Who is God?
Our doctrine of Scripture as the word of God depends on our view of who God is and what he does. Here the temptation to focus on a single mode of God’s nature must be resisted.
God is both creator (implying his presence among his people and his fellowship with humans) and king (implying God’s authority over history and human dependence), both transcendent Lord (implying God’s omniscience and omnipotence and human finiteness) and ever active Father (implying God’s love for his children and his acceptance of humans in virtue of his own nature), both perfect (implying God’s total integrity and humanity’s call to holiness) and merciful (implying God’s forgiveness of wrongdoing and humanity’s confidence of being accepted).
A biblical doctrine of Scripture needs to take all these elements into account. A fundamental description of the nature of God as related to the nature of Scripture includes the following:
1. God is a person, i.e. he communicates, he speaks, he wills. When he reveals himself, he does so in an encounter with men and women, maintaining or establishing contact with his people. Encounter without verbal communication is limited and ambiguous. One of the most fundamental biblical assertions about God is that he speaks. Much of what he does, he does by speaking: warning and promising; commanding and prohibiting; forgiving and comforting; informing and calling.
When he reveals himself by uttering words addressed to human beings, he acts in accordance with his being (Jer. 23:29; Heb. 4:12). God continued to speak to humans after the fall (Gen. 3:9), when man and woman needed to be rescued from the consequences of their actions (Gen. 3:14–24). He promised to begin a new humanity with Abraham and his descendants (Gen. 17:3–16). He provided a new framework for fellowship with himself as the holy God when he spoke to Moses (Exod. 19:3–6). He spoke to the prophets; he spoke to the kings. He spoke through Jesus his Son (Matt. 11:27; 17:5; Heb. 1:2) who is his word in the flesh (John 1:14). And he spoke about a new earth yet to come (Rev. 21:5).
God spoke directly to individuals: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Joshua, David and Solomon, Peter, Paul, John, and many others. And he spoke indirectly to the community of his people through intermediaries: such as the prophets and the apostles. God spoke through direct verbal communication and through dreams and visions. And he spoke through sacred documents such as the book of the covenant (Exod. 24:7) or the letters of the apostles.
2. God is transcendent spirit, i.e. he is not dependent upon anybody or anything; he is omnipresent in his creation; when he reveals himself, he cannot be limited as though he were only immanent (Exod. 20:4; 1 Cor. 2:14). When he speaks, his words reach their intended destination, and he can speak to any number of different people across time and space. Can the words of human authors convey divine truth? The answer is yes, if and when God chooses to use human words to communicate what he wants to say to people.
3. God is omniscient. As Creator and Lord, he knows the reality of creation and of human life; he knows the past, the present and the future; he knows what is real and what is possible; when he reveals himself, he does so in trustworthy and dependable ways (Ps. 119:89–90); he knows what humans need to know (Ps. 139:1–4). His words are true and reliable.
4. God is king. Nobody can resist his power; when he reveals himself, he is able to overcome all human obstacles to his disclosure (Is. 55:8–11). His words possess absolute authority.
5. God is lord. He rules history; when he reveals himself, he does so in space and time, in the contingent circumstances of history and culture. His words are clothed in the thought patterns of distinct historical and cultural contexts.
6. God is holy. The distance between God and creation cannot be reduced from the human side. God abhors any rebellion against himself and any harm done to his creation. When he reveals himself, he is true to his pure nature and does so without sin (Ps. 12:6). His words are good and true. Because he wills his people to share in his holiness, his words offering forgiveness and salvation transform those who listen and respond.
7. God is faithful. He acts in accordance with his nature and his promises; when he reveals himself, he directs his interaction with humankind towards the restoration of the paradise which was lost (Deut. 7:9; 2 Cor. 1:20; Rev. 21:1–6). His words offer hope and effect salvation.
8. God is father. He is kind, loving and merciful; when he reveals himself, he seeks to save the lost, to make the wicked holy, to have fellowship with the human beings he created (Gen. 3:15, 21; 17:5–8; Exod. 19:3–6), so much so that he revealed himself in Jesus his eternal word who became a human being to establish his dominion over his creation (John 1:1, 14; 3:16; Phil. 2:6–11). When he reveals himself, his words are comprehensible, communicating with ordinary people in ordinary language and ordinary literary forms. The Reformers of the 16th century insisted that the Bible should be accessible to every Christian, not only to the professors at the universities. They translated Scripture into the vernacular, and wrote Bible commentaries and introductions. Since human beings, as finite creatures and guilty rebels, cannot recognize the truth about themselves or about God, God’s words convey information on these matters, as God with his undeserved love seeks to bring humanity back to himself.
9. God is glorious, as creator and as redeemer, as Father of his people and as ruler of the nations. When he reveals himself, he is feared by his enemies and worshipped by his people.
10. God continues to speak. In the Bible he speaks (a) directly and subjectively, through Israel’s recollection of his words (Deut. 6:6–9), and through the preaching of the gospel, which is the word of God (Acts 4:31; 1 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:23), and (b) directly and objectively, through the Hebrew Scriptures, which continue to be the word of God (Matt. 5:17–18; 1 Cor. 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20–21), through the apostolic letters (2 Pet. 3:16), and through the written Gospels and the other NT books. Today he speaks through the Christian Scriptures as a whole. God caused his word to be written down.
