By Daniel H. King
In one of Christ’s frequent disputes with His critics, the Lord made a little remark that is treated parenthetically in the American Standard Version. It is this: “and the scripture cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:35). The argument itself is not important for our purposes here, but the little off-the-cuff statement that He made about Scripture is of great importance.
We view the Bible the way we do, as infallible, because of such biblical points as this. When we are today insulted and attacked because our view of Scripture seems to some to be naive and out of date, we rest assured in the faith that our trust in it has the stamp of divine approval upon it. Holy Scripture not only claims inspiration for itself, but goes beyond mere inspiration to argue that this product of divine activity, once written, is also completely trustworthy.
1. Jesus our Savior clearly thought of the Book of Books as totally dependable. He believed it could stand the test of fair and honest examination. We know so because He said so. Those Jews with whom He took up His contention would not have dared to question this assumption. They agreed with it. They could only have done what they did – to try to silence Him by other means (as verse 39 indicates).
2. The apostles of Christ also treated the Bible with an appropriate attitude of reverence and respect. When Peter preached on Pentecost, he identified the ancient words of the prophet David with the promise of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:25-33). Later, the author of Hebrews quoted from Psalm 95:7ff. and said those words were the words of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 3:?ff). They, thus, saw the words written in the Bible as the words of God Himself, not the words of mere men. Thus, they were not, like the words of mere men, susceptible to error.
3. Jesus also viewed a biblical answer as the solution to any refigious problem. His dispute with the Jews was settled, to His mind at least, by citing the Bible on his side of the issue. When the Devil misused the Word of God, though, the misapplication was refused as authority (Matt. 4:5-7).
4. Jesus saw the fallacious arguments of men as broken by Scripture. Far from the Bible being wrong, it was those men who refused to accept the truth-statements of God’s Word who were in error. It was this same faith which later inspired Paul to write, “Yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4).
Let us today share the faith of Christ, not only in the God of the Bible, but also in the Bible itself. Much of the Bible had come through several centuries of history, having passed through many loving and some “not-so-loving” hands. But He still regarded it as “scripture unbroken.” We ought to do the same.
Guardian of Truth XXIX: 5, p. 142
March 7, 1985