I go to a liberal arts university. It’s not a “safe space” for me, but it’s a place to learn and share the gospel with people who are lost and hurting. In my escapades around campus, I’ve had more than one conversation with students that struggle with the Bible’s authority, it’s timelessness, and it’s infallibility. These issues are worth diving into because it is true that the Bible is the word of God, breathed by Him, and incapable of being incorrect. Let’s start with the One who made everything.
God is perfect. He is infallible, meaning He is not able to make mistakes. If we take a look at the second half of Matthew 5:48 it states that “your heavenly Father is perfect.” Another verse that talks of God’s perfection is Deuteronomy 32:4, “The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity just and upright is He.” The Bible reminds us time and time again that He is unfaltering in His flawlessness. This perfect God is what the Bible is based on. The truth is that scripture is breathed by God, the same God that cannot make mistakes.
Scripture is God-breathed. In 2 Timothy 3:16 we see that “all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” This verse from 2 Timothy breaks down for its readers the source of his writings. It doesn’t say “some scripture”, but “all scripture”. It is breathed by God through His divine inspiration. God gave the words and thoughts that comprise the Bible to the men that wrote them down. They are not the thoughts and ideas of a flawed person, but the perfect work of God. This book was written down by man, and an important facet of our lives as Christians. So then, if this book is God-breathed, who gives it the power to correct and teach? God does, not man.
The Bible is authoritative. This authority goes against society’s expectations because it’s not given by man, but by God. In 2 Peter 1:20-21 it says that “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” We see in scripture that the Bible needs no man’s claim for its authority. This book claims authority for itself through God. This foundation of knowing who gives the Bible the power to instruct mankind is pivotal in our understanding of its inerrancy and infallibility.
The Bible is never wrong. That is what we mean when we say it is inerrant, it is never wrong and will never be wrong. This is because God, our God, is an unchanging rock that stood, and continues to stand, the test of time— that is, eternity. He is the same God He was in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and in the present day. Don’t just take it from me, though, in Psalm 102:27 the Bible clearly states the following about our God: “but you are the same, and your years have no end.” Plainly it is written that the Lord is eternal and unwavering in His consistency. Then again in Malachi 3:6, it states “For I, the Lord, do not change…” The Lord tells us Himself and through those He inspired to write the Bible that “[He] is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
The Bible is truth. It’s plain and simple. It is given authority by the God who has never changed. The Bible is written only by those that were doing the work of God. He breathed the words into existence, but, yes, He used men. This doesn’t hurt the authority or inerrancy of the Bible but gives more glory to Him who made it possible. These truths give us our foundation. We are uncompromising in our decisions when they are based on this truth because we submit to our Father. Our foundation is a rock beneath our feet, if we use it as it was intended.
Next week we will talk more about the Bible as our foundation and explore what that means for our lives. It will investigate the importance of unshakable dependence on our foundation of the Bible. We will talk about the dangers of neutrality. So I want to leave you with these questions:
Do you believe wholeheartedly that the Bible is the infallible word of God? How and in what way does knowing all this change the way you approach the Bible?
Rooted and Redeemed 