God’s Word Guides Us

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AStudying God’s Word

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Studying God’s Word

Introduction

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  Last week we talked about the Trinity using a method of studying the Bible known as inductive Bible study. Can anyone tell me the three basic steps we talked about? It involves observing, interpreting, and applying the text.
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  We will be using this method to look at the Bible passages we will be studying throughout this curriculum, so if you don’t have it down quite yet, we will continue to practice it.
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• Why is the Trinity such an important doctrine for us as Christians? Rightly understanding who God is lays the foundation for our belief in him and our worship of him. If we do not rightly understand the Trinity and apply that knowledge, we run the great risk of not understanding salvation properly. As we saw in 1 John 2:23, if we do not have true fellowship with the Son we do not have fellowship with the Father. The Trinity is a key doctrine that will help us rightly understand God’s works revealed in Scripture.
  We also talked about the doctrine of the Trinity last week. We saw from Scripture that God is One God, yet three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Scripture Came from God

Today our focus is going to shift to the character of the Bible as God’s revelation of himself to us.

We are going to look at several questions: where the Bible came from, how it came to us, and what it is useful for. We will examine several passages of Scripture that will help us answer these questions and assure us of God’s goodness in revealing himself to us in the pages of the Bible.

Let’s read 2 Peter 1:19–21 together to answer the question of where the Bible came from. Assign someone to read the passage.

Now that we have read the text, let’s take some time to observe what it is saying, looking for any ideas that may need to be interpreted. Looking back in this epistle (a letter to a certain audience), we know that the author is the Apostle Peter and that he is writing to his fellow Christians (1:1–4). For context, this epistle is filled with encouragement for a people who were being persecuted by governments and religious leaders and threatened by false teachings. Peter is explaining how he has personally seen Christ, has a desire for the purity of the message he is proclaiming, and wants this message to be preserved for their benefit (1:15–18). Not only that, but Peter clearly describes where the Bible came from—one of the questions we are trying to answer today.

• Who is the “we” in verse 19? This refers to all believers, referring back to his audience in verse 1.
• What does Peter call the readers to “pay attention to” in the passage? The prophetic word

  The prophetic word has been confirmed in the events of Christ’s life and death— the events Peter witnessed.

• What is this prophetic word compared to? It is like a light shining in the darkness

• How does Psalm 119:105 relate to this passage from Peter? The psalmist calls God’s Word a lamp and a light to guide one’s life.
• What word or idea do you see repeated in this passage? Prophecy is repeated three times.
• Knowing that this was an audience in the first century, to what would they equate the references to prophecy? They would have understood this as a reference to the Old Testament writings.
• Who are the men who “spoke from God” Peter refers to? They are prophets from the Old Testament who recorded God’s words.
• What does the word “prophecy” mean? Many may mistakenly believe that prophecy is telling of future events, but it has a much broader meaning of speaking on behalf of God.
• Verse 20 starts with the phrase “knowing this first of all.” Is this intended to be a reference of the message’s order? Not necessarily timing, but a reference to its importance. The NIV translates this phrase as “above all.” “First” can have the sense of timing or of rank. Here it is best interpreted as rank—the most important thing to know.
• In verses 20 and 21, two qualities of the prophecies are given that are not true. What are those two qualities? The prophets did not record their personal ideas about God (private interpretations), and the prophecies were not from their own human will.
• Were men involved in the writing of Scripture? Yes, according to verse 21.
• Was God involved in the writing of Scripture? Yes, according to verse 21.
• What does the passage tell us about the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit was actively involved in the delivery of the prophecies that were spoken and recorded.

Discover the Truth

Now that we have asked questions about the text and interpreted a few of the phrases and words, let’s talk about the main ideas that are communicated. We are trying to answer the question of where the ideas in the Bible came from, and this passage should give us a great starting point to understand the answer.

• If the Holy Spirit was the Bible’s author, would we expect it to contain errors of any sort? Since the Holy Spirit is God and God is perfect, the original proclamations and writings would have had no errors.
• How does this passage answer the question about the source of Scripture? It gives us two sources: holy men and God the Holy Spirit.
• How could we summarize the main point of this passage in a simple phrase? Scripture is not simply a product of man, but given to us by God through men.

  If we think about the Bible in its full scope, it was written by some 40 different authors over a period of roughly 1,600 years. Yet, it contains a consistent message that progressively reveals the truths God has for us and points to the only way of salvation—Jesus and his finished work on the cross. This confirms that this book is indeed the Word of God.

Impossible for God? Activity

The students will be looking at two passages that teach it is impossible for God to lie. Many people think God can do anything, but they really haven’t thought this issue through. God cannot do anything that is inconsistent with his character. They will also see that in any line of reasoning, there must be an absolute standard. Since God has given us the Bible and God cannot lie, what is contained in the Bible must be true.

