I frequently see arguments that run along the following lines. The Bible isn’t God’s Word, Jesus is. Therefore, we should prioritise the words and actions of Jesus over the rest of the Bible. The bible never claims to be God’s Word or inerrant, so we should not make those claims for it.
First of all, notice that such arguments rely on a false dichotomy. Is it not possible for both Scripture and Jesus to be, at the same time, the Word of God? To help us think through that, we should consider why we describe Jesus as “The Word of God”. The terminology comes from John 1:1 which refers to the word being with God at the beginning and not only that but being God. Then in v12, John tells us that:
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
This makes it clear that the reference is to Jesus. So much for those who claim that at no time does the Bible tell us that Jesus is God/ The point is that Jesus is God’s revelation. He reveals God’s nature, righteousness and salvation to us. However, it’s also important to remember that for John to be able to talk about Jesus in this way, he needed a starting point, there needed to be a common point of understanding between his readers and the language he used. How did they know what John meant when he described Jesus as “The Logos”? There has been a tendency to presume that John was drawing on Greek philosophy. However, the idea is rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures.
In the Psalms, we see frequent reference to God’s Word. It’s something that the righteous, blessed person meditates on. Then in Psalm 119 we are told that God’s Word is like a lamp and path, guiding us. Context indicates that this is a reference to Torah and indeed, literally, the Ten Commandments are described as Ten Words.
So, when John’s first readers heard Jesus referred to as “The Word”, there will have instinctively thought in terms of Torah and indeed, the whole of known Scripture, of the Law and the Prophets. Jesus, like the Scripture they had, brought revelation to them. This links to the way in which Jesus is identified as the fulfilment of the Law. Jesus is the true and better Law and Prophets, the true and better revelation, the true and better Word.
However, this does not negate from the fact that the whole of Scripture remains God’s Word. It’s his revelation to us. Paul in 2 Timonthy 3:16 tells us that is “God breathed” or inspired by him. Scripture is therefore reliable, useful and sufficient. It’s those things because God himself speaks through it. In fact, we can say that Jesus speaks it. Scripture is a written word from the living Word which points us to him. It’s because it is God’s Word that we talk about it as infallible and without error, his words reflect his character, they are true and authoritative.
Usually, those who want to deny Scripture’s status as the Word of God are seeking to undermine something that it has to say. They want to place Scripture in conflict with Jesus but all that we know about Jesus comes from Scripture, if it is not true and reliable revelation then how can we make reliable claims about Jesus? Further, Jesus himself treated Scripture as God’s authoritative Word. To downplay the place of Scripture is to go against the revelation of Jesus.
If we want to respect Jesus as God’s living Word, then we need to respect and heed Scripture as his written word.
Faithroots 