The Final Blow of Scriptural Authority - Complete Authority

Yes, I know I had called this little series "The 1-2 Punch of Scripture Authority," but, admittedly, after a snappy 1-2 combination, a boxer likes to have a final, devastating punch (for the record, in spelling the word "boxer," I have just depleted my entire fund of knowledge surrounding boxing).  With this in mind, there is a third sort of authority which the Bible enjoys, according to 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Consider it a postscript.

We have looked mainly at verse 16 thus far, but verse 17 brings it all to a close:  "...so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."  The Bible is divinely authoritative, and it is universally authoritative, in order that it may thrust into the hands of all believers any and every spiritual tool needed "for every good work."  It is, therefore, completely authoritative; that is, it is by itself sufficient to guide us in all matters of righteousness.  When we open its timeless pages, we throw wide the doors of the only arsenal we will ever have or will ever need in this struggle for holiness, and every weapon is divinely powerful and eternally sharp.

Consider the lasting comfort that should infuse our souls as we take this in.  All of our righteous needs have been gathered into one definitive source, and are there protected against the incursions of unrighteousness.  We are kept, then, from the ignoble listlessness of pursuing human solutions to problems that our imperfect natures simply cannot surmount.  The world is fully crowded, in every corner and crevice, with methodologies that endeavor to promote righteousness apart from God and His effusive transcendence, which is itself the only way to defeat and overcome sin.  We expect this of the world, but we must throw off these foolish tendencies as God's children.  Should the utter failure of the world to deal with unrighteousness not suffice to cause us, both as individuals and within our churches, to cling with a fearful tenacity to God's Word?  Should it not prove to us a hundred times over that the world's methods can only oppose and mock scripture?

So the Bible has much to say, then, about avoiding evil and embracing good.  What of those deeds, though, that are neither good nor evil?  What has our Lord to say about morally neutral works?  Interestingly, this is a concept that is entirely foreign to the pages of the Word.  Paul demonstrates this truth in 1 Corinthians 10:31 - "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  In other words, there is a moral component of every act, because God can be remembered or forgotten, acknowledged or scorned, blessed or cursed, in everything we do.

Thus God's Word diffuses its brilliance to every last circumstance and choice that confronts us, and that brilliance comprehends every decision we must make.  Praise be to our Father, who would lavish us not with an unbroken chain of events in which we might both praise Him and grow to trust and love Him, but with His own book, which will never fail to steer us from the rocks of moral folly!

The 1-2 Punch of Scriptural Authority - Second, Universal Authority

(Continued from Part 1 of the series found here)

Let us extract another truth about the Bible's authority from 2 Timothy 3:16-17, this one a bit less obvious.  First, a reminder of the passage itself:  "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

We see that God's Word is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" for the "man of God."  Note the communicative quality of these four actions; these actions are visited upon a person by another person.  In the case of the Bible, of course, the person originating these actions may well be the Holy Spirit, but it is important to establish that people, God's subjects, are called in the Word to carry out these sorts of things as well.  Says Paul to Titus, "But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1), and the word translated "doctrine" is the same is Paul's word for "teaching" in 2 Timothy 3:16.  We all recall, of course, how Paul urged fathers to raise their children "in the discipline and instruction [training, in 2 Tim. 3:17] of the Lord." (Eph. 6:4b)

The import of this line of thought is that we cannot approach 2 Tim. 3:16-17 without understanding that people, God's people, do this teaching and reproof and so forth.  To be sure, the Holy Spirit is behind all such endeavors, and He does work directly from scripture to the believer's soul, but He is also present and active as the preacher preaches, as the brother admonishes, and as the sister encourages, if these actions are founded in God's Word.  If this were not so, there would be no call for spiritual gifts, and no commands in scripture to exercise them. 

Here is the substance of the matter, at long last.  There are those for whom the Word of God is to their hearts like a cloud is to their eyes, whose vaporous form may be regarded as any of a thousand distinct shapes.  To such people as these, scripture may whisper one word of truth to one person, and quite another, perhaps even the opposite, to a different person, and how could we name either as untrue?  Who are we to suggest that this could not be the case?  Do we dare set up ourselves as experts on how God uses His own divine Word? 

Fortunately, we need not be experts at all; we need only read what His Word actually says.  If, as we have discussed, believers are to teach and correct and train one another, and if indeed scripture is useful for all of these purposes (as it has purported itself), then, quite plainly, scripture is universally authoritative.  It does me no good to try to teach my fellow believer from the Bible if he can in turn deftly repudiate my words merely by saying, "Yes, but this is not what the Word means to me!"  It must bear precisely the same significance and meaning for all of us, or else we cannot employ it for any useful purposes with one another, and it becomes, then, nothing but a sad lie.  To take things still further, if we cannot utilize the Bible for useful purposes with one another, then neither can we utilize it for loving purposes!  Consider this for a moment.

There are two key conclusions from the Bible's universal authority. 

First, it shapes our hermeneutics.  I find, all of a sudden, that my own opinions have absolutely no bearing on the meaning of scripture, because I have stopped working to unlock its personalized meaning just for me, myself, and I, and I have begun instead to think about what it means to its divine Author.  There must be some common basis by which all of us might unlock the meaning of scripture, and our quest to find this out tends to evict fanciful intruders from our thinking. 

This is the reason we lean so completely upon such ideas as the literal interpretation of scripture.  While a literal understanding establishes itself on the immovable bedrock of the text, any sort of figurative approach languishes in the mirey muck of human opinions, and so is endlessly debatable.  This is not to suggest that some figurative approaches are not superior to others, or that no portions of scripture are figurative, but we will permit our literal understanding of the Word inform us when it is being figurative.

