The God Who Speaks

The most astonishing claim of the Christian faith is not that God exists. It is that God speaks.

He is not a distant deity who wound the universe like a clock and walked away. He opens his mouth, and when he does, worlds come into being, the dead rise from their graves, and sinners are called to life.

Everything the church believes, everything we confess, everything we sing, rests on this truth: God has revealed himself. He has not left us to grope in the dark. He has spoken in creation. He has spoken in history. He has spoken in the person of his Son. And he has spoken in the book you hold in your hands.

The Bible is not a human book about God. It is God's book for humanity.

How you think about the Bible determines everything that follows. It determines how you read it. How you hear it preached. How you respond when it confronts you. How you stand when the world presses you to set it aside. A low view of Scripture produces a weak faith. A biblical view of Scripture produces a faith that endures, because it rests on the Word of the God who cannot lie.

The next seven steps walk through what the Bible teaches about itself. Seven attributes. One for each side of the Hexagon, with the seventh sitting at the center.

• God-Breathed. It originates from God himself.
• Authoritative. It carries the full weight of God's own command.
• Without Error. It is entirely true, because its Author is entirely true.
• Sufficient. It gives us everything we need for faith and godliness.
• Clear. Its central message can be understood by ordinary people.
• Necessary. We cannot know God savingly without it.
• Effective. It accomplishes what God sends it to do.

These are not human opinions about the Bible. They are what the Bible teaches about itself. And because the Bible is the Word of God, these attributes carry divine authority.

Before you continue, pray. Ask the Spirit who inspired the Word to open your heart to receive it. Then take the attributes one at a time. Ask the same question after each: does my life show that I believe this?

Let's begin.