In my last entry, the focus was upon the necessity of understanding how God works to form and shape our way of thinking (by aligning our thoughts with His thoughts). We learned that our mindset is addressed from the inside out – God revealing Himself, and His truth, to our spirits. We also learned that the role of our minds is comprehending and incorporating what God has revealed. God’s work in us does not begin in the mind and work it’s way to our hearts. God’s work begins in our hearts and works it’s way into our minds, forming the basis for how we think, act, and react in this world in which we live. God has revealed to us that He works within us, by Spirit to spirit revelation…
One of the primary means of this Spirit to spirit revelation is Scripture. The role of Scripture is irreplaceable in understanding how God “speaks” to us and in knowing what He has to say. Anything that is truly Christian will have its solid support in the book we call the Bible. True Christianity arises from the firm foundation of the fact that our Creator has been gracious enough to give us infallible insight into His ways, His work, His words, and His thoughts, through the timeless pages of the Bible. This book is unlike any other, and has been given to assist us in discovering truth, in every area of our lives. So what are the claims and provisions of the Bible?
First of all, the Bible claims that it is the work of only One Author – God Himself! We read that: “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful (fully sufficient and advantageous) for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16) The term “God-breathed” gives us the picture of God’s activity in imparting life to us and draws heavily from Genesis 2:7 where it is recorded: “The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (see also John 20:22) Our understanding of the crucial importance of Scripture is centered in the profound thought that God initiated, and inspired, His thoughts and His words within human writers to impart His truth, and His life, into our lives. Scripture is, quite literally, God Personally speaking to address the issues, questions and concerns of human existence. Scripture gives us the Creator’s Personal insights into how and why all things were created – and they provide the framework for how we can know God, His ways, and for defining our particular purpose in interacting and connecting with Him. The Scriptures address the age-old questions that have plagued us all… Who am I?.. Why am I here?.. and, What is the meaning of life? God hard-wired these questions within us, and provided the means by which we can discover the answers. That means is His inspired work of the Scriptures – divinely authored, humanly recorded.
But how can we know, for certain, that the Scriptures are the source of divine truth? Ultimately, our answer comes down to faith. But faith is never blind faith. Christian faith, in the divine origin and nature of the Scriptures, is based upon solid reasonings.
First, a Being wise and powerful enough to create everything that we see and sense around us, also has to be wise and powerful enough to make a way for us to discern and understand Him and what He has done. He not only wanted to create all things, He desired to interact with these things (especially us!). Scripture, is His primary means of telling us about Himself, and of how we can know and interact with Him. It is only reasonable that, if God desired to have a relationship with us, He would provide a way for us to know HOW this can occur. This way is through the Scriptures.
Second, a Creator that truly cared about His creatures (as Scripture tells us He does), would not only want us to know and understand Him, but He would also want us to understand us. Scripture offers amazing insight into the workings and behaviors of mankind. It informs us of what we were intended to be. It reveals what we are without a relationship with our Creator. And what we can become in relationship with our Creator. The Creator was wise enough to give us an “Owners manual” for helping us to determine right from wrong, good from evil, and truth from error – providing us, through Scripture, with an “operational guide,” as defined by His Own pure and good Nature and Character.
Third, Scripture provides the necessary “something beyond ourselves.” What I mean is this… Who would want to live in a house where the builder, rejected the use of a plumb-line and a level, and simply “eye-balled” the construction of the house and determined “it looks good to me?” To determine if something is accurate and true, it must be measured by something beyond itself. It must be held up to a true standard, and the standard determines what is accurate and true. In the case of reasoning human beings, we simply cannot use ourselves (our thoughts or our reasonings) to determine if we are accurate and true. We need a standard that IS accurate and true to be our irreplaceable guide. The Creator was wise enough to provide this standard for us through the gift of the Scriptures. In them we have an immutable plumb-line and an impeccable level to keep us true. Without a standard, from beyond ourselves, we are prone to “eye-balling,” and thinking, our way to imminent disaster!
As I said earlier, trust in the Scriptures, is a matter of faith. To reject the Scriptures because we believe they are only the words of men, trying to explain God, or trying to manipulate us to a certain “godly” behavior, leaves us with only our own intellect (or the intellect of other flawed human beings) to guide and direct us. We end up placing our faith in ourselves, or others’ “wisdom,” as the means of how we should live. This kind of faith is based solely on human opinion, void of any (reasonable) standard of truth. Ultimately, left to our own reasonings, NO standard exists!
Wisdom directs us to place our faith in something, and Someone, beyond ourselves. The One Who is True, and Who has provided His truth for us all, will never fail us…
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