Inter-Varsity Press

Contents

Preface
Introduction

Part 1: Receiving God’s words, written for his people, by his Spirit, about his Son
1. Receiving God’s words
2. Written for his people
3. By his Spirit
4. About his Son

Part 2: Receiving God’s words
5. God came down to speak (Exodus 19 – 25)
6. The power of the word of the Lord (Isaiah 55)
7. God’s people receive the law of the Lord (Ezra 7; Nehemiah 8)

Part 3: Receiving God’s words written for his people
8. Loving the law of the Lord (Psalm 1)
9. Understanding God’s words (Matthew 22; Mark 7)
10. Written down for us (1 Corinthians 10; Romans 15)

Part 4: Receiving God’s words written for his people by his Spirit
11. The Scriptures: holy, inspired, useful, and effective (2 Timothy 3 – 4)
12. Moved by the Holy Spirit, they spoke from God (2 Peter 1 – 2)
13. The Spirit and the word of the cross (1 Corinthians 1 – 2)

Part 5: Receiving God’s words written for his people by his Spirit about his Son
14. Everything written about Christ must be fulfilled (Luke 24)
15. The good news promised to our ancestors and now fulfilled in Christ (Acts 13)
16. Receiving God’s words written for his people by his Spirit about his Son (Hebrews)

Part 5: Jesus and the Bible in John’s Gospel
17. God’s words in the Old Testament (John 5)
18. Jesus’ own words and teaching (John 8 and 17)
19. Jesus, the Spirit of truth, and the New Testament (John 14 – 16)
20. Receiving God’s words, written for his people, by his Spirit, about his Son (John)

Extract from PREFACE

This book continues a long-term interest of mine, and follows two other books, Speaking God’s Words (1996) and Hearing God’s Words (2002).

Soon after I was converted to Christ in 1963, I went to study at Melbourne University, and there I met a theological student who had moved away from his earlier conservative views on the Bible, and who was eager to win me from my new-found confidence in Scripture. We engaged in many debates together. So I have been working through the issues of the nature of the Bible for many years. Over that time I have faced many difficulties and problems in understanding the Bible, but in the long term I have gained a greater trust in the Scriptures, and have benefited more and more from them.

I have been privileged in the many opportunities I have had to preach and teach God’s words, and to help to train others for this vital ministry. Working hard to prepare a talk or Bible study has been of great benefit to me. Then my confidence in the Scriptures has also grown as I have seen people and churches transformed by the power of God as they have received and trusted his words in the Bible.

I am glad to be able to say that writing this book has given me greater confidence and trust in God. I continue to learn from God’s holy writings. ...

Peter Adam

Extract from INTRODUCTION

This book develops the theme of the Bible as ‘written for us’ by expounding the summary phrase ‘Receiving God’s words written for his people by his Spirit about his Son’. This is a summary of what the Bible claims about itself, and of how God wants us to use it. This book is not a defence of those ideas, but a summary of them.

It is an important topic to tackle, because many descriptions of the Bible argue from what needs to be the case, or from what we assume to be the case, without a careful study of what the Bible teaches about its own nature. As we should pay attention to what the Bible teaches on other subjects, we should not neglect its teaching on this basic topic.

Even correct theologies of the Bible are often expressed in non-biblical categories, which give the impression that these theologies come from non-biblical sources, and so may more easily be dismissed as culturally determined. They may leave a sense of unease, because an extra-biblical foundation seems to have been introduced, or because a few verses have been milked for meaning, without reference to the wider biblical evidence. While it may seem a curiously circular exercise to try to work out what the Bible says about the Bible, it is in fact an issue of central importance. For it would be foolish to believe of the Bible what it does not claim for itself, implicitly or explicitly.

I have assumed that the Bible has a coherent theology about itself. My defence is that one way to test or prove that idea is to attempt the project, and hope that it is successful!

This book complements two previous books. In Speaking God’s Words, I described a practical theology of preaching, the theology and process of speaking God’s words to others. In Hearing God’s Words, I showed how the Bible functions as a means of spirituality, and how it helps us to understand the nature of good spirituality.

So here is a biblical theology of the Bible, based on the summary phrase, ‘Receiving God’s words written for his people by his Spirit about his Son’. The theology of the Bible depends on the four theological themes of this phrase: a doctrine of receiving God’s verbal revelation (‘Receiving God’s words’), a doctrine of the people of God, or ecclesiology (‘written for his people’), a doctrine of the Holy Spirit, or pneumatology (‘by his Spirit’), and a doctrine of Jesus Christ, or Christology (‘about his Son’). These four doctrines are fundamental to the Bible’s implicit and explicit teaching about itself. I hope this book will help us recognize what a great gift God has given us in the Holy Scriptures, and receive that gift with faith, obedience, and praise to God.

The methodology I have used here is to search the Scriptures to find their answer to the question of their identity and use.

In Part 1 there is an overview of biblical thought on each of the four elements in the phrase ‘Receiving God’s words, written for his people, by his Spirit, about his Son’. In Parts 2–5 we have studies of sections of the Bible which cover these four foundations. In Part 6 we will see how Jesus authenticated the Old Testament and New Testament, and that these four foundations of the doctrine of Scripture are present in his teaching.

The summary phrase is itself composed of words from the Bible. These are not, I hope, taken out of context. We will see many of these sentences and phrases in their own contexts throughout this book, and find in them the theological foundation of what we believe about the Bible.

Receiving God’s words

The author of Proverbs wrote: ‘I looked and received instruction’ (Prov. 24:32).

Jesus said to his Father about his disciples: ‘The words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them’ (John 17:8).

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: ‘you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit’ (1 Thess. 1:6)), and ‘when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word’ (1 Thess. 2:13).

James instructed his readers, ‘Welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls’ (Jas 1:21).

Written for his people

Moses said: ‘Hear, O Israel . . . Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart’ (Deut. 6:4,6).

‘Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD’. ‘(Moses) received living oracles to give to us’ (Exod. 24:4; Acts 7:38).

Paul wrote: ‘These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come’ (1 Cor. 10:11).

Paul wrote: ‘For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the
encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope’ (Rom. 15:4).

By his Spirit

Jesus said: ‘David himself, by the Holy Spirit, declared . . .’ (Mark 12:36).

Jesus said: ‘The Advocate . . . the Spirit of truth . . . will testify on my behalf ’ (John 15:26–27).

The author of Hebrews wrote: ‘Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says . . .’ (Heb. 3:7).

Paul wrote: ‘All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness’ (2 Tim. 3:16).

Peter wrote: ‘Men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God’ (2 Pet. 1:21).

About his Son

Jesus said: ‘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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled’ (Luke 24:44).

Peter said: ‘All the prophets testify about Jesus Christ that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name’ (Acts 10:43).

Peter wrote: ‘Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours made careful search and inquiry, inquiring about the person or time that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated, when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory’ (1 Pet. 1:10–11).

John wrote: ‘But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name’ (John 20:31).

This book comprises a survey of what the Bible teaches about itself, a study of over twenty-four chapters of the Bible, and a survey of Hebrews. I could have considered the topic in the light of historical or systematic theology, but that would have produced a different book. My intention has been to let the Bible speak for itself, so that we may discover what the Bible teaches about the Bible.