The Bible: The Holy Scriptures We Read and Obey

Today’s reading begins Section II: The Bible – The Holy Scriptures We Read and Obey.

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A pillar of the Lausanne Movement from its inception has been an unwavering commitment to the Bible as God’s authoritative word, the only rule of faith and practise for the church, its mission, and the Christian life. However, this high view of Scripture has not always produced the kind of faithful biblical interpretation that upholds the gospel and strengthens the mission of the church to make Christlike disciples. Worse, the often-conflicting interpretations threaten the church’s effectiveness to bear witness to God’s glory and gospel truth. Affirmations of a high view of Scripture therefore require a way of reading the Bible that is attentive to its historical, literary, and canonical contexts, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and guided by the interpretive tradition of the church. The crucial affirmations about the Bible that the church needs most today concern not only the Bible’s nature but its interpretation: how to read the Bible faithfully with the communion of saints of all times and places.

The Bible is God’s word in human words.

We affirm that the Bible is God’s word written, a divinely inspired, God-breathed collection of writings consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. Through a diversity of human authors and literary genres, the Bible forms a unified and coherent testimony to the story of God’s electing a people for himself in Jesus Christ. The Bible is God’s self-revelation and therefore the church’s Scripture: its authoritative, unerring, set-apart text that gathers and governs God’s set-apart people. It is wholly true and trustworthy, and the supreme norm for the church’s life. The same Spirit who inspired the Bible continues to illuminate it, communicating God’s light and life, truth and grace.

The Bible’s central message is the good news of the kingdom of God.

We affirm that the central message of Scripture is the gospel of the kingdom of God, the proclamation of Jesus’ incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and return, which is the fulfilment of God’s promise to bless all peoples through the seed of Abraham. Therefore, we read the whole of Scripture in accordance with and guided by this gospel. In the gospel, God offers the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life to all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ. It is the good news that Jesus is building his church to serve God who is reconciling and renewing his creation, ridding it of sin and its effects, and so displaying his glory. This same gospel demands that we submit to Christ’s authority, so that by faith in the gospel, we are transformed by the Spirit in our reading of the Bible. (Isa 52:7; Mark 1:14-15; Gen 12:1-3; 18:18-19; Gal 3:16, 19)