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The Supremacy of Scripture
The genre of Christian literature encompasses a wide range of book titles, topics, and subgenres, including fictional love stories, financial guides, diet and exercise plans, and leadership. We can be helped by books written by Christian authors when based on a biblical model.
The genre of Christian literature encompasses a wide range of book titles, topics, and subgenres, including fictional love stories, financial guides, diet and exercise plans, and leadership. We can be helped by books written by Christian authors when based on a biblical model.
Regardless of how well books are written or how gifted the author, the words on the page are not infallible. It is good and right to read all books with a skeptical eye, expecting the author to back up conjecture with well-reasoned logic and thinking. The author may be inspired, but the ideas he or she communicates are not infallible.
It is impossible to separate influence from the writer’s pen. The life of the reader is changed by the words they read and internalize. The style may be poetic or it may tell a story, but regardless of the form the words take, readers are shaped by what they read. Ideology travels on the wings of paragraphs and sentences.
The Bible is the Spirit of God in writing. This unique quality of Scripture is what makes it infallible. The apostle Paul said all Scripture is “breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16).[1] This gives us insight into the relationship between the Word of God and the Spirit of God. When the Spirit of God was given in Acts 2, the Bible says there was “a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind” (v. 2), and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 4). The word the translators interpreted as Spirit comes from the Greek word pneuma, meaning “the breathing out of air.”[2] Jesus used the word pneuma for both “wind” and “Spirit” when he told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
The fundamental nature of God is that he is Spirit. The Holy Spirit fell upon people with the promise that his presence is for everyone (Acts 2:39). His Spirit moving upon men is also what produced the Scriptures. The Bible is not just good literature or motivational monologue. It is the Holy Spirit in a book, God-breathed words that will transform every life. The apostle Peter writes,
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. (2 Peter 1:20–21)
The Holy Spirit moved and produced the Bible through the pen and parchment of holy men. Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). His Word is the vehicle through which his Spirit travels. The Word of God and the Spirit of God are beautifully intertwined and often indistinguishable.
This is the reason the Bible is supreme over all other writings. It has intrinsic value built into its origin. It is God himself in a book. Everything the Bible declares is true and right and just, and anything ever spoken or written must align with Scripture if we are to consider it truth. It is a book full of inexhaustible revelation. We spend a lifetime reading the same Scriptures repeatedly and never exhaust their revelation declaring the glory of God. There is no limit to the depth of the glory and grace of Jesus Christ.
We know the Scriptures are true because our obedience to them is authenticated by a life full of faith and joy. As we read the Scriptures and allow them to become part of us, they earn our trust. The Savior we find in the Bible is the same God we encounter in prayer and in our daily walk. We read the story of redemption and it harmonizes with the story of our own redemption through Jesus Christ. His faithfulness throughout the Scriptures is consistent with his faithfulness to us. The Word of God is alive, self-revealing, and self-authenticating.
[1] The Greek word the apostle penned was theopneustos. It is the only time this word is used in the New Testament. It is a combination of the word theos (meaning God) and a derivative of the word pneo (meaning breathe or breeze).
[2] Walter Bauer et al., eds., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., ed. Frederick William Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 832.
Be a Doer of the Word of God
The Sermon on the Mount is the title given to the teachings of Jesus found in Matthew 5–7. These three chapters are rich with theological insight into how Christians ought to live and treat each other. Jesus closes the sermon with these words:
The Sermon on the Mount is the title given to the teachings of Jesus found in Matthew 5–7. These three chapters are rich with theological insight into how Christians ought to live and treat each other. Jesus closes the sermon with these words:
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:24–27)
The difference between being labeled wise or foolish by Jesus is determined by what you do with his words. Both men who built their houses had heard the Word. The wise man took it a step further. He did what Jesus said to do. Again, it goes back to submission and obedience. The doer of the Word obeyed what he heard. This is what today’s churches need—doers of the Word. We need men, women, boys, and girls, who will leave the worship service ready to put into action the truth communicated to them through preaching. Our world needs people who read the Bible with a prayerful heart, pondering the things of God, allowing the Word to transform them. This is real-time transformation. Jesus confirms this is what separates the wise from the foolish.
The rewards and consequences of Jesus deeming us wise or foolish cannot be overlooked nor overstated. Both the wise and the foolish man faced the storm. The rains came, the winds blew, and the house shook in both of their lives. However, the difference was the damage assessment after the storm. Only the man who acted on the Word of God still had his home intact. The foolish man’s house fell, and in what are some of the most sobering words in the Bible, Jesus said “and great was the fall of it.” Everyone knew the house fell. Its destruction was swift and complete. The difference in whether your house will stand or fall has nothing to do with your personality, your background, your talent, your spouse, or even God’s anointing on your life. The determining factor, according to Jesus, is whether you do what he says to do.
The overarching question to determine whether we are submitted to his Word is this: Does the way we live our lives every day confirm what we believe theologically? In other words, could a person who does not know us observe the life we lead during the week and come away with a basic framework of what we believe about God? The answer to these questions will give you insight into where you are in your relationship with Jesus Christ, how submitted you are to his Word, and to what extent the idolatry of “self” is determining your values.
Submitted to the Word of God
What is the catalyst that causes our theology to affect our actions? How can our behavior align with our beliefs? Ultimately, it is an issue of surrender and submission. The man or woman who wants to please God must submit to God and his Word. Our carnal nature must die.
What is the catalyst that causes our theology to affect our actions? How can our behavior align with our beliefs? Ultimately, it is an issue of surrender and submission. The man or woman who wants to please God must submit to God and his Word. Our carnal nature must die.
The cross once again appears on the horizon as the instrument by which we can live according to God’s Word, except this time it is not the cross of Calvary. It is our cross. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Those who heard Jesus speak these words knew what he meant. In their culture, the cross was the typical instrument of execution, which they would have witnessed many times. The ruling government’s primary method of capital punishment was crucifixion. Criminals died gruesome, brutal deaths upon the crude wooden cross. Vulgar and revolting, the cross imagery was what Jesus brought into the minds of those around him when he called for people to take up a cross and follow him.
The next verse in Luke 9 is even more telling, when Jesus instructs the people to put themselves on the cross every day. He states, “Whosoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (v. 24). The only path to true living is to die to self. The apostle Paul understood this principle when he writes to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Paul was a walking dead man. He died to his desires on a road to Damascus and lived his life from that point with singleness of purpose.
Jesus commanded we take up a cross and die daily, and Paul obeyed this command. “I die every day” was the apostle’s simple declaration (1 Corinthians 15:31). Paul’s success was not a product of his talent or education. It was his unbridled obedience and submission to God and his Word.