II Timothy 3:16,17
THe Bible makes it very clear in II Timothy 3:16:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
That the Bible is Divinely inspired cannot be overestimated. This is the strategic center of Christian theology, and must be defended at all costs. It is the point at which our satanic enemy is constantly hurling his hellish battalions. Here it was the devil made his first attack. In Eden he asked, “Yea, hath God said?” and today he is pursuing the same tactics.
But there is no doubt that the Bible is the Word of God. It stands on an infinitely exalted plane, immeasurably transcending all the greatest productions of human genius by its unique credentials. All its internal marks prove it to be the handiwork of God. There is uniqueness in all its teachings.
The Bible is unique in its teaching about God, of course. Only from the Scripture can one learn about God’s Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence, Eternal existence, Infinite Wisdom, Sovereignty, Holiness, Justice, Mercy and Grace. But the divine nature of the Bible is reflected also in the uniqueness of its other teachings.
About man. Unlike all other books in the world, the Bible condemns man and all his doings. It never eulogizes his wisdom, nor praises his achievements. On the contrary, it declares that “every man at his best state is altogether vanity” (Psa. 39:5). And instead of telling man that he is a noble character, it says that all his righteousnesses are as “filthy rags”, that he is a lost sinner deserving only of hell.
The picture that the Scriptures give of man is deeply humiliating and entirely different from all which are drawn by human pencils. The Word of God describes the state of the natural man in the following language:
There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Rom. 3:10-12).
Instead of making Satan the source of all the sins of which we are guilty, the Bible declares in Mark 7:21-23:
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Such a conception of man—so different from man’s own ideas, and so humiliating to his proud heart—never could have come from man himself.
About the world. Man thinks highly of the world, for he regards it as his world. It is that which his labors have produced and upon which he looks with satisfaction and pride. He boasts that the world is growing better as a result of human ingenuity. He declares that the world is becoming more civilized and more humanized.
The Bible, however, uniformly condemns the world and speaks of it as a thing of evil. Take, for instance, James 4:4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” And we read in I Corinthians 3:19, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” Certainly no uninspired pen wrote these words.
Jesus says in John 15:18, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” Why does the world hate Christ? Because by nature, all people walk “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). In other words, the whole world is under the control of Satan.
About sin. Man regards sin as a misfortune and ever seeks to minimize its enormity. In these days, sin is referred to as ignorance, as a necessary stage in man’s development. By others, sin is looked upon as a mere negation, the opposite of good.
But the Bible, unlike every other book, strips man of all his excuses and emphasizes instead his culpability. It declares that “sin is the transgression of the law (I John 3:4), that “sin is very grievous” (Gen. 18:20), and that our sins provoke God to anger (I Kings 16:2). It speaks of the “deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13) and insists that all sin is sin against God (Psalm 51:4) and against Christ (I Cor. 8:12).
Did man ever write such an indictment against himself? What human mind ever invented such a description of sin as that discovered in the Bible? Whoever would have imagined that sin was such a vile and dreadful thing in the sight of God that nothing but the precious blood of His own beloved Son could make an atonement for it!
About the punishment. A defective view of sin necessarily leads to an inadequate conception of what is due sin. Minimize the gravity and enormity of sin and you most proportionately reduce the sentence that it deserves.
Many are crying out today against the justice of the eternal punishment of sin. They complain that the penalty does not fit the crime. They argue that it is unrighteous for a sinner to suffer eternally in consequence of a short life span of wrongdoing.
In lands where there exists any belief in a future life, it is held that at death the wicked either pass through some temporary suffering for remedial and purifying purposes, or they are simply annihilated. Even in Christendom, where the Word of God had until recently held a prominent and public place for centuries, the great bulk of the people do not believe in eternal punishment. They argue that God is too merciful and kind to ban one of His own creatures to endless misery.
But even in this world it is not the length of time it takes to commit the crime that determines the severity of the sentence. Many a man has suffered a life term of imprisonment for a crime taking only a few minutes to perpetrate.
