We have seen that Jesus Christ has ALL authority (Matt. 28:18; Acts 3:22-23) and that His all authority resides in His Word, which will judge us in the last day (John 12:48-50; Rev. 20:12). That means that no manmade doctrine, no church-originated teaching, no personal feelings or opinions will be the standard of judgment on that day. When Jesus left, He sent the Holy Spirit, who guided the apostles “into ALL truth” (John 16:13). They had every bit of truth given to them to share with the world.
So, where does the Bible itself come in? Someone might agree that Christ has all authority, that His authority is in His spoken Word and that the Holy Spirit told the apostles “what” to “speak” (Mark 13:11), but did that end up in the Bible? The reality is that both their spoken word and their written word were given to them by God. Look at the words carefully.
2 Timothy 3:16 clearly states, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” The Greek word for “inspiration of God” literally means “God-breathed.” Now, what was God-breathed? “Scripture.” The Greek word is graphe—look at the word. The word means “a piece of writing, that which is written.” It was not just their spoken word that was given by God, the written word was given by God!
2 Peter 1:20-21 tells us again. The text states that “that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” No prophecy of what? Scripture! This is the same word. So, nothing that was “written” was of “any private interpretation” by the penmen. So where did it come from? “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Everything that was being written in Scripture (“written in Scripture” is almost redundant) was given by the Holy Spirit!
Did this include the Old Testament or the New Testament? The word “Scripture” is used to refer to both. One could argue that the passages referenced above were limited to the Old Testament only, but the word “Scripture” is also used of the New Testament. Paul quoted from both the Old Testament (Deut. 25:4) and the New Testament (Luke 10:7), and he called both of them “Scripture.” Peter made reference to “all [Paul’s] epistles” and likened them to “the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Pet. 3:16). Paul recognized and clearly communicated to his readers, “The things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:37).
So, pick up your Bible. The 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament were all and equally inspired by God, thus the all-authority of Christ is found within those 66 books. Let’s make one more point next week.