There is no other book in the world like the Bible. Or
rather I should say books (plural). The Bible is a compendium of 66 separate
books written at different times and by different people in different cultures
over about 2 thousand years.
They include lots of different genres; Law, history,
prophesy, apocalyptic, wisdom, poetry, gospels, letters, and they need to be
understood both individually and with reference to each other.
What are they? They are a record of God’s dealings with
creation, especially humanity, from the very begginning in the Garden of Eden, a
relationship which goes wrong, is eventually restored through Jesus Christ and then
looks forward to the re-creation of a renewed humanity in a new heaven and a
new earth in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. It is the
story of our past, our present and our future
Christians have always regarded the scriptures as inspired
by God. Or “God breathed” as the scriptures themselves say.
That doesn’t make them dictated by the hand of God but they
are “inspired”. Because even the most arcane piece of scripture from the
dullest of history books is inspired, any piece of scripture innately carries
within it the capacity to inspire, to comfort, challenge or to give voice to
our suffering and lament. God is woven into and through the text, so giving us
the possibility to connect with God
Here is how Paul describes that facet of the scriptures in 2
Timothy 3:15-17
“and how from childhood you have been acquainted
with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All
Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness,17 that the
man of God[a] may be
competent, equipped for every good work.”
Christians use it habitually as a record of the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ as God’s plan
to fulfil his promise to humanity not to leave us dangling without hope,
without a future but as our rescuer – usually called our saviour or our
redeemer. He promises us eternal life in a glorious future.
Jesus is God’s rescue plan for creation. A rescue which was
prophesied in many places and our first reading today is one such prophesy in Isaiah.
Our gospel reading records that Jesus himself recognised another prophesy was
referring to himself when he read from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue
and declared that “This prophesy is fulfilled in your hearing”. The story of
how that life and death and resurrection came about and the consequences
resulting from that event are recorded in the gospels and letters and our third
reading records one such outworking.
The Bible is our authority because Jesus regarded it as his
authority and over time it has proved its worth and usefulness.
The Bible is unique and even in these godless times you may
be surprised to know that it is the world’s bestselling book every year.
We all have our favourite bits of scripture from the 23rd
psalm to John 1 at Christmas perhaps to Romans 8:38-39 to Revelation. The Psalms
are an extraordinary resource expressing every human emotion.
John 3:16 is one of the best known summaries of the
Christian faith
“God so loved the world that He gave his only son, that
whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life”
These, and many like it are words containing life which can
inspire us to great things; As a Christian teacher I could do no better thing
than lead anyone to the Bible.
We take the Bible seriously because the Bible takes us
seriously. It takes our need of a permanent loving relationship seriously, our
need for love, mercy and forgiveness seriously.
So as this is Bible Sunday I’ll end with these immortal
words from Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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