The Creator Has Breathed Out a Book

Excerpt from John Piper at Desiring God:  All Scripture Is Breathed Out by God, Continue in It 

...


5. The Scriptures are God-breathed (verse 16).

• One is that Jesus saw his own teaching on a par with Scripture (Matthew 5) and having the authority of God (John 14:10, “I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”).

• Another is that Jesus prepared for his apostles to speak with divine authority for the sake of the church (John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”).

• Another is that the apostles claimed to be inspired by God (1 Cor. 2:13, “We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit.”).

• Another is that Peter said that Paul’s letters were part of the authoritative Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16, Some twist his letters “as they do the other Scriptures.”). 

even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:10)

Verses 14–16a: “Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, (1) knowing from whom you learned it and (2) how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which (3) are able to make you wise for salvation (4) through faith in Christ Jesus. (5) All Scripture is breathed out by God.”

This is one of the most important statements in the Bible. “All Scripture is God-breathed” — inspired, we usually say. Uniquely. Not like we might say a beautiful musical performance was “inspired,” but breathed out by God so as to make the Scripture God’s own words.

The Scriptures in view here are the Old Testament. That is what the Jewish family of Timothy and Lois and Eunice knew and believed and loved. But there are really good reasons for treating the New Testament as having the same God-breathed authority.

So when Paul speaks in 2 Timothy 3:16 of the Scripture being inspired, it refers by implication to the Old and New Testaments.

A Focus on the Writings Themselves

Now contrast what Paul says here about the Scripture with what Peter says in 2 Peter 1:21, “No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” “Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” So what Peter emphasizes is that the writers of Scripture were inspired. God “carried them” so to speak — influenced their minds — so that God’s word is spoken truly by the prophets.

But Paul focuses on the writings themselves, not the writers. He tells Timothy (in verse 16) not to forsake the truth of these writings because the writings themselves (pa◊sa grafh\) are God-breathed. God’s influence was not simply on the mind of the writers in general, but his attention to the process of Scripture creation was such that when their minds and hands  composed actual Scripture words, these words were so much God’s words that Paul says the writings themselves are God-breathed.

The Very Words of God

This is the main reason that the Elder Affirmation of Faith at Bethlehem begins in Section 1.1, “We believe that the Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is the infallible Word of God, verbally inspired by God, and without error in the original manuscripts.” The term “verbally inspired” and the reference to the “original manuscripts” both flow from the focus of 2 Timothy 3:16 on the very writings themselves.

Timothy, continue in what you have learned and believed, because the holy writings your mother and grandmother taught you are the very words of God. Bethlehem, we hold in our hands the very words of God translated into English. Have you ever been half as amazed at this as you should be? The Creator of the universe has breathed out a book. A book. We can read the mind of God revealed in this book. We have access to knowledge that is unshakably true and infinitely valuable. Infinitely. Do you treasure and love and read and meditate and memorize and study this book in accord with its infinite worth?

One Divine Voice

We are in the process of one of the greatest transitions this church has ever been through. It is inevitable and it is good. And God has wrought wonders for us in the last eight months. One human voice will replace another human voice.

But the divine voice sounding from this pulpit stays exactly the same. For his word never changes. It is fixed forever in God-breathed Scripture. If there is any key to God’s merciful blessing on the history of this 141-year-old church it is this: We have continued  in (stayed in, remained in) the God-breathed, Gospel-centered, inerrant word of God. It has been our salvation and our treasure and our sweetness.

More to be desired are they than gold, 

And so I say to the elders, and to Jason Meyer in particular, “Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed.” If for the next thirty years Bethlehem is to be a place of salvation, and a place of treasure, and a place of sweetness, continue in the Scripture — these holy, God-breathed, inerrant, infinitely valuable words of the living God.

That is the most foundational reason, Timothy, why you should continue in the truth you have learned and believed. It is the truth of God-breathed Scripture.

...