God’s Very Own Words
God's very own words.
Theologians and ministers that have preached that the Bible doesn't contain the words of God have done great damage to the Body of Christ. In their preaching they have so concentrated on the human agents that God used to express Himself that His Word is reduced to faithless opinion or mediocre self-help. So, instead of being inspired and endowed with a possessive faith, the congregants of these preachers are left to ponder irrelevant historical intricacies of the prophets and the apostles.
We see the effects of this in Nazareth, Jesus' hometown. Jesus came to Nazareth after having performed demonstrative miracles in Capernaum. He went into the synagogue and stood to read Isaiah.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
He closed the book and sat down. As everyone was staring at him, he said, "Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears." Instead of receiving these words as God's revelation about him, they looked at him through the prism of natural facts. "Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't he Joseph's son? Didn't we see him grow up with our kids?" And they took offense, and failed to receive from God as a result. The Word tells us Jesus wasn't able to perform any great miracles there even though he had been anointed with the Spirit without measure.
God deems the words in the Bible to be His own without regard to the human agent or instrumentality. In 2 Peter 1:20, 21 we read "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." God demonstrates here that the Word has just one author, and no single scripture is considered more inspired than any other. The words in black are just as God-breathed as the ones in red. The historical facts of the prophets and apostles have no bearing on the level of inspiration.
All scripture is God-breathed. (2 Timothy 3:16)
God expresses his authorship in several passages. Take Acts 1: 15, 16, for instance.
And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty), Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
While the contemporary sermon might dissect the passage with references to the historical circumstances surrounding the psalm or the throes of David's life at that time, God cuts through the chase and bluntly states that the words are his. David is a mouthpiece. The same is true for Hebrews 10:15-17.
And the Holy Ghost also beareth witness to us: for after he hath said, This is the covenant that I will make with them. After those days saith the Lord; I will put my laws on their heart, And upon their mind also will I write them: And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
The prophet here is Jeremiah, but the Holy Ghost is slated as the speaker.
In the gospels, we see that Jesus never questioned the authenticity of God's voice in scripture. In answering the Pharisees' questions about their man-made traditions, he cites Exodus 20:12 as a direct commandment of God. In Mark 12:36, he cites Psalm 110 as the first-person voice of the Holy Ghost. He never intimates that any passage of scripture was something less than the untainted words of God himself.
Esteeming the Word as the inspired words of God is the basis for real faith. For healing, God has spoken plainly that He has made provision for it in our redemption. In Isaiah 53:5, we read: "Himself bore our sicknesses and carried our pains" (Greek Literal). In 1 Peter 2:24, he demonstrates that the bruising or crushing of Jesus on the cross met all requirements for our physical healing. In Galatians 3:13, the Holy Ghost testifies that Jesus was made a curse for us so that we need not bare the outworkings of sin.
The believer must know that these scriptures are not man's opinions, but are genuinely the revelation of God himself. Once he understands that the scriptures will come alive and soon dominate his soul consciousness. And when that happens, it's only a matter of time before the manifestation of that revelation comes to pass in the believer's life.
