Scripture: Isaiah 41:10, 1 Peter 1:21, Romans 6:23
What Exactly Is the Bible?
What exactly is the Bible? I’m standing here today in Washington, D.C. in the Museum of the Bible, which, in case you don’t know, is a stunning combination of ancient manuscripts of the Bible, ancient texts and really modern technology to help us engage with this book better than ever. If you’re ever in Washington, D.C. you need to stop at The Museum of the Bible.
But while I’m here, I just want to ask a really basic and really fundamental and life-changing question, what is it? If I forced you to finish this sentence, the Bible is… How would you finish it? Lots of us don’t think about that question, but it is essential to figure out the impact that the Bible will have on our life.
Four Ways People Answer That Question
Some people, for example, say that the Bible is a book written by men that had an agenda. Have you heard this before? Maybe you’re a person who believes it. Religion is incredibly powerful when it comes to controlling peoples’ decisions and maybe that’s where the Bible came from. People came up with this idea of God so they could get the attention, the respect, the power, the money. Do you believe that?
Other people would say, “No. Yeah, the Bible was written by men but they didn’t have some nefarious agenda, they were just well-meaning people expressing their spiritual ideas about God.” And so, they talk about God and Heaven, they coped with pain, suffering, and death with the words of this book.
Still, other people would say, “You know what? Actually, the Bible’s more than that. It’s not just a book written by men; it is a holy book.” In these pages are evidences of God himself, some supernatural divine wisdom. That’s why the Bible has stood the test of time. Like other holy books, the Quran, or the book of Mormon. There’s something about it that sets it above the average works of men and women.
And still other people, many Christian people, would say, “Actually, the Bible is even more than that. It’s not just a holy book; it is The Holy book.” Doesn’t just contain some wisdom from God, this book, from cover to cover, is the wisdom of God. Every page, every passage, every chapter, every verse, it came from the heart and the mind of God. It’s the inspired, never wrong word of God himself.
So, I’m curious, what do you think? Is the Bible a book written by men, or does it actually come from God? Does it contain the truth of God or is it the truth of God? Your answer to that question has the hugest impact on your life.
When Life Gets Hard, What You Believe About the Bible Matters
Now, let me give you a few examples. Imagine you’re going through one of those really difficult moments in life. You’re sitting in the doctor’s office, and your doctor drops the “C” word. “You have cancer. You have six months,” the doctor says. Or you come home and, you know, life is busy and the kids are crazy, and you think you’re getting by until your spouse has that look in his eye. He’s not sure if he wants to be married anymore. You’re excited to start a family except you were carrying a baby and now you’re not. You join the list of many heartbroken people who’ve been through a miscarriage. You have a child who’s wandering from what you know is good and right, abandoning your family’s values to go their own way.
You’re going through one of those really difficult moments that most of us go through sooner or later in life, and so, you grab a Bible and you open to a page, well, like this one. Where it says, “God says, ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand'” (Isaiah 41:10). There’s so much comfort in those words, isn’t there? God’s saying, “I’m going to help you, I’m going to strengthen you. You don’t think you have the strength to get through this? Most people don’t, but I’m going to be right there with you. Don’t panic, don’t be afraid, don’t give in, because I am your God and I will help you with my righteous right hand.”
But wait, wait, wait. Here’s the question, what is the Bible? Those words of comfort that I just read to you, was that just the words that some dude came up with 2,700 years ago in the days of Isaiah? Is it just someone trying to make you feel good with their opinion, their guesses, about God and spiritual things? Or, is that actually God trying to communicate with you here and now in this situation? You see, the comfort of the Bible depends so much on what this book is. Does it come from men, or does it come from God?
Or we’re trying to figure out, you know, this really hot topic issues of the day. What do we believe, where do we stand? People are divided. Two camps, here and here. Let’s say one of these issues becomes personal for you. When questions of sexuality and gender and orientation aren’t just something that you see online, it’s something in your family, maybe even in your own heart. And you feel that same sex attraction, your child comes out as gay, what do you say? Or you’re married and, you know, he didn’t cheat, or she wasn’t abusive, but you’re just not as happy as you want to be. Do you have the right to go or should you stay together? What’s the right thing to do?
There’re so many different situations, you know, our heart feels and we would kind of prefer and — And so, we open our Bible to a passage like this one, from the book of Proverbs. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Now, the Bible’s saying, “Don’t follow your heart. Don’t trust your gut. No, trust in God. Submit to him in everything that you do.”
