WEEK 40

THE WORD INFALLIBLE

“Holy Scripture should be thought of as God preaching.”¹ “He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words”(Heb 1:1-3 MSG)!

The sufficiency of Scripture means that Scripture contains all the words of God which he intends his people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and that it contains everything we need God to tell us for salvation, for trusting him perfectly, and obeying him perfectly.²

“At each stage in redemptive history, the things that God had revealed were for his people for that time, and they were to study, believe, and obey those things.”³

[A]t the time of the death of Moses, the first five books of our Old Testament were sufficient for God’s people at that time. But God directed later authors to add more, so that Scripture would be sufficient for believers in those subsequent times. For Christians today, the words from God which we have in the Old and New Testaments together are sufficient for us during the church age.⁴

Scripture leads to a Person, not just truths. All Scripture points to Jesus’ death and resurrection, to forgiveness, and to personal knowledge of God through him. [We] should come to Scripture humbly, expecting to learn and be corrected, willing to observe Scripture closely and accept whatever [we] find.⁵

“We find Christ in all the Scriptures. In the Old Testament He is predicted, in the Gospels He is revealed, in Acts He is preached, in the epistles He is explained, and in Revelation He is expected.”⁶

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”(Matt 5:17 ESV). Here Christ was emphasizing both the inspiration and the enduring authority of all Scripture. He was specifically affirming the utter inerrancy and absolute authority of the OT as the Word of God. [N]othing has passed from the law, but rather every aspect of the law has been fulfilled in him.⁷

“[T]rue knowledge of God includes understanding everything from his perspective. It is to learn what God loves and hates, and to see, hear, think, and act the way he does.”⁸

“To understand God’s Word, we must totally disregard our own wisdom and rest in utter dependence on the Spirit of God to interpret it for us.”⁹

“[Through the mire and through the slough, through the flood and through the flame, follow Jesus and the Word infallible.”¹⁰

ENDNOTES

(40) We’ll Stand on GOD’s Word

            1. J. I. Packer, God Has Spoken (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979) 97.

            2. Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1988, 2000) 250.

            3. Grudem, 261.

            4. Grudem.

            5. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2561.

            6. Alistair Begg

            7. John MacArthur, One Perfect Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2012) 139.

            8. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2505.

            9. R. A. Torrey, God’s Power in Your Life (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1982) 72-73.

            10. Charles Spurgeon, Spiritual warfare in a Believer’s Life (Lynnwood, WA: Emerald Books, 1993) 80.

            11. R. Kelso Carter, “Standing on the Promises,” 1886, Hymnary, 2 August 2021 https://hymnary.org/text/standing_on_the_promises_of_christ_my_ki.

            12. Charles Spurgeon, Spiritual warfare in a Believer’s Life (Lynnwood, WA: Emerald Books, 1993) 80.