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Answers About The
Bible. What is The Bible? Part 1.
All Scripture Is
Breathed Out by God and Profitable
January 4, 2004 by John
Piper
2 Timothy
3:14-4:4
But as for you,
continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed,
knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have
been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make
you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All
Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that
the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. I
charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to
judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his
kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season;
reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching,
but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves
teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from
listening to the truth and wander off into
myths.
Today, at the end of
prayer week, we focus on the preciousness and power of the Word of
God, the Bible. I will call you today to love the Word of God and
meditate on it every day this year and memorize it
systematically.
There are at least five
reasons we link prayer and Scripture each year during prayer
week.
-
Much of the Bible is
prayer (most of the Psalms, etc.).
-
The Bible is full of
commands and encouragements for us to pray (1 Thessalonians
5:17).
-
We are told to pray
according to the will of God (1 John 5:14 ), and the Bible
is the revealed will of God.
-
The Word of God cannot
be truly desired (Psalm 119:36) or spiritually comprehended (Psalm
119:18) or savingly spoken (2 Thessalonians 3:1) without the work
of the Holy Spirit, whom we ask for by prayer.
-
Being saturated with
the Word of God produces an effective prayer life: “If you abide
in me, and my words abide in you , ask whatever you wish,
and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).
So we link prayer and
the Word at the beginning of each year in prayer
week.
The Introduction of a
New Bible Translation: The ESV
What's unique about this
year is that we are introducing a new Bible translation, the English
Standard Version. On June 3 the Council of Elders unanimously
approved the following motion:
That we make the
English Standard Version the preaching Bible of Bethlehem Baptist
Church, and that we change our pew Bibles to the ESV when funds
are available, and that we create fighter verse material based on
the ESV.
As of this Sunday that
is all done. What remains is to say why and then turn to the text
for an encouragement to give ourselves to the Word this year. The
full rationale that I presented to the Elders last June is
online for you to read at http://www.desiringgod.org/.
So I will be very brief here on this issue. But here to set the
stage, here is the first paragraph of the paper:
I love the Bible the
way I love my eyes—not because my eyes are lovely, but because
without them I can't see what's lovely. Without the Bible I could
not see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Without
the Bible I could not know “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
Without the Bible I would not know that I am a great sinner and
that Christ is a great Savior. I love the Bible because it gives
the wisdom that leads to salvation, and shows me that this
salvation is nothing less than seeing and savoring the glory of
Christ forever, and then provides for me inexhaustible ways of
seeing and knowing and enjoying Christ.
The privilege of having
God's Word in our own language is of incalculable worth. I would
rather have you read any translation of the Bible—no matter
how weak—than to have you read no translation of the Bible. If there
could be only one translation in English, I would rather it be my
least favorite than that there be none. God uses every version to
bless people and save people.
The
Problem
Here is the problem we
have had for almost thirty years in the English speaking world. The
New International Version has become the most popular modern
translation of the Bible in the Evangelical Church . But the NIV is
very much of a paraphrase rather than a more literal translation.
When I first read it in 1975 I knew I could never teach or preach
from it, because of how much interpretation it does that I think the
reader should do, not the translator. I will illustrate in a
moment.
There have been two main
alternatives to the NIV. One is the King James Version, which was
translated into 17 th century English and not suitable as a
translation into contemporary English. The other is the New American
Standard Bible, which we have used in this church for some 20 years.
The problem with the NASB is that, while being quite literal, it is
not as readable as it might be. In other words, we were forced for
30 years to choose between the more readable, but less literal, NIV
and the less readable, but more literal, NASB.
We are no longer limited
to those two choices. The English Standard Version was published two
years ago and is far more literal than the NIV and far more readable
than the NASB. Not only is it a better balance, in my judgment, of
literalness and readability, but it has the advantage of being in
the lineage of the King James Version. Here's what I mean by
lineage. The King James Version was published in 1611. A revision
was published in 1901 called the American Standard Version. Then in
1952 the King James Version and the American Standard Version were
revised and published as the Revised Standard Version. It was a good
translation, but with a few liberal theological biases and some
free-wheeling speculation in certain Old Testament
poetry.
This version went out of
print and was replaced in 1989 by the New Revised Standard Version.
