Scripture is God-breathed

Nathanael Smith
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Christians often feel like they hit a plateau with their understanding of the Bible, but God's word is reliable, rich, provocative and Christ-centred. There's always more to get from it.


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Words have power. What’s the most powerful thing someone has ever said to you?

The Bible is reliable.

  • Hundreds of copies from far earlier than any other texts of that era.
  • The book has stood the test of 2,000 years of criticism and analysis.
  • Today’s heresies are the same as in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
  • Early Christian writers treated the letters and writings of the New Testament as sacred, proving that it wasn’t made up later.
  • The NT was written to eyewitnesses, by eyewitnesses.
  • It is God-breathed, like brass and woodwind instruments that need the breath of God to create the tone and tune.
  • It contains truths that humans could not realise of their own volition.

The Bible is rich.

The Bible is immensely complex but also immediately accessible, like a symphony of classical music. The more you read it, the more you can get out of it. Even the most familiar passages like Matthew 5 or John 3 or Romans 8 can speak truth to us over and over again, the more we peel back the layers of meaning. And the more you read about the Bible, the more you can understand its difficult passages.

The Bible is provocative.

“The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.” – Kierkegaard

The Bible is Christ-centred.

Everything in the Bible points to Jesus. He is the story that runs through the entirety of Scripture, the whole purpose of the book. It is a tale that reveals God’s love for us through the person of Jesus. And it is Jesus’ sacrifice that gives us access to the Holy Spirit, who enables us to change.


Questions:

  • How important to you is the reliability of the Bible as a historical text?

  • What other ways do you think you can defend the authority of Scripture?

  • Would Nathanael’s arguments for its validity stand up to the scrutiny of your non-Christian friends?

  • Do you feel like the Bible is this constant source of joy or does reading it feel more like a duty?

  • How do you tackle familiar passages when reading them in your personal times of devotion?

  • How do you tackle difficult passages?

  • What do you do when you hit a plateau with your reading and you feel like you aren’t learning from it or being stirred by it?

  • Which bits of the Bible do we know that provoke us, but we skim over or ignore or apply half-heartedly?

  • How do you interpret passages about cutting off hands and hating your family?

  • Is change and provocation something you make space for when reading the Bible throughout the week?

  • What Bible passage has provoked you recently?

  • Pray with one another that Jesus would reveal Himself more and more to you as your read the Bible.