But, before you let this book judge you, the question is, what is this book? Is it just some 3,000-year-old guy sharing some thoughts in these pages, or is this actually God saying, “Hey, don’t give in to what’s easy, what you feel is right. No, look to me, look to these pages to find out what’s right. Then you’ll know exactly what to do.”
Let’s imagine you really mess up. I mean, it’s not just, “I am human, I’m imperfect.” Like, you do something and you just see how you’ve hurt people, and you know that you’ve hurt your relationship with God. In the moments when things weren’t going your way, when you lost control and the frustration and the stress like you — You said something and you just saw the look on their face and you know it’s bad. How do you cope with that? When you feel real conviction, and guilt, and shame. When there’s no rewind button on life to make a better choice, what do you do?
A friend sees you down low and they send you this incredible passage from the book of Romans, “The wages of sin is death,” yeah, sin is bad, but the passage says, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). There’s a gift from God. Jesus came to give you the gift of forgiveness, to take that away, to erase that mistake that you’ve made, that sin that you’ve committed. It’s beautiful, right? The message of salvation.
But it brings us back to the question, but what was this? Just a guy writing 2,000 years ago who is as right and as wrong as most people are, or is this actually God who’s always right, and he’s never wrong? Do you see what I’m saying? The comfort of the Bible, when we’re going through something difficult. The guidance of the Bible, when we’re figuring out a difficult subject. Dealing with sin and shame and guilt, what do we do? It always comes back to this. What exactly is the Bible?
What Would We Find in the Ancient Scrolls?
I’m here at Nazareth. Well, obviously not the real Nazareth, this is called The World of Jesus of Nazareth here at the Museum of the Bible. It’s an amazing reconstruction of what life might have looked like for Jesus as he lived in that little village called Nazareth. You can see olive trees, wine presses, a painting of the Sea of Galilee.
But we’re here today because we want to answer that big question, what is the Bible? If we could go back in time 2,000 years to the days of Jesus, even further to the days of Moses, what would we have found in that book? The words of men or something more, the very words of God? That’s why I want to take you in here, a reconstruction of an ancient synagogue. Let’s think about these ancient texts and where they came from. Follow me inside.
We’re trying to answer that really big fundamental question here in the synagogue of Nazareth. And thankfully, we have some scrolls to look at. Imagine if we could zip back in time, not just 10 or 20 years, not just 100 or 200, but 2,000 years to the days of Jesus. Imagine if we pulled out an ancient scroll in an ancient synagogue and opened and read its words. What would we find here? And what if the scroll wasn’t a copy, but it was the original one that Isaiah wrote, or Micah wrote, or Jeremiah, or Moses, what would those words actually be?
Peter’s Answer: God Speaking Through Men
Here’s the big question we’re wrestling with, what is the authorship and origin of the Bible? Is it simply a book from men or is it something more, a book from God? When Jesus’ friend, Peter, thought about that question he had a very clear answer.
“Above all, you must understand that 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.” — 1 Peter 1:20–21
Those are perspective, life-changing words. Did you catch what they meant? Peter said, “Above all,” There’s a lot of important things you should know, this one is more important than the rest of them. “Above all, you must understand,” Not, “It’d be nice if you would understand.” No, you have to understand this if you’re going to live life right and find blessing in the life to come. “You must understand that no prophecy of scripture,” Not a single scroll, not a single line, not a single word of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. This never really came from Moses’ heart, or David’s heart, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Micah’s heart, no.
Okay, then where did the Bible come from? Here’s what he says, “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.” Oh yeah, they spoke, and yes, they were human, but they — It wasn’t just that, they were speaking from God. It’s as if God had sent them an email and they just forwarded it to humanity. God had written a letter to our world, put it in their mailbox and they passed it on so all of us could read.
These words answer the question, “Prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” And what Peter says here is exactly what the Apostle Paul says in a passage we recently studied. He said, “All scripture is God-breathed.” It’s actually what makes it so useful. It’s, like, breathed out from the very heart of God, which is why some Christians say that the Bible is the inspired word of God. They mean that God breathed into it, it comes from his very heart.
And if Peter and Paul won’t convince you, that’s actually what Jesus himself taught. At once when Jesus was referring back to the words of King David in the Old Testament, he said this, “David speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared —” And then Jesus quotes the Bible. According to Jesus himself, what is the answer to our question? Where does the Bible come from? Just David? Just Isaiah? Just Jeremiah? No, no, no, no. These were men, indeed, who spoke from God.