For most Evangelicals the NRSV was so lopsided in its handling of
gender issues it never became a common version.
I am deeply thankful to
God that Crossway Books made the decision to call for a preservation
of the King James lineage by publishing a light revision of the
Revised Standard Version. That is what the ESV is. Here you will
find the cadences and much of the wording that you may have absorbed
from the King James even without reading the King James—just because
its impact on our culture for almost 500 years has been
enormous.
Why the ESV Instead of
the NIV?
The key practical
question that should be asked is: Why not the NIV? So many people
use it. Children have been raised on it. Why encourage people to
change? Please know, that is all we are doing: encouraging. We do
not require anyone to change in the Bible you use for your own
personal reading and meditation and memorization. We hope that we
can persuade you to move over to the ESV and that over the next
several years there can be enough unity in this move as a church
that we can do congregational recitations and readings right from
our own Bible.
So why is the ESV better
for us than the NIV? Now let me say again that the NIV is the
precious Word of God. Oh, how careful we must be not to belittle the
Word of God. And yet we must not put any human translation above
criticism. God has used the NIV to bring millions of people to faith
in Christ over the last 40 years. But its essential weakness is that
the translators do for the reader what they should be allowed to do
for themselves—they go well beyond necessary interpretation that is
always involved in translation, and make decisions for the reader
that good English does not require. Far too often the NIV replaces
the ambiguity of the original with the decision of the translator,
not because good English demands it, but because the philosophy of
translation favors translator-clarity over apostolic-ambiguity. In
all the following cases the ESV keeps the more literal translation
and the NIV gives the interpretation of the translator instead of
the ambiguity of the original.
Romans 1:5 (
hupakoen pisteos )
ESV the obedience of
faith
NIV the obedience that comes from
faith
Romans 3:20 ( ex
ergon nomou )
ESV By works of the
law
NIV by observing the law
Romans 13:8 (
medeni meden opheilete )
ESV Owe no one
anything
NIV Let no debt remain
outstanding
Hebrews 6:1 (
nekron ergon )
ESV dead
works
NIV acts that lead to death
James 2:12 ( nomou
eleutherias )
ESV the law of
liberty
NIV the law that gives
freedom
John 11:6 ( hos
oun ekousen ) This is not an ambiguity removed. It is a
meaning reversed, perhaps because the translation could not see
what meaning “therefore” could have.
ESV So, when he
heard
NIV Yet when he heard
Romans 8:35-36 (
thanatoumetha holen ten hemeran ) Again this is not a
removal of ambiguity but a softening of the original. But the
effect is to play into the hands of those who might argue:
Christians only “face death” in persecution and calamity. They can
be spared if they have enough faith. But the text says, “We are
being killed.”
ESV we are being killed all the day
long.
NIV we face death all day
long.
Well, I am deeply
thankful that the ESV exists. I pray that it will become the primary
reading, preaching, teaching, memorizing Bible version of the
English speaking world. It would be a wonderful thing if there could
be glad-hearted common usage in local churches so that almost
everyone is using the same Bible. Whether that happens will be
finally God's doing, not ours.
There are hundreds of
them available to you, and the fighter verse packs are now available
in NIV and ESV. I hope you will consider the ESV for your family and
for yourself.
2 Timothy
3:14—4:4
Now let's turn to 2
Timothy 3:14-4:4. My aim is to take a few minutes and stir you up to
love the Word of God more, and to set your face firmly to read it
and meditate on it and to memorize it this year.
There is so much that we
could benefit from in this text. We could talk about the enormous
seriousness of preaching the word (4:1-2). Or we could talk about
the dangers of preaching to please the itching ears of unspiritual
people (4:3-4). Or we could talk about the amazing wonder and
blessing that all Scripture is “breathed out by God” (3:16). But I
want to focus in closing on one thing: the wonderfully sufficient
power of the Word of God to equip us for every good work. Verses
16-17:
All Scripture is
breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of
God may be competent, equipped for every good work
.
How Does the Bible
Equip Us for Every Good Work?
That is a remarkable
phrase: “every good work”! Everything good that God expects us to
do, the Scriptures equip us to do. That is an amazing claim. How
does it work? How does the Bible equip us for “every good
work”?
