The Inspiration of Scripture
“The Bible is none other than the voice of him that sits upon the throne.
Every book of it, every chapter of it, every syllable of it, every letter of it, is the direct utterance of the Most High.”
~John William Burgon
WDF I.2 states:
Under the name of holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the Books of the Old and New Testament; which are these:
a. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, I Chronicles, II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
b. OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The Acts of the Apostles, Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I Thessalonians, II Thessalonians, I Timothy, II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, The Epistle to the Hebrews, The Epistle of James, The First and Second Epistles of Peter, The First, Second and Third Epistles of John, the Epistle of Jude, The Revelation
c. All of these, which are the Holy Scripture, are given by the inspiration of God as the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, life, and obedience.7
7. II Tim 3:15-16; Luke 16:29, 31; Luke 24:27; John 5:46-47; I John 1:3-4; Eph 2:20; Isa 8:20; Rev 22:18-19; Gal 1:8-9; Ps 119:11, 105
Explanation
The previous paragraph ended noting that God’s giving of special revelation has ceased. This means that God has already given to the church all the divine self-revelation that is needed for saving knowledge, faith, life, and obedience. The Bible, consisting of sixty-six books that were written over the course of roughly 1500 years, by approximately forty human authors with greatly varied backgrounds, is the entirety of God’s special revelation for God’s people. And it is complete: no other books are needed, and no books are missing.
These sixty-six books are divided into two testaments: Old and New. The term testament derives from a latin word that was commonly used to translate the Greek and Hebrew words for covenant in the Bible. So then, the two major sections of the Bible could rightly be called Old Covenant and New Covenant, referencing the two major administrations of the Covenant of Grace.1 Although we distinguish the two testaments with the incarnation as the dividing line when organizing the books of the Bible, it is crucial to also notice that “The two are one in origin and content . . . and in both we are presented one faith, one covenant, one way of salvation” (Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics).
The Old Testament contains thirty-nine books, while the New Testament has twenty-seven. Together these sixty-six books in two testaments are referred to as the canon – a term derived from an ancient Greek word for a measuring stick or a rule – because it is the measuring stick for all Christians. That is, the Bible is the sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, life, and obedience.
The Bible is fully authoritative because it is inspired by God. Inspired in this case does not mean that God gave people some general ideas and they fleshed those ideas out, or that God merely influenced people to write these books. Instead, inspiration is God’s speaking his words through faithful men. In the early 1900s, B. B. Warfield noted that, “The Scriptures owe their origin to an activity of the Holy Ghost and in the highest and truest sense are his creation” (B. B. Warfield, Inspiration and Authority of the Bible). This is brought out clearly in II Timothy 3:16, where Paul coined a new word to express the idea. The NIV translates it closest using the term “God-breathed.” Another option to capture Paul’s idea would be, “breathed out by God.” Although God used people to do the physical writing, the words are truly his own words. In order to help us understand this, J. I. Packer compared the inspiration of Scripture to a symphony: God is the composer and conductor. “. . .each instrumentalist has been brought willingly, spontaneously, creatively, to play his notes just as the great conductor desired, though none of them could ever hear the music as a whole.”2 Since God is the composer, every “note,” or word, is his. Since he directed the writing of those notes/words, we also know that the human authors faithfully recorded every word that God composed and directed. And at the same time, since these people involved were the instrumentalists, their own writing styles, languages, dialects, and even personalities come through in the writing down of God’s very words.
Inspiration in the biblical sense that has just been discussed is different from how it is used more commonly today. We might speak of a person being inspired to compose a song, paint a landscape, or simply with a correct interpretation of Scripture. In such instances, the ideas originate with the individual, even though they may have good, even divine, influences: a song written because of God’s amazing grace, a painting brought about by the beauty of creation, or a right interpretation caused by the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. But only the Bible is directly inspired by God himself: its words are not merely influenced by him, but breathed out by him.
Since the Bible is inspired by God, we can also say with confidence that it is infallible. By infallible we mean that the Bible is true, unfailing, and does not deceive in everything that it intends to teach. In Numbers 23:19 we are taught that God cannot lie. If God cannot lie, neither is God’s Word able to do so. Similarly, Jesus stated, while praying for his disciples who were present with him as well as all future disciples, “Your word is truth.”3 The Word of God is true and we are able to trust and depend on all that it teaches. And it does not merely contain truth, it is truth itself.
“The entire Bible carries the certification of the Son of God, which brings with it infallible authority. Thus the written Word of God has the seal of the living Word of God” ~John H. Gerstner
Just as inspiration leads us to the doctrine of infallibility, so also the doctrine of infallibility leads us to inerrancy. Inerrancy tells us that because the Bible cannot lie, deceive, or be in error, it therefore does not lie, deceive, or contain errors in all that it teaches. Throughout much of church history the doctrine of inerrancy was assumed and little spoken of because of how closely related it is to the doctrine of infallibility. In the mid to late 1800s many scholars and pastors were beginning to believe and teach that the Bible does deceive and err on many issues. For instance, they would often claim that miracles, like Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on the third day (an event with far more recorded eyewitness testimony than has ever been needed in any court of law), cannot happen according to observable science and therefore are not true. Among these scholars there was often an attempt to pick apart the Bible to remove or deny anything they decided was not true. The results were numerous understandings of the Bible that were reflections of man rather than the self-revelation of God. In response, biblically faithful pastors and scholars distinguished inerrancy from infallibility in order to make known the truthfulness of God’s Word.
Now, there are times that the Bible records lies, deception, and other falsehoods. This first example of this is Satan’s deception of Eve in Genesis 3. There are also times when God chose to describe the world through everyday observation rather than through modern scientific precision, like the many times when the Bible describes the sun as setting rather than explaining that the earth revolves around the sun. Yet these types of things are not errors or lies, and they do not deceive. God’s Word remains always the truth.
All of this reminds us of the infinite value of the Bible. What other source of information is completely and entirely true? History books disagree with one another. Science changes year after year. Documentaries frequently alter the facts. But the Bible is always the truth. Therefore we ought to trust in what God teaches us in it. Rather than doubting its teaching because it is uncomfortable, or simply not what we want, rest in its teaching. For within the pages of this singular book are found all that we need to know for saving knowledge, faith, life, and obedience. What a great treasure the Triune God has given us!
Reflection
As you reflect on these things, consider also the final two verses of the hymn we looked at last week, written by Benjamin Reddome in 1787:
Here faith reveals to mortal eyes
a brighter world beyond the skies;
here shines the light which guides our way
from earth to realms of endless day.
O grant us grace, almighty Lord,
to read and mark your holy Word;
its truths with meekness to receive,
and by its holy precepts live.4
Study Questions
What does it mean that the Bible is “inspired by God”? How is inspiration distinguished from human influence?
What do the terms inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy mean? Why is a right understanding of these doctrines necessary for us to properly trust God’s Word?
The Bible sometimes records lies without being deceptive (as in the case of Satan’s deception of Eve in Genesis 3:1-6. How does this reality help us to better understand the absolute truthfulness of Scripture?
How does the Bible’s claim to be the “only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, life, and obedience” shape our everyday lives?
1 The concept of covenant, along with the covenants of Grace (with its various administrations), Works, and Redemption, will be explained in WDF VII & VIII
2 J. I. Packer, God Has Spoken, p. 99.
3 John 17:17
4 Benjamin Reddome, The Gospel of Christ.