The Drumstick Illustration
So, the simple answer to our question is this, what is the Bible? The Bible is God speaking through men. Men were a part of the process, but the Bible is God speaking. Maybe I could describe it this way. Now, this drumstick doesn’t date back to the days of Jesus, I borrowed it from my youngest daughter. But just think of how a simple sound works. If I take this stick, make a movement and… we hear the sound; four things are happening. There’s me, there’s the movement, there’s the instrument, and there’s the sound.
What Peter is trying to teach us in these words, what Paul and Jesus were trying to reinforce, is that the process of the Bible was just like that. There were instruments, the writers like Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, but there was a God who was moving to produce the words, the verses, the chapters, the Testaments, the Bible. Take God, the initial mover, out of the picture and you have these instruments but there’s no sound, there’s no scripture. But if the Holy Spirit, God himself, was moving, carrying these authors, the things that they would write in these scriptures are the very word of God.
Now wait, you might object, “Okay, pastor, let me make sure I’m following. You’re trying to answer the question, what is the Bible? And you’re saying the Bible is God speaking, and your proof of that is the Bible? What’s that called? Circular reasoning? Is that really the best argument to make? I mean, you could sit down, you could grab a pen and say, ‘What I’m writing is the very word of God.’ Would that make it the word of God?”
Those are really good questions and I’ve asked them too. In fact, next week I’m going to tackle that head on. We’re going to look not just at the origin of the Bible, but is there evidence to back up this big claim that the Bible is God speaking? But if I can ask for your patience, if you could push pause on those questions for one second, let’s just assume for today that it’s true, that the Bible is God speaking through men. If that’s true, what does it mean for you?
A Confrontational Book
I’m here in the manuscript room of the Museum of the Bible. I’m in my favorite place in the whole museum, surrounded by ancient copies, these manuscripts of the Bible throughout history. And we’ve been looking at the words of 2 Peter. Right after Peter makes his claim that the Bible is men who are carried along by the Holy Spirit, he launches, in chapter two, into this long, concerned, aggressive chapter about people who wouldn’t follow God but instead were following the desires of their own heart.
He calls them proud for doing what they wanted instead of what God wanted. He calls them creatures of instinct who just do what’s instinctual, instead of what God has said in his word. He says, “They despise authority. They don’t want anyone telling them how to live, what to do, or what’s true.” Does that sound familiar? We live in a culture, I think, that wants to deny this fundamental principle because like humans throughout history, we kind of want to do what we want to do.
But if the Bible is God speaking through these authors, then this is God speaking. And so, when the Bible says something about religion or church, the Bible says, “Let’s not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, let’s get together so we can pray for one another and teach one another, confess our sins to one another.” When the Bible talks about you having a pastor, a habit, celebrating communion, doing this in remembrance of Jesus. When the Bible doesn’t just want you to be spiritual, but wants you to be organized in your religion, that’s just not some ancient opinion, that’s God. That’s God confronting your worship habits, the way that you live your life. It’s easy to brush it off if it was just Peter or Paul, but it’s not, that’s God speaking to you.
Or when the Bible talks about authority, that we should honor and respect it. Whether it’s honoring our father or our mother, honoring the governor or the president, honoring those who serve with authority above us, that’s God saying that. And I know how easy it is, because parents are imperfect, to get together with your friends and just, you know, bash your mother or father, to disobey and dishonor them. But if this book says, “Honor your father and mother,” that’s God telling you to do that. And if the Bible says we should honor the governing authorities, when you’re online or with your friend just ranting about politicians and, I know how imperfect they are, this book, if it’s confronting you, is God confronting you saying, “I don’t want you to think like that, I don’t want you to talk like that.” Don’t brush this off as just some ancient, outdated book, this is God trying to correct you.
Do you see why this is so confrontational? It means if the book speaks, that’s God speaking. And if you don’t like the book, it’s not the book you really don’t like, it’s God. Now, what a thing to think, that I might know better than God. If I brush off the Bible, I’m stiff-arming the very truth of God. I’m pushing away God himself.
And you want to know what’s crazy about it? Is that when God speaks to us, it will normally be through a very flawed human being who has this book in their hands. Your mom or dad, your grandma or grandpa, are going to come to you, they’re concerned with the way you’re living your life and they’re going to open the book and it’s going to be so easy to dismiss them because you know them. Right. You know where they’re imperfect, you know that they sin too and it’s going to be so easy to snap this book shut and just assume it’s grandma, it’s mom. But if they’re accurately quoting this book, it’s not just your grandma or your mom, it’s God. It’s your Father in Heaven.
