God’s Word is the foundation of all we believe. As the Westminster Larger Catechism notes, ‘The Word of God, [is] the only rule of faith and obedience.’ Given its centrality, if we go wrong concerning the nature of God’s Word then it is almost inevitable that we will go wrong elsewhere. A crack in the foundation is fatal for the structural integrity of any building. In the same way, an error in our view of Scripture leaves any subsequent theological reflection weak and unstable. Is it, then, any surprise that Satan’s great attack on God’s Word has reverberated down through the millennia: ‘Did God actually say?’
The Bible’s view of itself
The Bible itself leaves us in no doubt of its inspiration and authority and how vital it is to accept this. Classically there is the teaching of 2 Timothy 3:16: ‘All Scripture is breathed out by God.’ The Bible is God’s breathed-out Word. It is not the mere word of man, but the Word of God, the one who cannot lie (Titus 1:2). And that Word of God is sufficient: it is all we need for doctrine (teaching) and life (reproof, correction, training). It, and it alone, is sufficient to make us ‘complete’ and ready for ‘every good work’ (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Peter makes a similar statement: ‘no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Peter 1:21). Just like Paul, Peter is crystal clear: nothing in the Bible is simply the word of man. The words of Scripture are ‘from God’, and in particular from ‘the Holy Spirit’ – the one who is the ‘Spirit of truth’ (John 16:13).
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