1. God-Breathed

When Paul writes to Timothy from a Roman prison, he tells him:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Breathed out by God. The Greek word is theopneustos. It means exactly what it sounds like. God exhaled, and Scripture came out.

This is the most important thing you can know about the Bible. It originates from God.

The Bible is not the product of human brilliance. It is not the record of religious intuition. It is not a man-made book about divine things. It is the speech of the living God, carried to us through human authors who wrote exactly what God intended.

Peter says it from another angle:

No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21)

Notice what Peter says. The human authors were not secretaries taking dictation. Moses wrote in his own voice. David composed in his own poetic style. Paul argued in his own rabbinic logic. Luke did careful historical research. But the Spirit carried them along, superintending every word, so that what they produced was precisely what God intended to say.

The Bible is not partly God's Word and partly man's word. It is wholly both.

And the scope is total. Paul says all Scripture. Not some. Not the parts you like. Not the comfortable parts. The genealogies of First Chronicles are as God-breathed as the Sermon on the Mount. The narrative of Judges carries the same divine origin as the Gospel of John. Where God has spoken, every word participates in the character of its Author.

What this means for you. When you open your Bible, you are not reading the opinions of ancient religious teachers. You are hearing the voice of the God who made you. When it speaks, God speaks. When it commands, God commands. When it promises, God promises.

To read the Bible with this understanding is to read it on your knees.

The Puritan Thomas Watson said it this way: "The Scripture is the library of the Holy Ghost. It contains the credenda, the things we are to believe, and the agenda, the things we are to practice."

Do not stand over this book and judge it. Sit under it and let it judge you.

A question to sit with. Where in your life do you treat the Bible as something less than the speech of God? Where are you reading it casually, or selectively, or with a spirit of correction rather than submission?

Begin there. The first step into the doctrine of Scripture is to believe that the book in your hand is what it claims to be.