2013년 12월 29일 연종주일 영어예배 설교
디모데후서 3:16

(2 Timothy 3:16)

    In history, the words of God have been challenged and attacked by the influences that have been against the living God. These days, some people who even call themselves ‘believers’ express doubt on the authority and source of the words of God. One of the most prevalent views in this issue among the kinds of people is that the Scripture itself doesn’t have its own objective authority as the word of God, but only if the Scripture is regarded as the word of God by someone, it has the value as the word of God at least to the one. But the Scripture is the living words of the living God. It is the written code that exactly reflects the intention of God. It is the form and method that God reveals what God wants to show to men. Today, we are going to be appreciating what the source of the Scripture is and how the word of God is revealed.

     In verse 16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” With this verse, today, we can deal with only the first half part in the interests of time. In the Scripture, we can find many words that express that the Scripture itself is the word of God. Among them, today’s verse is one of the phrases that explicitly shows the origin and source of the Scripture. Here, the expression “is breathed out by God” is deopnustos in Greek. It means that the words of God are directly spoken by God. This phrase is emphasizing the fact that the source of the words is God Himself. There is another fact that the human writer of the Scripture are all inspired by God, and it is also true. But today’s phrase, ‘all the Scripture is breathed out by God’, tells the authorship of God rather than the inspiration of the human writers.  Other phrases express the same point in other ways, in 2 Peter 1:20-21, “knowing this first of all that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man…..” Therefore, the Scripture itself is the word that comes directly from God because the Scripture itself tells that. Someone may criticize that it is a kind of circular logic. Yes, it is true that there is something like circular logic, but the fact that it has a sort of circular characteristic does not means that it is an error. It can be understood in the same way of the argument in Hebrews 6, “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.” Like this, the Scripture testifies the Scripture itself because it is the final authority itself as the Cannon. So the Scripture testifies God as its own source, and it is true. The Scripture is breathed out by God, that is, it is God’s word. It is the living written word of the living God.

     In today’s verse, the word, ‘all Scripture’ means the Old Testament from the perspective of the time when the Apostle Paul wrote the verse, and it indicates the entire Old Testament. But we must not lose the point that being based on the balanced consideration of the entire teaching of the Bible, the expression not only means the Old Testament as the living words of the living God, but also means the entire Scripture including the New Testament as the living words of the living God who is still speaking to us today.

     Then how did God make his words be written and how is God still speaking to us? Again, we now cannot mention all the phrases that show this point, but still need to find some phrases that identify this issue. In 2 Peter 1:21, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” ‘Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’ These words explicitly show that God used the human authors who were inspired by the Holy Spirit when God composed the Scripture, and kept and delivered it to the next generations. In doing that, God effectively exploited all the characteristics of each of the human writers and the environments and situations in which the human writers were. And Hebrews 3:7 tells us this, quoting Psalm 95, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says…..”, and Hebrews 10:15 says this quoting Jeremiah 31:33, “And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us…..” So God chose the form of a book as a device that contains his own words, and chose the human writers for making it, and it was accomplished through the processes in history. The climax and at the same time the end of the story of the words of God is Jesus Christ our Lord in history. Hebrews 1:1-2 says all these points succinctly, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” According to the witnesses of the Scripture itself that we identified so far, we say that the secondary authors of the Scripture as human instruments are the human writers, but the primary author and source of the Scripture is God himself.

     There is an issue of the versions. It is true that there are a variety of versions of the Bible in the world, and countless copies by many scribes have been in history. And they show a bit of different expressions and contents from each other. But those small differences do not make any changes in the core and prime point in the Christian gospel. And it is also true that there are still some parts and phrases that are not clearly interpreted or understood for us. But we must acknowledge it is also according to the principle of the teaching of the Bible, the fact that we cannot know and understand exhaustively all the revelations as finite human beings, but we know and understand sufficiently and clearly the revelation as much as we need to know. And we cannot deny the sufficiency, perspicuity, necessity, and authority of the Scripture because of the fact that human beings do not exhaustively know the Scripture. This is like how no one denies the fact that he has his hair because he cannot count exactly all the hairs on his head. So, regardless of men’s finiteness to conceive the Scripture, the Scripture is perfect in its sufficiency, perspicuity, authority, and necessity. And also human beings are able to conceive sufficiently and clearly the Scripture as much as they need to know God and the gospel.

     Lastly, God is speaking to us through the work of the Holy Spirit. This is possible because the word of God is always living. In Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active…..” The Holy Spirit makes us grasp and believe in the Scripture. John 14:25-26 says this, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” The very Holy Spirit who inspired the human authors in writing the Scripture inspires us in grasping and believing the Scripture.

     God has changelessly been speaking clearly, sufficiently, and authoritatively in the Scripture through the Holy Spirit. And we do listen and understand sufficiently and clearly what God says in the Scripture by the work of the Holy Spirit.

     Everyone, in the coming New Year, God will still be speaking to us through the written code, the Scripture that has its own perfect sufficiency, perspicuity, authority, and necessity. Before God, who does speak to us, we should listen to what God does speak and be obedient to that. Moreover, we should believe in the words of God. These days, when diversity and human intellect are respected for their value than ever, God is still speaking this, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Before this speaking of God, let’s say ‘A-men’ with all our hearts. Satan, in the form of serpent crept approaching to Eve, whispered questioning to her intellectually and reasonably this in Genesis 3:1, “Did God really say?” Before this whispering, Eve chose to be rebellious against God even though God really did say, and the doomed status of human initiated. But amazingly and gracefully, as soon as human disobedience took place, God launched His redemptive history for his own people. Still today, in this brilliant post-modern world, God, who launched the movement of the Christian gospel in the Garden of Eden does speak, and still and again Satan questions to us politely and intellectually this “Hey, did God really say?” To this question of Satan, let’s answer intellectually and faithfully this, “Yes, He did say!” I really hope you all will be overwhelmed by the words of God in the coming New Year, and enjoy all the blessings and comforts given to those who listen and are obedient to the words of God.