2. God is transcendent spirit, i.e. he is not dependent upon anybody or anything; he is omnipresent in his creation; when he reveals himself, he cannot be limited as though he were only immanent (Exod. 20:4; 1 Cor. 2:14). When he speaks, his words reach their intended destination, and he can speak to any number of different people across time and space. Can the words of human authors convey divine truth? The answer is yes, if and when God chooses to use human words to communicate what he wants to say to people.
3. God is omniscient. As Creator and Lord, he knows the reality of creation and of human life; he knows the past, the present and the future; he knows what is real and what is possible; when he reveals himself, he does so in trustworthy and dependable ways (Ps. 119:89–90); he knows what humans need to know (Ps. 139:1–4). His words are true and reliable.
4. God is king. Nobody can resist his power; when he reveals himself, he is able to overcome all human obstacles to his disclosure (Is. 55:8–11). His words possess absolute authority.
5. God is lord. He rules history; when he reveals himself, he does so in space and time, in the contingent circumstances of history and culture. His words are clothed in the thought patterns of distinct historical and cultural contexts.
6. God is holy. The distance between God and creation cannot be reduced from the human side. God abhors any rebellion against himself and any harm done to his creation. When he reveals himself, he is true to his pure nature and does so without sin (Ps. 12:6). His words are good and true. Because he wills his people to share in his holiness, his words offering forgiveness and salvation transform those who listen and respond.
7. God is faithful. He acts in accordance with his nature and his promises; when he reveals himself, he directs his interaction with humankind towards the restoration of the paradise which was lost (Deut. 7:9; 2 Cor. 1:20; Rev. 21:1–6). His words offer hope and effect salvation.
8. God is father. He is kind, loving and merciful; when he reveals himself, he seeks to save the lost, to make the wicked holy, to have fellowship with the human beings he created (Gen. 3:15, 21; 17:5–8; Exod. 19:3–6), so much so that he revealed himself in Jesus his eternal word who became a human being to establish his dominion over his creation (John 1:1, 14; 3:16; Phil. 2:6–11). When he reveals himself, his words are comprehensible, communicating with ordinary people in ordinary language and ordinary literary forms. The Reformers of the 16th century insisted that the Bible should be accessible to every Christian, not only to the professors at the universities. They translated Scripture into the vernacular, and wrote Bible commentaries and introductions. Since human beings, as finite creatures and guilty rebels, cannot recognize the truth about themselves or about God, God’s words convey information on these matters, as God with his undeserved love seeks to bring humanity back to himself.
9. God is glorious, as creator and as redeemer, as Father of his people and as ruler of the nations. When he reveals himself, he is feared by his enemies and worshipped by his people.
10. God continues to speak. In the Bible he speaks (a) directly and subjectively, through Israel’s recollection of his words (Deut. 6:6–9), and through the preaching of the gospel, which is the word of God (Acts 4:31; 1 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:23), and (b) directly and objectively, through the Hebrew Scriptures, which continue to be the word of God (Matt. 5:17–18; 1 Cor. 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20–21), through the apostolic letters (2 Pet. 3:16), and through the written Gospels and the other NT books. Today he speaks through the Christian Scriptures as a whole. God caused his word to be written down.
He writes his commandments on tablets of stone. He commands Moses to write down his words (Exod. 34:27) and an account of his deeds (Exod. 17:14), so that coming generations would remember them, and so that God’s people would know the basis and content of his covenant with them.
A text can be both the word of God and the work of a human being, when God inspires it as such. God commands the individual Israelite to remember his words by reading written portions of it and by passing them on to the next generation. Many of the prophets wrote down the revelations they had received. The Jews of the Second Temple period in general, and Jesus and the early Christians in particular, regarded the documents of the Hebrew Bible as the written word of God. The church later included the NT in this category.
11. The credibility of God as he speaks to individuals and to communities is linked with his competence as creator, with his character as the holy and merciful Lord, and with his ‘sociability’ as the heavenly Father who speaks to ordinary human beings. Since God possesses power, humans have to acknowledge that God has the ability to apply sanctions if they do not listen to his word; that he is concerned for human beings despite the fact that humankind has chosen not to acknowledge him; that he alone may legitimately pronounce on fundamental topics such as reality, life and death, hope and destruction, promise and judgment.
Schnabel, E. J. (2000). Scripture. In T. D. Alexander & B. S. Rosner (Eds.), New dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., pp. 37–38). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
11. The credibility of God as he speaks to individuals and to communities is linked with his competence as creator, with his character as the holy and merciful Lord, and with his ‘sociability’ as the heavenly Father who speaks to ordinary human beings. Since God possesses power, humans have to acknowledge that God has the ability to apply sanctions if they do not listen to his word; that he is concerned for human beings despite the fact that humankind has chosen not to acknowledge him; that he alone may legitimately pronounce on fundamental topics such as reality, life and death, hope and destruction, promise and judgment.
Schnabel, E. J. (2000). Scripture. In T. D. Alexander & B. S. Rosner (Eds.), New dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., pp. 37–38). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
