(The following is the October 7 devotional from my Next Step Devotions book. Before reading it, I suggest you read 2 Timothy 3 and pay close attention to verses 14-17.)
Several historic Christian confessions of faith begin with affirmations of the Bible as God’s Word, including The Westminster Confession of Faith (1643-1646), The New Hampshire Baptist Confession (1833), The Baptist Faith and Message of the Southern Baptist Convention (1925, 1963, 2000), and The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978).* Why would these and countless local church statements of faith begin with a focus on God’s Word? Because the Bible is the basis for what we believe about every Christian doctrine. Therefore, we prioritize in such statements the authority and reliability of God’s Word regarding all matters it addresses.
Paul instructed Timothy: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (vv. 14-17).
Scripture contains everything God chose to reveal from the world’s creation through its coming consummation. Through its teaching, we understand God’s revelation of himself, our sinful state apart from him, Christ’s redemptive work, how to be saved by grace through faith, how to live as believers, and God’s promises to come.
Do you want to know God? Study his inspired Word and do what it says. God breathed it out so that we might take it in and live.
Next Step:
Read the following passages and pray for God to strengthen your commitment to the Bible as his Holy Word: Exodus 20:1; Psalm 119; Proverbs 30:5-6; John 16:13; 2 Corinthians 2:9-10; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21, 3:14-16; Revelation 22:18-19.
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* Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 1451-1485.
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