God is always correct

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16 ESV)

When we ponder the inerrancy of scripture, we find assurance in the perfection of God. His omniscience, inability to lie, and sinless perfection affirm the flawless nature of His word, providing us with a reliable foundation for our faith.

Consider the awe-inspiring fulfillment of some three hundred messianic prophesies in Christ. These prophetic words, given to the prophets by God and transcribed into the Bible, were brought to fruition through the incarnation. This miraculous fulfillment adds significant weight to the Bible's inerrancy, inspiring awe and wonder in us.

Let us look a little deeper. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, where Satan tempted him. Jesus, at one point, answered Satan’s temptation by saying, “But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4 ESV) Jesus, quoting scripture that tells us we are to live and die by the Word of God, used that very scripture to dismiss the temptations before Him.

Luke wrote, “Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,  and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:44-53 ESV). Jesus clarified to the apostles that scripture is always and must be fulfilled. Jesus is making a point that reveals the inerrancy of the Bible and that Christ's intimacy with the Bible exists because they are God’s words and Jesus is God.

I want to be intimate with the Bible. I live for and in scripture. Every person who writes for this ministry reads the Bible every day. For every question I encounter in my life, I turn to Scripture for the answer, and it is there. I believe in the infallible word of God. I hope that you want that intimacy as well.

The depth of Jesus’s intimacy with the Bible is most amazingly evident on the cross. After hours and hours of beatings and taunting, Jesus, bleeding on the cross, dying, said,  “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” (John 19:28 ESV) Dying on the cross, Jesus spoke the words “I thirst” to fulfill the scripture in Psalm 22:15. In this Psalm, David describes his dehydration and thirst as he faces his enemies. David felt abandoned by God. However, theologians also see this as a predictor of the suffering of Christ.   

What overwhelms me the most about this scripture is that Jesus, knowing Psalm 22 while on the cross and dying, was so committed, intimate with, and devoted to the fulfillment of scripture that, near death, Jesus spoke those words so that scripture would be fulfilled. This is staggering when you think about it.

Scripture is inerrant. Scripture does not contradict itself, and anyone who claims it does has never sat down to read the Bible as something other than literature. The Bible is not literature. It is historical documentation of God and God’s people that documents the work of God in creating and creation, which culminates with the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, who died so that sin and death would be defeated. Salvation would become available for those who have faith in Christ. This documentation comes directly from God and was transposed by human authors. It is God’s breathed words. Have you read them lately?

Grace and Peace.