Word of Wonders
This past Wednesday night, we started a two-part session on the doctrine of Scripture. The topic was the “authority of Scripture,” and then next time, on Wednesday, October 18, Pastor David Mathis will lead a session on “understanding Scripture.”
Even with two sessions, there is too much to say about the wonder of God’s word to fit into that time. We’re just scratching the surface, but I hope that you at least get a sense of the treasure we have in Holy Scripture.
One point I’d like to reiterate is the magnitude of the moment of reading Scripture. We don’t normally think this way about reading the Bible because it is so ordinary on so many levels. We are reading words, on a page, maybe highlighter ink bleeding through from the other side, with its corners bent, its cover tattered. We have Bibles everywhere, pocket-sized, wide-margined, apps on our phones. We can even forget how ancient the words are.
And yet when we read these words, in whatever medium, be it a worn copy or backlit screen, we are encountering the revelation of God. We are encountering God in action, by his Spirit, to reveal himself and reconcile us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is the high view of Scripture we find when we reckon with the realness of God and the role of the Bible within redemptive history. As Timothy Ward puts it,
Scripture is an aspect of the action of the sovereign, faithful, self-revealing God in the world, and specifically, it is the action by which this God declares his ongoing covenant with his people, climaxed in Christ. …
We should read, listen to and hear it preached, in order to find ourselves presented again with Christ and addressed by him. As we encounter the words of Scripture, we are encountering the Son in action, presenting himself to us in his call on us to take up our cross and follow him.” (Words of Life, 56, 72)
I pray you get a moment to enjoy this wonder today, and I’m eager to sit under the preached word with you tomorrow in worship.
Resources for Further Study
30-minutes of reading:
What Is the Bible? Where It Came From & What’s In It, by Bible Project [video]
The Authority and Inerrancy of Scripture, by Matthew Barrett
The Underground Translator, by John Piper [+ audio]
2-hours of reading:
Why Sixty-Six Books? The Development of the Canon, by Stephen Nichols [video]
Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me, by Kevin DeYoung
5-hours of reading:
God’s Word Alone, by Matthew Barrett
Fundamentalism and the Word of God, by J. I. Packer