And when the pastor says it, it’s just easy to blow it off as judgmental religion, fire and brimstone threatening you again. And I’m very aware that pastors and churches aren’t perfect, but if the pastor is just reading the book, then it’s not just the pastor, it’s God.
The Bible is the most confrontational and dangerous book of all time because of its claim to be written by God. It’s not just human opinion, it’s divine revelation. That means if this book judges you, God himself is judging you. He’s calling you to change your mind, what the Bible calls repentance. To agree with him, to believe that if he’s God and if he’s good then he’s right.
A Comforting Book Too
Now, the Bible is God speaking to you, and I pray you don’t run from it. Honestly, tons of people do. Tons of people turn their back on the Bible, and religion, and church because they kind of want to do what they want to do. I think there’s a better way to live life, but I hope you don’t do that and here’s why. Because the Bible, if it comes from God, is not just the most confrontational book ever, it’s also the most comforting book ever. It means that if this book speaks hope, and forgiveness, and salvation, and life, that’s not just some guy guessing because he wants to make you feel good, that’s actually God reaching out to comfort you when you need it the most.
I think of this story I read from a pastor in a book years ago. There was a youth pastor who put a big circle of chairs for the teen group at his church. And on every chair, he put a little note card with a Bible passage on it. One from Isaiah, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” One from Paul in the book of Romans, “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He wrote out every passage, put it on a note card on the chair and then he put one chair right in the middle, and he waited for the kids to come.
When the kids showed up, they expected soda and pizza, but there was something different that day. Pastor asked them all to find a seat around the edge of the circle and then he asked one brave student to sit in the middle of the circle. To be honest about what they were going through, what they were struggling with, what sins they had committed. And then, their classmates and friends on the outside of the circle could read the passages on the cards and try to comfort them with these words.
Well, of course, it didn’t go quite like the youth pastor was hoping. No one wanted to sit in the middle. Everyone cracked jokes, no one was willing to be vulnerable or transparent. The whole thing was a wreck until one girl, the new girl, raised her hand and volunteered. And she sits in the middle; they put a blindfold on her so she could just focus on the moment instead of on their faces.
And she poured out her heart about all the things she was going through at home, the dysfunction in her family, the friction with her parents. She started to cry. In the awkward silence, the kids just stared at her until the pastor pointed at one of them who grabbed the note card and read, “But do not be afraid for I am your God, I will help you, I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
And the girl kept crying, kept confessing. She talked about her sins too, the things that she had said back to her parents. She felt guilt, she felt shame. And the pastor pointed at another student who read, “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” She confessed struggle and problem but passage after passage attempted to comfort her.
Finally, she had enough. She took the blindfold off and she looked at the pastor and she said, “Pastor, why doesn’t God speak to me like that?” You know what the very wise pastor said, “Honey, he just did.”
God Still Speaks Today
If the Bible is the word of God, then when it speaks, God is speaking to you. When it tells you that your sins are forgiven, that’s not Paul, that’s God telling you that you’re forgiven. When John writes in the Bible that God loved this world so much that he gave his one and only Son, that’s not John, like, wishing for the best, that’s God trying to tell you it’s just this simple. He loves you so much he gave you Jesus. And Jesus loves you so much he gave his only life, and whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
And imagine if God’s voice was only up on top of the tallest mountain, would you climb it? I would. But God has made his heart so much more accessible by giving us this book and then allowing us to live in a time where we can print it, screen it, scroll it, and engage with it. So, can I urge you today to take that step? Connect with the Bible. Download a Bible app, reach out to a pastor. There’s no one right way to do it, but I hope you do it. I hope you become a person who engages with this word each day. It will confront you, but it’ll always bring you back to Jesus, the comforter, the restorer, the savior from all of our sins.
A couple years ago when my youngest daughter, Maya, was just in single digits, a Bible came to our home. I had ordered a new one online, the mailman had dropped it off, I’d opened the package and just left it there when I had to run to do other things. And my little girl saw it, and when I got home, she held up the Bible and she said, “Daddy, where did this come from?” I said, “The mailman dropped it off.” And her little face scowled. She says, “Daddy, the Bible does not come from the mailman, it comes from God.” I hugged that little kid. “You’re right, the mailman might have dropped it off, but we know where it really comes from, it comes from the heart and the mind of the God who loves us so much.”
So, I pray that the next time you pick up this book, you know that yes, Moses and Matthew, and Peter and Paul, and James and John, they were involved, but they’re not the origin story of this book. No, it comes from a higher place, from a greater power. The Bible is God speaking through men. Remember that, and this book will change your world.
