In simplest terms the Bible is the word of God. But in order to understand what this means it is helpful to look at the Bible in terms of form, function and reliability.
FORM
Today the Bible comes to us in the form of a book, but the Bible was not magically conceived as one complete unit. Instead it came in the form of many various writings that God gave, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to a group of human authors. Having received the word of God through direct speech, dreams and visions, and other means of inspiration, the writers faithfully rendered God’s communication in writing. Depending on their time and location, the writers preserved God’s word on scrolls or large sheets of papyrus.
The manuscripts were collected and brought together to form what we know today as the Bible, or “canon.” The Bible is a collection of 66 books. While the books have strong interdependence and form a cohesive unit, they are viewed as separate entities rather than chapters of one larger book. The Biblical writings are richly varied in genre—the word of God is communicated through narrative, prophecy, historical record, poetry and other wisdom literature, songs, and letters.
FUNCTION
The purpose of the Bible is as multi-faceted as its form. Just as God is infinite, his revelation of himself in the text manifests that same complexity and texture. But this does not mean that the Bible is unintelligible. God has condescended to communicate himself in a way that is understandable to even a child, and yet the Bible is a wealth of wisdom and meaning that will never be exhausted. His truth, his wisdom, and his glory are contained therein and by the Holy Spirit’s illumination, we are brought into contact with the living Lord.
The Bible is the story of God and his people. Beginning with creation in the Old Testament, the Bible tells us who we are and where we came from. It shows us the relationship we were meant to have with God and the tragic fall that severed that covenant. Post-fall, the Bible becomes “redemptive history,” in which God communicates how his people, estranged from his infinite holiness through sin, can be brought back into relation with him. This begins with God choosing the Israelites for himself as a holy people and reconciling them to himself through a provisional system of animal sacrifice. This was to foreshadow the ultimate expression of God’s word and God’s love: Jesus Christ. The New Testament is the story of God’s new covenant with the world in which his people will be brought back into right relation with him through his Son, Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. The Scriptures illustrate this path of salvation and eternal life for those who place their hope and their trust in Christ as the means by which they may be justified before God.
But the Bible is more than a history. By reading and studying God’s word one learns how he or she may have a relationship with the living God. God is one unified being, yet three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible tells of God’s love, but also his justice and plainly details God’s expectations for his people. The Bible is the standard of objective truth because God is truth and thus it is a powerful guide for living. It teaches us the nature of the world and the reality of the human condition, it teaches us what sin is and how we may be freed from its enslaving effects, it teaches us how to treat others and how to worship God.
RELIABILITY
God’s promises in the Bible are trustworthy and reliable and his commandments are binding. The Bible then becomes ultimate in its authority because it is the inerrant and infallible word of God, which is to say in its original manuscripts, it is God’s true word—the standard by which all other standards are measured. The redemptive history that comprises the Bible is the history we are living today. It is God’s timely salvation for man’s timeless need.