About hell. But the teachings of God’s Word upon eternal punishment are as clear and explicit as they are awful. They declare that the doom of the Christ rejecter is a conscious, never-ending, indescribable torment. The Bible depicts hell as a realm where the “worm dieth not” and “the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). It speaks of it as a lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 20:10), where even a drop of water is denied the agonized sufferer (Luke 16:24).
It declares that “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night” (Rev. 14:11). It represents the world of the lost as “the blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 13).
Such a conception is too repugnant and repulsive to the human heart to have had its birth on the earth.
About Salvation. Man’s thoughts about salvation, like every other subject that engages his mind, are defective and deficient. Hence the force of the admonition “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts” (Isa. 55:7).
In the first place, left to himself, man fails to realize his need of salvation. In the pride of his heart he imagines that he is sufficient in himself, and through the darkening of his understanding by sin, he fails to comprehend his ruined and lost condition. It is not until the Holy Spirit deals with him that man is constrained to cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
Secondly, man is ignorant of the way of salvation. Even when man recognizes that if he died in his present state, he would be punished, he has no right conception of the remedy. Being ignorant of God’s righteousness he goes about to establish his own way to be right with God. He supposes that he must make some personal reparation for his past wrongdoings, that he do something to merit the esteem of God. The proof of this is to be seen in the fact that even when pardon and life are presented as a free gift, the universal tendency, at first, is to regard it as being “too good to be true.”
Yet, such is the plain teaching of God’s Word. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8,9). And again, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5).
About God’s way. Who would have thought that the Maker and Ruler of the universe should lay hold of poor, fallen, depraved men and women and lifting them out of the miry clay should make them His own sons and daughters, and should seat them at His own table. Who would ever have suggested that those who deserve naught but everlasting shame and contempt, should be made “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). Who would have dared to affirm that one day we shall be “made like Christ” and “be for ever with the Lord”.
Such concepts were as far beyond the reach of the highest human intellect as they were of the rudest savage.
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God (I Cor. 2:9,10).
Again we ask, What human intellect could have devised a means whereby God could be just and yet merciful, and also merciful and yet just? What mortal mind would ever have dreamed of a free and full salvation, bestowed on hell-deserving sinners, “without money and without price”?
About the Savior. The description that the Scriptures furnish of the person, the character, and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is without anything that approaches a parallel in the whole realm of literature.
It is easier to suppose that man could create a world than to believe he invented the character of our Redeemer. Given a piece of machinery that is delicate, complex, exact in all its movements, and we know it must be the product of a competent mechanic. Given a work of art that is beautiful, symmetrical, original, and we know it must be the product of a master artist. Likewise, none but the Holy Spirit could have produced the peerless portrait of the Lord Jesus that we find in the Gospels.
In Christ, all excellencies combine, every grace is found. In Him, moreover, all these perfections were properly poised and balanced. He was meek yet regal; He was gentle yet fearless; He was compassionate yet just; He was submissive yet authoritative; He was Divine yet human. Add to these, the fact that He was absolutely “without sin” and His uniqueness becomes apparent. Nowhere in all the writings of antiquity is there to be found the presentation of such a peerless and wondrous character.
Moreover, who would have dared to imagine the Creator and Upholder of the universe taking upon Himself the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men? Who would have conceived the idea of the Lord of Glory being born in a manger, the object of angelic worship becoming so poor that He had no where to lay His head? Who would have declared that the One before whom the seraphim veil their faces should permit the creatures of His hand to scourge and buffet Him and be led as a lamb to the slaughter? Whoever would have conceived of Emmanuel becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross!
Summary. Here then is an argument that the simplest can grasp. The Scriptures contain their own evidence that they are Divinely inspired. Every page of Holy Writ is stamped with Jehovah’s autograph. The uniqueness of its teachings demonstrates that the Bible is not the product of any man or any number of men, but is in truth a revelation from God.