The Spirit and the Word— Part I.

There are five essential works of the Holy Spirit in regards to the Word of God.

 I.  Revelation.  2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful [‘profitable’] for teaching, for rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” {NIV}.  The Greek word theopneustos— from theos- ‘God,’ and pneo- ‘to breathe’— is translated literally and accurately in this case.

Revelation is the means by which the Spirit of God revealed His Message to the Prophets and Apostles.  God communicated to man what otherwise could not be known, things which man could never discover by either reason or observation.  While the existence of the physical world discloses the fact that there must be a Creator, the natural world by itself cannot reveal such things as the Creator’s righteousness, the Creator’s love, His mercy and grace, or the redemption He holds out to man.  For this, Abba Himself spoke to us.

II. Inspiration.  Note 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21 which says, “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.”

Ancient rabbis taught that the Spirit of God rested on the Old Testament prophets and spoke through them, using them as human mouths to speak in Abba’s place.  We speak of ‘inspiration’ as the power by which the Holy Spirit supervised and superintended the authors of Scripture so they recorded accurately and exactly what God had to say through them.  Divine inspiration extended to the very words— and all the words— of the original manuscripts written by those through whom God spoke.

When God chose an individual through whom to communicate His Word, He used this person’s IQ, He used their perspective, their vocabulary and their experience as His channel.  This is how sixty-six books written by more than forty authors, spanning 1,500 years, can be so different from each other and yet be absolutely consistent in message and unified in focus.  The central Theme of Scripture, the one Thread running through every book, every chapter, every v., and tying them together as a whole, is the Son of God and Savior of Man, Jesus Christ!

Three Points of Summary on Inspiration.

a.  The authors of Scripture didn’t merely write whatever they felt like writing; they were “moved” {NAS} or “carried along” by the Spirit of Christ.

b.  Each person through whom the Spirit worked retained his own unique viewpoint, style, and sense of expression.

c.  The Holy Spirit guided each writer so that: [i] no error intruded into the original manuscripts {Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek}; and [ii] the very words were precisely the words He wanted written.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously