Scriptural Inspiration and Authority
Written by Grant R. Castleberry |
Monday, June 12, 2023
Scripture is given so that the “man of God may be complete” (2 Tim. 3:17). The word that is translated “complete” (Greek artios) means “fit, complete, capable, adequate, sufficient.” Paul says that God’s Word is complete and sufficient so that we can be men and women of God, “equipped for every good work” (v. 17). The word that is translated “equipped” (Greek exartizo) was used to describe a wagon that was completely outfitted for a long journey or a rescue boat that was sufficiently prepared for its mission. It is a wonderful picture of both the Christian’s and the church’s relationship to Holy Scripture.
The church is at a watershed moment. Much like the church of a hundred years ago, in which parties divided over the doctrine of biblical inspiration and inerrancy, we are at a crossroads. This time, rather than biblical inerrancy, the division is over the Bible’s authority and sufficiency. The predominant worldviews in our culture firmly oppose the Christian worldview. We live in a post-Christian society. So the pressure exerted on both the individual Christian and the church to abandon biblical doctrine, especially along the lines of biblical sexuality, is immense. Therefore, the issue of biblical authority and sufficiency is the continental divide of our generation. I believe that we will see a great rebellion and apostasy in our lifetime because of a fundamental rejection of this doctrine (Matt. 24:11–14; 2 Thess. 2:3; 2 Tim. 3:1–8). Many who claim the name of Christ have already begun following after the world rather than holding fast to the “faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
The locus classicus text that speaks to the Bible’s inspiration and authority is 2 Timothy 3:16–17: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Paul makes a most definitive statement: every word of Scripture is breathed out by God. In other words, as B.B. Warfield used to say, “When Scripture speaks, God speaks.” For that reason, Scripture is authoritative on every subject that it addresses. We should add that this means that Scripture is the final authority, and no other authorities in this world even come close to it. For what can stand against God’s Word (Isa. 40:8)? In addition to seeing Scripture’s inspiration and authority in this text, Paul presses us to understand Scripture’s sufficiency. Scripture is given so that the “man of God may be complete” (2 Tim. 3:17). The word that is translated “complete” (Greek artios) means “fit, complete, capable, adequate, sufficient.” Paul says that God’s Word is complete and sufficient so that we can be men and women of God, “equipped for every good work” (v. 17). The word that is translated “equipped” (Greek exartizo) was used to describe a wagon that was completely outfitted for a long journey or a rescue boat that was sufficiently prepared for its mission. It is a wonderful picture of both the Christian’s and the church’s relationship to Holy Scripture.
Scripture is all that we need to be “outfitted” for the Christian life. Scripture is all we need for “righteousness.” Scripture is all that the church needs to faithfully serve and honor Christ and advance the kingdom.
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Tulip: Perseverance of the Saints
God is shaping the perfect figure of you into what will be your resurrected body and glorified soul. You’ve been sanctified positionally so the sanctification of your person is sure to continue until it’s completion.
Think of a cup being filled to the brim—or inflating a children’s play castle or a basketball to its entire design. The thing being pervaded is what it is, but it is in the process of functioning fully and living up to its potential and peak performance until completely full.
Such gets at the sense of the Hebrew for “perfect” in Psalm 138:a[1], which reads, The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me. David takes consolation in the idea that God will completely fulfill him and accomplish His purposes in him toward his chief end. The text teaches that our perfect God will perfectly perfect His people. So Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
God never discards His people as unfinished projects. First Corinthians 1:8 reads, Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What is the basis of this profound assurance that Christians will undoubtedly have fought the good fight and finished their race? The second part of Psalm 138:8 tells us: … thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever. God’s mercy, ḥesed in the Hebrew, is a word pregnant with promise expressing His covenant loyalty to His people. It is used in Psalm 136 at the end of each of twenty-six verses as a corporate, antiphonal exclamation.[2] God’s faithful covenantal mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). So Christian, you can never lose your salvation and you will grow in your sanctification into the perfect you in Christ. In answer to the last part of Psalm 138:8, Jesus says He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)![3]
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A God I Could Love
In the Son of God, we do not see a haughty God, reluctant to be kind. We see one who comes in saving grace while we were still sinners. In him we see a glory so different from our needy and selfish applause-seeking. We see a God of superabundant self-giving. We see a God unspotted in every way: a fountain of overflowing goodness. In him — and in him alone — we see a God who is beautiful, who wins our hearts.
