Digging for Biblical Gold

What Does the Bible Say About the Bible

BY MIMI GREENWOOD KNIGHT

I’ve often heard it said that the best way to study the Bible is to study it with the aim of teaching. That’s certainly true for me. As I dig into the lesson I’ll present to my second graders each Sunday, looking for correlations I can show them between the Bible story and the lives we’re living today, God often speaks to me as clearly as He does to my students.

Case in point — one week, I was teaching the kids about Noah’s ark. With a passage like this, it’s tempting to assume there’s nothing left for me to learn. I’ve heard this story since I was three. Ah, but this is no ordinary book. Hebrews 4:12 tells us, “The word of God is alive and active.” I firmly believe you could read the same passage in Scripture every day for the rest of your life, and God could reveal something different each time.

That morning, as I read about God’s precise instructions to Noah and Noah’s unwavering obedience, I wondered — not for the first time — how Noah was able to gather all those animals to populate his ark. I’d always pictured him traveling to the ends of the earth, gathering “seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate” (Genesis 7:2). But that day I realized Noah didn’t have to search them out and capture them. God simply told Noah to “bring them into the ark.” He supplied the animals Himself. Maybe everybody else already knew that, but it was an ah-ha moment for this Sunday teacher as I studied a story I’d heard for five decades, and God made it brand new for me. The Bible is a book like no other. Just look at some of what the Bible says about the Bible.

It’s True

The Bible isn’t a book where you can pick and choose what to believe. All of it is true (Proverbs 30:5) because all of it is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). It is pure like refined silver (Psalm 12:6). It cannot be broken (John 10:35). And it is firmly fixed in the heavens (Psalm 119:89). In fact, Isaiah 40:8 promises, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever.”

The Bible isn’t a book where you can pick and choose what to believe. All of it is true (Proverbs 30:5) because all of it is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). It is pure like refined silver (Psalm 12:6). It cannot be broken (John 10:35). And it is firmly fixed in the heavens (Psalm 119:89). In fact, Isaiah 40:8 promises, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever.”

It’s Inspired

Although God wrote His Bible through men, He is the author. They are His words and His precepts, recorded by 40 obedient men. 2 Timothy 3:16–17 tells us clearly, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Peter 1:20–21 takes that idea further: “No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

It’s Powerful

God’s Word is like fire and like a hammer that breaks rock (Jeremiah 23:29). It sanctifies us in truth (John 17:17). It is “the power of God for salvation unto anyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). It has the power to convict us (1 Thessalonians 1:5). It does not return to God void (Isaiah 55:11). And it has the power to renew our minds (Romans 12:2).

It’s Sufficient

2 Peter 1:3 tells us God has given us “everything we need for a godly life” through the knowledge available in His Word. And in 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul reiterates that through the Bible we can be “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” I particularly love Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

It’s Christ-centered

One trick question any graduate of my Sunday school class can answer is, “What part of the Bible talks about Jesus?” They’re quick to respond, “ALL of it!” As our pastor says, there’s a scarlet thread running through the entirety of Scripture. The Old Testament outlines our need for and God’s promise of a Savior. In the New Testament, Jesus shows up, lives a perfect life as our example, dies a sacrificial death for our forgiveness, and rises from the dead for our ultimate resurrection. In John 5:39, He tells the Pharisees, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.” It’s all about Jesus! Therefore, let the words of the Bible be “a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path” (Psalm 119:105). Store it up in your heart, that you might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). Let it nourish you (Matthew 4:4). And let it be your spirit and life (John 6:63).