In this study of the Word of God, you will see some of the qualities of the Bible that can be said of no other book.
If you do not love, know, understand, practice, and obey the Word of God, you cannot be a victorious Christian.
I want you to learn how to study your Bible—how to make it burst aflame in your hand. Knowledge is power. That’s true in any realm, business, athletics, or theology, for knowledge of truth transforms. We need to be molded, motivated, and managed by the Word of God.
We must know the Word to have spiritual power. Yet for many, the Bible remains a closed, mysterious book. They just don’t understand it. There is no cheap, lazy, or magical way to understand the Bible, but it’s not impossible. In fact, it’s joyful and thrilling.
Psalm 119, the longest psalm in the Bible, is entirely focused on the Word of God. For your Bible to truly come alive, you must appreciate the qualities that set it apart from all other books.
The Bible is not the book of the month or the book of the year. It is the book of the ages, unchanging and timeless.
“Forever, O LORD, Your Word is settled in Heaven” (Psalm 119:89).
“Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever” (Psalm 119:152).
“The entirety of Your Word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever” (Psalm 119:160).
In the New Testament, 1 Peter 1:25 states, “But the Word of the Lord endures forever…”
Forever! God says the Word—the Bible you hold in your hand or have on your shelf—is done, settled in Heaven. So, if it’s on the shelf, dust it off and get it into your heart.
Why? Other books may come and go. The Bible is here to stay. Thousands of years have passed since the Bible was written. Empires have risen and fallen. Civilizations have changed and changed again. Science has pushed back the frontiers of knowledge. Yet the Bible stands: timeless, ultimate, indestructible.
Emperors like Diocletian have decreed its extermination, atheists like Voltaire have railed against it, agnostics through the years have cynically sneered at it, and liberals strive to remove the miracles from the Bible. Materialists have simply ignored it. How is it that the Bible still stands after centuries of attempts to destroy it? Because the Bible is eternal, settled in Heaven.
“Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth… You are near, O Lord, and all Your commandments are truth… The entirety of Your word is truth… ” (Psalm 119:142, 151, 160).
In the Gospel of John, Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Jesus had already answered that question in John 17:17 when, speaking to the Father, He said, “Your Word is truth.” In a world that has lost its appreciation for truth, you can say without apology that the Bible is truth.
Today there are many attacks on the truth of the Bible. There’s the frontal attack of liberals who deny it is true. There’s the attack from the rear by those who want to substitute their own experience over the Word of God, saying, “Well, I know what I feel or think.” Sometimes they’ll even argue, “I don’t care what the Bible says. Let me tell you what I experienced.” And there’s an attack from the flank by people who don’t necessarily deny the Bible but want to replace it or prop it up with psychology, philosophy, or other things — as if the Bible itself were not good enough.
But if you’re looking for truth, you can find it in the Bible. Why? 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” That word, 'inspiration,' is used only once in the Bible—here in this verse. What a magnificent word it is. In Greek, it literally means “God-breathed.” Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Every word comes from God. He did not simply breathe upon the writings of men such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Matthew, Mark, and Paul, making their words His own. They held the pen of God. They were His instruments as He spoke, breathing the Scriptures out. Therefore, the Bible is true, because the God of truth cannot speak error.
In Part 2, you’ll discover how the Word of God pulsates with Life.
