2 TIMOTHY 3:14-17
tures are able to make man wise unto salvation. The Holy Scriptures can save man and his world. How? “Through faith
which is in Christ Jesus.” It is the Holy Scriptures that tell us about God’s great plan of salvation for man, about how God
saves man through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Scriptures alone and no other book...
• that tells us that God loves the world—that He loves the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to reveal and tell us the truth.
• that tells us that Jesus Christ has taken care of the problem of righteousness and perfection—that He lived
a perfect life and secured the ideal and perfect righteousness for man—that when a man believes in Jesus
Christ, God takes that man’s faith and counts it as righteousness.
• that tells us that Jesus Christ has taken care of the problem of sin and death—that He took all the sins of
men upon Himself and bore the penalty and punishment of those sins—that He died for man—that when a
person believes in Jesus Christ, God takes that person’s faith and counts it as the death of Christ—that God
counts the person as having died in Christ and thereby he never has to die.
• that tells us that Jesus Christ has taken care of the problem of living forever—that He has been raised from
the dead to live eternally in the presence of God the Father—that when a person believes in Jesus Christ,
God takes that person’s faith and counts it as the resurrection of Jesus Christ—that the person is counted as
having been raised in Christ and is thereby given eternal life.
The point is this: the Holy Scripture tells us how we can be saved through God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. No other
book reveals this to man. The only wisdom that can ever save this world is the wisdom of God Himself, and that wisdom is
found in His Holy Scriptures, the Holy Bible.

“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (Jn.15:3).
“Sanctify them [set them apart to God] through thy truth: thy word is truth” (Jn.17:17).
“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that
believing ye might have life through his name” (Jn.20:31).
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Ro.1:16).
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Ro.15:4).
“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admoni-
tion, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Cor.10:11).
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Pt.1:19).
“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 Jn.5:13).
“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy
word” (Ps.119:9).
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps.119:105).
“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Ps.119:130).

3
(3:16) Scripture: Scripture is inspired by God. This is an extremely important verse in understanding the nature of
Scripture, that is, in understanding just what the Scripture is, its nature and authority. Note several facts.
1. Paul was, of course, referring to the Old Testament Scriptures; the New Testament Scriptures had not yet been com-
pleted. However, this passage is certainly applicable to the New Testament.
William Barclay says: “If what Paul claims for Scripture is true of the Old Testament, how much truer it is of the still
more precious words of the New Testament” (The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, p.229).
A.T. Robertson, the great Greek scholar, says: “There is no doubt that the apostles claimed to speak by the help of the Ho-
ly Spirit (1 Th.5:27; Col.4:16) just as the prophets of old did (1 Pt.1:20f.)....Peter thus puts Paul’s epistles on the same plane
with the O.T.” (Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol.6, p.179).
The point is this: all Scripture—both the Old and New Testament—is inspired by God.
2. Scripture is inspired by God; the phrase “inspired of God” (theopneustos) means God-breathed. What does this
mean? What does it mean to say that God breathed the Holy Scriptures? No one can say for sure, but this much can be said.
⇒ The idea is that God breathed out the Scripture or God produced the Scripture somewhat like He did creation.

“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath
of his mouth” (Ps.33:6).

Note: it is the Scripture that is inspired, not the man. The Bible does not claim to be written by inspired men. It does claim
that the writing is supernaturally given or breathed by God. The Scripture is breathed out by God, not breathed into by God.
The meaning is this: the writing is supernaturally given or breathed by God. The Bible claims to be the Word given by the
creative breath of God.
The great Greek scholar A.T. Robertson again says: “God-breathed...[this] is in contrast to the commandments of men”
(Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol.4, p.179).
The great Bible expositor Matthew Henry says: “It [Scripture] is a divine revelation, which we may depend upon as infal-
libly true. The same Spirit that breathed reason into us breathes revelation among us: For the prophecy came not in old time
by the will of man, but holy men spoke as they were moved or carried forth by the Holy Ghost, 2 Pt.1:21. The prophets and
apostles did not speak from themselves, but what they received of the Lord that they delivered unto us” (Matthew Henry’s
Commentary, Vol.5, p.846f).
The excellent preacher Oliver Greene says: “God Almighty is sovereign; and if we are saved through the power of the
Gospel; if the Gospel makes us wise unto salvation; if it is not God’s will that any man perish but that all come to repentance,
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