What Is the Bible?

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
—Hebrews 4:12

What is the Bible? The answer is, “The Bible is God’s perfect revelation.”

That means every word in the Bible can be trusted. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness…” The word “inspired” literally means God-breathed. And guess what: God doesn’t suffer from bad breath! Every breath of God is good. Consider what Peter said about the truthfulness of God’s Word: “No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21). The apostle Paul was not sitting around in his jail cell one day when he said, “You know, in order to pass the time, I think I will write some Scripture.” All Scripture was initiated by God, not by men. God did use men with their individual personalities, but he used them to communicate His message without error. The Bible is God’s perfect revelation. It has no errors in it whatsoever.

Second, the Bible is God’s complete revelation. You may say, “I believe the Bible is God’s Word, but how do I know it is all of God’s Word? What if God is still giving new information about Himself?” Now I believe God can do anything He wants to. If God wants to give new information about Himself, then He is perfectly capable of doing that. The question is not, can God give additional information? The question is, does God regularly give additional information about Himself? And the answer to that is very clear in Scripture. Jude 3 says, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” Jude says there is a body of truth of doctrine called “the faith” that has already been delivered. The tense of this verb suggests a completed action. This body of truth of doctrine called “the faith” has been delivered “once for all.” Everything you need to know about God, Jesus Christ, heaven, hell, salvation, is contained in the Bible. This book is God’s complete revelation.

Third, the Bible is God’s living revelation. This is perhaps the point most people overlook about the Bible. Now, I can take Webster’s Dictionary and I can believe that Webster’s Dictionary is perfect, complete, and accurate. I can believe it contains every word I will ever need in life. But how likely am I to open up my copy of Webster’s Dictionary and start reading? Even though it is perfect and complete, the dictionary is not living. That is what distinguishes the Bible from every other book that has been written. For two thousand years, God’s people around the world have gathered together regularly, sometimes under great difficulty and even great danger and threat of their own lives, for one reason: to listen to the Word of God. Why is that? It’s because God’s Word is living. Hebrews 4:12 says it best: “For the word of God is living and active.” That word “active” means it is full of energy. God’s Word is always doing something to people who listen to it or read it. It is God’s living revelation to us.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “The Bible Tells Me So?” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2008.
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.