The Bible is... (Part 2)
We have noted thus far from Thomas B. Warren's excellent article:

  1. The Bible is God's word and thus reveals God's will to man.
  2. The Bible is God's limitation for man.
  3. The Bible is God's mirror for man.
  4. The Bible is God's seed.
  5. The Bible is God's "dynamite" (power).

And now, let us continue:

6. The Bible is God's fire.
God asked in Jeremiah 23:29 - "Is not My word like a fire?" Of this statement A. W. Streane said, "The true word of God consumes all that cannot abide the test, and breaks down the most stony resistance." In the same passage the prophet also indicates that the word of God is like a hammer that breaks in pieces. This shows the power of God's word to break the evil hearts and change the lives of men.

7. The Bible is God's sword.
Paul said - "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17). The author of Hebrews wrote - "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The word of God is able to slash to the depths of men's souls, to convict them of their past sins, to make clear their need for change for salvation, and to point them to the things involved in that change.

8. The Bible is food (supplied by God) for the souls of men.
We learn from the apostle Peter that Christians should be - "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (I Pet. 2:2). Just as God has provided physical food for our physical bodies so he has provided spiritual food for our souls. That food is the word of God--the Bible.

9. The Bible is God's light for man.
The Psalmist said this about God's word - "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psa. 119:105). Without the light of God's word, man would be in darkness. He would neither understand his lost and undone condition nor know what to do about it. Christians are to "shine as lights in the world" by "holding fast the word of life" (Phil. 2:15,16).

10. The Bible is God's warning.
Paul said to Timothy - "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (II Tim. 4:2). It is God's will that men should use the Bible in order to warn themselves and others of the fate of the rebellious wicked and turn from that end (e.g., Rev. 20:10-15; II Thess. 1:7-9).

11. The Bible is God's exhorter.
God intends that men should be exhorted or persuaded by the Bible to walk in pathways of righteousness (cf. II Pet. 1:5-11; Psa. 119:11) in order that they may gain "a hundred fold now in this time...and in the age to come eternal life" (Mark 10:30).

12. The Bible is God's basis of judgment.
Jesus declared in John 12:48 - "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day." To the Athenians the apostle Paul said - "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30,31). As surely as God has raised our Lord from the dead, so He will call each of us unto judgment to give an account of how we have used our lives here on this earth. The basis of that judgment will be His word. He will judge us by His Son, and to judge us by His Son is to judge us by the word of the Son, which is the gospel.

We will conclude this study in our next lesson.