“It is written” is a phrase that should mean as much to us today as it did to Jesus before his death. We can and should learn to believe this and even quote it in our lives as things arise.
Jesus held a view of inspiration that you and I should learn to hold. Jesus says: “…all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Luke 24:44. The question is why? Why did these things have to be fulfilled? The answer cannot be other than that what God says must come to pass and that those words were therefore God’s words. Theologians speak of such as the threefold division of the Old Testament- the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, (Writings or Wisdom Literature). It is all set in more than mere stone. Someone close to Jesus had to betray Jesus (Psalm 41:9) just as much as the Son had to be cut off or die but yet prolong his days and see his seed (Isaiah 53:10). It was all certain. Why? Because once the Lord Almighty decrees a thing, that thing is. Even if we can’t see it as clearly as we think we should, it’s there with God. Moses was inspired to say it like this: “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” Numbers 23:19. Nothing fails of what he says. Never once.
Do you view what’s written in your Bible this way? That if God says something of you as a believer, that it simply has to happen? My favorite I think is this: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:1-3. I’m united with those first folks to whom this was said. And so are you if you’re born of the same God as we are. Do you view the jots and tittles (or dotted I’s and crossed T’s we might say) of the Bible as being so certain in your life that God’s word to you must surely come to pass? Do you trust that’s what written can be viewed this way, or have you listened to a liberal devil tell you otherwise? Maybe you are that liberal devil for whom is reserved the damnation of hell. Reader, if that’s not you, don’t model your faith after and listen to progressive liberals. Model your faith after and listen to Jesus. Look at how Jesus esteemed every letter on the scroll. He held to its every jot and tittle. He trusted it and proved it. You should too. Even in our weaknesses and failures, this is what it looks like to take the Bible as Jesus did. Jesus had the 39 books of the Old Testament. Whatever other wisdom there was residual in the world, he also had that, but the words found in those 39 letters, which are the same 39 we have in our Bibles today, for Jesus, was God’s own writing. It did not, but it might as well have fallen from the sky in its original autographs insofar as its authority and reliability goes. Jesus is the best example of why we can believe this. So much was it not only divinely inspired but preserved for hundreds or even about 1.5 thousand years by his own earthly days that Jesus can say things like: “Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Matthew 5:18. Take a moment to loot at: Matthew 26:54, 26:56; Mark 14:49, 15:28; Luke 4:21, 24:44; John 13:18 (above), 17:12; 19:24, 19:28, 19:36; Acts 1:16-20. It all had to be fulfilled they said. Jesus above all is a reliable source when it comes to trustworthiness, reader. You can trust what’s written! Yes there are transmission issues and textual variations. Do you know how many manuscripts, all hand-written, that we have? Nearly 3 million pages worth. All handwritten. The science is in and only all the more still coming in. The data shows that we can prove with certainty that we have what the original authors wrote. So, when I read Romans today for example, which Jesus didn’t have, but himself later gave through Paul as he’d given Deuteronomy through Moses, I know that I can look at Romans exactly like Jesus looked at Deuteronomy! Inspired. 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21. Oh, the Book! How perfect and perfecting is the God who penned it!
God has given his people his words when and where he wished to. God has preserved his words so that we might know him. There is not a single reason to believe otherwise. Remember what I cited above from Mattew 5:18 on what Jesus said about our Old Testament and then listen to Jesus in this next passage about what would come to be the entire Bible we call the Old and New Testaments and ask yourself if you know why he can say this about the book you have in your lap (I hope) this very day: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” Matthew 24:35. You…have…them…written. Jesus’ kingdom doesn’t wane in man’s rebellion. This is true even if you don’t believe it, but I hope you do. I encourage you to read it and know that you can. If you trust in Christ for your salvation, the whole book is yours to learn and grow by.
God bless!!!
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