God’s Word: Breathed out by the Spirit

God’s Word: Breathed Out by the Spirit
INTRODUCTION:
In 2 Timothy 3:16, 17, Paul affirms the inspiration of the Scriptures, makes reference to the use to be made of the Scriptures, and shows the designed consequence of this inspiration and use.
Numerous are the verses which set forth the Bible’s own claim to be miraculously inspired of God. But what does the Bible mean in making this claim? What is the meaning of inspiration?
It is important that careful attention be given to answering this question. “Inspiration” is a term which is currently being used in different senses. The modernist claims to believe in God. But he doesn’t believe in the God of the Bible. He claims to believe in Christ. But he doesn’t believe in the Christ of the Bible. Just so, he claims to believe in the inspiration of the Bible, but he doesn’t mean by “inspiration” what the Bible teaches about inspiration. He believes that the writings of Paul were “inspired” in the same sense as were the writings of Shakespeare, Milton, Tennyson, and Poe.
Promise and Fulfillment
The Lord promised to certain ones miraculous inspiration. “...Yea and before governors and kings shall ye be brought for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak” (Mt. 10:18, 19). “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth for he shall not speak for himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you” (John 14:26).
The Lord kept His promise. On Pentecost of Acts 2, these very men to whom the promise had been made “...were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (verse 4). In verse 39 Peter said, “For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.” This passage is a good illustration of the miraculous inspiration by which Peter spake. Its significance certainly encompasses salvation of Gentiles. And yet, Peter himself - at the time - did not believe that the Gospel was for Gentiles. In Acts 10, God had to perform a miracle three times to enable Peter to understand that he was to preach to Gentiles. God thus helped him to understand the meaning of what he had preached approximately ten years before. It was Peter who later declared that God’s divine power “hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness... ” (2 Peter 1:3). Paul explains the matter: “For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11,12). New Testament writers affirm that the Lord kept His promise.
God and Authority
All authority is inherent in God, the Father. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1). “The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land” (Ps. 95:5). He is the “...living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is...” (Acts 14:15). He is “The God that hath made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth...” (Acts 17:24). He is the creator - our maker and sustainer. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. Because He is what He is, all original authority — source authority — is inherent in Him.
The Son and Authority
The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written to convince men that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the Living God - the Messiah about whom the Old Testament message had been penned. God said that Jesus was His Son. Jesus claimed that God was His Father. These writers set forth the irrefutable evidences designed to prove His claim. “Now the centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, and the things that were done, feared exceedingly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God” (Mt. 27:54).
But, what is so important about this fact? Why prove that He is the Son of God? The answer is: as such, He was in position to be heir of authority from the Father. Therefore, shortly prior to his return to the Father He met with His disciples upon a mountain of Galilee and confidently affirmed that “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Mt. 28:18). God gave authority to the Son - authority to deal with the problem of human sins.
The Apostles and Authority
The Lord knew that His life on the earth would be short but that His message to men would continue. He called, selected, taught, tutored, trained and developed a small group of men upon whose shoulders he placed the responsibility of getting the gospel story to the whole world. He promised to be with them in their work, and He was with them. Acts of Apostles is the sacred story of how the Lord went with them in getting the gospel to every creature in the whole world. They preached the gospel by miraculous inspiration; their word was confirmed by miraculous demonstration.
These men sustained a special relationship to Christ, the King. In fact, they were the king’s “ambassadors.” Paul writes, “We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ...” (2 Cor. 5:20). The word “ambassadors” as used here involves the divine “embassy,” and this divine “embassy” necessarily involved special authority The apostles were the authoritative, official representatives of the King! The King reigned from heaven, but He had an embassy among the men - the apostles to whom He gave authority to bind and loose on the earth.
The Gift of Prophecy
 There were miraculous gifts - spiritual gifts - in the early church. The people of that day did not have the completed New Testament in written form, but there was desperate need for divine instruction and guidance. To meet these needs, God placed in the early church special gifts. A wonderful discussion about these spiritual gifts is found in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. In chapter 12, Paul discusses nine of the miraculous gifts. In the light of Acts 8:14ff, we confidently affirm that only an apostle could - by laying on of hands - impart a miraculous measure of the Holy Spirit to someone else. The evidence clearly is that each apostle possessed all nine of the spiritual gifts, and that each apostle was able to impart any of the spiritual gifts.
One of the tremendously important spiritual gifts was the gift of prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul stresses the superiority of the gift of prophecy. It is imperative that we understand this gift. “To prophesy” does not mean “to foretell coming events.” Its meaning includes this future aspect, but it includes far more than this. The word literally means,”to speak for, to speak in behalf of.” The prophets (whether Old Testament prophets or New Testament prophets) spoke for - in behalf of - God. They were the ones through whom God spoke. In Ex. 7:1 God said to Moses,“ ...and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” Moses would speak through Aaron. This is the meaning of the word. The prophets sometimes dealt with the past; they sometimes dealt with the (then) present; they sometimes dealt with the future. But they were prophets because God spoke through them.
The gift of prophecy, therefore, is the authority underlying every word in the Bible. Every word (original word) is one which came as a result of the miraculous gift of prophecy. If Luke is one of the writers of the New Testament, and if Luke was not one of the apostles, then Luke was a prophet in the early church.
Let it be stressed that there is no prophecy without (1) revelation, plus (2) inspiration. God revealed, then the one to whom the revelation came spake or wrote the revealed message. The speaking and/or writing was done by inspiration. There were inspired teachers in the early church, but they were not the same as the prophets. The teachers dealt with the message which came to the prophets by revelation. A significant passage in this connection is 1 Cor. 14:30.
Pertinent Passages
One of the clearest and simplest passages on the inspiration of the Bible is 1 Corinthians 2:9-13. In verse 9 Paul refers to certain “things” which God prepared for them that love him. In verse 10 he says, “But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit.” In verse 12 Paul says, “But we received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God.” Note: God revealed - by the Spirit - the things. The revelation came to those encompassed in the word “us.” We receive no direct revelation. Question then: how does the revealed message come from those included in the “us” to the rest of us? Answer: “Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with spiritual words” (verse 13). This makes it plain enough! God revealed the things to certain ones (who possessed the gift of prophecy), who in turn spoke it (and wrote it down) in words selected by the Holy Spirit. This is the Bible’s own definition of inspiration: the marvelous combination of the things revealed, in words selected by the Holy Spirit.
A similar affirmation and explanation is found in Eph. 3:1-5. God revealed (the mystery, by words) to Paul, enabling him to understand the mystery. Paul wrote (in words) the mystery, for others, enabling them to read, and to perceive his understanding of the mystery.
Conclusion
This, my brethren, is inspiration. We need to keep in mind that miraculous inspiration relates to the original words of God’s book. Translators are not inspired. But those original words came from God. They are the very words selected by the Holy Spirit. They mean what God wanted them to mean; they say what God wanted them to say.
Take home message: Treat the written Word of God with the respect and honor you would the spoken Word of God.