What does the Bible represent in Christianity?

Inspiration of the Bible is a main watershed between Christianity and other faiths. If the Bible cannot be trusted to be the inspired Word of God, then its claims concerning the deity of Christ, our sins and state and our need for salvation through faith in Christ's death, and resurrection have no force. The biblical Christian recognizes the Old and New Testaments as the only words that come from God Himself - the final authority for faith and practice. For biblical Christians, all claims to authority must be judged according to Scripture. Following are answers to common questions concerning the Scriptures.

These verses are the touchstone for the Christian who wants to be biblical. Biblical Christians believe that Christ is God and that He died for our sins. Biblical Christians believe that by nature they are sinners, spiritually dead, and that their only hope of salvation from sin is faith in Christ's death and resurrection. Biblical Christians believe they have a Bible that is inspired by the living God, and it is the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

"The teaching of the written Scriptures is the Word which God spoke and speaks to His Church, and is finally authoritative for life and faith … It contains all that the Church needs to know in this world for its guidance in the way of salvation and service … Furthermore, the Holy Spirit, who caused it to be written, has been given to the Church to cause believers to recognize it for the divine Word that it is, and to enable them to interpret it rightly and understand its meaning. … The Bible, therefore, does not need to be supplemented and interpreted by tradition. … Instead, it demands to sit in judgment … the words of men must be tried by the Word of God."

Read it regularly, connectedly, consecutively. Give your heart and mind the whole field of Scripture. Christ in type and prophecy in the Old; Christ on earth, in life, in death and in glory, in the New. The Bible is from God. It is Divinely inspired, has been miraculously guarded, is of supreme authority, all sufficient, eternal. The standard of doctrine, the channel of blessing, the rule of life, the final appeal on all God's things, in all ages. Nothing needs to be added to it because nothing is wanting; nothing taken from it, because nothing is superfluous. Like its Author, it is Divine, unchanging, eternal.

By inspiration we mean that which is God-breathed. We are told "all [or every], scripture is given by inspiration of God." It might be rendered "every scripture is God-breathed." (2 Tim. 3:16.) The scriptures are therefore a revelation from God; and their force or authority to our hearts and consciences flows from that fact. If scripture be not God's word, it has no more value to us than the writings of good men; but it is His word, hence it comes to us with the authority, love, wisdom and holiness of God. Though its pages run over thousands of years, take us back before time was, and lead our thoughts on to the eternal state, and some of its books were written more than three thousand years ago, it is unlike any other book, for it is always new. Take up an ordinary volume of human composition, written two or three hundred years ago, or even go back to one of the Fathers, and you will find you have scarcely patience to read a few pages; but scripture, as we have said, though old, is always new. It carries with it a freshness and power to the heart and conscience, as no other book does; and all the changes in the world and in mankind never seem to affect it. It warns us against "men" and their "philosophy," ritualism and its imposing ordinances, and of putting "tradition" in the place of authority instead of Christ. While addressing itself to the heart and conscience, it has always a voice of instruction and blessing to those who believe and receive its words from the mouth of God. Those who do not believe, cannot understand it, for "by faith we understand." Such only know its blessedness. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him," and we have "joy and peace in believing." To the rationalist scripture is inexplicable, to the ritualist it is confusion, to the infidel it abounds with mistakes, to the literary man there are inaccuracies and contradictions. Such, however, little know that God has said that "the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14.)

The Bible is the only book that faithfully tells us what we are, and that even to the discerning of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This shows it to be divine, for God only searches the heart. It also truly reveals God, so that when the word is received, it brings our souls into the consciousness of God having to do with us. This also shows its divinity, for "the world by wisdom knows not God." The variety of aspects in which the Son who came forth from the Father to save sinners is presented to us ― His personal glory, moral perfectness, finished work, walk, words, ways, life, death, resurrection, ascension, glorification, present offices, and future judgments and reign ― as the leading truths of scripture, give it also a divine character. Its unity, too, carries with it the stamp of divinity as nothing else could. The way in which the different parts are adapted to each other; types in the Old Testament having their antitypes in the New; a multitude of prophetic statements in the former having their accomplishment in the latter, and the immense number of quotations in the New from the Old Testament, to prove the soundness of the doctrines taught, combine to give it a divine character which is incontestable. It is not then surprising that an inspired writer should commend "the word" to us as if in its operations it possessed divine attributes. "The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Heb. 4:12.)

The Bible is God's own Book, His Divine and perfect Revelation, His living Voice speaking to men, in all ages. It should be read prayerfully, listened to reverently, received believingly, obeyed implicitly.

The Bible—the cause of this effect—the Christian says, is given by God as His revelation. In it man’s ruin and utter hopelessness is plainly and emphatically proclaimed, whether by illustration as in history, or by doctrine. This is unpleasant for man to receive. The love of God is told in the gift of His Son, and free grace is the righteous effect of the cross of Jesus. The Christian says the Book, written by its numerous authors of various ages, ranks, learning, and temperaments, is inspired wholly by God. “All Scripture is given by inspiration.” Besides all this the Holy Spirit of God is sent into the world to carry the truth of this revelation to the hearts of men. Thus is explained the wondrous qualities and power of the Book, which produces such grand results.

The Holy Scriptures are the Word of God to us; to them we turn for light and instruction as to Christ and His work. Old and New Testament bear their united testimony to Him, and the revelation that they give is wholly satisfying.

This remarkable statement shows the wonderful position the Bible has in the mind of God. God’s Word is the declaration of God Himself, and that is above His name, His renown. We can have no knowledge of God apart from revelation, and for this we must have God’s Word either spoken or written.

In the Old Testament times God spoke; when the Lord Jesus was here upon earth God spoke. Now we have the whole revealed will of God in the Scriptures. It is remarkable that the word, Bible, means in the original THE book, as if there were not another book in the world, just as the word, Scriptures, means THE writings, as if they were the only writings in the world. How is it that the Bible thus in its very titles arrogates claims to itself as the only source of divine information? Surely it is that the Book fills the place it claims. A cursory examination will serve to prove this statement.

It is 'the word of God,' an unfolding of unseen things — a revelation of the nature of God morally, and the history, divinely penned, of man His creature, first as innocent, and then as fallen, with its consequences. It shows man's responsibility and how man has been tested in various ways, each test resulting, alas, in his failure. It manifests that if man is to be saved and eternally blessed, it must be by a work done for him by another. This was graciously accomplished by the Son of God becoming a man and dying a sacrificial death on the cross, which glorified God and met the question of man's responsibility.