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AUGUST: Knowing and Serving God

August 4

HOW IS THE BIBLE INSPIRED?

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16

What is meant by inspiration? When we say that the Bible is divinely inspired, what exactly do we mean? I start with a negative. We do not mean that certain portions of the Bible are inspired and that others are not. There are some people who think that. There are, they say, portions and particular statements and teachings, especially those concerned with the Lord Jesus Christ, that are inspired. But, they say, the historical books and various other sections are not inspired. Now that is not what we mean when we say that the Bible is divinely inspired.

Neither do we mean simply that the men who wrote the Bible were writing in an exalted or creative way. When a poet produced a masterpiece, you have often heard people say that the poet was "inspired." But we do not mean that the writers of the books of the Bible were inspired in that way when they came to write these books. Others say they regard inspiration as just meaning that the ideas that were given to the writers were inspired. That is true, of course, but we mean much more than that. Neither does it mean that the books--the writings as such--are the product of human origin onto which the divine breath or afflatus has come.

So what do we mean? We mean that the Scriptures are a divine product breathed out by God. Inspired really means "God-breathed." We mean that God breathed these messages into men and through them, and these Scriptures are the result of that divine action. We believe that they were produced by the creative breath of Almighty God. Put in a simpler form, we mean that everything we have in the Bible has been given by God to man.

A Thought to Ponder
The Scriptures are a divine product breathed out by God.

From God the Father, God the Son, pp. 23-24.



Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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