What is God's Word?

Hello and welcome back to our Reform Rookie Video Doctrine Series on Reform Theology. In our last two lessons we learned what the word

Theology means and how Reform Theology is centered on God. In this lesson we'll learn where we learn about this

God, in God's Word. So in today's lesson we'll answer the question, what is

God's Word? God's Word, what is it?

God's Word is known as the Scriptures. The Scriptures are comprised of the 66 books of the

Bible. The Old Testament contains 39 and the New Testament contains 27.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith says, The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

Reform Theology teaches that God's Word is inspired, infallible, inerrant, and sufficient.

So we'll start with the word Inspired. What does Inspired mean? Inspiration.

The various books of the Bible have their origin in the will of God. The books of the Bible have been breathed forth by God the

Holy Spirit through the agency of human writers. They are literally theopneustos, breathed out by God.

What is Infallible? Infallible means that the Scriptures are incapable of teaching any error.

Taken in itself, this is a term that strongly presents the perfection of Scripture. The prophets and apostles not only did not err, they could not err when writing the

Scriptures. So now let's talk about Inerrancy. Inerrancy means that the

Bible is without error. Where Infallibility describes ability or potential of error,

Inerrancy describes actuality. Infallibility says the Scriptures cannot err, and Inerrancy says the

Scripture does not err. Finally, let's talk about Sufficiency. The Bible reveals everything that God wants us to know about His will and how to be saved from His wrath.

It contains everything needed for life and godliness. It is the sole, infallible authority for the

Christian. It is sufficient in that it teaches us everything we need to know for life and godliness in Christ Jesus.

So where is it in God's Word? Remember the three questions? What is it? Where is it?

And why does it matter? Now we're going to answer where is this revealed to us in the Scriptures. First, in 2

Timothy 3 .16, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

This was penned by the Apostle Paul. Peter would say in 2 Peter 1 .19

-21, And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention to as a lamp shining in a dark place.

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. So both the Apostle Paul and Peter taught this. They taught that Scripture was breathed out by God and was divine in nature, not a product of man's will or intellect.

We also know that Jesus Himself says this. He says Scripture comes from the mouth of God in Matthew 4 .4.

He says Scripture cannot be broken in John 10 .35. And finally, He says that it is

God's truth in John 17 .17. Jesus Himself taught that the

Scriptures were inspired, infallible, and inerrant. He would later say to His disciples that the

Holy Spirit will come and teach them all things and remind them of all that Jesus taught them.

In John 16 .13, Jesus says, When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever

He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. God's word comes from God and not man.

So why does this matter? This became the reason for the Reformation, also known as the material cause.

It was the sufficiency of Scripture and its authority over mankind that was the cause of the

Reformation. At the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church had come to believe in two co -equal sources of authority in the

Church, Scripture and Tradition. Since the Pope had ultimate say on how these two authorities were interpreted,

Rome eventually came to speak of the Church as giving birth to the Scriptures. The Roman Catholic Church would later affirm three sources of authority,

Scripture, Holy Tradition, and the teaching magisterium of the Church. But the

Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth. The Church should hold up Scripture as the authority, and everyone should be subject to it, not the other way around.

This has serious consequences on us as Christians. The Protestant Reformers, on the other hand, spoke of the word of God, which was written as Scripture, as giving birth, form, and shape to the

Church. Martin Luther spoke colorfully when he said, "...the Scripture is the womb from which are born the divine truth and the

Church." The early Swiss Reformation document, the Ten Theses of Bern in 1528, opened with these words, "...the

holy Catholic Church, whose sole head is Christ, has been begotten from the word of God, in which it also continues, nor does it listen to the voice of any stranger."

After all, the Scriptures say that the Church is built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Ephesians 2 .20,

not the other way around. This continues to matter, because in response to Rome's view of two authorities,

Scripture and Tradition, the Reformers coined the slogan, Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone.

They insisted that the word of God is the ultimate authority in the Church, because of the word's own insistence that this is true.

We see this authority in Scripture's repeated calls for man to honor the word of God by neither adding to it, nor taking away from it.

What we need to keep in mind is that Sola Scriptura is not Solo Scriptura. Although Scripture is the ultimate authority for the

Christian, it is not the only authority for the Christian, because God is appointed in the Church, First Apostles, Second Prophets, and Third Teachers.

However, the only authority that can't err is the Scriptures. That's why they're the ultimate authority, and that's why we refer to them and them alone when it comes to matters of the

Christian worldview. Men can and do err. So, although God has set up other authorities in the

Church for us to learn by, the ultimate authority that we know cannot err is the

Scriptures, because they are God -breathed. So let's summarize the lesson. The Scriptures are infallible, inspired, inerrant, and sufficient for our faith.

Jesus and the Scriptures themselves testify to that fact. They're the sole infallible authority for the

Church, where the Scriptures cannot err, men can and do err. In fact, the

Scriptures gave birth to the Church, not the other way around. This became the material cause for the

Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church taught that men were an authority, the ultimate authority, whereas the

Reformers saw that the Scriptures were the ultimate authority because they were God -breathed and could not err.

The Roman Catholic Church affirms three sources of authority. We affirm only one infallible authority.

The Reformers coined the slogan, Sola Scriptura, to affirm the ultimate and infallible authority of the

Scriptures alone. Friends, thanks again for joining us on the Reform Rookie Video Doctrine Series.

Please look us up at the web at www .reformrookie .com. There we have a rookie blog where we put up weekly blogs about all things pertaining to Reform Theology.

Please be sure to also listen to our podcast where we interview Reform pastors and teachers to bring us more insight into the doctrines of Reform Theology.

Well friends, thanks again for joining us on the Reform Rookie Video Doctrine Series. We look forward to seeing you next time.