People often say that you can’t use the Bible to prove the Bible. But, that’s what we just did! We looked inside the Bible for confirmation that the Bible is true. Many would say that this is circular reasoning. I want us to look at two passages of Scripture to help us decide if that is really the case. Take a few minutes to fill out this worksheet in small groups, and we will come back and talk about it in about five minutes. Pass out the worksheets and have the students work in small groups to complete them.

Connect to the Truth

Now that we have gone through the questions on the worksheet, let’s talk about what we found.

• Why is it reasonable for God to swear by himself when we would not accept the same from any of us? Because God is the ultimate standard, he can swear by nothing greater than himself. Man is not greater than God, so man often swears by God or something greater than himself to confirm the sincerity of a pledge.

  Any time we reason, we make claims based on information that has various sources. If I asked you how you know Venus is a planet, you might say because it is called a planet in an encyclopedia. But how do you know the encyclopedia is correct? Ultimately, we must come to a final authority in determining truth. The Bible should be that standard in everyone’s life—it is the very Word of God. That is why it is not unreasonable to use the Bible to support the Bible. We can appeal to no higher standard. Everything that the Bible affirms is truth.

• It is often said that God can do anything, but we must be careful with that claim. What impossibility did you find in the passages we looked at? It is impossible for God to lie.

  It is impossible for God to do anything that is inconsistent with his character. God cannot lie, and we can trust what he has revealed to us. If he could lie, he would cease to be God. This should give us great comfort as we use the Bible to guide our lives.

  We must be careful with this argument: “The Bible is true because it says it is true.” If we stop there, we would be making a vicious circular argument. We need to add another component. The Bible is the Word of God because it says it is and it allows us to make sense of the world. No other system of thought (worldview) provides a consistent, rational explanation for our world. The Bible is true because it says it is, and any other explanation for the universe’s existence is illogical in some sense.

  This concept may be new to many of you. This form of reasoning is called presuppositional apologetics. It is a bit different from the approach most Christians use where they use evidence to build up a case. If you’re a bit confused, don’t worry; we will explore these ideas as we move forward with the lessons.

God’s Word Is Profitable

There is another passage of Scripture that many of you may have been thinking about at various points in this lesson. It affirms that God is the author of Scripture and gives us more detail about how we can use Scripture in our lives.

Let’s read 2 Timothy 3:16–17 together. Have someone read the passage aloud.

I think you can see how this passage parallels what we have been talking about so far.

• What is the main subject of this passage? Scripture.
• What is the source of Scripture according to this passage? God.
• The ESV uses the phrase “breathed out by God” to describe the transmission from God to man. How do other translations describe this? KJV and NKJ: inspiration of God; NIV: God-breathed; NASB: inspired by God.
• What is Scripture profitable for? Teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (other versions will use slightly different words).
• From verse 17, what is the goal of inspired Scripture? Scripture makes every child of God complete—equipped for every good work.
• How does this passage connect to the 2 Peter passage we looked at earlier? Both identify the source of Scripture as God.
• What promise do we find in this passage? We can be complete and equipped by studying and applying Scripture.
• What does the passage tell us about God? He is the source of Scripture.

Discover the Truth

There are two ideas from this text that we are going to examine more closely. Thinking back to our previous lessons, we have talked about a three-step process for understanding Scripture—observe, interpret, and apply. We have just made observations about the passage, and now we are going to interpret the ideas to understand them better. Then, we will be able to apply these truths to our lives.

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  The Greek word that is translated “breathed out by God” is a very important part of understanding the source of Scripture. Does anyone know what that Greek word is? Theopneustos; theo=God, pneustos=breathed out.
• That word literally means “breathed out by God,” so Paul is reminding Timothy that Scripture comes directly from God. Some translations say that the Bible is “inspired.” What does that mean? Allow discussion.
• People often talk of works of art or music as being inspired. Is this the same sense we use when talking about the inspiration of Scripture? No. Artistic inspiration is generally understood to come from within the person. Prophetic inspiration comes from God, who cannot lie and cannot contain anything impure. We might better think of Scripture as expired—coming out of God himself. It is not the writer of Scripture who is inspired, but the original writings (autographs) that are inspired. Technically speaking, it is more accurate to say that the Bible is inspired, not its authors.

  Understanding that God used the prophets to breathe out his words onto the scrolls they were writing on and through the words they proclaimed, Paul moves on to the usefulness of those words and truths. He tells us that every person who is in Christ (the man of God) may be complete through using Scripture to shape his thinking and actions. This is supported by Paul in Romans 8:28–30 when he tells us that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ—the very definition of completeness. (Stop and read this passage if time allows.) Our sanctification, growing in holiness, is bound to our understanding and application of Scripture as well as the Holy Spirit’s work in us.

