The Message of the Word of God

Contents

Author’s preface

Introduction

Part 1. God speaks

1. The glory of God made known (Psalm 19)

2. God’s word goes forth (Isaiah 55)

3. The wisdom of God’s word (Proverbs 30:1–9)

4. The Lord God has spoken (Amos 3:1–8)

5. Through men and women moved by the Spirit (2 Peter 1:19–21)

Part 2. God speaks in the written word

6. The spoken word written (Exodus 19 – 20)

7. The covenant remembered (Deuteronomy 4:1–20)

8. The written word as witness (Luke 1:1–4)

9. The Scriptures and the resurrection of the Word (John 2:13–25)

10. The Scriptures interpreted and fulfilled by Jesus (Matthew 12:1–21)

Part 3. God speaks in Christ

11. The Word made flesh (John 1:1–14)

12. In these last days God has spoken (Hebrews 1:1–4)

13. Christ fulfils the Scriptures (Matthew 5:17–48)

14. God’s word and righteousness (Romans 10:5–13)

15. Worthy to open the scroll (Revelation 5)

Part 4. God speaks today

16. Individual encounter with the word of God (Acts 8:26–39)

17. Scripture read in community (Nehemiah 8)

18. All Scripture is God-breathed and useful (2 Timothy 3:10–17)

19. The Spirit of love and truth (John 14:15–26)

20. Holding fast the traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:13–17)

Study Guide

(From the) Introduction

The volumes in this series – The Bible Speaks Today: Bible Themes – each explore a key theme or doctrine of the Christian faith as that theme or doctrine emerges in the Bible. The assumption is that the words of Scripture carry a particular primacy in the matter of Christian belief, however we might define that primacy, and so it is worth dedicating time and effort to reminding ourselves of what the Bible actually says about the themes and doctrines held dear by Christians through the centuries. As originally conceived this volume in the series was to have been on ‘The Message of the Bible’.

It does not take a great deal of imagination to see that a volume on what the Bible says about the Bible is problematic. Since the Bible is a defined set of texts that gradually emerged over time, the texts that make up the Bible could have had no concept of a Bible per se during their formation. The theme of the Bible could only have emerged after the event of the Bible. This was the key interpretive hurdle facing me as I began to write. When I described the project to a respected senior biblical studies scholar, he remarked: ‘Oh, I’d never have the chutzpah to do that.’ At that point I wondered what I had got myself into by agreeing to write this volume in the Bible Themes series.

1. The word of God

However, two important and reassuring things gradually emerged. The first was that it would be helpful to examine the somewhat more general theme of Scripture, which is the concept of the word of God in the form of written text, rather than the theme of the particular text itself, namely, the Bible. In doing so it became clear that the Bible has a lively sense of God speaking in a unique way within and through the text of Scripture, and there is much that can be said on this theme. This includes the proposal that when the New Testament talks about the Scriptures or the written word of God it potentially is speaking of the collection of texts that includes what we now call the New Testament, even though the exact borders of that collection would only finally emerge under the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the historical process. That is why I refer more often to ‘Scripture’ or ‘the Scriptures’ than to ‘the Bible’. By ‘Scriptures’ I mean the Christian Scriptures that have been accepted by the church as canonical and called the Bible, but I also mean the idea of the Bible. I do not define what is ‘canonical’ but write with the Protestant canon in mind. I hope, though, that those from other Christian traditions than my own, who set the boundaries of the canon in slightly different places, may also usefully read of the Scriptures in this volume.

More importantly, and secondly, a study of the Bible on the subject of the Bible quickly reveals that the Bible is only one aspect, albeit an indispensable aspect, of an even wider and more important concept, the word of God. While the Bible is in every sense the word of God, the Bible is also at the same time a vehicle of the word of God. Therefore any coherent comment on what the Bible says about the Bible, the Christian Scriptures, must address the wider notion that God speaks. And so it gradually emerged that this volume should be on The Message of the Word of God. The distinction between the Bible and the word of God, to which I return below, is a topic to which the texts themselves often return.

2. The outline and approach

Accordingly, the message of the word of God is considered around four key propositions, each of which is expressed in a five-chapter division. The first is the extraordinary notion that God speaks. This introduces us to the breadth of God’s speaking, both in the text of Scripture and by means of the world that God has made. Following on from this, the second proposition is that God speaks in the written words of Scripture in a particular way. This is because the Scriptures are unique in nature. The third proposition is that God speaks in Christ. The word of God is finally and fully revealed and heard in the person of Jesus. At least three things follow from this: that the word of God in Scripture is a witness to the revelation of God in Jesus; that Jesus provides a model for interpretation of the Scriptures; and that the Scriptures are best understood and interpreted in the light of Christ. The fourth proposition is that God speaks today. The first three ideas are not merely historical statements of what has been or what may be known by means of the texts; they also indicate how it is that the voice of God continues in the present day to be heard in the light of Christ and through the reading of Scripture.

The Bible itself is not a systematic treatment of doctrines and themes, but rather a narrative with a number of sub-plots along the way. Accordingly, in any sustained attempt to explore what the Bible says about something, which this volume attempts to be, it is best to follow the storied approach of the Bible itself. As a result, this volume does not purport to be a systematic treatment of a doctrine of Scripture, for the Bible itself is not that. There is a place for more systematic theological treatments of that doctrine, although it is interesting and a little unsettling to note that an approach such as is taken by the Bible Themes series does raise a somewhat different set of concerns than do more explicitly theological treatments.

If the reader finds things missing from this volume or more lightly treated than might have been expected, it may be because they are not concerns of the texts themselves. At the same time, it has not been possible to say everything or examine every text that is relevant to the ‘word of God’. Nevertheless, I hope that the major features of the landscape of God’s speaking are herein introduced to the reader.

And hopefully also a narrative of sorts emerges in the ordering of the texts under examination that reflects something of the biblical story itself. Each chapter is a discrete treatment of a passage, but each is written in the light of the others to the end that a coherent, if not systematic, treatment of the ‘The Message of the Word of God’ emerges. …