It's not by supplying
specific lists that cover all possible situations. Thinking that way
would be a mistake in two ways. It would be a mistake because there
are hundreds of specific situations we are in that the Bible does
not specifically address. There were no TVs, computers, cars,
phones, birth control pills, Prozac, genetic engineering,
respirators, bullets, bombs in Jesus' day. The Bible does not equip
us for every good deed by telling us the specific choice to make for
every new situation.
The other reason it
would be a mistake to think that way is that it leads straight to
legalism—doing things because of outward conformity to a demand in
the hope that performance will win approval. That is not Christian
morality. Good works are done from a heart that treasures God and
his help and from a heart that loves to display the glory of Christ,
else the “good works” are not good, no matter how they
conform to external expectations.
Here are two key verses
to show this. Romans 14:23, “Whatever does not proceed from faith is
sin.” And Romans 7:4, “My brothers, you also have died to the law
through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to
him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear
fruit for God.” Bearing fruit in “every good work” (see Colossians
1:10 ) means that it comes out on the branches of your life
naturally from something that has changed inside. And what has
changed is that you are dead to the law as a set of lists to
constrain from the outside, and are now united to Jesus Christ in a
relationship of joyful trust so that when he speaks—even speaks some
of that same law—it comes from within as the desire of your
heart.
So here's my answer to
how the Scripture equips us for “every good work.” The Scripture,
day after day, reveals to us the greatness and the beauty and the
power and the wisdom and the mercy of all that God is for us in
Christ so that by the power of the Spirit we find our joy in him,
and the ways of sin become distasteful—indeed ugly and repugnant.
Yes the Bible gives us many specifics as pointers how to live. But
most deeply the way the Bible equips us for every good work is by
changing what we find satisfaction in so that our obedience comes
from within freely, not by coercion from without. It does this when
we read it and meditate on it and memorize it and meditate over it
every day.
An Illustration from
George Mueller
I close with an
illustration of this from George Mueller, who lived over 100 years
ago in England and was famous for caring for thousands of orphans
and seeing God answer his daily prayers for their provision. He gave
this message when he was 59 at a New Year's service. It is a
powerful call to be in the Word of God every day.
We have, through the
goodness of the Lord, been permitted to enter upon another
year—and the minds of many among us will no doubt be occupied with
plans for the future, and the various fears of our work and
service for the Lord. If our lives are spared we shall be engaged
in those: the welfare of our families, the prosperity of our
business, our work and service for Christ may be considered the
most important matters to be attended to; but according to my
judgement the most important point to be attended to is this:
above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord.
Other things may press upon you, the Lord's work may even have
urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it
is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above
all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by
day seek to make this the most important business of your life.
This has been my firm and settled condition for the last five and
thirty years. For the first four years after my conversion I knew
not its vast importance, but now after much experience I specially
commend this point to the notice of my younger brethren and
sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy
in God, having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God
Himself.
But in what way shall
we attain to this settled happiness of soul? How shall we learn to
enjoy God? How shall we obtain such an all-sufficient
soul-satisfying portion in him as shall enable us to let go the
things of this world as vain and worthless in comparison? I
answer, This happiness is to be obtained through the study of the
Holy Scriptures. God has therein revealed Himself unto us in the
face of Jesus Christ.
In the Scriptures, by
the power of the Holy Ghost, He makes Himself known unto our
souls. . . . [Therefore] The very earliest portion of the day we
can command should be devoted to the meditation on Scriptures. Our
souls should feed upon the Word. . . . This intimate experimental
acquaintance with Him will make us truly happy. Nothing else will.
. . . In God our Father, and the blessed Jesus, our souls have a
rich, divine, imperishable, eternal treasure. Let us enter into
practical possession of these true riches; yea, let the remaining
days of our earthily pilgrimage be spent in an ever increasing,
devoted, earnest consecration of our souls to God. (George
Mueller, A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with
George Mueller, Written by Himself [Muskegon, Mich.: Dust and
Ashes Publications, 2003], pp. 730-732)
Amen. May 2004 be a year
of faithful reading and meditation and memorization of the Word of
God. And may we find our souls happy in God. And may we be freed
from the selfish impulses of the world and live lives of radical,
sacrificial love.
© Desiring
God
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