What would happen if I began by not saying “The Bible is God’s Word” but instead say “The Bible contains God’s Word”?  What happens ends up looking like this:

1.       If the Bible “contains” God’s Word, who decides which parts are and which parts are not God’s Word?  (Very simply, each would decide for himself.  I would decide for myself; you would decide for you.)

1a.       If we each get to decide for ourselves we won’t ever agree.  (Disagreeing about almost every part of faith is exactly what is happening among the liberal denominations.)

2.       If I get to decide what is and isn’t God’s Word I will only accept the parts I already agree with anyway; and reject the other parts (and call them “out of date” or “irrelevant”).

3.       And then I will never actually have God’s Word tell me I’m wrong and correct me.  I will miss God’s call to repent, again and again.  If God is not “just like me” I will miss Him.

4.       In all this, I would have exalted myself over God’s Word, judging it instead of being judged by it.  That is a place I do not want to be in my relationship with God.

We begin with the one truth that is at the center of all we say and do as Christians.  Christ is risen!  Jesus is the living one and He is with us.  He hears our prayers.  He rules His Church.  He guides our lives.  We worship and pray to Him.  This changes everything, because we are not talking about ideas, theories, or simple knowledge.  We are talking about the relationship we have with a living person.

Scripture is the living Word of the Living God.  So the Bible is God's word to us, where God calls us to know Him and live forever.  The reason we believe the Bible is because we believe in God and know Him in Jesus Christ.

There is a two-way relationship here.  We believe the Bible because of our relationship with God and we have that relationship in, through and because of Jesus Christ.  Secondly, the Bible is the living word of the living Lord, so it has the power to create faith.  We do not simply jump in and believe whatever is written because it is written.  We believe because of the work of God.  So how does it all begin?

Our encounter with God begins as God comes into our world.  It is Christmas and Easter.  It is Jesus being born, living, dying and rising for us.  That is where our knowledge of our Triune God begins, with knowing Jesus.

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only [begotten] God, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known.

So God comes to us; and we begin learning about God as we come to Jesus and learn about Him.