Welcome back to our lesson series on Christian Living. If it is your first time you may want to begin at an earlier lesson. We're continuing our study on the Holy Spirit and we're going to see how He works through God's Word.
The Holy Spirit uses what are called the Means of Grace to work salvation within us. The Means of Grace are the tools that the Holy Spirit conveys to us God's grace in Christ, meaning forgiveness of sins, new life and salvation. So what are these tools? The first tool is the Gospel in God's Word. We saw that the Holy Spirit really makes use of this tool in the last lesson. The Gospel is the good news of Jesus, that He died for us, He rose three days later and because of it we have eternal life with our Heavenly Father. The Gospel of God's Word can of course be found in the Bible.
The other Means of Grace are the Sacraments. Sacraments are the instructions Jesus left for His church be saying to His disciples, "Do this." Some churches have a number of sacraments, but as a member of WELS we teach that there are two sacraments. The sacraments are Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Over the next two lessons we'll really dive into these two sacraments. This time around we're going to concentrate on God's Word, The Bible. In the chart below we can see how the Holy Spirit uses the Means of Grace to work within us. In the chart you'll see that the Gospel's good news of Forgiveness, New Life and Salvation are passed on through the Bible and the Sacraments by the Holy Spirit, and through these Means of Grace, we receive Forgiveness, New Life and Salvation.
So the Holy Spirit uses the Bible as a Means of Grace, so where does the Bible come from? 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 explains, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," The Bible is straight from God, as seen above, it is called God's Word. The actual scriptures were written by a number of men found in the Bible, Moses, the Kings, the evangelists, the prophets, and the apostles. These men were verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit to write God's Word for us. An important note is that the Bible was inspired, not dictated to the writers. Someone once told me, "The Holy Spirit reminded the writers what to say." This is why old testament books are written in Hebrew and new testament books are written in Greek. We know that these books are inspired and not the thoughts of the authors as found in 1 Peter chapter 1, "21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." Jesus also lets us know that these writers speak God's truth and that we can trust His Word and why He and His Father choose to give us this message in the book of John in chapter 1. "23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. 25"All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
The Holy Spirit inspired men to write the books of the Bible so we can be sure that the Bible is the Word of God. John 17:17 says, "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." Because of this, we can be sure that the Bible is true in every part. The Bible is actually a compilation of books by many writers as seen above. We know that these writers are credible in their inspired message by Jesus Himself. Remember back to the parable of The Rich Man and Poor Lazerus we read about a few lessons ago as found in Luke 16. There's a verse in which Jesus confirms that the old testament is the inspired Word of God when Abraham tells the rich man in verse 29, ""Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'" The Bible is complete. It is sufficient for everything we need to know. John tells in Revelation chapter 22, "18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book." John is letting us know that the Bible is complete and more importantly, that nothing need nor should be changed.
Bivens and Vallesky write the following about the Uniqueness of the Bible in New Life in Christ, "The unity and continuity of the Bible, its circulation, the history of its translation, its preservation, its accuracy of prophecy, and in particular its impact and power in human hearts and lives all bear witness to one great truth: the Bible is UNIQUE and UPARALLELED in the history of writing. This fact, worthy of more indepth study, is stated to demonstrate that a trust in what the Bible says is not irrational or the result of any "blind faith." Christian face is based on fact." They provide these two verses to back up their point, the first is John 7:17, "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own." The second is 2 Timothy, "11And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." Both these verses underline the importance of the truth of the Bible, in that when we come to it, when we really study it, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the truth of what we are reading and that we can trust all of the points made above.
So we've looked at why the Bible is true, but what's inside it? Is it just a history lesson? Well yes, there is history, but what's found in there is much more important. When we study our Bibles we come away with two main doctrines or teachings. The first of these doctrines is the Law, which we looked at a little with our study on the natural and revealed knowledge of God. The Law's job is that it shows us our sin and that we need a Savior, and after conversion guides us in thankful living. Romans chapter 3 says, "19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." The Law are the 10 Commandments in which we live our lives by. We see in the verse above that under the law we can not be declared righteous, meaning innocent and that we are guilty and deserving God's judgement. This is why the Bible points us to Jesus who's death earns us forgiveness. Psalm 119 describes the law as 'a lamp for our feet and a light for our path,' meaning use it as a guide for your life, God's Word will light the way for you, not only in how we should be living the path in which we should be on, but it also leads to Jesus, our destination.
The second doctrine is the Gospel. The Gospel shows us our Savior from sin, Jesus, and creates a saving faith in Him. After conversion, the Gospel inspires thankful living. Paul writes to the Romans in the first chapter, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." This is life saving good news. My pastor once said that you should be able to flip open to any portion of the Bible and ultimately it should be about Jesus. Everything in the Bible either points toward Jesus' coming or tells us about His complete victory over sin and the Devil. It's not just in the Bible either, we still live for Christ. A continuation story of His victory through our daily lives, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 says, "14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
This ultimately brings us to main purpose of the Bible, what we are to do with this history, the Law and the Gospel. What does God want us to use His word for. God wants us to come to faith. We know that our natural knowledge causes us to seek Him out and through His Holy Word we come to faith in His Son, Jesus, and thus we are saved from eternal punishment and separation. John puts it this way in his Gospel at chapter 20, "31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." Earlier we read in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that through the Word of God, we are "equipped for every good work" meaning God-pleasing living. We talk about living Christ-like lives, living by the Law, sharing His Gospel. The Holy Spirit helps us by pointing us to God's Word. We don't need anything else. Everything we need for our lives is found there. This sets us on the path to Forgiveness, New Life and Salvation.
I hope you enjoyed and grew in your knowledge reading about the Holy Spirit working through God's Word for our benefit. Join us next when we see the Holy Spirit working through His gift of Baptism. I pray these word increase your faith and point you toward God's Word so you further your way down the path to Christ.
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