A Study By
Gary Ray Branscome
The words “All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God” assure us that no part of Scripture originated “by the will of
man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost” (2Timothy
Because the Bible is God's own
Word, its words have the authority of God behind them, and that authority is
the standard to which all opinion must conform. If men disagree with what is
written they need to change their minds, and if their interpretations
contradict what the Bible explicitly says those interpretations must be
surrendered. At the same time, no statement of Scripture should ever be
explained away (1John 4:6). Instead, every thought is to be brought into
subjection to the Word of God (2Corinthians 10:5). As it is written, “if
they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them” (Isaiah
Since the Bible was written to testify of Christ, it
was written in plain language and its words mean just what they say (2Corinthians
Because false prophets are in darkness, they always assume
that the Bible is a book of dark sayings. Working from that assumption, they
then attempt to “cast light” on Scripture by making up their own
private interpretations, while explaining away any statements of Scripture that
contradict those interpretations (2Peter 1:20, 1John 4:6). Nevertheless, if the
Bible was really a dark book it could never make wise the simple, nor be a
light unto our path (Psalm 19:7 and 119:105).
Since God brought the Bible into
existence for a specific purpose, its words will accomplish what He intended
(Romans
Far from being passive and
powerless, the Word of God is dynamic and life giving, for the Holy Spirit is
active in working through that Word (in both its written and oral form) to
bring men to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16-17 and 10:17). Therefore,
even though preaching seems foolish to those who are in darkness, God is wiser
than men, and the things that He has chosen to use will accomplish what He
intended, in spite of what the world thinks. For, “God
has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise” and the
weak things of this world to confound the mighty (1Corinthians
[Note: Because the law cannot make us righteous, and
was never intended to make us righteous, preachers who are constantly urging
people to seek God’s favor through obedience, are not approved of God
(Romans 3:20, 2Timothy 2:15, Galatians 1:6-9). On the contrary, God wants the
“righteous” as well as the “wicked” convicted of sin
and pointed to Christ for forgiveness, for without faith in Christ “it is
impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6).]
In addition to the oral
proclamation of His Word, God has also given us Baptism and the Lord’s
Supper as a visible way of assuring all who repent that they have forgiveness
in Christ. Nevertheless, even though God works through those ceremonies to give
us His promise of forgiveness in Christ, because that promise is only meant for
those who repent, only those who look to Christ for forgiveness receive what is
promised (Galatians 3:22). In other words, even though God uses Baptism and the
Lord’s Supper (just as He uses preaching) to give us His promise, it is
only through personal faith in Christ that we receive what is promised (Romans
5:2, Galatians
“Do
not be misled by those who say that Baptism is not important. They contradict
Christ. They put their own opinion above Scripture. Take Jesus at His word, and
you will find that through Baptism — and I mean of course, not merely the
performance of the ritual itself, but by your personal faith in Jesus and in
His promise — the Holy Ghost unmistakably comes to you.” (The Power
of Pentecost, 1943)
Since the Word of God was given to
testify of Christ, the law of God is only being used as God intended when it is
being used to condemn sin (as well as man’s righteousness) and point
sinners to Christ. Likewise, it is only being obeyed when those who hear it
confess their sin and turn to Christ for forgiveness. In fact, those who seek
to make themselves righteous by the law are rebelling
against God, for they are denying their sin and refusing accept the verdict His
law pronounces against them.
Because the law was given to
convict us of our sin, whenever the Pharisees tried to explain it away, get
around its precepts, or get themselves off the hook they were making it of
“none effect” (Mark 7:9-13). Yet, in spite of Christ’s
condemnation, there are many “pastors” who do the same thing! They
explain away the very precepts of the law that they ought to be using to call
men to repentance. For example: When God’s law warns the unrepentant that
if they “sin willfully” after they “have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more
sacrifice for sins,” those words are made “of none effect”
whenever they are explained away (Hebrews
Likewise, when it comes to the
promises of the gospel, we undermine the salvation message if we ignore or
explain away what was intended to assure us of forgiveness in Christ. For
example: If the Bible says, “baptism doth also now save us” or,
“Take, eat: this is My body” we do not
build faith by telling people that they cannot believe those statements of
Scripture (1Peter
The message that God intends for
you to get from His Word, is nothing other than what you read (2Corinthians