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The Word of God

What is the Bible?

This is one of the central questions that dominates the Christian faith. It is essential to have an answer to this question. Knowing what the Bible is, and is not, influences our entire walk of faith. What you believe the Bible to be determines how you read it and what you read it for.

The Churches of Christ, my tradition and the tradition of most of my readers, was founded on taking the Bible seriously. The early members wanted to get away from the various creeds, traditions, and articles of faith that defined so many other denominations. They wanted to be Christians only, without the added denominational titles. To do this they turned to Scripture as their sole authority.

This ethic has continued to the present day. You will be hard pressed to find a group of people who long for biblical teaching more than us. This is a quality I am proud of and I think it speaks volumes of my brothers and sisters' heart for God.

In our efforts to treat the Bible with respect and take what it says seriously, however, I think we have made an error. Simply put, the Bible is not the Word of God.

Wait, WHAT?

Hear me out. I know what I just said probably sounds like blasphemy to many of you. You are probably thinking that I've has lost my mind and apostatized. You are probably wondering how I came to this conclusion. Well, the answer is simple; by reading the Bible.

Now before we go any further I want to make one thing very clear; I wholeheartedly believe in the authority of Scripture. In fact it is by reading and studying the Bible that I came to this conclusion. The point of this is not to take anything away from Scripture, but rather to understand what Scripture is talking about and pointing to.

That being said, you are probably wondering that if the Bible is not the Word of God, then what is? Well the answer is not what, but WHO.

Jesus Christ, the Word of God

John 1:1-3 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made."

John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Why do I say that the Bible is not the Word of God? Because the Bible says that Jesus is.

Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is the authority. Jesus is the truth. Jesus sanctifies us. Jesus is the message that we proclaim. Jesus is the one we serve. 

When we call the Bible the Word of God, we unintentionally do something damaging to our walk with Christ; we misplace his glory. Instead of glorifying him we lift up the thing that talks about him. It's sort of like if a king sent a messenger with good news about himself, and the recipients of the message, upon hearing the good news, exalted the messenger. Their intention of responding appropriately to the message is misplaced.

So, What About the Bible?


The entire point of the Bible is to reveal Jesus Christ so that we may know and follow him. This is, after all, why Scripture is so important to every Christian. The Bible is from God, given to us in order to help us come to know Jesus. It is here to help us find, follow, and remain faithful to Christ. 

As it says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

Scripture is here to help the men and women of God follow Christ. That's what the Bible says it is here to do. When we elevate the Bible to the Word of God we make legalism and other such problems run rampant. If the Bible is the Word of God then every command about head coverings, braided hair, Sabbath rest, and all the rest we typically consider cultural are eternally binding.

If Jesus is the Word of God, and the Bible is here to point to him and equip his followers, then things simply make more sense. It enables us to study the cultural aspects of Scripture without damaging its authority, because any authority it has flows from the supreme authority of Jesus Christ. This proper perspective keeps us from making an idol out of a very good thing, something that is all to easy to do.

Jesus himself warned about this. In John 5:39 he tells the Pharisees what they are doing wrong. "You search the Scriptures because that in them you think you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me." The Bible, as wonderful a gift that it is, cannot save us. It was never meant to. It was designed to point us to the one who can, a job it does perfectly.

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