  So, as we seek to apply the truths of Scripture, we have four distinct ways to accomplish that: doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. These four ideas can provide us with a clear way to look at a section of Scripture and understand how to apply it to our lives—the third step in our Bible study process (hermeneutics).

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  Let’s briefly examine each of these four words to understand the distinctions. The first is teaching. Other translations use the term  doctrine.

  Doctrine is the body of truth laid out in the Old and New Testaments. The understanding of doctrine has become quite unfashionable in the majority of churches, but doctrine is what helps us understand the difference between true and false ideas. If we do not have a grasp on doctrinal truths from Scripture, we will be unable to recognize the false ideas masquerading as truth. The lack of doctrine has led to compromise within the professing church: marrying evolution to the Bible, the profaning of marriage, homosexual clergy, etc.

• The second is reproof. What is meant by reproving or rebuking someone? This means to point out a sinful attitude, action, or thought pattern that is not in line with the truths of Scripture.
• Is it possible to reprove someone in the absence of doctrine? No, there must be a standard of action to be compared to. Right action can come only from right thinking (orthopraxy comes from orthodoxy).

  The third term is correction. Pointing out an error is of little use to someone unless the goal is to make a correction. If we are driving from Alabama toward Canada and you notice the compass in the car says south, you can rebuke me for driving in the wrong direction, but it does neither of us any good in getting to Canada unless you help me correct my mistake. This is one of the important parts of being part of a body of believers in a local church. If someone is off course, we can help correct them. Galatians 6:1 says, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”

  The final idea is training in righteousness. As we mentioned before, the goal of our Christian life is to be conformed to the image of Christ. Scripture provides us instruction for growing in righteousness. The Bible contains positive examples and commands of behavior and thought. Just like we train children by giving them positive examples to follow, Scripture gives us the same—that we “may grow up in all things into him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). The life-changing truths we find in Scripture are evidence that supports the claim that the Bible is from God.

Application

So let’s think about the issues we have talked about so far today and try to solidify them in our minds.

• What is the ultimate source of Scripture and what passages can we use to support this idea? All Scripture is from God: 2 Peter 1:19–21 and 2 Timothy 3:16.
• How were the Scriptures delivered to us? Through men/prophets guided by the Holy Spirit.
• Why can we trust the Scriptures? They are given by God, and God cannot lie.
• According to 2 Timothy 3:16–17, in what four areas is the Bible useful? Teaching (doctrine), reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.
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  None of this head knowledge matters if we don’t intentionally put it into practice. We can observe and interpret the text, but we cannot be conformed into Christ’s image if we don’t apply it to our lives, cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
• It is likely that you know people who doubt the truth of the Bible. They might say things like, “We can’t trust the Bible; it was simply written by men.” How would you go about discussing this idea with them? Hopefully, the students will talk about using Scripture to explain the origin of the Bible to a skeptic. However, many have been trained to pile up evidences and leave the truths of Scripture out of the discussion. The next question may be helpful to draw out this idea.
• Is it wise to leave the Bible out of the discussion about the authority of the Bible? No, it is the only source of truth that we can ultimately appeal to. Setting the Bible aside is like a soldier setting his weapon aside when entering battle.

  We can use evidence in many valuable ways to support the claims of the Bible, but we can never have the attitude that piles of evidence can prove that the Bible is true. If the evidence proves the Bible, then the evidence becomes the ultimate standard, not the Bible. If you have never thought about demonstrating truths in the Bible that way, I would encourage you to pray and meditate on that this week.

• As we look to apply the four uses of Scripture we discussed, let’s think about your personal devotion time or family Scripture reading. How could you put these four guiding principles into practice? After reading a passage and understanding the main ideas, ask yourself, or your family, the following questions: What fundamental teachings have I learned (doctrine)? Where do I fall short of any commands given in the passage (reproof)? What can I do about my errors (correction)? What steps can I take or imitate from the passage in order to make this teaching a consistent part of my life (instruction in righteousness)?

  All of these are practical ways that we can put the ideas from the text we have studied into practice. I sincerely hope that this has energized you to think about God’s Word as the absolute standard we should look to in our lives. It promises that we can be complete by studying it and applying it to our lives—and we can trust that promise because it comes from the God who cannot lie.

Group Prayer

Be sure to pray with your class before you dismiss them.

• Praise God for his faithfulness.
• Ask for understanding of the passages and how to put them into practice.
• Thank God for giving us his Word and for guiding us into all truth.