It is more pious and more accurate to signify God from the Son and call Him Father, than to name Him from His works only and call Him Unoriginate.
As a child, I used to have an almost physical reaction to the word God. To me, it was a sharp-edged word that cut through all others. When it was spoken, I felt both searched and unsettled. Now, I knew enough to understand why the uttering of that word should make me feel searched. God, I realized, was high and holy; I was not.
But why was I unsettled? That question would pester me for years. It wasn’t merely that God transcended me. It wasn’t only his dazzling perfection. I had only the dimmest appreciation of those realities. What I couldn’t quite express at the time was that God in his glory was not then beautiful to me. His holiness troubled me, not just because it exposed me, but because I did not clearly see him as good.
And so, I found myself interested in heaven, interested in salvation, even interested in Jesus, but not attracted to God. I longed to escape hell and go to heaven, but God’s presence was not the inducement. Quite the opposite: I would have been far more comfortable with a Godless paradise. At the same time, I loved the idea of justification by faith alone, but couldn’t quite believe it — for, quite simply, God did not strike me as being that kind.
Rescued from the Unsmiling God
I have always been an avid bibliophile, and as a teenager I began to be drawn especially to the writings of the Reformers and Puritans. And one soon stood out to me: Richard Sibbes.
The way Sibbes described the tenderness, benevolence, and sheer loveliness of Jesus was utterly enthralling. And I knew he was right. Yet it didn’t compute. How could the Son of God be so beautiful when God was not? It could only be, I dimly reasoned, that the kindness of the Son was but window dressing. Jesus was the lovely facade behind which lurked a more saturnine being: an unsmiling God, thinner on compassion and kindness.
Perhaps it was unsurprising then that I soon found myself surrounded by books about the Arians, that fourth-century group who held that the Son was a different being from the Father. Then I met Athanasius. Where the other writers struck me as dull, he had a twinkle in his eye and a mind that saw with a clarity none of the others had.
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Historical Theology for Systematic Theology
Given the long-established nature of creedal confessions and the unlikelihood that they will ever prove to be in error, the church should consider these affirmations as true and commendable, offering wisdom for its contemporary theological formulations.
Over the course of the last several months, I’ve been engaging in a friendly dialogue about the proper posture that Christians should adopt toward the Holy Spirit. My conversation partner maintains that, whereas the third Person of the Trinity is fully and truly God, co-equal with the first Person and second Person, in no place does Scripture explicitly reveal a believer giving glory, honor, prayer, thanksgiving, and worship to the Holy Spirit. My friend’s conclusion is that, lacking such biblical warrant for an adoring posture in relationship to the Spirit, Christians should not worship and glorify him. Importantly, my friend posits that whereas the Spirit is entitled to such adoration, he foregoes it in favor of the other two divine Persons who, together with the third Person, have decided that glory should be directed toward them—the Father and the Son—and not toward the Holy Spirit.
Part of my discussion has been to refer to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed[1] through which the Christian church has historically confessed its belief “in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.” Not only does this creedal article affirm the full deity of the Spirit (who is called “the Lord” and who, as “Giver of Life,” is engaged in creation and recreation, both of which are divine activities), but it explicitly confesses that he, together with the Father and the Son, is revered. That is, the co-eminence of the third Person with the first Person and the second Person means that the praise, honor, adoration, thanksgiving, and glory that we direct to the Spirit does not differ in essence from those same activities directed toward the Father and the Son. My contention is that this affirmation of the Spirit’s worthiness of worship is an excellent summary of Scripture and, having passed the test of time without being overturned, should direct our posture toward the Holy Spirit today.
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