some time, I was called “Goofy” by my peers at school. My mother’s panacea for all such insults was, “Son, consider the source.” In other words, my mother was saying that before you get hurt by what someone says, consider who it is who is saying it.
In so many words, Paul says, “Timothy, remember whom you learnt from – for from childhood you have learnt the sacred writings. And All Scripture is God breathed.”
Verse 16 is a crucial text in our discussion. All Scripture (Greek: all the “graphe” which is referring to the sacred writings). Here is an obvious reference to the Old Testament, though it did not exclude the writings presently being written in Timothy’s own day, the New Testament.
THE GOD-BREATHED SCRIPTURES
All the graphe (the sacred writings) are theopneustos (God breathed) as in the NIV. Though the Bible is inspired by God, this text says even more than that. It is not merely inspired (which means to breathe into) it is expired (breathed out) by God. This describes the Source of Scripture, and says that all of Scripture is breathed out by God. Anything that is Scripture is, by its very nature, God breathed.
We could not find a text that more clearly affirms the idea that the Scripture is the word of God than this one in 2 Timothy 3:16. The authority of Scripture is rooted and grounded in its Source. That’s why, for example, the Old Testament prophets would not start their message with, “I say,” or “Thus says Jeremiah,” or “Thus says Isaiah,” but “Thus says the Lord.”
Verse 16 and 17 also teaches us something else that is very significant for our study of sola Scriptura. Notice that all Scripture is breathed out by God and is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction, for training in righteousness, in order that the man of God might be complete, fully equipped for every good work.”
Paul tells Timothy to continue in what he has been taught, knowing from whom he learnt it. The message he has received is found in the Scriptures themselves. These are enough to make you wise for salvation by faith which is in Christ Jesus. It is the Scriptures, not the writers themselves, that are “God breathed.” Because the origin of the Scripture is God Himself, the authority of the Scripture is God’s authority. The Church is not left without the voice of God, for when the Church listens to Scripture; she is hearing her Lord speaking to her. The divine authority of the Church, then, in teaching and rebuking and instructing, is derived from Scripture itself. The fact that the Church has God’s voice always present with her in God-breathed Scripture, means that the man of God might be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
The word “complete” means “fitted, able to meet all demands, qualified.”
Now here’s the point – if another source of authority (such as Tradition) was necessary, surely Paul would have directed us to it in order that we might be complete, but he does not!
Concerning this, Dr. James White writes, “Paul was not satisfied to merely state that the man of God may be complete. He goes on to define what he means: “fully equipped for every good work.” Various lexical sources list as meanings “fit out,” “to furnish completely,” and equip.” Most significantly we find the word sufficient used to describe this term as well.” It means to “make someone completely adequate or sufficient for something to make adequate, to furnish completely, to cause to be fully qualified, adequacy.”
If the Scripture fully equips the man of God for every good work then the Scriptures are sufficient for the task.
Dr. White goes on to write, “If I am a store owner who can fully equip a hiker to hike the Grand Canyon and if I have the resources and abilities to provide everything he needs in the way of supplies, hiking gear, shoes, maps, food, etc., does it not follow that I am a sufficient source of supply for the hiker? If he has to go next door to another shop for a few more things, and then to a third shop for some things that neither mine nor the other shop had, then none of us are sufficient to equip the hiker. But if that hiker can come to my shop alone and get everything he needs to accomplish his task, then I can rightly call myself a sufficient equipper of a hiker of the Grand Canyon. In the exact same way the Scriptures are able to fully equip the man of God so that he is able to do every good work. No one serving God has to search about for other sources. The inspired Scriptures are the sufficient source for a person’s needs in ministry.”
That which is God breathed is able, by its very nature, to give us the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus and to fully equip the man of God for the work of the ministry.