What Scripture says, God says...

“What Scripture says, God says….”  That was St. Augustine’s compelling way of affirming the true nature and authority of the Bible as God’s inspired (literally, ‘breathed out by God”), infallible, inerrant Word.  Faithful Christians throughout history and around the world have held, and still do hold, this view of the Bible – for it was taught by the Lord himself, and by his prophets and apostles.

We are to use the Bible for the purposes God gave it, purposes that are well-summarized by J.I. Packer who said that all theology should lead us further and deeper when it comes to ‘the praise of God and the practice of godliness.’

“What Scripture says, God says” and what that means practically is: how we relate to the Bible is how we relate to God, precisely because the words of Scripture are HIS WORDS.  There are so many crucial applications of this truth, but I just want to focus on one key idea and that is this: the Lordship of Christ over every believer and every congregation is mediated by His Word (illumined by the Spirit).  And the Bible goes further to say that this inscripturated Word is to be faithfully taught and relevantly applied by those whom Christ himself has called and gifted to preach and teach his Word.

And so, to put it bluntly, when the Lord asks, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ but do not do what I say?” (Lk. 6:46) it is a rebuke to every professing Christian or church leader or congregation that, in spite of their supposed commitment to Christ’s lordship and the Bible’s authority, defy or disregard that authority when it comes to how they actually and practically conduct themselves, the values they truly express, and in how their  decisions are actually made.

And so, in the lives of individual believers, their Christian profession is contradicted by their practice (Titus 1:16), to the detriment of the Christian witness (Titus 2:5).  And as it relates to churches, pragmatism (what seems to ‘work’) or the personal preferences of church members or pastors or  church leaders, or ‘tradition’ (“we’ve always done it this way”)  actually end up nullifying the supposed allegiance to God’s own Word (the very thing Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and ‘experts’ in the law/Torah for in Matt. 15:3-9).  

God’s Word through Moses, re-affirmed by the Lord Jesus himself during his wilderness temptation, insists that we are to “live by every word that comes from the mouth of God” – His words of teaching, we are to believe; his words of promise, we are to trust (beginning with the Gospel promise itself); and his words of command, we are to observe and obey.

Again, to quote J.I. Packer,  “The Christian principle of biblical authority means... that God purposes to direct the belief and behavior of his people through the revealed truth set forth in Holy Scripture…..Authority in Christianity belongs to God the Creator, who made us to know, love, and serve him, and his way of exercising his authority over us is by means of the truth and wisdom of his written Word….. And since the Father has now given the Son executive authority to rule the cosmos on his behalf (Matt.28:18), Scripture now functions precisely as the instrument of Christ’s lordship over his followers…." -- (Concise Theology, p. 16)

Christian, how you relate to God’s Words in your Bible is how you relate to God.  This may be the most important principle and practice in living a healthy spiritual life.   Church leader, you have a special calling to do all that you can to make sure that in the actual teachings, practices, programs and decisions of your church, the headship of Christ over your church finds consistent expression in intentional submission to the teachings of the Bible, because…..’what Scripture says, God says.’

(Deut. 8:3; 10:12-13; Psalm 1; 19:7-11; 119; Matt. 4:4; 5:17-20; 28:18-20; Jn.8:31-32; Eph. 4:11-13; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 2:2; 3:16-17; 4:1-5; Heb. 4:12-13; 13:17; James 1:22-25; 2 Pet. 1:21)