What is in the Bible?

God can be truly known. He graciously makes Himself known to us through Scripture. The Bible is inspired, authoritative, inerrant, infallible, necessary, sufficient, and clear, and the Bible’s function follows logically from what the Bible is.

Some belief systems conclude that God is unknowable. Others conclude that knowledge of God may be discovered through pure human effort or by secret knowledge revealed to the individual. But Christianity makes the claim that God can indeed be known and that we know Him only because He has made Himself known. Under no obligation to do so, in His unmatched grace and goodness, He has disclosed Himself to us. His purpose in doing so is relational: so that we can know and love Him. Theologians call the study of God’s disclosure of Himself the doctrine of revelation.

Don’t miss this distinction: Christianity distinguishes all knowledge of God as revealed knowledge. We do not discover God. We don’t stumble across Him or search Him out, but rather, He makes Himself known. He reveals Himself to us. We cannot know God unless He gives Himself to us in revelation.

The Bible is meant to transform us. The Holy Spirit authored the Bible not just so that we could know things but so that we could know God and be transformed by Him. By the Spirit’s work, the Bible grows our relationship with the God it proclaims and transforms us into the image of Christ. We call this the doctrine of illumination, which is closely related to and inseparable from the doctrine of inspiration. The text the Holy Spirit inspires is also the text the Holy Spirit employs to illuminate our hearts and minds to know and love God. The purpose of the Bible is not merely for communication about God but also for communion with God. We aren’t just meant to know about Him, but to know Him.

This is why preachers preach and teachers teach. This is why Christians practice regular reading and meditation on God’s Word. This is why we gather together for Bible studies, Sunday school classes, and the Word proclaimed in church. We do all of these things not just to know Scripture better but to better know the one who makes Himself known in Scripture.

The Holy Spirit does not illumine Scripture in the sense that it is darkened and in need of light. The Holy Spirit illumines our darkened hearts and minds so we can understand and be transformed by Scripture. Put another way, the Holy Spirit still speaks what He has spoken. Thus, the Word of God is truly living and active. The Bible is not just a text that informs us but a text that transforms us. When we open our Bibles, the Holy Spirit meets us there. He is not interested in our simply knowing more things but in knowing Him. What does the Bible do? It invites us to know and love God.