We also must consider the human authors of scripture - how they used vocabulary and grammar, and how they developed their ideas.  We also examine the original intended audience; what would this letter have meant to them?  We look at the whole of scripture, of which God is the superintending Author; we know it must be in total accord with itself.  Context, language, history, theology - we cannot divorce scripture from these crucial components and expect to come away with a right or complete understanding of God's Word.  Beware, then, of any preaching that pointedly ignores these - many a pastoral hobbyhorse has been ridden across this very terrain, and it is an arid terrain indeed.

Second, it changes our accountability.  I do not maintain that the hermeneutic upheld above clothes us in scholarly invincibility, but this approach makes it clear that we are endeavoring to allow God to speak through His Word, not ourselves.  Thus conviction, but not pride, should be our familiar companion as we hold to our understanding of God's Word:  we believe what we believe with clear reasoning and humbly-sought certainty, but we are ready to unflinchingly amend our understanding if careful study of scripture shows it necessary. 

On one hand, a passionate, assured, humble, literal hermeneutic should help to prevent us from jealously guarding ideological strongholds which the Lord has never even entered.  On the other, as we discuss the things of the Word with those who hold to different hermeneutics (and so maintain very different beliefs), it tends to turn every biblical disgreement into a discussion on how we interpret scripture, which is, of course, the more fundamental issue - the one that must be resolved if certainty and steadfastness are to come. 

The 1-2 Punch of Scriptural Authority - First, Divine Authority

As believers devoted to God's Word, we are not afraid to beat the drums that have been sounded throughout the life of the church.  We know that the truths of scripture are never worn out, exhausted, or depleted by anything, be it time, culture, science, human progress, demonic intrigues, or all such things en masse.  Scripture is just as fresh, urgent, and applicable to our lives as ever it was in ages long past, so we gladly tread the selfsame paths that our fathers have beaten through a hundred generations.

With this in mind, I do not in the least mind sharing a few thoughts that are, if not novel, at least crucial and basic and cherished.  Peter did this very thing in his day, did he not?  Consider 2 Peter 1:12-15.  At any rate, were the truth told, in such a day as this, when we fight off the double envelopment of liberal scholarship and relativistic apathy, these truths may come as novelties - not because they are new, but because they are not heard nearly so often as they once were. 

We will say some words about the authority of scripture, then, using a classic text.  2 Timothy 3:16-17 makes several categorical statements regarding the authority of God's Word:  "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."  I would like at this time to briefly consider the more commonly-celebrated element of scriptural authority here; namely, its divine origin. 

If scripture is inspired by God, or, as the English Standard rightly has it, "breathed out by God," this means of course that its origins lie, incredibly, with a God who cannot be false (Titus 1:2).  Although sinful, finite men lifted their pens and wrote the Bible from their own hearts and minds, yet God superintended its creation with such utter precision and specificity that His flawless character and omnipotent care sponged away any traces of fallibility, such that the end result was a divine revelation without error.  Do we trust this work of grace that we call the Bible as much as its divine origin would demand?  Do we believe its truthfulness in all matters?  Are we glad in our hearts; do we marvel that the Word of God is truly the Word of God? 

And do we obey it as the Word of God?  This is another matter, but one of the first importance.  The Word of God is not one man telling another what to do; nor yet is it an earthly sovereign decreeing laws for his or her subjects.  This is the holy, sovereign Deity, whose anthropomorphic hands encompass all the universe, immovably laying down His commands for the whole of mankind.  He is Creator; He is King; He is Judge - and He did not deliver His book to us as a trifle.  "But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word." (Is. 66:2b; ephasis added)

When Paul therefore makes statements like, "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God" (Rom. 13:1), it is necessary for us to muzzle both the scornful disbelief of modernity and the clamor of excuse in our own hearts.  This statement, along with all of its fellows, did not originate in the mind of Paul; it came first from God Himself.  We find ourselves mocking the divine with our disbelief; indeed, we say, even as the serpent said, "Indeed, has God said...?" (Gen. 3:1) The unchanging and holy Father clothes Himself with an immeasurable glory when He suffers His children to question His Word, even as Adam and Eve questioned it so long ago, without responding to us as He did to our earliest progenitors. 

Patrick Henry once famously said, "Give me liberty or give me death."  We Christians may well say, "Give me scripture, or give me death," for without the divinely-appointed Bible, God is silent.  Salvation is an indiscernible vapor because we do not understand God and His holy character!  How could we ever perceive our need for a Savior without knowing what God expects of us?  How could we discover such a Savior?  We have made many attempts to guess over the years - survey the false religions around us - but our sin-choked hearts assure that this effort amounts to naught but blasphemy.

Gladly, though, God's Word is real and authoratative.  For the one who knows and affirms this, Psalm 119 becomes the glad and perpetual anthem in all seasons of life, for by His Word are we given reverence for God (v. 38), delight in His commandments (v. 47), the pure way of living (v. 9), revival in affliction (v. 50), divine wisdom (v. 24), continual thankfulness (v. 62), illuminating direction (v. 105), hatred of sin (v. 128), worship of God (v. 164), and still far more.  When we understand that God gave the Bible in order to deliver to us a divinely authoratative account of Himself and His glorious character, how wondrous are the results!  This is our lifeline to God, and our only true testimony about Him!  No heart that truly knows this and humbly seeks out the one true God in His Word will be disappointed.

(The series is continued here)